ALEX FERWERDA
Opinions Writer

The politics of the United States and Canada are inextricably linked. The political changes and movements of our neighbour to the south influence Canadian citizens and our leaders alike. As Trudeau once said when speaking to the Press Club in Washington, D.C.: “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

Lately, a ruckus of mostly unintelligible grunts has been coming from a movement known as the “Tea Party.” This grassroots movement is what proponents believe to be the second incarnation of The Boston Tea Party, a movement that took place in the late 18th century just prior to the American Revolution.

Disgruntled American citizens took direct action through protest on the Boston harbor. They stormed ships containing taxed tea from Britain and prevented it from being unloaded. The Tea Party’s justification for this was their collectively held belief that only local legislators ought to have the authority to tax goods. Was this a legitimate reason for such uproar? I think so.

Today, using the aforementioned movement as a nostalgic launching pad, a number of Americans are jumping on the Earl Grey bandwagon and protesting up a storm. One of the largest of these rallies took place on Aug. 28 with Glenn Beck as the keynote speaker.

The rally was dubbed “Restoring Honor” and took place on the steps of the Lincoln memorial on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Glenn Beck has been quoted as saying was pure coincidence, despite his speech containing strong allusions to and direct quotes from King’s speech.

For those of you lucky enough to have never heard of this man, I’ll fill you in. Beck hosts a T.V. show on Fox News, a notoriously far right television network in the U.S. He has called Barack Obama a racist towards whites, and when speaking about those affected by Hurricane Katrina he was quoted as saying, “I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims.” And just for good measure, he compared President Obama’s decision to overturn the ban on federally funded stem cell research to eugenics and the master race envisioned by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

With the Tea Party beginning to snowball and the support of a massive and biased news channel — seriously, if you don’t believe me watch any episode of Glenn Beck’s program — things are looking bleak in American political culture.

However, there is hope. What began as a comment on the news-aggregate site reddit.com has become a reality. John Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be holding a satirical rally in Washington D.C. on Oct. 30. Colbert will be rallying under the banner of “Keeping Fear Alive,” while Stewart will be marching (or rather, politely walking) to the beat of a “Rally To Restore Sanity.”

So fear not, my fellow students and Canadians, for if Fox News North should ever come to fruition and an irrational fear mongering Canuck should ever get a television show, there is a solution.

Band together, put Rick Mercer on stage and reflect on the stupidity coming our way, rather than trying to fight it.