The Tea Party: Beginning to See the Light [update 2]

Now this is cool. Maureen Tucker—known to friends as Mo, and more widely as the drummer from the Velvet Underground—is also a Tea Partier.  An angry Mo told her local TV station she is “furious about the way we’re being led toward socialism” and the “incredible waste of money” being spent, and followed it up telling a disbelieving Riverfront Times she is against

• the government taking over the student loan program and car companies,
• bailouts
• the White House taking control of the census (what the hell is that all about?)
• any First Lady telling us (I know, I know, “suggesting to us”) what to eat
• the mayor of New York City declaring “no salt” (screw you, pal!)
• the mayor/city commissioners of Anytown, U.S.A. declaring you can’t fly a flag, can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance and can’t sing the National Anthem
• a President dismissing any and all who dare to disagree
• the water being turned off in (central) California to save a one-inch fish — turning that huge area of farming land into another dustbowl — the insipid start of food supply control methinks!
• the government deciding what kind of lightbulbs we can use (all you “think green” people, three objections to this b.s.: 1) Those bulbs give off the light of a candle; 2) They’re very expensive; 3)They have mercury in them – how the hell are we supposed to dispose of them?).

Maureen says.

  MT: My family was damn poor when I was growing up on Long Island. There were no food stamps, no Medicaid, no welfare. If you were poor, you were poor. You didn’t have a TV, you didn’t have five pairs of shoes, you didn’t have Levi’s, you didn’t have a phone; you ate Spam, hot dogs and spaghetti. .. 
    My anger stems from the unbelievable (criminal!) waste of money on pork and earmarks. It drives me nuts to see that X millions are being allocated to build a turtle tunnel, a donkey museum, a salamander crossing, etc, etc, etc. Billions spent every friggin’ year on totally unnecessary crap so that these Congressbums can tell their constituents that they “brought home the bacon” and get re-elected. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to pay for any Congress SOB’s vote buying, and sure as hell not in these very very worrisome times!
    RIVERFRONT TIMES: What specifically about the current administration do you disagree with?
    MT: I disagree with spending / borrowing / printing — damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!  I disagree with the “we won” attitude, which is the cowardly way of saying fuck you! I disagree with an administration that for twenty months blames Bush. If the President and his minions are so damn smart, why didn’t they know the severity of the situation? The president has actually said …. that they didn’t know!

(So, of course, have John Key and Billy Bob.)

Unsurprisingly, Tucker’s views went down like a bucket of cold sick with the trendies, leaving her.

stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant. I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull!
    Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn’t think exactly as they do. You disagree and you’re immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist.

She’s nobody’s fool, and never was.

Here’s how the Velvet Underground sounded in their prime.

This was the Velvets’ looked on their reunion in Paris in 1990, with Moe on drums.

And here’s the song that was Moe’s party piece, recorded (badly) at a 1993 Velvets concert in Prague requested by then Czech President Vaclav Havel—a Velvets fan who told the world on the fall of the Soviet Empire that it was a Velvet Underground record that inspired the Czech Velvet Revolution.

[Hat tip Russell Brown, who seems to think Tea Partiers are against free trade. How odd. Still, that’s twice today he gets a mention here.]

UPDATE 1: Sam P gets it right: Mo Tucker is “a canary in the coal mine of cool.”

UPDATE 2: And Greg Gutfeld [hat tip Sam P]:

If you don't know [Mo Tucker], she was the drummer for the hippest band of all time, the Velvet Underground - managed by Andy Warhol and home to Lou Reed, Nico and John Cale. An inspiration to disaffected slackers, no band was cooler, and just about every group you hear these days ripped them off…
    So what happens when the coolest cucumber rejects those precious values held by the vintage tee-shirt wearing, status quo left?
    Let the whining commence…

Check Greg’s post for some of it, which continues...

    But there's a bigger message here: what does it mean when a member of the most naturally subversive band of the last forty years, shows up at the most naturally subversive movement in recent memory? By witnessing the shocked reaction, you see where true rebellion lurks.
    It's wherever Moe's at.
    And if you disagree with me, you're a racist, homophobic melophobe.