Michael Graham (1) (1963–)

Arguably, Michael Graham came up with the best possible title for his book. In the wake of the ascendancy of the far left to the highest offices in the land--finally including the presidency itself--and with the redefinition of middle-of-the-road (redefined somewhat leftward), it came as a shock to the Democratic party politicians who brought all of this about to be confronted with the push-back of something calling itself the tea party (or T.E.A. Party--with the initials standing for "taxed enough already"). The reaction of the establishment left (yes, the left used to be fighting the fight against the "Man," and they haven't fully grokked that now they ARE the Man.) reacted hysterically, calling the tea party extremists, haters, white supremacists (even the African-Americans in the tea party are presumed to be white supremacists) and nothing more than an astroturf, naysaying, violent angry mob. Michael Graham points out the ludicrousness of all of these charges. As Graham points out, astroturf is the way the Democrats do things, so they assume that must be where the tea party came from. In this book, Graham shows where the movement actually came from, both by doing some journalistic research. (Imagine a reporter actually interviewing people involved in the first tea party demonstrations rather than relying on the fantasies of politicians expressing their fevered nightmares at having their authority questioned.)

At the heart of his book, Graham uses his own mother's participation in the tea party movement to illustrate the absurdity of anti-tea party stereotypes and rhetoric. His mother was as surprised as anyone by the characterization of her civic activism as racist, privileged, violent and dangerous. (As Graham says, his mother IS dangerous, but only when she tries to parallel park.) Mrs. Graham not only seems to be an extremely nice lady, but she is hardly privileged, having come from a poor family and worked for everything she ever got. Far from being racist, when she moved from her native California to South Carolina at the height of civil rights unrest she was appalled by the level of racism she encountered and acted against it.

Using a sea of humor, an arsenal of facts and a dumpster-full of over-the-top anti-tea party quotes from prominent members of the ruling class in politics and media, Graham argues that the tea party is the embodiment of traditional American values, and it is rather the Democratic party with its elitist policy mavens--who cannot demonstrate that they are competent to run an entire society from their Washington, DC catbird seats and yet try to--who are the extremist goofballs.

BTW, Graham mentions the sign that compared Obama to Hitler at a tea party rally and notes that leftists ever since have cited it as evidence that 1Cthat 19s what they 19re all like 1D even though there was only one such sign. In fact, it turns out that that sign, which was not even carried around, was fixed to a book stall, which was run by a follower of the late American fascist Lyndon LaRouche. At the rally in question, only a few participants perused the stall 19s wares, but most walked without a buy once they saw what the guy was peddling. A similar 14or, who knows, perhaps the same 14LaRouche-supporter later set up a stall at Occupy Wall Street. (No sales figures available for comparison.)

One painful note is Graham 19s enthusiasm for Republican senator Scott Brown who amazed everyone across the spectrum with his win of the seat formerly held by Edward 1CTed 1D Kennedy. Brown 19s commitment to opposing government over-reach has since been less than inspiring, but Graham, writing five years ago, seems to have a point worth not missing: a conservative message that at least seems genuine can actually win votes even in a notoriously leftward state.… (mais)

In the interest of full disclosure, and before I begin discussing "That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom," I want to acknowledge that I am the veteran of two Houston tea-parties. I attended the first event out of curiosity, the second out of hope that someone in government might actually listen to what was said there. Of course, no one did.

Let's face it. Politicians think citizens pay so little attention to what happens in our national and state capitols that they will believe anything a government spokesman tells them. These same "representatives of the people" believe, often correctly, that a little bit of spin will cover even the dumbest legislation, most vile criminal acts, and worst wastes of taxpayer money imaginable. But, at some point, politicians are no longer able to baffle the public with BS - and that is when things get ugly. When character assassination of its critics becomes the government's weapon of choice in political debate, a tipping point has been reached.

Radio talk-show host Michael Graham has organized tea-parties in the Boston area, events attended by his mother, among others. Graham sees who attends the tea-parties ("retirees, military vets, small business owners, and suburban families"), has read the hundreds of handheld signs, and has experienced the tea-party atmosphere first hand. What he describes in "That's No Angry Mob" is almost exactly what I observed for myself in Houston: a gathering in large numbers of citizens concerned that the country is being relentlessly driven toward bankruptcy and that the future of their children and grandchildren is in jeopardy.

The government's response to all this citizen concern has been to label every single attendee of a tea-party event as a racist and/or a domestic terrorist. Even the Speaker of the House, tear in her eye and tremor in her voice, hints that she fears a deranged assassin or two will be motivated by what he or she hears at a tea-party. And, of course, the national media share the Speaker's concerns, as well as her lack of subtlety and self-awareness.

"That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom" offers little new information to those who have paid attention to recent current events. It does, however, offer a nice recap of the absurdity of the government's response to the threat it feels from citizens (many of them elderly) wanting to ask questions of those who should have their best interests in mind. Graham, who is also a former stand-up comic, has a keen ear for comic timing and uses comedic one-liners throughout the book to keep it relatively light despite the intensity of the hatred directed at him (and all tea-party attendees and talk-radio listeners) by those so determined to minimize them by destroying their reputations.

Despite the way Graham uses humor in discussing the very personal attack on Americans who dare openly disagree with the administration's policies, he makes serious, and distressing, points like this one: "And the liberals who suspect (and some who openly proclaim) that most Americans are selfish, bigoted dolts, have amplified that message. They divided America into two groups: people who support Obama and his policies on the one hand, and racist holdouts on the other." To many tea-partiers this is the most distressing thing of all about today's politics. Never in recent memory has the race card so often been pulled from the bottom of the deck to shut down legitimate public dissent. Is this what we have come to?

Rated at: 3.5… (mais)