The Tea Party has some very attractive platforms. I keep looking into sites and mission statements and usually find that one or three little things that just make it go from pretty cool to extremist nuttery. Yes, government needs to be smaller, more fiscally responsible – but endorsing Republicans is not the way to get that. Have you been around for the last administration? Were you paying attention? Cause the same people who got us into this mess are not the ones to get us out.
As for the Free Market – well, it got us here too. It has not been very good at regulating itself and has become damaging to U.S. Citizens on more than one occasion. So, at that point, it is the responsibility of government to step in and stop the damage. The Free Market created the “Robber Barons” that sucked up all the wealth and lead to the Great Depression – and now we are at that point again, where the wealth gap is already too wide and getting worse.
Where are the jobs? They are cut and shipped overseas, not by government, but by Corporations, in order to pay their Executive bonuses and outrageous CEO salaries. Republican government makes it easier for corporations to screw workers and consumers and either pay little to nothing to workers or send the jobs elsewhere.
The best solution is for Business to regulate itself and individuals to gain wealth responsibly – but that is not happening. The only tool we have to help right the economy is government (which is a scary thought, but I will trust “We the People” before “For Profit” any day).
Just like the good ideas of the Libertarians, good idealogical stances must be moderated by Reason, Truth and Justice or you are just another extremist. So far, with all the infighting and drama, the Tea Party has regulated itself to just another bunch of extremists, with some moderates struggling to be heard.
Some links related to the arguments in this post :
crooks and liars – Okay this guy GETS IT! Its what I’ve been blogging about here the most! I hope you like his explanation better than mine!!
GOP embraces offshore jobs – Blog for Arizona. Which reminds me, why is the democratic controlled congress having so much trouble improving the economy? Republican Filibuster! Look it up – one person can prevent a bill from even coming up for a vote!! That is what they are doing.
Republicans vote to continue outsourcing jobs overseas – Yeah, “Small Business” job creation for the U.S. – not in the GOP strategy.
HoPo Thinks So too – yell “liberal source” all ya want. Truth is neither liberal nor conservative.
Tea Party Patriots – Decent site with an okay mission statement. Still mislead in the “Free Market” fanaticism, but no religious nuttery blatant.
I've been accused of "bashing" the Tea Party. I responded with :
The people I "Bash" in the Tea Party are those who think this Nation was founded on Christian Principles – even when the letters of the Founders argue otherwise. Those who want to keep government out of our health care choices – except for… abortion, contraception and anything else they disagree with. Those that want to give corporations free reign to do anything they want – even though corporations have consistently proven they will not regulate themselves and are only interested in short term profit over everything – safety, good business practices, Country, long term sustainability. Extremists of any variety deserve to be bashed until common sense is regained. Those who believe and promote ideas and ideals that have proven false doubly so.
If you can't see the religious nuttery on any Tea Party site, you're blind. Trust me, I'm an insider. They want a free market theocracy.