Many of my friends have been puzzled that I have not been a strong critic of the Tea Party. Indeed, quite the opposite, I stand as a critical admirer. That means that while I don't share most of the substantive ends of many in that movement, and I strongly object to the extremism of some, I am a genuine admirer of the urge to reform that is at the heart of the grassroots part of this, perhaps the most important political movement in the current political context.
My admiration for this movement grew yesterday, as at least the Patriots flavor of the Tea Party movement announced its first fight with (at least some) Republicans. The Tea Party Patriots have called for a GOP moratorium on "earmarks." Key Republican Leaders (including Senator Jim DeMint and Congressman John Boehner) intend to introduce a resolution to support such a moratorium in their caucus. But many Republicans in both the House and Senate have opposed a moratorium. Earmarks, they insist, are only a small part of the federal budget. Abolishing them would be symbolic at best.
This disagreement has thus set up the first major fight of principle for the Tea Party. As leaders in the Tea Party Patriots described in an email to supporters,
For two years we have told the media and the rest of the country that we are nonpartisan and that we intend to hold all lawmakers to a higher standard.
This, they insist, is their first chance for that stand with the new Republican Congress. And the Tea Party Patriots have now mobilized their list to pressure Republicans to support this first and critical reform in the new Congress.
The Tea Party is right to push to abolish earmarks from Congress, and the defenders of the status quo are either deceivers, or just plain dumb. It is true that the total spending affected by earmarks is tiny. But by the same logic, one might as well observe that the bribes paid to Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (Republican) and William J. Jefferson (Democrat) were tiny as well. Is that a reason not to prosecute those Members for taking them?
Earmarks are not bribes. But they are an essential element in the corruption that is Congress today. As Washington Post reporter Robert Kaiser describes in his fantastic book, So Damn Much Money, they have become the key to an incredible economy of influence that effectively enables lobbyists to auction too many policy decisions to the highest special interest bidder. That economy won't change simply by eliminating earmarks. But eliminating earmarks is an essential first step to starving this Republic-destroying beast.
A government in which access can be bought, and influence paid for is not the Republic our Framers intended. They wanted a Congress "dependent," as Federalist #52 puts it, "upon the People alone." But through both Democratic and Republican administrations, Congress has evolved to become "dependent" not upon "the People," but upon "the Funders." Earmarks are a critical element in that dependency. And if we're going to end government captured by an elite, we have to end that dependency.
This fight is just the first in a series that this more principled wing of the Tea Party movement can expect. For the truth is that not everyone on the Right shares their passion for ending the corruption that now rules Congress. During the rise of the GOP in the 1990s, some of the rights suggested that it was just "socialist" to question the power of the rich to buy influence over our government. The ideals of the free market, these GOP leaders insisted, should include a free market to buy government policy.
That idea is heresy to anyone standing in the tradition of Adam Smith, Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan. (Friedman, for example, insisted on a free market within the rules set by the government; he didn't believe in a free market for those rules.) Yet that idea governs too much of both the Republican and Democratic parties of the past 20 years. It is an important and valuable development for the Republic that a powerful and passionate political movement on the Right makes ending this free market in government influence a core plank in its platform.
But if the Tea Party is really to be "nonpartisan," then it needs to stop limiting itself to speaking to Republicans alone. Important Democrats share at least some of their reform ideals, including otherwise liberal Democrats, such as Congresswoman Jackie Spear (D-CA). The movement should rally Members from both the Right and the Left for any reform that is right (as in correct). The Tea Party Patriots' reform to abolish earmarks is plainly that.
Now, of course, I have no illusion that my admiration for the Tea Party can be returned. A movement against "elites" is not likely to listen to a Yale educated Harvard Professor. But if that movement is to be as central to the restoration of the American Republic as its most passionate supporters believe, then it needs to recognize that while we don't share common ends, we do face a common enemy. Special-interest-government is anathema to both the true Right and the limping Left. Progress would be to work together to end it.
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I am encouraged at the emergence of the Tea Party simply because it demonstrates that average citizens are beginning to become aware that they have no representation, and that the system is stacked against them. The fact that they are gathering and organizing means that they are starting to look inwards, towards the grass roots for solutions to their problems, rather than to the thoroughly discredited and corrupted establishment.
However, I am also fearful, because this is a growing and powerful source of political energy that could easily be co-opted by some Rovian operative for the usual corrupt and evil purposes. On the other hand, someone with good intentions and political skills could drive it to become something that America desperately needs: A third party. Of course every possible step has been taken by the powers that be to prevent this, but the simple fact is that there are more of us than them in the end, if we simply choose to work together.
Common ground among Tea Partiers & Progressives would be to end both wars - that would be a huge fiscal savings. Ron Paul has been consistently in favor of that.
Every constituency should be listened to, not just the loudest.
Oh, and they're really only fiscally conservative about the stuff they choose to be. Cutting the Department of Education is okay because they all homeschool or send their kids to Christian schools. They love to characterize "pork" as all bad, but how do you think many of our nation's hospitals get built, especially in rural areas? But what about the mother sow of them all--defense spending? That's completely off limits because it interferes with their uber patriotic persona.
They believe in using science to form their realities.
They are fun to be with at social occasions.
We have a golden opportunity in the next election. There are now populist movements on both sides of the political divide. The individual Tea Party people that I have personally interacted with seemed honest if deluded. The Republican Party is about to betray the Tea Party in a pretty major way. This might mean that in the next election we can possibly strike both parties simultaneously from both sides. The ‘spoiler effect’ will be largely cancelled out. We can spoil to our heart’s content. There are more people ready for this than any other time in recent history. The Tea Partiers would possibly even coordinate with us on this. If we can actually replace a lot of incumbents on both sides of the aisle I can’t help but think that this will send a useful message.
To those of you who think the Democrats are going to save us: About 85% of the Democratic Party works for the thieves. They are in on it.
To those of you who think the Republicans are going to save us: About 99.9% of the Republican Party work for the thieves. They are also in on it, only more so.
We need to attack both parties from both ends simultaneously so both sides can avoid the 'spoiler effect'. This is our time. There are massive populist movements on both sides. Let's do this.
It simply must stop.
The main thing that I wanted to comment on however, is the tea party. At first, like many liberals, I was simply amused at their antics and their choice of a name. As the movement grew more serious and demonstrated it's power on the political stage, I became more unnerved and objectionable toward the movement. And now, as I've learned more about them and placed them in the context of the times, I have become an admirer of them too. Well, maybe that's too strong a word...but the fact that they are at least partly a grassroots movement, and that they oppose republicans and democrats alike, piques my interest. This is the closest thing we've had to a third party revolution since maybe the Bull-moose Party in the 1910's. If the movement accomplishes nothing else, at least it may serve the purpose of inspiring 'regular' Americans to take a more active role in politics and perhaps spring more grassroot movements.
What I find more difficult to understand is why many otherwise normal, otherwise reasonable Americans fall prey to the "team mentality" that pushes them to support Democrats or Republicans blindly, arguing that their team is always fair and just, while the opposing team is nothing more than racists, hate-mongers, socialists, or just plain stupid.
The truth is that there is a measure of goodness in both Republican and Democrat ideals, although many members of both parties have been corrupted by the current system. The Tea Party is the only reasonable choice I see to challenge the rampant government corruption desecrating the stability of our nation.
The recent election results were not, in fact, about unemployment. They were about dissatisfaction with the status quo. Many Americans actually took a moment to step across the aisle to embrace the fact that the only way we will rid our government of the corruption that plagues us is to support the only group that has a realistic chance of ending it, or at least stemming its tide.
I m an American and a Tea Party member.
To those of you who think the Democrats are going to save us: About 85% of the Democratic Party work for the thieves. They are in on it.
To those of you who think the Republicans are going to save us: About 99.9% of the Republican Party work for the thieves. They are also in on it, only more so.
In the next election we can possibly strike both parties simultaneously from both sides. The ‘spoiler effect’ will be largely cancelled out. We can spoil to our heart’s content. There are more people ready for this than any other time in recent history. It is time to tear down their house.