On Tax Day, Tea Party members from around the country will descend on the nation's capitol to "protest big government and support lower taxes, less government and more freedom. CODEPINK, a women-led peace movement advocating an end to war and militarism, will be sending some representatives. While we come from the opposite end of the political spectrum and don't support the goals and tactics of the Tea Party, there is an area where we are seeking common ground: endless wars and militarism.
As Tea Partiers express their anger at out-of-control government spending and soaring deficits, we will ask them to take a hard look at what is, by far, the biggest sinkhole of our tax dollars: Pentagon spending. With the Obama administration proposing the largest military budget ever, topping $700 billion not including war supplementals, we are now spending almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined.
Perhaps the Tea Party and peace folks--unlikely allies--can agree that one way to shrink big government is to rein in military spending. Here are some questions to get the conversation going:
We are not naïve to think that it would be easy for the Tea Party and the peace movement to work together. Our core values are different. We have had our battles in the past. We would certainly part ways in terms of how to redirect Pentagon funds, with progressives wanting more government investment in healthcare, jobs, clean energy and education--which is exactly what the Tea Party opposes.
But building peace means reaching out to the other side and trying to find common ground even with those people whose beliefs contradict so many of our own. If the Tea Party is really against runaway government spending, then certainly we can work together to cut a slice out of the military pork that is bankrupting our nation. In extending the olive branch to talk about war, the conversation can hopefully be enlightening on other issues as well, such as banks run amok and undue corporate control of our government.
Who knows what kind of potent brew could emerge when folks on the left and the right--both alienated by a two-party system that doesn't meet our needs--sit down for tea?
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Could progressives find allies in the Tea Party?
Say WHAT?
They would NEVER agree to cut back on the military or our involvement in Israel. They have no purpose or clue what they believe in except for their loathing and irrational hatred of this President.
Get another republican in, and they will leave the movement. Sorry original Tea Party folks - your movement was hijacked - just like the republican party was hijacked starting back in the 1970's. You should have kicked them out the minute they came in, instead of being happy that your parties were bigger and more national. You reap what you sow. I will never have a positive, warm fuzzy feeling about the Tea Baggers. Ever.
I know one thing - your approach isn't going to change people's minds, so if you don't want anything to change, I guess just keep hating.
Also, isn't it ironic that they have a loathing and irrational hatred of this President, yet all he has done is expanded the wars.
poll after poll shows them to be conservative republicans. They aren't libertarians.
they still think highly of GWB, while the rest of the country does not.
Obama hasn't expanded Iraq, he is bringing them home. Afgan - well, he did state time and time again during the election season that he was going to expand that one. I disagree with him on that, but that isn't enough for me to join in with such a hateful group - and yes, the majority of them are hateful now.
" Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has."
Tea party folks may agree that the brutalization of children should be prosecuted. America should do it's best to treat the children of war as children. Anti war libertarians especially of the Ron Paul mindset can be the Ambasadors for BOTH groups
Co-founder, CODEPINK: Women for Peace
We won't end our foreign wars until the Federal Reserve bank is audited and then inevitably abolished.
Our wars are being funded by the Federal Reserve Bank's ability to print unlimited amounts of money out of thin air to fund our big government and their foreign intervention.
If you want peace, you should want to End the Fed!
Question to Progressives:
I took these 2 quotes from the article:
"In extending the olive branch to talk about war, the conversation can hopefully be enlightening on other issues as well, such as banks run amok and undue corporate control of our government."
"We would certainly part ways in terms of how to redirect Pentagon funds, with progressives wanting more government investment in healthcare, jobs, clean energy and education--which is exactly what the Tea Party opposes."
My question is why - if you are enlightened on Banks run amok and undue corporate control of our government (which I agree with) - why would you want more gov (which we just established is controlled by the banks and corporations) investment in healthcare, jobs, ect????
The gov has nothing, so any "investment" from the gov (sub banks/corporations) is taken from us (the citizens). Why would we want to take from us and give to the banks/corporations??? Doesn't that just give them more power and control??
However, it is very difficult. I've been reaching out to self-identified tea partiers for two years now, and they are very nice. But many are totally committed to USA nationalism and the military. One leader wrote me that "small government means being against welfare, bailouts, and regulations. It doesn't refer to national defense." This group is not even for limiting government police powers. The only thing we agree with them on would probably be the bailouts.
BUT, there are many others in the Tea Party who would be allies against the wars and the dictatorship. I think it's totally worth reaching out to them.
http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-04-15/nationwide-tax-protests-party-like-its-2007/
Fox News and Republican leaders were the first to try to hijack the movement.
Israel receives much more than the $3 billion dollars mentioned in this article. According to the Mersheimer Walt report, it's much closer to $10 billion concealed in other aid bills. Unlike most countries, Israel gets its money in a lump sum and gets to keep the interests. They also receive military aid. They only have to spend 25% of it buying US arms.
Most important is that fact that the policies of the radical leadership of the State of Israel are detrimental to US interests.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2010/04/14/tea-party-movement-based-on-emotion-not-political-ideology/
http://thefiresidepost.com/2010/04/12/personal-experience-with-tea-bag-mentality/
On the other hand she says nothing about past and protracted efforts to raise the same idea by Alex Cockburn (Counterpunch.org) or Justin Raimondo (Antiwar.com) or Kevin Zeese (Voters for Peace, Feb. 20 Conference on Right/Left Coalition Against War and Empire) or the recent symposium on this idea in the pages of The American Conservative.
Worse, Mainstream Medea and her allies in "Progressive" Democrats of America are always busy working for prowar Dems every election cycle and were a big factor in giving us the Obaminable Hawk, Obama.
So the bad news is that when it comes to a choice between being antiwar and pro-Dem party, Medea will betray the former every time. Just ask Ralph Nader or Cindy Sheehan what to expect. Beware Tea Partiers if you are against War and Empire.
So, my level of trust in CP and their commitment to principles is rather superficial, but ending these wars is important enough for me to contemplate some sort of an alliance.
I will say this though: warfare is the inevitable outcome of continuing to feed and expand a central government--so when they disagree with us on domestic issues, perhaps they might want to think about it a bit more deeply, as the welfare-warfare state is connected in so many ways.
Fanned you, by the way. You see to have a good head on your shoulders. :)
I could see code pink and the tea party leader agreeing
But how would these 2 groups accomplish this goal?
Simply asking Obama, Nancy, and Harry to end the 2 wars and close all unnecessary bases.
Target specific members of congress?
Ideas anyone
Do we Americans have enough of a spine to quit feeding the beast?
Both the right and left are guilty of this. But I must admit Sen Dodd did spring a new one. Keep building the F22. Not because we need the jet fighter but as a jobs program
Unfortunately most of the Tea Party people don't seem to be as rational as you might hope, and will close their minds the second they get a whiff of an idea that doesn't cohere with their pre-existing political worldview. Many of them are opposed to all forms of government spending EXCEPT military spending, as they see the ONLY duty of government as to protect the American people from foreign threats. And I don't think you'll be able to convince them that Iraq and Afghanistan aren't as threatening as they've been portrayed over the last decade.
That said, this is well worth a shot. There are bound to be a few rational people even among a mostly irrational political movement, and perhaps those people can help steer the rest of the crowd in a more constructive direction.