Amerika ist kaum wiederzuerkennen. Erst der Sieg Barack Obamas, dann der steile Aufstieg der Tea Party und nun das Attentat auf Gabrielle Giffords. Woher dieser vehemente Widerstand gegen die Regierung?
Eine Q History-Kollage mit Michael Kimmel über
die historischen Wurzeln der Tea Party.
EIN LAND ZERFLEISCHT SICH SELBST.
Tagesthemen 09. – 19.01.2011: „Gestern Mittag hatte ein 22jähriger aus nächster Nähe das Feuer auf die demokratische Abgeordnete eröffnet … die politische Rhetorik in den USA ist immer aggressiver geworden … der Schlachtenlärm zwischen Rechts und Links … verlassene Geschäfte und Häuser – Wunden einer Industriegesellschaft … dann wurde die Finanz- zur Wirtschaftskrise … das Ende des amerikanischen, den Beginn des chinesischen Zeitalters.“
Michael Kimmel: What has happened in America? … It’s so bewildering, I mean, one day we are the top country in the world, everybody wants to be us, and now we are are falling, the Chinese are taking over…
DER VERLORENE AMERIKANISCHE TRAUM.
Auslandsjournal 01.09.2010: „Glenn Beck hat sich eine Welt geschaffen, die von bösen Mächten bedroht wird.“
Glenn Beck Show 19.11.2010: „As we prepare ourselves to become the people we were sent here at this time to be!“
Michael Kimmel: Here’s what they might say: What is America? America is Daniel Boone (1734-1820, amerikanischer Pionier). He leaves the confines of the city and he goes off into the wilderness. He builds his own house, he grows his own crops, he shoots his own meals. He takes control. If there are Indians standing in his way, he pushes them aside. If there are other people who want to share, he says no. This is the American vision. And that has been totally corrupted by liberal europeanized bureaucrats.
DER GEGNER SITZT IN WASHINGTON.
Glenn Beck Show 19.11.2010: „The progressives are the disease in this country. … From the right or the left, to move this close to total government – it’s not a good thing.“
Michael Kimmel: The right wing wants individuals to be able to keep everything that they earn, to not have to pay taxes, surely not to take care of people who are dependant, who are sick, who are immigrants, who are poor. We shouldn’t have to take care of them. So any effort to increase the government’s control of your life is seen as an invasion. And that invasion is seen as communist or fascist.
WO ALLES BEGANN.
Werbung für Ronald Reagans Wiederwahl, 1984: „It’s morning again in America and … under the leadership of President Reagan our country is prouder … and stronger … and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were, less than four short years ago?“
Michael Kimmel: I think you really have to start in 1980 I think you have to start with Regan and Reagan as the reaction to the 60s and 70s and all of the changes, the hippies, the anti-war movement. Remember, we are just coming out of the first time we have ever lost a war. So Reagan announces as he’s inaugurated in 1981: It’s morning again in America, it’s a new dawn. We’re starting over!
DER ‘SÜNDENFALL’ DER DEMOKRATEN.
Abschiedsrede Präsident Eisenhowers 1961: „We must carve guard against the acquisition of unwanted influence – whether sought or unsought – by the Military Industrial Complex.“
Michael Kimmel: Now, since Reagan – including the Clinton-years – we have seen a steady progression of corporate takeover of the United States in a way that has been never before been seen. Now the right wing has responded to this corporate takeover by blaming liberals and the left wing has responded to this corporate takeover by blaming the corporations. Now who won that battle? That battle was clearly won by the right who demonized the government as a way to explain why their lives were so miserable.
DER AUFSTIEG DER TEA PARTY.
Tagesthemen 13.01.2011: „Tea Party-Ikone Sarah Palin schlägt schon wieder zurück …“
Sarah Palin: „Journalisten und Experten sollten keine Blutspur konstruieren, die nur dazu dient Hass und Gewalt zu schaffen, die sie angeblich verurteilen.“
Michael Kimmel: I think the Tea Party represents two things and it’s a misunderstanding to see them only as one. They are both extremely well funded and organized from above and they are a grassroots movement tapping into a general emotional feeling of uncertainty, confusion and anger.
Populism is not an ideology, populism is an emotion, and populism can go either way. It can go left or right. In the US it has gone to the left in the turn of the last century, and now it is a very right-wing populism.
Quellen: Glenn Beck Show, 19.11.2010, Wahlwerbung Regan, 1984, Rede Eisenhower, 1961, Auslandsjournal, 01.09.2010, Tagesthemen 09.-19.01.2011.
Foto: flickr, by fletcherwarren; by-nc-sa by John Ryan, Philipp Spreckels