The fact that I am still thinking about the Tea Party bothers me quite a bit. It seemed inevitable that they would be a short lived fad. Granted in the overall scheme of things, it hasn't been very long, and other grassroots, American, "third" (not really third at all I know) parties have survived with some semblance of relevance longer. But we stand amongst serious things such as budget time bombs and presidential primaries, and somehow the Tea Party is showing itself to continually be a major player.
What is the most disturbing to me about this whole matter is that the Tea Party seems more to be about hatred of an abstract evil liberalism than actually being for something. Fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets are their main tenants, and while I do not doubt there are true libertarian ideologues amongst them, for the most part what I see is a group of people who hang their hats on political theories for the sake of public and private justification whilst actually being about blaming the ills of their lives on a lie the Republican party fed them about the way in which degrading family values are sending America into a spiral of satanic, founding father *******, Jesus murdering, socialism.
There is the typical great irony of Tea Party rallies full of medicare loving seniors on tax payer funded wheelchairs, or touting the constitution while telling Muslims where they can and cannot build mosques, or supporting a party whose establishment benefited the most from government bailouts, or championing states rights where federal powers are not explicit and then trying to put in a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage because states are doing something they don't like, but to me the more perverse irony is the thought of Christian Tea Party members professing to be working for the kingdom to come while standing on a platform of demonizing hate.
-Tim
A blog from Protestants for the Common Good about faith and politics.
Read the article from Huffington Post a few days ago; glad you commented on the article's argument! "Third, and perhaps most important, the Tea Party-first Republicans are not some minor faction within the Republican party. They are the heart and soul of its base, the most active and committed Republican voters."--It will make for an interesting GOP primary. Have you (or anyone else) seen any other data suggesting lower representation of "tea party first" republicans within the republican party as a whole?
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting! I have not seen any data like that, though I'd imagine that as me move closer to the general election the tea party influence will lessen to a certain degree. I am probably wrong on that.
Tim