The Tea Bag Movement

America's political system is at an awkward junction. We have the Democratic party, who has been well known since the early '90s for being rather "spineless" and not getting things done. We have the Republican party who seemingly let their own idealistic power persuade them that they could turn America into a "one-party" country, bombard us with Evangelical infused policy, spend taxpayer dollars with abandon and bully or frighten the rest of us into submission when all else failed.

For once in our history, the citizens of the U.S. elected a president that racism would have kept out of the Oval Office just a few years ago. Unfortunately that is when the "wing nuts" came out, en masse.

The first time many of us ever heard of a current day "tea party" was in relation to the Fox News Channel. That, in itself, should have thrown up red flags for anyone interested in jumping on the tea party bandwagon. If someone takes the time to actually do some research on the current "Tea Party" movement they may find that it is not what people claim it to be.

It appears to be more of a smokescreen for the extreme right wing in America to attack what they do not like...a black President who just happens to be a Democrat. I believe that if Obama was white, things would be a good deal less polarized. Racism is what is causing the extreme polarization and it is very doubtful that anyone could disprove that opinion.

One of the big complaints made by the Tea Party participants is socialism. Some social programs were developed after the Great Depression of the late 20s to insure that American citizens would never have to be as bad off as they were when the Depression took hold. Programs such as Social Security, unemployment insurance and Medicare were not just doled out by the whims of our government, they were fought for by American citizens who lived through the Great Depression and knew what it was like for the wealthy to have it all while the rest of America went under and fell through the cracks. There was a good reason why programs were created and those reasons are still valid today.

It does seem oxymoronic to hear and see the "wing nuts" protesting socialism when some of them seem to be advocating socialistic programs. A good example would be the "Tea Party Patriots". On their website they claim, "Tea Party Patriots, Inc. ("TPP") is a non-partisan, non-profit social welfare organization dedicated to furthering the common good and general welfare of the people of the United States."

Hold the bus...a non partisan, non profit SOCIAL WELFARE organization? If it was not so sad, it might be comical. Every time there is a "teabag" gathering that is publicized, someone always has a sign that declares their disapproval of socialism.

TPP's motto is "ordinary citizens reclaiming America's founding principles". That seems like a stretch when you consider that most "ordinary citizens" would like the truth for a change and not the partisan politics that is based on racism. Racism is the underlying reason behind the "Tea Bag Movement". That is proven every time there is a sign depicting Obama as Hitler or people that have no idea of the facts spout off at what Obama has not done in reality. If he were white, it would not be as it is.

The "Tea Party Express" has gone all across this country with their own agenda but does it not seem a bit odd that it is run from within a Republican consulting firm by a couple of politically connected Republican consultants. I could be wrong here but that does not sound like it could be remotely non partisan yet many people were not aware who was running the show.

America's "Free Market" system has come very close to bankrupting us over the past few years, yet the "tea baggers" are pushing for less regulation. Little regulation in our so called "free market" system is what precipitated the near collapse of Wall Street in 2007. The regulation of our banks and other forms of business was put in place after the Great Depression in an effort to prevent the same from happening again. In the late 90s, a Republican Senator named Phil Gramm, started the process of deregulating our financial industry and we have the crash of 2007 and bank bail out to show for his efforts. Let us not forget that Gramm left government to go work for the banking industry after his slight of hand help with deregulation. Gramm was also McCain's economic advisor in 2007 and had McCain telling us that our economy was strong the very day the market crashed.

What exactly do the "tea baggers" mean when they call for less government? I saw an interview on television at the Tea Bag Convention in which a man dressed as a Revolution Era citizen called for the abolition of the EPA, Department of Education and various other entities. That outlook, at the very least, is incredibly frightening.

If we did away with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) it would benefit the "Free Market" for sure. Corporations all across America could do as much polluting as they saw fit but we would not have breathable air, drinkable water or soil without toxins throughout.

Doing away with the Department of Education would ensure that poor children in America would not be able to get an education at all. We used to be able to claim that we had the best education system in the world but over the past few years even that has become obsolete, so can you imagine not having some kind of educational standards at all? Ridiculous, isn't it?

The idea of a "Constitutionally Limited Government" is laughable at best when you consider how many religion based amendments that the far right has tried to push on us in the past. When the Constitution claims that all citizens have equal rights yet an amendment barring gay marriage is proposed it seems a bit hypocritical to claim to want to follow the Constitution. Maybe they meant that they wanted to adhere to the Constitution only if they were able to rewrite it to suit them.

Fiscal responsibility is another issue that most "Teabaggers" have very little clue of. Most that I have seen on television interviews or have actually run into have either been a Bush or Reagan sympathizer.

Historically speaking, Reagan was the first U.S. president to ever run up the deficit exponentially without doing anything, whatsoever, to pay down any of it. I'm talking about historical fact, not Republican rewrites of what happened in reality. He was not a hero of main street but did make a handful of rich people a lot richer with his "trickle down economics". Those at the top of the economic ladder got the lion's share and those at the bottom were lucky to see any benefit at all.

George H. W. Bush had to raise taxes to pay for Reagan's legacy. Clinton followed and balanced the budget, leaving "W." over $200 billion in surplus which he squandered quickly. George W. Bush left America with$10.6 trillion in debt on the very day Obama took office, and due to the financial mess he left, Obama has to do what he can to stabilize what's left of the economy.

Sorry guys...Obama has not put us in debt even one tenth as much as Bush left us.

The Tea Party Patriots align themselves with people such as Michelle Malkin. You remember, the person who traveled the country trying to convince people that Senator John Kerry shot himself in order to get a Purple Heart. It is simply disgusting that anyone would malign a combat veteran for no other reason than political slander because he was a Democrat running against George Bush.

The recent "Tea Bag Convention" held in Nashville, TN., is a very good example of what is or has gone wrong with the so called "Tea Bag Movement". The Original key note speakers were Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Michelle Bachman. Both of these women have an unrealistic view of what is happening around them and if they were the chosen speakers it only goes to prove that America should be worried. Their next choice as speaker was Sarah Palin and that is reason for anyone with common sense to be afraid.

Marsha Blackburn used to be my representative and if I had concerns over GOP policy she would correspond back with something that had nothing to do with my concerns. The last time I tried to correspond with Blackburn was in 2005 when I wrote to her about concerns over the Iraq war and the money that was being spent by the Bush administration. She replied that she was in total agreement with the policies of the GOP and that all was right with the world. She then went on a tangent about a meeting that was not going her way and that she did not understand why nobody wanted to listen to her. This was the person that represented half of Tennessee? Scary, even for a cynic.

Michele Bachman makes Blackburn look like a great representative by comparison. She spouts so much stupidity it should have made her reelection impossible. Just another black eye to the American public. It is no wonder that some people see America as stupid.

Sarah Palin said that her $100,000 fee for speaking at the convention would go back into the movement. I would have to see proof that she didn't spend it, considering she appears to enjoy living large and trying to be a celebrity.

There is nothing "grassroots" about a group of right wing fringe coming together for the express purpose of hatred, divisiveness and racism. It has been stated many times on television interviews that many in the tea bag movement have no idea of what is going on inside politics but they have jumped in. Ignorance is dangerous and proves that you do not have to have a clue about what is going on just as long as you are willing to scream, yell, slander, disrupt, divide and shame our country for a handful of spoiled bigots that do not want a black man in the White House. It does not speak well for those who still swear that Obama is not an American citizen. Do they have any idea of how stuid they look? Do They even care? Self respect must have flown out the window over racism.

How much ignorance does this country have to tolerate and show the world before we actually show the terrorists that "we ain't all growed up yet so it's easier to attack us cuz stupid people are to busy bein stupid to do anything else".

Whatever the tea party movement may have thought they were at the beginning, there is now no clear precedent for what they are. There is constant infighting and nobody seems to be in charge of anything. Much of it has been hijacked by the GOP, extreme right wing nuts, etc, and they are all baited by hateful individuals that have no idea of what communism, Marxism or socialism really are.

Definitions can be found in one spot...it's that easy.

Communism is "a political and economic theory proposing the replacement of private ownership of goods or capital with common ownership and distribution upon need".

Marxism is "the political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society"

Socialism is "an economic theory or system in which the means of production, distribution, and exchange are owned by the community collectively, usually through the state. It is characterized by production for use rather than profit, by equality of individual wealth, by the absence of competitive economic activity, and, usually, by government determination of investment, prices, and production levels".

Now that the definitions are right at hand it is very obvious that any REASONABLE person would decline the notion of Obama taking our country down any of these three paths. If reasonable people would not bother with this lunacy, then what you have left is the tea bag movement and it is not something to be proud of.