Tea and Parties with Grandmother Hughes and Josh Hamilton

Every summer I take my 81-year-old grandmother to Books-A-Million. Armed with her list of about 20 books from Glenn Beck’s recommended reading archive, I spend the next 2 or 3 hours looking for each book. I pace down aisle after aisle, checking off books from her wish list, but only if they are the paperback edition- she refuses to pay the extra, “outrageous” costs of hardback books.

            Many of the books deal a lot with America’s past and our history as a nation. While I’m here in Austin Grandmother calls every time she finishes a book to let me know her big epiphanies and interesting facts she took away. She recently finished A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. Grandmother climbed right up on her soapbox and let‘er rip! She started with a good introduction to the book and then promptly skipped over Christopher Columbus saying, “You know the 1492, ocean blue rhyme and that’s all that really matters.” She then laid into one of her favorite topics, the American Tea Party movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dale_Robertson_Racist_Sign.jpg

            The basic principals of these Lipton lovers are; 1) cutting back the size of government, 2) lowering taxes, 3) reducing wasteful spending and the national debt and federal budget deficit, and 4) adherence to the United States Constitution.

            This describes my Grandmother to a tee. It sounds fine and dandy to me, but then I started looking at some of the controversial moments regarding the party and movement. Most striking was Dale Robertson’s infamous sign at a Tea Party event on February 27, 2009.

            There are really two tragedies in this photo- the fact that a movement, which could do great things for America, has lowered itself to using racial slurs and the shirt that man is wearing. Wearing and saying tacky, disrespectful things does nothing for America.

            After Grandmother Hughes stops freaking out over the Texas Rangers and Josh Hamilton, I’m sure we’ll finish our conversation about the Tea Party movement. I will be interested to hear how she feels about that delightful little sign.