The Tea Party Whine

The Tea Party Whine

The Republican party have created or has at least had a hand in creating a monster. A seven headed hydra called the Tea Party. I say that they had at least a hand in it because when you look closely at the Tea Party you will find that this party has a lot in common with the current Republican Party. I know I’m not the first one to make that inference but the way the Tea Party is acting one would think that they were just these sweet misunderstood naive middle-class infants that just want things the way they used to. You know before some minorities became the majority and defeated their petty, vindictive, insane, dictator?

Yes well though I’m sure they miss the days when taxes went high in just about every Red state in the union. The Tea Party seems to suffer from a kind of insane amnesia that makes them totally forget the last eight years. I know there is such a thing as selective memory but come on! But hey I’m just some blogger who is just your average American who watches the T.V news and reads the paper from time. What do I know right? So of course this blogger has decided to do some research and find out about these Tea Partiers.

Are they blind dupes of the Republican Party? Are they just a bunch of dissatisfied Middle-class sore losers? Or are they the slack-jawed shock troops building up to just one more Republican coop? Who are these Tea Party whiners really? Let us start at the beginning.

Let’s take a look from the beginning, shall we? It all started out quite benign. One girl in college practicing her fundamental America rights. As American as Apple Pie but of course just like real apple pie, once you look closely at the nutrition list you see how really unhealthy that apple pie really is. (Do you know how much calories there are in apple pie? Real apple pie with brown sugar and lard in the crust? Whoooo! You don't want to know!) But you will want to know about Keli Carender. Ms. Carender an actress, Math Teacher, and improv comedian with a democratic boyfriend woke up one day to find herself interested in the 2008 political race as a voter but none of the candidates appealed to her. Like most people of the year her age the whole get out the vote thing attracted nearly apathetic young people. Of course when the powers that be decide to use the youth vote they conveniently forget that getting young people interested in the political arena is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways. You can't get young people interested in politics and voting as a way of getting their individual voices heard and then expect things to go the way you want. The Democrates via President Obama found out the hard way.

Keli Carender not only got interested but she also got dissatisfied. The how and wherefores are to much to mention in this essay so please go read look here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28keli.html Suficed to say Ms. Carender just wanted her voice to be heard and like many a budding activist she found that in order for her voice to be heard she must find other like minded individuals to back her up. Oh, she found them alright! And then that's when the pie started to hit the fan!

Groups fell under the Tea Party umbrella that varied from Libertarians to Right-Wing white power pundits. It will be up to the readers to judge which out of the many groups to be most concerned about. As for this writer the main thrust of this essay is to point out the Republicans who used the Tea Party for their own ends. As of this writing the Republicans have retaken the House due to the overwhelming 'support' of the Tea partiers. One of the many accusations that was brought up during the 'high' point of the Tea Party surge was Astroturfing. That is when a political group with an agenda; like the Republicans, who put into place a supposed grassroots organization with apparently no support from any political group at all. That means that anyone looking at a grassroots movement on the surface sees a group of people who are just your average citizen with a gripe that wants government to change certain policy. Only problem is once you look deep under the surface you find the puppet masters behind it all.

Now I don't know how stuff like that happens but I can give a good guess. One young person who just happens to be a Republican (or chooses to become one) gets like minded people together, a political group (let's just say, umm, The Republican party), co-ops the movement. Whether it's by monetary support, Public Relations, or Politicians coming out of the wood work 'all of a sudden' to support this grassroots organization. Something like that. At any rate as far as this writer can see it looked more like another subtle attempt of the Republican party to climb back into the political arena with a vengeance! Subtle the Republican party don't do so good. (Pardon the bad english. ;) ) Because to get on point, think 1995. The Republicans initiated a government shut-down putting the blame on the then Democratic President Bill Clinton and his policy. (Yeah, that worked!) When the public turned on them like rabid wolverines the Republicans were sweating it like a white supremacist at a million man march. (They must have heaved a sigh of relief when the Monica Lewisky 'scandal' broke out.) Now as then a lot is riding on the Tea baggers to back them up while they ride into Congress to burn and slash through every social program they can catch.

So Tea Partiers, what are they? Republican dupes or a grassroots middle-class trying to save their own asses?

I want to be fair I really do. America is about freedom of choice. But when the choice is either saving the middle-class on the backs of the poor yet again or going into another reccesion and using American know how and innovation to pull ourselves out of another economic whole, I say let's pull up our sleeves America and stop whinning!