I don't find it that surprising that teabaggers have adopted Joe Stack as their "True American Hero" (a big attaboy to CBS News for correctly identifying Mr. Stack as a "domestic terrorist"). When your movement is led by the likes of Glenn Beck and Orly Taitz, you need all the fresh heroic figures you can get.
But Joe Stack? Failed husband, failed businessman, failed bass player and, now, failed mass murderer. A nobody, nebbish and a nincompoop.
A guy without sufficient neurons to understand that the California Franchise Tax Board, which revoked the licenses of two businesses he owned, and the federal Internal Revenue Service, are not the same agency.
In the immortal words of that great American Bugs Bunny, what a maroon.
After a moment's thought, however, their choice of new role model falls neatly into their preexisting pantheon. He'll fit nicely in the frame with the guy named Joe the Plumber who is neither, the half-term governor who proved that a winner never quits by quitting, and the legions of power-tied, blow-dried yammerheads reading their condemnations of teleprompters--from teleprompters.
The teabagger--oh, sorry, Tea Party--movement raises as its standard bearers the most mediocre of American wits, and its members justify their choice of mentors with a perverted sense of egalitarianism. Why are Palin, or the Joes Stack, Wilson and Plumber, inspiring? Why, because "they're just like me!"
I must be older school than I suspected. It's always been my understanding that heroes aren't just like me. They're better.
Why the heck would I emulate somebody like me? "He's great. He's old, tired, bitchy, fat, ill-educated and lazy. My hero!"
No, the point of heroes is to give us examples to aspire to. People who are smarter, stronger, more ethical and steadfast. People who we know aren't like us at all. People who stand as examples of what we might be if we'd only try harder and stop being such whiny babies.
Still, such zero-worship makes some sense. For people who want the highways without the speed limits, the war stories without the war taxes and the twelve tube socks for a dollar without the trade deficit, heroes which require nothing more than a cheer are the best kind.
They don't make you feel bad for not trying to be better.
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