“For anyone who anticipates that Republican presidential candidates will move towards the center in 2016, this weekend’s festivities are a very loud wake up call.”Just who are these people who believe the Tea Party is ever going to move to the center? I swear, every time a pundit says “The Republicans will have to pass an immigration bill because demographic changes threaten their electability.” Tim Russert rolls over in his grave mumbling “idiot.”
I’m in a mood today to say what most everyone knows in their heart to be true, yet rarely admits aloud. The Republican Party of Karl Rove is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party. The Tea Party accomplished this takeover by instilling in every elected Republican a testicle-shrinking fear of a primary challenger coming at him from the right. The Republicans of old, except for Ronald Reagan, who they like to pretend shared their stone-hearted philosophy, are no longer relevant.



That doesn’t mean I’m pronouncing the Tea Party a misunderstood group of ecumenical goodwill. To the Tea Party “acceptable” members of minority groups are an exception. Some of them would say a “rare exception.” They see everyone else as “takers.”
For some reason, news commentators are fond of isolating the issues of the day. Republicans and immigration. Republicans and voter suppression. Republicans and marriage equality. Republicans and women’s rights. But in the real world, these issues are all connected; all part of the larger vision the Tea Party has for America, and they should be discussed that way. They are all separate battles in a larger war for all the marbles.

That vision cannot be accomplished by embracing diversity.
The Tea Party would rather lose, while adhering to their vision, than win by compromising. The way they steered the Romney race right, right, right off the highway, shows their commitment. They would rather lose than bend, but they don’t intend to lose. Intellectually, they know demographic changes threaten them, but they don’t see the answer as changing themselves to be more attractive to minorities.
The plan is to overcome the diversity advantage. That’s why felons can’t vote, and states are passing onerous ID laws, cutting down on early voting and ending same day registration. That’s why they have gerrymandered out of their districts every last liberal household they possibly could. That’s why they are trying to break the unions, who act as the foot soldiers who help Democrats get out the vote. That’s why Acorn had to go.

The Tea Party wants schools to teach a Christian curriculum, and students to be led daily in Christian prayer. They want schools where science takes a back seat to Bible Studies. Where evolution is given the same weight as creationism. And where bullies are given a pass if they are motivated by a deeply held religious belief that suspected gay kids should be given swirlies.

It may be culled from the preamble of their favorite document, the U.S. Constitution, but Teaists are not believers in promoting the “general welfare.” If you lose your job, they truly believe giving you unemployment benefits will just make you slow to look for a new one. If your children are in desperate need of food, or shelter, or healthcare? That saddens them, and on a personal level, they may reach into their pockets to help. But they are opposed to the government offering any relief. They call it “redistributing wealth”. Making sure your baby’s belly is full should not be the government’s concern. Taxes are for bombs and soldiers, and executing criminals, not for school lunches and Head Start. In a Tea Party America, not a dime would go to help the “takers.”
The Tea Party has a hope that if they can just capture all the levers of power, the House, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court, they can stall modernity. More than a few of them are ready to take up arms in the cause, though except for the TSA, who they think of as President Obama’s private army, I’m unclear who they plan to shoot. It’s a grand vision, and they are executing it while our political pundits pretend they are merely a bunch of conservative leaning folks who are all about the deficit.

- Women across America have lost reproductive freedoms.
- Voters have lost power because of gerrymandered districts and new voting restrictions.
- Anti-gay amendments to state constitutions now retard the spread of marriage equality.
- Unions have been weakened.
- And then there’s the sequester…
No comments:
Post a Comment