Friday night Rep Tom McClintock CA-04 gave a tea party for about 400 of his closest friends and I went to hear him speak and to ask as many questions as I could. 1 as it turned out.
He showed up on time and was given a standing ovation as he arrived so I knew right away I was in the wrong place. I really don't want to take the time to recount this guy's illustrious career feeding at the public trough in CA but lets just say he took over for the ethically challenged John Dolittle in 2008 in CA-04 and ecked out a 2000 vote win over Charley Brown who subsequently took a job with DHS. Calitics has lots more on McClintock if you're interested. He easily won re-election in 2010 over a nameless Democrat who had no $$ or name recognition. He's pretty much here to stay even though he's not from the district. He's actually from Thousand Oaks down in LA - 500 miles from here. But the opportunity presented itself and he got elected in this whitest and most conservative of California districts.
Anyway, he strolled in and the party began. He gave a brief talk about what's up in DC and made a point of lauding the repeal of "Obamacare" to thunderous applause and then opened the floor to questions. I must say I really don't understand the uproar this law has caused but the "everybody has to buy health insurance" part really has the tea party crowd's undies in a bundle. They appear to know nothing about the law itself just that part and, boy, they don't like it or the black man (THIS IS ALL ABOUT RACISM) that signed it into law. Since I have a son in medical school who couldn't be there were it not for Stafford loans and state grants I told him that it would really be helpful if he and his cronies in the Senate didn't cut Pell Grants or cut/eliminate Stafford loans. I suggested that if they couldn't find the $$ to keep the loans at current levels through FAFSA then there was $100 billion going to Afghanistan this year that could be used for other purposes and if that still wasn't enough then there was an additional $700 billion in the War Department's budget that could be used. There was a smattering of applause after the comment about Afghanistan but that was the last word about the ongoing endless wars that night. From then on it was all "Obamacare" all the time or some variation on the theme of "this left extremest regime" was taking away our freedom and ruining the country. McClintock did say that if things didn't change with the deficit and federal spending then we were looking at being in the same boat as Greece or Spain. To his credit McClintock places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Bush administration and Republican controlled Congress for the mess we are in and made the point that a lot of the people responsible for the huge deficits have since been shown the door in DC.
While railing against the EPA and the Clean Air Act he moved to climate change denying mode but did it with an entirely different twist I have never heard before. He stated that, yes, the planet is warming but that it has all happened in the past and there have been periods of extreme warming and freezing but it's not man-made "You're SUVs are not causing the warming". Then he came up with a totally original response to the climate change debate. He actually said that "the entire solar system is heating up". Every planet is experiencing warming and Mars' ice caps are also melting. He didn't go any further with this but he said it was a scientific fact. Wow! And why was this happening "because it's called a SOLAR SYSTEM"!
He did assure the audience, to great applause. that not only would "Obamacare" not be funded but it was a priority because of their mandate from the American right wing that the EPA, the Forest Service (giving the public lands back to the public), "Carter's" Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, NPR and just about every other government agency you can think of, including the Pentagon (don't hold your breathe) will be cut or de-funded. He sits on the House Budget Committee so it can and probably will happen.
I left after an hour and a half just as one the many octogenarians in attendance was asking about why we needed all those federal employees (Yeah, lets put more people out of work). It garnered the expected round of applause. I didn't stick around for the response. Heard enough. Don't know what the demographics of the average tea partier are but white goes without saying and well-over-60 is probably not far off the mark. Ignorant or just plain stupid is also part of it. One woman made the absurd statement that because of Clinton our army didn't have the necessary guns to fight the terrorists after 911. She really said that and I am sure believed it. There is also this amazing and totally irrational reverence for St. Ronnie the Failed Actor. It just boggles the mind. At least half a dozen people spoke of him with reverence. McClintock did say that if the current Republican leadership doesn't change their ways the tea party will become the Republican Party very soon. We can only hope.
He went on to rail against the EPA (curbing co2 pollution), Endangered Species Act (removing dams on the Klamath to help Salmon populations) and "anchor babies". I would have liked to have added that he and his other bible-thumping right-wing bigots should keep their hands off the 14th amendment and any other part of the constitution and Bill of Rights but I only had one question and I was being polite and on my best behavior.
Among other things he had to say was that Paul Ryan was "the smartest man I had ever met" and that his "roadmap" was going to save the country. He didn't say a thing about H.R.3 which he co-sponsored and is an abomination taking away American women's reproductive rights. All in all it was an interesting and educational evening. I can say that for all the bluster and media attention to the tea party and their supposed agenda, they are just too stupid to be a real threat and if the Republcian Party wants to go there then more power to them. In the immortal words of George Bush "Bring it on".