Turning the Other Tea Bag

Oregon Tea Partiers clearly have more good humor and compassion than the guy who set up the "Crash the Tea Party" website and is now in trouble with his school district:

The Tea Partiers are taking the high road. Just because Oregon middle school teacher Jason Levin has publicly denounced them as a bunch of "racists, homophobes and morons," they say that's no reason for him to lose his job.

All Levin really needs, they say, is some sensitivity training and some anger management therapy.

Levin, who declared his mission to "dismantle and demolish" the Tea Party on his "Crash the Tea Party" website, was placed on administrative leave last week while a state education board and his school district investigate whether the technology teacher promoted identity theft against Tea Party activists and misused school property.

But the Oregon Tea Party seems to be sipping chamomile. It doesn't want his neck -- just an apology from Levin and the Beaverton School District.

"We don't want to see Jason Levin fired, we want to see him helped," said Oregon Tea Party founder Geoff Ludt. "We want to reach out to him and we want to use his actions to create a teachable moment."

"Teachable moment"...heh, I love that.  Well done, Oregon Tea Party.  You can read the rest of the article for all the things Mr. Levin had hoped to do to the Tea Party crowd.

This reminds me of a comment I got from a Mission Viejo resident who drove past the Tea Party last week.  She wrote:

As I drove by last evening after work, I wanted to give these protesters the single-finger salute but refrained from doing so because some of the protesters had dragged their kids along.

I've been wanting to address this all week but hadn't had a chance. As I thought of her comment it occurred to me what the real difference is between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives have learned that we can disagree politically with our fellow citizens WITHOUT hating them. Liberals have never developed the political or emotional maturity to do that.  To them, disagreement is the highest form of insult and they can only lash out in response.

Had the roles been reversed in Oregon you'd never see liberals offer to resolve a dispute with anything short of complete destruction of the target of their ire.  That's all they know or understand.