There are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. When one superimposes this psychological structure on the progressive movement in general, and the black American progressive community in particular, it becomes far easier to understand the tremendous amount of animus directed at their favorite trash-ees, the Tea Party movement. That animus was highlighted by the latest Democrat to embrace the "politics of civility" demanded by progressives in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) is another Democrat who apparently didn't get the memo. "Let us all remember who the real enemy is," Wilson huffed at a Miami town hall meeting. "The real enemy is the Tea Party--the Tea Party holds the Congress hostage. They have one goal in mind, and that's to make President Obama a one-term president."
For those keeping psychological track as it were, that would place Ms. Wilson squarely in stage two of the grief cycle. It also gives her a slight edge over fellow black Congresswoman, Maxine Waters (D-CA), who said "The Tea Party can go straight to hell" at one of her own town hall meetings. Such talk certainly indicates anger. But why the Tea party?
To answer that question, we must harken back to stage one of the grief cycle. Despite iron-clad control of both Houses of Congress, Democrats were unable to forestall the rout known as the 2010 election. That Democrats brought it on themselves, with a one-two combination of Keynesian economics and ObamaCare, was something they couldn't face. Blaming the Tea Party for their own failings is the essence of denial. Denial which has seamlessly moved into the anger stage.
Oddly enough, it was Maxine Waters who dipped her toe into the waters of stage three. "The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president too," Waters told a meeting of CBC supporters in Detroit last Tuesday. "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired, ya'll. We're getting tired."
Waters continued. "And so, what we want to do is, we want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this (bus) trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community."
The bargaining stage is often referred to as the one in which we are trying to "negotiate away the hurt" that comes with the realization that a tragedy has occurred. Apparently Ms. Waters has figured out--if only inadvertently--that the president in whom 95 percent of black America invested their hopes and dreams, is doing virtually nothing to help black America realize those hopes and dreams. Unemployment in America is officially 9.1 percent. For black Americans, it's 16.2 percent.
As to why the president's bus trips didn't include any black communities, why should it? Nothing guarantees calculated political indifference more than unstinting political loyalty. That's the "bargain" black America made with the Democrat Party fifty years ago.
The next stage of the cycle is depression, which is said to occur when one begins to focus one's attention squarely in the present. Black Democrats, much like the rest of the progressive movement, aren't quite there yet. After almost three years into the president's term and almost five years in which Democrats have maintained majority control of the federal government, everything is still George W. Bush's fault. And the same society which elected Barack Obama is still hopelessly racist.
In this phase it is said that the depression feels like it will last forever. For black progressives, it must be especially galling to see the seemingly ongoing and inevitable demise of a man, and perhaps a political party as well, they thought was invincible. It must be equally if not more depressing to see a nascent political movement like the Tea Party garner so much national attention during a time in which black Americans were supposed to be realizing an unprecedented level of achievement and respect, courtesy of having Mr. Obama in the Oval Office.
That it hasn't worked out that way is not the Tea Party's fault. It may be difficult for many progressives to remember, but for most of Mr. Obama's first two years in office, there was no Tea Party at all. And its rise had nothing to with the Republicans. In 2008, Republicans were a beaten and demoralized political party. If any group of people can, and ought to be, credited with the rise of the Tea Party, it would be progressives themselves, courtesy of an arrogance and overreach that quickly alienated a substantial number of Americans, many of whom voted for Democrats in two consecutive elections.
Which brings us to the final stage of the grief cycle, acceptance. This particular stage is said to be one in which people deal with the idea that a new reality, no matter how unpleasant, is one they are forced to live with. As it pertains to progressivism, this reality may be as close as the 2012 election. Even now, some of the president's most ardent supporters are steeling themselves to the idea that the man who once told ABC's Diane Sawyer he would "rather be a really good one-term president, than a mediocre two-term president" may end up oh-for-two. Moreover, it is not just Mr. Obama who may be facing political oblivion. Only the most obtuse progressive would fail to realize that even a conversation about deficit reduction, much less a twelve member Congressional Committee dedicated to finding some, is a paradigm shift away from the unrestrained government progressives adore.
Sadly, it is unrestrained government to which far too many black Americans have tethered their well-being. It is highly unlikely Ms.Waters and Ms. Wilson will be the last black Democrats in search of a scapegoat for the troubles of their party or their communities. Grief does strange things to us all. But characterizing decent Americans, genuinely concerned about the future of the nation, as "enemies" who can "go straight to hell?" I'd like to think that, even for progressives, such talk is a bridge too far.
But I wouldn't bet on it.
