Is the Tea Party Over Already?

There’s something seriously wrong with the ideology of Tea Party Movement. The ‘official website’ mission statement professes, ‘The impetus for the Tea Party movement is excessive government spending and taxation. Our mission is to attract, educate, organize, and mobilize our fellow citizens to secure public policy consistent with our three core values of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.’ Sounds like mighty good stuff, doesn’t it? But not necessarily so.

Massachusetts voters got it right when they handily elected Republican Scott Brown over what was supposed to be a shoe-in victory for Democrat Martha Coakley. Although Brown claimed during an interview with the Boston Globe that he was “not quite sure what you are talking about”, when questioned about what he thought about the Tea Party movement, he had nonetheless attended a fundraiser sponsored by the Greater Boston Tea Party eleven days prior to making the statement.

As it turned out, Brown went to Washington as an “independent voice” and proved to be true to form when the first piece of legislation he voted in favor of was the Democratic Jobs Bill. Aghast at such audacity, Tea Party enthusiasts chastised Brown for having “voted for it because it contains measures that will help put people back to work.” Although the Congressional Budget Office estimated the $15 billion will create between 100,000 to 200,000 jobs, it lacked the premise of fiscal responsibility, a heinous crime by any measure to the Tea Party.

The Tea Party was formed in response to the growing number of moderate Republicans. If the intentions of the Tea party are to attract voter support in the upcoming mid-term elections, their defeat may be preordained by making statements that could very likely alienate a vast majority of the electorate.

To begin with, during a January town hall meeting on Medicare, Republican South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer said federal government entitlement programs for the poor are like “feeding stray animals” and that by giving “an animal or a person ample food supply” they will “reproduce, especially the ones that don’t think too much further than that.”

The comment may have been made in correlating a budget shortfall of $1.1 billion with food stamp benefits totaling $706 billion and that with 34% of the children in the state being black as compared to 14% nationwide, and the poverty rate among blacks is 33.5% the solution may be to drug test parents as a condition for people to continue public assistance when 58% of South Carolina school children receive free or subsidized lunch programs.

I can‘t imagine Bauer will be able to fulfill his 2012 goal of becoming the next Governor of South Carolina in 2012 when Mark Sanford vacates the post due to term limits. A third of the registered voters are non-white and only 3% of the population is Hispanic. Bauer isn’t the only politician to make statements that are blatantly racist.

In February, Tom Tancredo, former Republican Congressman from Colorado and a 2008 presidential candidate, told an audience at a Tea Party Convention in Nashville that "people who could not even spell the word 'vote', or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House." The statement suggested literacy tests would have prevented Obama from becoming President.

I don’t know where Tancredo’s future political aspirations may lie but they’re seriously in doubt when he makes statements that easily group together illiterate blacks and Hispanics that don’t speak English. They are racist in nature and hopefully at odds with the majority of the electorate.

Such are my concerns about the Tea Party movement. What I thought would be a group of patriots destined to become political game changers have instead become what I refer to as ‘political punks’ for their unrelenting intentions on disrupting the status quo with no structured solutions to combat what is socially unacceptable to their ideals.

The Working Man's T-Party

He’s the man who does the grunt work in America – without him, the prosperity of the past decade wouldn’t have happened because he cleared the land, laid down the foundation, hammered, cemented, plumbed and stuccoed the homes that put a roof over the heads of his fellow Americans.

He’s not above the law – so long as he doesn’t get caught. He’s never been victimized – he’s been ‘done wrong’. He doesn’t know about passionate lovemaking – it’s raw sex and the tender afterglow. He’s proud of his guns – it does a guy good to truck it out to the Florida scrub and shoot a few rounds.

He worries about what the future holds for his kids, more nowadays than ever. He wants them to have a better life than himself. College? The best he can do is make sure they graduate from high school. After that, hard knocks build character.

He worked for The Boss Man whose ethic was more about getting the job done in the least amount of time than it was about quality. Boy, he’d be running his own business right now, doing it right. But the economy sank. So did his chances of getting a small business loan.

He’s a couch potato but with a six-pack by his side, and a couple more in the fridge, his goal is to become a smashed potatohead. A good chugfest helps drown out the sorrows of “What life’s done to me?”

He smokes, weed included. Other drugs? Hard liquor beats hard drugs any time of the day. The meds meant to dull the down-to-the-bones pains of years of backbreaking work are now the only guaranteed source of income. The return on the dollar is too good to pass up. He’s an entrepreneur, a believer in supply and demand.

Football is the only sport and the rest are for pansies. Except for Jordan, Shaq, Bonds, Jeter and maybe A-Rod when he’s got his act together. Skin color doesn’t matter in sports.

He’s a can-do person. He can do this and he can do that but an occasional do-it-yourself job gets screwed up. Who does he call? His buddy. Between the two of ‘em they get it done – the best example of bipartisanship.

A dog’s best friend is his master. A man’s best friend? You guessed it – his guns. The right to bear arms is the only protector of The Constitution – the symbol of freedom that guarantees life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and free speech. And justice for all.

White isn’t the flag of surrender. It’s a dare to come and get me and I’ll beat the crap out of ya!
Call it male chauvinism but a woman’s place is in the home. Cleaning, cooking, caring for the kids – those are her responsibilities. But he can’t get over the fact that he hasn’t been able to find a job in weeks, months, perhaps a year or more. So the little woman has to take on a job to help make ends meet. And that’s not right! Although he might not know it was Truman who said it first, but out of anguish for the plight he’s in, he howls, “I’m mad as Hell.”

And who’s he mad at? Those dirty, rotten, scoundrel, scandalous politicians, that’s who! Democrats are for the working man. Republicans are for gun rights. But their all a bunch of self-serving ego-headed maniacs that spend more time listening to bankers, lawyers, CEOs and who knows who else rather than the people who gave them their jobs and pay their salaries through taxes. Taxation with mispresentation, that’s what it is!

The Tea Party people seemed to have a certain down to earth appeal about ‘em but then he saw the SUVs, RVs and hybrid cars and there’s not a one of ‘em that looks like they’ve ever put in a back-breaking day of work in their lives as he has.

They’re the disgruntled. They’re middle class and he’s not. The recession to them is a depression to him. They’re fed up with the politicians in Washington but they’re being herded up just like every other American.

He displays the colors of patriotism day in, day out. His body is burned red from working endless days in the scorching sun. He’s forever in blue jeans. During the day his shirt is soiled from sweat and dust, dirt and grime from a hard day’s work, but when he’s all cleaned up, feeling good and accomplished, he dons a fresh, clean white T-shirt. You can’t get much more Americana than that!

So, what’s he thinkin’? A T-shirt Party would best represent him. Damn right!

And if that doesn't work out, how about a Wet T-shirt Party! Sarah Palin for President!

(Note: The content of this column has been edited. Add a couple hundred more words – they all start with the letter “F”.)