There's trouble brewing between the Ron Paul libertarians who staged the the first modern tea party in 2007 by dumping tea into Boston Harbor, and the neocon war hawks led by Sarah Palin who are furiously trying to hijack their message.
After I appeared on MSNBC talking about Sarah Palin's appearance at the Nashville tea party convention, several libertarians told me they were unhappy with the exchange.
I said that Sarah Palin's hawkish message on Iran was oddly out of place in a group whose roots belong to the Ron Paul libertarians, particularly as the anti-interventionist Rand Paul is looking strong in the Kentucky Senate Senate race -- and Palin just endorsed him. The woman who appeared with me representing the tea partiers disagreed with that premise, and claimed she was very much an interventionist.
My libertarian friends couldn't imagine what she was doing on TV representing the tea parties in the first place, and thought it was a sad day when the opposition stated their position more fairly than their supposed allies.
But it underscores a rift between the anti-tax, pro-civil rights libertarians who started the tea parties and the corporatist neocon grifters of the GOP who are now trying to swoop in and capitalize on all of the hype. And in the irony of ironies, tea party-identified candidates are now trying to oust Ron Paul from his Texas House seat.
Paul appeared on Rachel Maddow last night to speak about it. Rachel asked him about his relationship to the tea parties, and he said:
I think the message gets a little bit diluted when a lot of people come in and the Republican party wants to make sure that maybe there's a Neocon type of influence.
There are no good solutions in Iran. The world will be a better place if Iran becomes democratic and abandons any nuclear weapons program. But initiating war likely would inhibit reform in Iraq while making the world a more dangerous place. The disastrous experience of Iraq should teach us many lessons, the most important of which is that war always should be a last resort. That standard is no where close to being met in Iran.
One of FDL's reporters was at the Nashville tea party convention, and said there was a promo booth set up by ConAgra. ConAgra. Agricultural subsidies are one of the biggest forms of corporate welfare around, and there's a big corporate push underway to convince the tea party activists that they're not. They are. Red State has endorsed Stephen Fincher for John Tanner's seat, despite the fact that he's taken over $300,000 in campaign contributions from families who have received over $80 million in farm subsidies. The mid-south tea party did an impressive investigation into the donations and called Fincher out for it. In the report, they rely heavily on the work of the progressive environmental organization EWG.
Despite our disagreements on immigration, unions and host of other issues, I have respect for libertarians like Bruce Fein and Ron Paul who took a lot of arrows in the back from fellow Republicans during the Bush years for opposing FISA, domestic spying, warrentless wiretapping, the wars and the bank bailout. It was a principled thing to do and it wasn't easy.
As a result, Ron Paul was denied the ability to speak at the Republican convention in St. Paul, and held his own convention across town. Glenn Greenwald and I attended. While we disagree with the libertarians about more things than we probably agree on, it's usually centered on an honest disagreement about the appropriate role of government. The GOP establishment, on the other hand, struck a bargain for power with corporate America that is totally at odds with everything the libertarians stand for.
The independent libertarians in the tea party movement probably have more points of honest intersection with progressives on the war, civil liberties, accountability and transparency than with the GOP and the "For Sale" sign they've affixed to the taxpayer trough. Alan Grayson and Ron Paul worked closely together to pass the bill to Audit the Fed in the House, and both opposed the reconfirmation of Ben Bernanke. It was nothing the establishment GOP had any interest in, who lined up right behind Bernanke.
Ron Paul has been tireless in taking his message to college campuses, and he has tremendous support among younger people who identify themselves as fiscal conservatives but are uncomfortable with fundies and their gay-bashing. But as the libertarian message is gaining traction, it is being hijacked by the Neocons -- and Sarah "bridge to nowhere" Palin leads the parade. Ron Paul supporters were outraged by Palin's speech and the whopping fee she charged for her appearance at the Nashville convention.
It's completely incoherent that there are now tea party-identified candidates trying to oust Ron Paul himself from his seat. I hope the libertarians lay down markers and come down on the side of ending the war and ConAgra's corporate welfare, and showing Palin -- and her many bombs -- to the door.
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Great article. You are able to see politics in a completely non-objective
manner, and that gives you a clear insight that many "political" writers lack.
Keep em' coming, can't wait to read your next piece.
All The Best....
One minor historical point: 2007 was not the first "tea party" in modern times. On July 4, 1976 a group of then young libertarians rented a boat and joined the bicentennial festivities in Boston Harbor by reenacting the original tea party, throwing "tea" crates overboard with the letters of various federal agencies written on them. We were then supporters of young congressman Paul... and remain so!
You can support Dr. Paul's health freedom bills at:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27732
By having people debate (and I don't mean just shout at each other) from each side, we are more likely to trim the excess and implement spending that WILL do good. We need regulation, but not government micromanagement. We need a social safety net, but not a lifetime of welfare. We need a well-trained military, but not one at any cost and not wars of choice.
I lost my job recently and received my severance payment. Nearly half of it went to local and state government! I wouldn't mind so much if, like Denmark, this gave me free health care and higher education, but no, not here. Apparently we pay like socialists, but get so much less.
Can you name one Republican administration that has ever reduced the size of government or decrease spending? The last president even remotely close to being a libertarian was Thomas Jefferson, so you don't have anything to worry about.
"Smaller govt and no regulations my working class ass can hardly wait."
Smaller government means less regulation, not "no regulations". One of the benefits of smaller government would be less taxes; don't you want to keep more of your paycheck?
"Maybe I can get these teabagging neighbors of mine to help me if things get bad for me . Like that repub senator told that lady at a HC town hall last summer."
I remember that. It was Representative Eric Cantor from Virginia. MSNBC made quite a show of how heartless he was. Yet none of these well-paid talking heads (Matthews, Schultz, Olbermann or Maddow) ever managed to track this woman down and help her out. There was a time in this nation where neighbor helped neighbor because it was the right thing to do - now all some people can do is sit back and complain because government isn't doing it for them.
"The only chance I ll have is I m white but sadly after they get thru with the nonwhites Ill be starved out by then."
I can't believe you really said that...
It was a senator from OK a suppossed DR. not cantor but him saying similar to this does not surprize me at all. I know that OLBERMAN asked for donations to set up a HC clinic and got enough money to set up I believe 4 FREE HC clinics in various places in our nation. AS far as neighbpr helping neighbor thingy Ill see if I can get a couple of them to pave, snowplow the roads for me. Im not asking the govt to do anything except to provide for the common defense and promote general welfare for all its citizens. NOT THE RICHEST !!! But you guys always run to the rich's defense, like they would do it for you give me a break. I spent 4 yrs defending this country and I ll say whatever I chose to sayas long as I dont threaten someone, encite a riot, or try to subvert the govt I think that is legal.
-In the food safety department?
-In the consumer product safety department?
-In the financial regulation department?
How about smaller government when it comes to spending on the military? hmmm? And I'm not talking about cutting the salaries of our men and women in uniform. How many F-22 Raptors do we need? The program cost 62 BILLION!
How about smaller government when it comes to farm subsidies, or corporate welfare?
Regulation of commerce makes it safer, and in the end more profitable. How is that bad?
What amount of money should she have received to qualify as a "fiscal conservative"?
It's hilarious watching the far right feed on their own.
the smart ones, which most small ones are, care too much about their profit to discriminate against qualified minorities
Most liberals think business ople discriminate on skin color. They dont. They discriminate against unqualified, incompetent job applicants, with no references.
Concerning Iran, religious wars have been going on for over a thousand years and cost the lives of millions. When a group of people interpret there religious values in a violent radical way and breath and spill hate and want to control the word through their religion then the danger is very strong. The control of Iran is those that have strong contempt and a ideology for the end of times. Now Iran is enriching uranium and do you think these fanatics would think twice about giving to another terror group to use it against America or a European nation?
I never advocate war and every understands you do everything you can to prevent it but what good answers to we have with Iran? Russia sold Iran advanced nuclear reactors and America never said a word. Russia lost most of its oil contracts when we went into Iraq and asked us to help get them back. Cheny told Russia to take a hike instead of working with them. Now you know why Russia gave the world and America the present of hell.
Not sure where Iran and Russia fit into the discussion of Rep. Paul, except that he is noninterventionist, and unequivocally opposed to the idea of a preemptive war.