In a recent debate between an official and a citizen pushing for no gun restrictions, the citizen told the official, "Who do you think you are? You are supposed to be working for me."
My response: You and 300 million other people.
Some people appear to be possessive of an illusion that they are the people, and that nobody else is. This reminds me frankly of "Animal Farm":"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." If they had in fact been the people, then they would have dominated all elections. That however is not the case, and the reason is simple. These people are not the only people in America.
In a huge and diverse country, only the ignorant can claim that they are the people and that nobody else is. Nor are these people the reason for America's accomplishments. The Chinese built American railroads. Jews, agnostics and atheists dominate science, whose discoveries are at the root of everything that business sells. Hindus and minority religions run the computer industry that was the true source of 1980s and 1990s prosperity. Whereas most entities in the Tea Party part of the country - government-subsidized oil, government-subsidized beef, and military that is the part of the government - depend on the very government that they want out of their part of the country. Their claims that they pay for everyone else, or that they want the government off their backs, is a Big Lie. It is they that are on the back of the government.
This is reflected in statistics which show that the states that contribute more in taxes than they get out are, for the most part, Democratic; and the states that get more in government money than they put in are, for the most part, Republican. It is they that are the parasites they speak of. And for them to claim that they are somehow more American than the rest of America, or that they have more integrity than the rest of America, or that they are the people and that nobody else is, are a result of unchallenged assumptions and screaming right-wing propaganda.
I think it is time that claims of this kind be challenged more. The Tea Party are no more or less American than the Occupy Wallstreet protestors. They may be a part of America; but they are not America, and they are not "the people." The government is not intended only to work for them. It is intended to work for 300 million people, most of whom are not the Tea Party and will never be the Tea Party.