Dying Cries

There’s a bit of everything in the tea party. As elsewhere, it took time for this movement to be taken seriously, one that bypasses the traditional parties by claiming to create a direct link between the citizens and the people in power. Today, although it could still be crushed in the November electoral process, the tea party imposes itself as the only new force in America.

Where did it come from? It’s the result of the recession and the formidable rage that takes hold of Americans when they think of the behavior of their elites. It’s also the consequence of the financial crisis, of the rescue of the banks and the excesses of the financial world that drove millions into unemployment. Finally, it’s a fear of the loss of American “values,” of the end of America’s position as an example coveted by the entire world, of the waging of useless and deadly wars and of the awareness that debts and deficit have turned the pursuit of a dream, once thought eternal, into an illusion.

In a way, the emergence of the tea party is the dying cry of the American middle class, which has been driven to poverty while the richest in the country have never been better off. The contradictions of its political program are as obvious as the ignorance of some of its leaders, for whom populism, demagogy and, sometimes, outright lies are second nature. In spite of its apparent affability and the reassuring outlook of this grass root movement, racism and extremism are often genuinely present.

This populist American outburst should not, however, seem so distant to us. It echoes the rise of the extreme right in several European countries, from the Netherlands to Sweden. The same economic crisis has occurred here, and similar fears are appearing. America, which claims to be unique and indeed is in many respects, seems today to be caught up in an identical dream of “original purity” and, therefore, of exclusion … by the same denial of reality.