Tea Parties in Wonderland

My friend and fellow AC contributor, Randy Inman, following up on posts raising the question of whether President Obama is the Anti-Christ (and acknowledging that -probably-- he is not), asserting that the President is leading the country toward socialism or worse, and, in fact, flatly stating "President Obama is bringing genocide to the United States of America" has written a piece on the difficulties found by the organizers of the July 4^th "Tea Party" in Atlanta.

The proliferation of Tea Parties has been remarkable, all seeming to be a populist dissatisfaction with the size and influence of the Federal government and a concern over the economy and high taxes. I am indebted to the fine writers on AC who have considered this phenomenon of the Tea Party protests, and in particular to Greg Reedy's account of attending one such event and Kevin Camp's piece on the simplistic Republican-conservative viewpoint that taxation, per se, is evil. I have previously written that taxes are the price we pay for services, much the same as we pay for bread at the supermarket or electric power from the local utility.

The Liberty Papers, a blog operated by members and supporters of the Libertarian Party and philosophy, certainly not a "liberal" source, describes the TEA thusly:

The so-called Tea Party movement has been upheld by some as a movement of Americans fed up with over taxation and excessive spending by the Federal government. These supposedly disgruntled ordinary Americans have been having rallies all across the country to show their disgust with the fiscal shape of the country. However, there is more beneath the surface of the Tea Party movement. In reality, the Tea Party movement has become a platform for assorted kooks, Republican Party operatives looking to regain credibility with the American people, and libertarian and conservative activists who frankly should know better than to associate with the above.

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In short, the Tea Parties have become less about opposition to bailouts and reckless spending and instead have begun to resemble the "anti-war" rallies of the Bush years. The "anti-war" rallies were generally nothing more than "We Hate Bush" rallies and the Tea Parties have become "We Hate Obama" rallies where every phony outrage and faux scandal about Obama are aired to a country that is rejecting them. The Tea Parties have lost their original purpose of promoting fiscal responsibility in most of the country.

How excessive has the rhetoric become at the TEA rallies? One such rally was held in Duval County (Jacksonville), Florida. After initially promoting the rally, the Duval County Republican organization had second thoughts when the organizers promised speakers who compared President Obama with Adolf Hitler. Over 1,000 persons attending the affair, along with elected state officials, watched numerous signs that were prominently displayed at the gathering, including two that featured Barack Obama in Nazi garb. One sign, in fact, had altered Obama's appearance to resemble Hitler. Other signs compared ACORN, the community organizing group accused of voter registration irregularities, with the SS-the Nazi organization responsible for enacting the Holocaust and the group responsible for most of the crimes against humanity committed by the Third Reich.

The Atlanta Tea Party, of which my friend Randy wrote, had an agenda far beyond dissatisfaction with government spending and burdensome taxes. The organizers have detailed quite an agenda:

Please rally to support the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Personal Liberties, Sound Money, a Free Market System Economy, and state sovereignty. Help US Speak OUT AGAINST: Unconstitutional & Unfair Taxation; The International Banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve System; Large, Out of Control Government; Bailouts of Banks & Corporations; Monumental Deficits; Elected Officials who support Socialistic Government and forced re-distribution of wealth; Lack of strong Immigration Policy; Nationalization of Banks, Corporations, Health Care, and more.

Comments on the Atlanta Tea Party site are illustrative. Obama is a socialist, he is determined to destroy America, the sky is falling, etc.

The Tea Party-people consider themselves a coherent and diverse network of Americans from every conceivable walk of life. They are cultural warriors fighting against the tax-happy, spend-happy ways of the evil Obama cabal, real American patriots, and staunch defenders against the creeping evils of Socialism. In reality, The Tea Party Movement is basically a flag for Republicans disenfranchised by last year's election results to rally behind.

And they are a silly group, for the most part; egged on by phony populists whose home is Fox. They have a major failing. Anyone can be against something but it takes intellect and effort to make a rational alternative solution.

But the substantive critique must remain the primary one. Protesting government spending is meaningless unless you say what you'd cut. Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Nation, issued this challenge:

If you favor no bailouts, then say so. If you want to see the banking system collapse, then say so. If you think the recession demands no fiscal stimulus, then say so. If you favor big cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, social security and defense, then say so. I keep waiting for

All protests against spending that do not tell us how to reduce it are fatuous pieces of theater, not constructive acts of politics. And until the right is able to make a constructive and specific argument about how they intend to reduce spending and debt and borrowing, they deserve to be dismissed as performance artists in a desperate search for coherence in an age that has left them bewilderingly behind.

Let's be honest. Republicans and the far Right lost the election, mostly because they had failed to retain the confidence of the American people that they had any meaningful ideas. They lost, fair and square. Instead of promoting revolution, they should be offering specific alternatives to fix the mess we were left.