Originally published on Apr 09, 2010, at the Minnesota Progressive Project.
The Tea Party Express sure has been making a lot of noise lately, especially here in Minnesota, and ever since the politically impossible became possible when the Obama Administration-backed and Democratically lead Congress passed Health Care Reform and it recently became law of the land.
So what is the Tea Party Express national bus tour all about, anyway? Well, according to their website, the purpose of the tour is to "highlight some of the worst offenders in Congress who have voted for higher spending, higher taxes, and government intervention in the lives of American families and businesses." Their slogan: "Just Vote Them Out."
With all the images of Tea Partiers carrying guns, signs of Obama as Stalin/Hitler/pick-your-favorite-dictator, and shouts of "baby killer", "Armageddon," and "anti-Christ," at the rallies and in the halls of Congress, I could help but wonder, "that's it?". On Wikipedia, their positions and goals are summed up in two sentences "...constitutionally limited government generally, and more specifically is anti-stimulus, anti-deficit, anti-bailout and anti-health reform."
OK then, I get it. No taxes, hence the April 15th rally last month at the nation's capital, and pretty much against anything else our government is trying to do for the people based on what the majority of folks actually voted for. Wow. I really miss the days of 2008 when a lot of my friends, oh so young and idealistic, were a part of the Ron Paul Revolution, and we had real substantive debates about inflation, the Federal Reserve (they converted me on that one), monetary policy, excise taxes, cuts in spending (including military), tariffs, civil liberties, and even health care. We often found common ground, like breaking up the government-enforced monopolies of HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, over a pint of friendly beer.
So who the heck is Ron Paul, anyway, and where is he? He used to be "America's #1 defender of individual liberty fighting for us in the nation's capitol!" Paul, a physician-turned-Republican-Congressman in Texas, made a spirited run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, when I first heard of him. He was sort of like the Dennis Kucinich of the right field. You know, a true maverick.
On the surface, Ron Paul seems like the perfect leader for the Tea Party movement; he's experienced nationally, extremely bright and knowledgeable of the issues, has a great Netroots base and is a surprisingly strong fundraiser. He even won this year's coveted Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) presidential straw poll, eking out Mitt Romney who won the prize the previous three years. Paul seems like a Libertarian's Republican, and is pretty candid in front of the cameras for that red meat 24-hour cable news factor, O'Reilly or otherwise. Well maybe that's the problem.
You see, today's Tea Party "leaders", or should I say "speakers", are more about getting air-time then getting results for the country. It's really just a front for Dick Army to raise large sums of money for his PAC to elect even more far-right Republicans of the status quo. If this was a true revolutionary movement (democratic and nonviolent), then why won't Rep. Ron Paul be caught dead near one of their rallies? Or maybe he was never invited?
In a fairly recent interview, Ron Paul noted that, "Neocon issues in public policy are not exactly dead these days," and, "Everybody likes to join what looks like a popular movement, then they want to come in and influence that movement," Paul continued. So don't expect Sarah Palin to be advocating an end to the drug war, or to have the Federal Reserve Bank audited any time soon. Never mind a thoughtful discussion on foreign policy, border security, or energy policy. It's all still "drill, baby, drill" from here on out for the Tea Party People, as Sarah Palin spouted in her key note speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
At least Ron Paul will be on all those serious news shows, like Kucinich still is from time to time, right? Well, Fox News, Limbaugh, Beck, etc. seem keep his voice down and the Bachmann's and Palin's of the world at full volume. Just sit back and watch, Republicans and the Tea Party will actually protect the Fed, Wall Street and the Banksters in the next-up national debate on financial services reform, justifying much-needed regulation as a "government takeover." Yawn. We could really use a substantive debate from conservatives and libertarians right now. However, we've been getting pretty much a watered-down version from some centrist and corporate Democrats.
And that's a shame. Not so much for Progressives like myself, who's voice has been pretty coherent and unified as of late, but rather for the thousands who attend these Tea Party rallies who have legitimate concerns about the role of government. It's really too bad they don't have any new ideas to address those concerns, other than "just vote them out," although Ron Paul certainly does. Instead it's just the same old, same old, Tom Delay/George W. Bush ideas of the past. But this time, the difference is lipstick.