NAACP, Tea Partiers, Lefties Can Find Common Ground

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous might have been less sweeping in his condemnation of the tea party for shielding racists and instead given voice to their common ground. Although the anger of many of those identifying with the tea party -- or the NAACP -- may be misdirected, their sense of estrangement is legitimate. America has gotten off track -- for all of us!

Tea party fervor only erupted over the past 18 months since America elected its first black president, so naturally it's suspect how much is authentic and how much has been furtively ginned-up by those who are in fact closet racists? How much is genuine grassroots sentiment and how much has been funded and manipulated by Republican insiders, like former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey through his FreedomWorks organization, simply to undermine President Obama and return Republicans to power?

However, the majority of tea partiers, without nefarious hidden agendas, deserve credit for standing up for their convictions. But they must acknowledge the fact this mess didn't start in January 2009. This train has been on a spur line for decades and every year it picks up speed. Wall Street has become too ruthless; giant corporations too greedy; public unions too self-serving; government regulators too compromised; politics too corrupted; entertainment too sordid; colleges too quixotic; churches too temporal; media too sensationalized; and common decency too rare.

The corporate and political establishment, in order to give cover to its rancidness, likes nothing better than to watch the left and right flailing at each other over whom the Founding Fathers would love the most. It's time for all Americans of good will -- left, right and center -- to say "enough!"

Tea partiers, lefties and the NAACP will never agree on most issues but there are three matters on which the well-intentioned on all sides share common cause, and working together would prove an indomitable force in putting America back on track: ending the confluence of special interests, campaign contributions and political corruption; stopping the exportation of American jobs; and reigning in Wall Street's power over our lives.

Real populism can work for all sides when it embraces the American virtues of compassion, tolerance and individual responsibility and is rooted firmly in reality rather than delusional paranoia.

We can learn a lesson from drivers. The considerate ones leave room at stoplights for cars exiting parking lots and let others cut in front of them when lanes narrow. They don't care if the other driver is Republican or a Democrat; white or black; tea partier or leftie. They just want to see traffic work better. Wouldn't it be nice if we could be that collaborative when we're not in our cars?