Posted on 02/19/2010 1:48:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Tea Party movement is an interesting political phenomenon and, as with any popular social movement, it has both a good side and a bad side.
The Tea Party is typically characterized as a radical group of angry Republicans, hell bent on opposing any and all things Obama. The group has been constantly lambasted by political commentators and pundits as a fringe collection of people who would love nothing more than to forever rant and chant at a Sarah Palin-palooza. But with a closer look, the movement gets a bit more diverse than that.
Starting with the positive side of the movement, I do believe despite all the tea drinking drama, this movement represents something important for our democracy.
For the first time in a long time, a majority of Americans long to give Uncle Sam a swift kick in the pants. A Rasmussen report found that 76 percent of Americans are angry about current government policies. People are looking for answers the president and Congress aren’t providing.
That’s where the Tea Party movement comes in. At its core, the movement represents something perfectly healthy for a country valuing liberty and challenging people in power. When the people have an overriding distrust in the government’s action, it provides the necessary check on Washington, D.C., be it Democrat or Republican.
But such a movement can easily fall astray, becoming detrimental to the very principles it rallies to guard.
What started as an independent, grassroots effort by Americans who were tired of governmental business as usual is now being commandeered by hawkish, neoconservative politicians looking to cash in on a movement crossing over to the mainstream. It’s quickly becoming a faction comfortable with the traditional Republican or neoconservative status quo Americans have seen during the past few decades.
Instead of championing Congressman Ron Paul, who is credited with starting the modern Tea Party movement during his 2008 presidential campaign, the tea partiers now embrace people like Palin as their hero. While Paul is shunned by the FOX News sponsored tea parties, Palin speaks at events like the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tenn.
“I am a big supporter of this movement,” Palin said at the convention. “I believe in this movement. Got lots of friends and family in the lower 48 attending these events across the country and just knowing that this is the movement and America is ready for another revolution and you are a part of this.”
Sure a revolution of ideas would be great, but is Palin the one who should be leading it? Soon after she criticized president Obama for being a “charismatic guy with a teleprompter,” Palin was busted for reading notes written on her hand during an interview session at the convention.
Even everyone’s favorite obscure former congressman, Tom Tancredo, had to get in on the tea-loving action. He inspiringly contributed his belief in requiring a civic literacy test before voting. After all, Obama was elected by “people who could not even spell the word ‘vote’ or say it in English,” according to Tancredo.
This is precisly the kind of rhetoric that will ultimatly be the downfall of the Tea Party. If the movement has accepted Sarah Palin as their de-facto leader, nothing substantial will change in D.C.
A large faction of the Tea Party movement has lost its way, but fortunately, the good and the bad sides of this movement can still balance each other. Aside from all its obvious faults, the movement still represents a time when average Americans, frustrated with just about everything Washington does, are speaking out and taking action.
Despite all the negative sides of the Tea Party movement, it still has one very redeeming quality: It has a bone to pick with the government.
CNBC’s Rick Santelli started the motion for the Tea Party
The Ron PaulBots are clueless
LMAO!! Fox News sponsored tea parties?
Zero relied on illiterates' votes and he is not the only one, both 'rat & pub. This is a big part of what is wrong with our country, but people like Jeremy Davis approve of masses of ignorant people to keep demogogues like Zero in power. He can take a flying scr#w at the moon.
Ron Paul just spoke at CPAC.
He is nuttier than ever.
He flooked the augience with Paulites, attempting to give the impression that he has wide support. LOL
What a fruitcake.
Saw it last night. He was off-his-meds awful. He kept insisting that his daffy ideas constitute “true conservatism.” He’s hopeless.
He is a disgrace to conservatism.
The truth is that he thinks it’s our fault we were bombed on 911.
..and he despised Reagan...he was actually ashamed of him.
They ganged up with the Gay grop at CPAC to boo a young conservative off the stage.
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