The Violation of (Political) Expectations...

I once had a boss who liked to repeat to staff some of the things he had read in popular business management books. One of the quotations actually struck me as a profound insight:

The violation of expectations
is the root of frustration.

That may not be the exact quotation, but it's close enough to express the premise: we form expectations concerning all kinds of things and people in our lives, and we get frustrated when those expectations are unmet. This becomes important because

Frustration produces an inclination to Aggression

I suspect the aggression we have seen from Tea Party Republicans since 2009 has been an expression of their frustration with changes in American society which threaten their expectations of that society. To name a few, homosexuals are coming "out of the closet," a Black has become President, people are openly speaking Spanish everywhere, and Christianity is now challenged as a belief system. Thus, they push and threaten political leaders to recreate the society of their expectations.

Unfortunately for Tea Party Americans, their efforts to make society meet their expectations will frustrate the expectations of all other Americans -- those who see the changes as non-threatening or even positive. A "Tea Party" America would not meet with our expectations of our society. Thus, their efforts are likely to generate a political backlash of aggression against them.

The same principle can be used to analyze other political conflicts, as well. I think Barack Obama created high expectations as a Presidential candidate, and his failure to meet the expectations he created, now that he is President, has frustrated many who have supported him.

Alex Budarin