Why I support the TEA Party

Recently I was asked why I don’t go all in with support for the Republican Party and their candidates because this is the party which more closely defines my values and that the TEA Party is not helping the cause.  They stated that the “purpose of political parties is to win elections.  Unless a political party can attract voters, it can not win.  In a multi-racial, and often bi-lingual society, winning usually requires some give and take.  Otherwise, it isn't a choice for governing, but for war”.  This assumes I support either of the established parties.  I don't, however, I truly believed that Mitt Romney was the right man for the Presidency at the right time in our history so I supported him and voted for him.  In 2008, I had no interest in seeing either of the established party candidates sitting in the WH so I didn't vote for either, opting instead for Ralph Nader who actually put up a platform I could support.

There does come a time when one has to stand up and be counted for their beliefs.  Standing up for a candidate just because he is the lesser of two evils is the reason why our two party political system is destroying the country, IMO.  The generational trend of having the government offer subsidies to the citizens in the form of entitlement programs and corporate donors in the form of tax benefits and huge government contracts has created a nation of dependency and it occurs through the acts of both established parties.

Ted Cruz stood up for principle.  The ObamaCare program is a travesty and he was right to stand up against it.  Was it the best way to proceed, I believe that it wasn't because it was an attempt to combine the cost of ObamaCare with the overall budget and the looming debt limit.  There were better ways to address the budgetary issues and not give Obama the upper hand, but at the time, Senator Cruz didn't know just how bad the ObamaCare rollout would be, so he was acting in good faith.

So now let’s address the issue of the TEA Party and it's growing pains.  Certainly there are mistakes being made, some of which have been outlined.  Having a group of idealistic citizens go up against the entrenched parties will always be met with resistance and having those citizens be marginalized is par for the course, in the short term. But I do believe that as the old saying goes, all politics is local and I honestly believe the majority of the citizens when it gets down to the local grassroots level, agree with Senator Cruz and the TEA Party platform.  I see it every day in the local coffee shops,in  the beer halls and at the local barber shops.  I see it with the college students I speak with when I return to my college campus for seminars and business support gatherings.  I witness it when I attend small business development conferences and conventions. Certainly there are naysayers, but when specifics are discussed, the majority agree with what the TEA Party represents.

Additionally, there is one more element which comes into play and is a real threat to the established parties.  This new element is the instantaneous communication afforded by access to the internet.  10 years ago, we could not use the FaceBook or the blogosphere to discuss our discontent, we could not Tweet the whereabouts of a TEA Party meeting in our local communities, we could not mount an instant effort to advise our "representatives" of the fact that we do not support a bill  they are willing to vote in favor of and most importantly, we could not immediately let them know that we were watching when they voted for that bill anyway and that as a result, we will be looking for someone else to support.

As we have seen over the past 3 national election cycles, the TEA Party candidates, although working through the Republican Party, are gaining ground and the quality of the candidates seeking office is showing dramatic improvement while the quality of the upcoming Democratic and incumbent Republican candidates remains incredibly self absorbed and dismal.   We as a nation need more of the self reliant American spirit to reach the surface and the TEA Party members bring the true ideals of the American spirit to the office. It may take some more time and it won't happen without additional scars and/or lost elections, but I do believe the TEA Party will become the dominant political party in our nation or the nation as we knew it will not survive. 

STIMULUS PLANS AND THE RISING UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

Was discussing the “Stimulus plans failures and the rising unemployment rate" with a liberal group yesterday.  One of them made an interesting analogy from his liberal point of view:

“It's not that it "was Bush's fault, and then the Congresses fault"....to fix the kind of mess Obama inherited from his predecessor, he needs to spend money and years....it isn't something that you can fix in a year or two, and even worse, without spending anything....it's like you hire a guy to put tile on your floor, you give him a 50% deposit check, he rips out your old tile and then decides to leave without installing the new tiles he didn't even buy....the guy you're going to hire after him is going to need new tile and thin set to fix your floor, and it's going to take some time....I hope I expressed the principle clearly enough, with my example/analogy.... :-)

And here is my response:

Let's go with your spot on analogy. If you are dumb enough to hire a sketchy contractor with very few references (ie...the type who would take your money and not do the job), give him a 50% deposit, let him go to work and not oversee what he is doing, you deserve the less than positive result because you are a dumbass!

But, let's apply your analogy to America today, the American people hired that sketchy contractor with no references, then we gave him a Trillion Dollars because unemployment would rise above 8% and we would all suffer tremendously if not for his "Stimulus plan".  We did and gave him full spending authority.  The Senate went and compounded the problem by giving the President unrestrained spending ability.  First, holding off passing the 2009 budget until well after Obama entered office so the budget could be tailored to him.  They then became completely derelict in their duty by not passing another budget for more than 1100 days.  Instead they passed continuing spending resolutions favoring the administrations enormous spending habits. Deficits soared!  Yet, here we are, more than 3 years later, much deeper in debt, the unemployment rate remains above the point he stated it would never reach and it is ticking higher, not lower.

So, yes my myopic friend, your analogy is very appropriate. We, the American people, do need to fire this inept contractor and replace him with one who has both the experience and references. Would prefer it were not Romney, but he does have the experience and references and is far and away a better choice than the inept contractor currently holding the office.

Based on your own analogy, voting for Obama again would just prove how much of a dumbass you really are, IMO.