Reich: Tea Party 'Conspiracy to Undermine the Government of the United States'

Democrats and the media have accused Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of “McCarthyism” merely for posing tough questions to and about Chuck Hagel during the latter’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense. Yet a recent column by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich reveals who the real McCarthyites are in U.S. politics today, as Reich likens the Tea Party to a conspiracy “to undermine the government of the United States.”

Reich, who has steadfastly supported President Barack Obama’s big-government, tax-and-spend agenda, wrote that the Tea Party had “infiltrated” the government at every level, and had used the budget cuts in the sequester to begin “dismantling pieces of it.” He outlined the rest of his conspiracy theory at the left-wing Salon.com:

Imagine a plot to undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population.

Imagine further that the plotters infiltrate Congress and state governments, reshape their districts to give them disproportionate influence in Washington, and use the media to spread big lies about the government.

Finally, imagine they not only paralyze the government but are on the verge of dismantling pieces of it.

Far-fetched?  Perhaps. But take a look at what’s been happening in Washington and many state capitals since Tea Party fanatics gained effective control of the Republican Party, and you’d be forgiven if you see parallels.

Reich downplays the fact that the sequester was the president’s idea–is he, too, some kind of Manchurian Tea Party candidate designed to demonstrate the failure of liberalism?–and suggests the Tea Party actually wants unemployment to rise because they want Americans to be even more fearful and angry.”

Of course, it was President Obama who tried to make Americans “fearful and angry” by describing a parade of horribles that would ensue as the sequester hit. And perhaps Reich should be reminded that it was Democrats who consciously chose a strategy of fear in selling Obamacare to the public. 

As key Chicago strategist Robert Creamer wrote in proposing the Democrats’ future health care strategy–from federal prison–in 2006-7: “”To win we must not just generate understanding, but emotion–fear, revulsion, anger, disgust.”

As is nearly always the case, the left’s accusations of conspiracy and sedition are a form of projection, accusing others of what they themselves are doing. Reich’s blunt conspiratorial fantasy is a useful bookmark to remember the next time Jane Mayer or Chris Matthews targets Ted Cruz and the Tea Party in Alinskyite fashion.