Every month when I receive notice from my bank that my Social Security check has been safely deposited in my account,I thank God that some stupid President,during my lifetime, hadn't successfully passed that bill that allowed me to invest my SS funds in Enron or Lucent stock......

About the ignorant Tea Party, sign carrying, Glenn Beck fans:

"Once in Persia reigned a king,
Who upon his signet ring
Graved a maxim true and wise,
Which, if held before his eyes,
Gave him counsel at a glance
Fit for every change and chance.
Solemn words, and these are they,
“ Even this shall pass away.”

This has been true at the local level, too, for as long as I can remember. Old people don't want their taxes increased to pay for schools, youth programs, drug prevention or treatment and such. That $50 they hold onto (or whatever piddling amount it is that they don't have to pay) is more important to them than the general welfare of the community they live in. I saw it happen at a local elementary school recently when seniors banded together to cut almost all "frills" at the only school in a small town. They eliminated art, music, field trips, most physical education, to save themselves a few dollars. Some parents enrolled their kids in neighboring towns, paid the differene and drove them to school every day. Others moved out of the district. Finally parents banded together to provide those educational elements to the kids themselves, as volunteers.
Look at Florida, New Hampshire and other states with large numbers of retirees. Most don't collect income tax and/or sales tax, so you know their services to everyone will be minimal. Everyone loses when one we pit generations against each other, and the Boomers outnumber almost any other group.

I understand your frustration, but I firmly believe that "stupid" is an equal-opportunity adjective. If these Tea Party seniors are indeed wiser now that they're older, can you imagine how stupid they were when they were young?

Substitute the word "greedy" for "stupid" in the two sentences above and the logic still works.

I am deeply frustrated by right-wing extremists of ALL ages -- and also by those among us who rely on FOX for their so-called news.

I agree with Cowtown Pattie. The only logic seems to be anti-Obama. When politicians oppose something today that they favored a few months ago, the reversal can only be explained by a desire to gain power. The common good, principle, history, none of that matters.

It has been my experience that if a young person never learned to think, they carried that trait to their graves. I do not believe that age necessarily grants wisdom.

Because I am very old and have kept in touch with the people I grew up with, I have a yardstick to measure them by. They are still the same now as they were when they were young, only with wrinkles. One friend was easily manipulated by everyone and she still is. Others were superficial and they still are. It's depressing to find that they have learned so little.

I know they are not necessarily the norm, but those in the Tea Party certainly never learned to think for themselves. And, because they are elders, they add a feeling of entitlement to their ignorance and it's downright disgusting.

Washingtonpost.com has daily chats about, well just about everything. They have a politics chat throughout the week and just got through reading todays. I copied a Republican's lament that I'm posting below:
*****
Done with it
Chris, You know that scene early on in "Legends of the Fall", where a disheartened, disgusted Anthony Hopkins takes his cavalry saber and just sticks it in the ground in the midst of a destroyed Indian village, and he just walks away from it, as in just done with it, just disgusted with the actions of those who he was working with? As a Republican, that's how it feels in the wake of Castle's loss. I never threw my hands up in disgust at where the party, and the conservative movement, was going...until now. I'm done. I'm now an Independent
*********
Ronni, you are not alone!

In today's political climate, George W. Bush is beginning to look like a moderate.

Did you see the right-wing attacks on Karl Rove today for telling Sean Hannity last night that Delaware Tea Party winner, Christine O'Donnell is nuts?

I agree that this sort of thing is depressing and makes me want to avoid the news. But to balance things out a bit, there's a woman in my town who is 91 and for 50 or 60 years has been standing up for progressive causes, along with a group of peers now in their 60s, 70s, 80s, & 90s. She began with the anti-nuclear arms protests in the '50s and has kept on going. People like her don't get the press attention that these yahoos do--but she was recently profiled in the Boston Globe.

Oh Ronni
Don't let THEM get to you.
It is not just because they are OLD.
They are old and STUPID.

Elders don't have a monopoly on stupid. Stupid affects all ages.

Shouting at THEM is like shouting at a brick wall.

The Belgian singer/songwriter, Jacques Brel nailed it when he wrote "Les bourgeois sont comme les cochons, plus qu'il viens vieux, plus qu'il viens bete"!
Translation: the bourgeois are like pigs, the older they get, the stupider they become. We frequently make the mistake of assuming that we grow in intelligence and wisdom with the passage of time but unfortunately this is rarely if ever the case. What the current crop of American Know-Nothings share is just simple fear and gullibility (perfect tools for the ultra-rich who must, at all costs, stop all efforts to threaten their right to pillage the country for thier own economic gain)

I proudly consider myself "progressive" but somewhere along the way it has become a dirty word. I don't understand why. Gladys

The absence of critical thinking in the 'sheeple' old or young is very evident, raised to an overwhelming tide by Faux News and puppets, Glenn Beck and his ilk.
But the elephant in the room is rarely talked about: racism, thinly disguised racism.
Ugly, ugly stuff.
XO
WWW

You have all left out the most relevant justification for the rant by the right---RACISM.

June -- you've really nailed that about fear. Peter Beinert, a bright young twerp (smile), just wrote something excellent about how the fear is working in our politics here.

Also -- on Saturday, I went to public outdoor reading of the Qu'ran in Berkeley where all sorts of people came together to say "no" to hate. I remember thinking -- but so many are so old ... We do after all have our wise ones, including at least one who spoke who was a refugee from the European Holocaust. I took a lot of pictures including one that features a 90+ Jewish friend (smart enough to bring a stool, natch) posted here. Sometimes we get it that we all have to live together.

Thank you for posting your thoughts on this issue. You have totally expressed my views and I am so frustrated about the political scene and how the Republicans fanned the flames of prejudice and greed. It is definitely the age of "something for nothing."

The problem with the Tea Party gang is not only that they're uninformed, but they're proud of it (just ask them). Being proud of being uninformed seems pretty close to stupid in my view. I, too, find it very difficult to understand why so many older Americans seem to have taken leave of their senses, politically speaking. As another responder noted, most of them receive Social Security, are on Medicare and went to public schools. Many attended college on the GI Bill and bought their first homes with government-backed loans. When needed, they call city-funded police and fire departments for help. Totally self-reliant? I don't think so!

None of us can stand entirely on his/her own; a healthy society is functionally interdependent. The Tea Party bunch does not seem to understand that. I have a plan! Why not set aside Texas (which wants to secede anyway according to Governor Rick Perry) for everyone who thinks they can live strictly on their own? No armed forces, no police, no fire department, no public health clinics, no public schools, no food or water inspectors; in other words, NO government or government services. And, of course, no taxes. Wonder how long that society would endure?

One wonders if we are witnessing the death throes of the Republican Party. With the nut jobs increasingly gaining power, there is little chance the GOP can attract enough thoughtful voters to win national elections in the future.

The party may do well this November because circumstances are somewhat unusual, but that could be the last time.

Thank you for taking the words right out of my head and heart and sharing them more eloquently that I could have. My frustration is at an all time high and at the same time I feel helpless as I watch sheer hate and ignorance reign. I keep trying to understand the motivation and position of these Teapots and other radical haters, and I can't seem to crack the code. I know that Action is the Antidote to Despair (thank you Joan Baez) but can't seem to find the right actions right now.

I believe in civility, in equal opportunity, in sharing, caring, and loving your neighbor as yourself. I want to push past this ignorant hating and raving and help rational thinking and informed debate save our country – and our collective future.

I watch as my loved ones in my extended family join the rage and hate and the only thing that I can hear them saying – when they are not calling me misguided – because heaven knows they wouldn’t want to have a conversation about what they believe, only an argument and name calling fest – is that they want to keep what they have for themselves, and everyone who has anything else to say is WRONG.

I hear you all saying that fear is the basis for this behavior, but honestly I am afraid. Afraid that logic and reason will not win, afraid that the country will be torn apart by this ignorance, afraid that my children and grandchildren will have a living hell to live through, and more than that – afraid that I can’t find a way to help.

Shove over, y'all. I want to share a seat on the couch, please.

I am very afraid also. There have always been stupid people but now they have a voice. I am also stunned by the belief that some of these people seem to have that lower taxes will help promote anything except bad roads, closed schools and fewer services. How short-sighted. I just saw a show on Pol Pot & his killing fields and it made me think that the TeaParty people will leave killing fields also but they will be filled with people who were cut down by lack of funds and health care. Very depressing.

Thank you, Ronni, for the rant. Thank all of you for your comments. I don't feel so alone any more.

Here is another point: what about the shadowy or not so shadowy manipulators with megabucks who support tea party activities as well creating and supporting noble sounding organizations that promote their agendas of hate and fear.

The teapartiers are a joke. I think our fear of them is misplaced. Hate yes, fear no. Give them enough rope, I say. Their latest "triumph" in Delaware will bring them down. The winner is a woman who believes masturbation is a sin! And she is stupid and vapid right on the face of it with that sappy little Christian smile and the little girl voice. Yuck.
You know, we can go ahead and say what we think without reference to our age, can't we? I refuse to stand for anything because of my age, which is only one thing about me.
Let's not let ourselves be intimidated here. We are not responsible for the way these horses' patooties behave.

I share your pain. I see these idiots and wonder what happened to us along the road.

Then again, I'm working for my Congressmen's re-election campaign and about half his most loyal, dedicated volunteers are elders like me. Not all of us are nuts.

We understand what's happening in this country and we are mad as hell!

Thanks to you, Ronni and to all who commented here -- I guess we're all in a bad mood about the state of this country. I'm disgusted and discouraged to think that if you have enough money, you can buy the votes - and I totally agree that if you dig down deep enough into this dung heap, you'll find simmering therein a lot of anger about a black man being elected President. Racism is not a thing of the past in this country; it is alive and flourishing. "They" lost the election but they're still working to defeat him. How sad is that?

I suspect that elders will be vilified in this debacle but I don't feel fear. This is not a good time to indulge in fear, in my opinion. Young people are going to need support at some point to put this whole crisis into perspective. When they mobilize to deal with this mess, we had better have our sharpened sticks and pitchforks ready to ally with them in force. I see a wash of hot water and a receding tide of crumpled and spent outdated prejudices.

Something as sophomoric as outdated sexual/gender issues and bigotry is going to be met with a mighty rage from these young people. That is my hope. They are just not paying attention right now because they are busy being young and this stupid posturing not worth notice to them. I'm perhaps an idiot but I have faith in the spirit of the youth of America. I was there when they stormed the streets screaming and running banging pots and pans for their very lives at the victory of Obama. It went on for hours. I know there are also pockets of youth who are focused on hate but they are not majority.

I'm sitting back on my sack of seeds and trying to remain ready. I am betting on the belief that love and the perseverance of truth wins in the end.

I could not possibly agree with you more, Ronni! And thank you for putting my own sentiments so eloquently. Damn it all, are we really this dumb? After all these years?

I carefully planned my retirement so that I could leave my children 100% of my principle and live frugally on the income from it. That plan was busted. Wide. Open.

I don't want to be this mad.

Trying to follow.
70% of young people believe a stupid thing. 42% of old people believe it. You're fed up with the old people?

I think you're nearly smart enough to speak at a tea bagger rally - just maybe a touch dumber than Victoria Jackson.

The rabid racist ranters have been with us especially in the south where it was connected with violence and terrorism. Important despite the photos not to connect this with elders as I am an elder too. It would be easy for FOX and the right-wing wealthy to use the generations as a wedge issue. Despite the ugliness I saw in the south in my youth, we never had destructive media like FOX and friends. We are ripe for violence and that worries me the most.

What is the point of perpetuation more of this US vs THEM crap. The Teabaggers are a loud mouthed tiny minority of the voters and some of them are ignorant old people who were once ignorant young people. I'm sick of pitting artificially formed groups against one another. The Senior Citizens you see spouting racist, ignorant, BS are no more representative of the Senior Citizens of this country than the Skinhead youth represent the youth of America.

This is five years down the road now and we are seeing the same stupidity....Donald Trump...I see a lot of elders rallying behind him and Ted Cruz...interestingly young people like Bernie Saunders.
In my area lifelong democrats that are helped by social services are switching to the GOP as their fear of Muslims is stoked and their ill conceived fundamentalist views against gay marriage and freedom of choice for women are also stoked with fire and brimstone. I too am ashamed and embarrassed.