The Tea Party Problem

We've all (unfortunately) been hearing about these guys for weeks...months even. They're an enigmatic group to be sure, and they have no real central leadership (unless you count Glenn Beck). But just what exactly are these guys up to? I've been trying to wrap my head around this for days now, simply because something has struck me recently that desperately needs to be answered...where is the progressive response to these loons?

Continued after the jump...



...

The first problem I have with this "grassroots" "movement" is that they are attempting to adhere themselves to the idea from the Revolutionary War of "taxation without representation" and everyone remembers Junior high history and the Boston Tea Party so I do not need to get into that. The thing is, in the colonial days, Americans really did not have any form of representation in Parliament, contrasted to today where quite a few Republicans represent the Tea Party members in the Senate and Congress and even in the Obama Administration.

So given that there is no logical connection to taxation without representation, they need to change their name. But that's the lest of my worries.

They are in love with the abolishment of "entitlement" programs like unemployment, social security, medicare, and medicaid, yet they oppose "Change"ing the nation as they expressed discomfort with Mr. Obama's campaign slogans. Well, most of the programs these people talk about have been in place since the depression, in fact, all of them have, and I'm fairly certain that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and even ol' Bill O'Reilley were all born AFTER the Great Depression and have personally known someone who benefits from these programs. Like, for example, I don't know, maybe their parents... So they fear change, yet they want to change what helped this nation to survive its greatest financial crisis to date in the midst of yet another financial crisis; brilliant.

So far we can see that these guys are not all there. Unaware of their representation, confused as to the definition of change, but they're hell bent on fixing America's problems though! Right?

Wrong.

My favorite part about the Tea Party is that the do nothing but stand in the doorway to any kind of progress. I have admitted, and will repeatedly admit that I am a liberal, yet I favor the two (or more) party system as it allows us to keep things level. We get too far left and we have Stalin we get too far right and we have Hitler. Both are bad. So the benefit of having Republicans and Democrats, right and left, working to solve the same problems is that we can get all the best and level headed ideas of both groups in a perfect amalgamation that solves all the problems without stepping on anyone's toes. Unfortunately, that utopia requires that the two parties work together in what has often been called a compromise (see The Constitution for further examples of "compromise"). If there is one thing the Tea Party can't stand, it's compromise. The New York Times mentioned this in several articles this week, that many conservatives are facing primary challengers in the upcoming elections by ultra-conservatives for accidentally looking at a democrat without spitting in their direction (okay that's hyperbole, but seriously people are getting mad at their representatives for trying to work with other representatives)

Here you have the "taxation without representation" crew arguing that their representation is not allowed to work with other people's representation to come to some kind of fair agreement on taxation.

Don't worry, my head hurts too.

The real problem with this is not that they're completely ignorant of logic, reason, and high on sensation and delusion so much as that NO ONE IS TRYING TO STOP THEM. What happened to the army of donations and volunteers that poured in to turn Senator Obama into President Obama? Why are we just letting these guys spout this nonsense and not rallying back? We out number them! More people want healthcare, more Democrats exist in congress, and even beyond the left more people want a compromise to solve the nation's problems. So why are these guys the only ones we hear from? If you didn't know any better you would think these folks are the MAJORITY. Well they're not. Let's remind them, our leaders, and ourselves of that. These nuts are a minority and what they stand for is in complete opposition of the betterment of this country. Why is it that you have to disagree with the President to stage rallies? We need to start rallying IN FAVOR of the President, if for nothing else, to be sure that the Tea Party does not go unanswered.

I fully admit that I have not done the best I could to fight back against the illogic of the Tea Party, but you know what, you have to start somewhere and I'm starting here.

Back from Vacation

I spent two weeks off taking a break, and four days off to enjoy my free time at home. Back into the fray, lets see a few of the events I missed:

McCain criticized Obama for not visiting the injured troops while on his world tour. Of course Obama was told he could not bring the media that spend the whole trip on his plane with him, that's official DoD policy, so he decided it would be best not to try and politicize their wounds. McCain was rejected for the same type of trip in the Spring, because it was during his primary run and the DOD saw the conflict that it would create.
Click the link for the rest.

Obama's suggestion that inflating our tires would help reduce gas consumption (the DoE has said this may help up to 4%) was immediately mocked by the McCain campaign, they released some tire gauges with "Obama's Energy Plan" on them. Of course McCain says that properly inflating tires is the right thing to do.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a top McCain advisor, said that raising raising taxes on Social Security is not out of the question as part of a comprehensive reform package that the McCain campaign is offering. McCain has repeatedly said that he, unlike Obama, would refuse to raise any taxes and would only reduce them.

The Democrats have refused to vote on offshore drilling, while the Republicans have refused to allow votes on any comprehensive energy plan. Both of them blame each other, and the American people lose.

Walmart is forcing managers to go to meetings that focus on the negatives of an Obama presidency, higher wages, health care, carbon taxes. Mostly they are afraid of being forced to open their workforce up to unions.

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted on 7 counts of failing to report several hundred thousand dollars worth of renovations to his home from an oil company that has pushed for drilling in ANWR. Sen. Stevens himself has been a large advocate of opening up ANWR to drilling and has repeatedly been scrutinized for his connections to donors.

Bruce Ivans, the main suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, killed himself as the FBI began to close in around him. Charges were set to be filed, after his lawyer got a phone call indicated what the charges would be, he apparently took a large amount of prescription Tylenol with codine.

When asked about experts opinions that offshore drilling wouldn't produce oil until 2020 at the earliest at an event last week, McCain said that the oil executives he met with told him it could be done within months, maybe 2-3 years at the most. In addition to that, McCain's joint campaign fund with the RNC (which allows him to raise money but avoid nagging problems like $2000 caps on donations) raised over $880,000 from oil companies after June 16th, the day he came out in support of offshore drilling. He raised less than $50,000 in the previous 17 months of his campaign from that same business sector.

A small sampling of the events taking place while I was slacking off.
...Read more