"Tea Party crowds do have that "we want a strong leader like Adolph Hitler, Mussolini, or Stalin" look and feel about them.
If they're lucky, their dreams won't come true - because the reality is far different than they imagine."
I went to a tea party group meeting last week, and also attended a local tea party. I was curious what kinds of people they were, and what kind of agenda they have.
They were mostly white, older folks, who are religious. Also, tho, there was some representation of minorities and atheists. it is a diverse group.
None of the folks I spoke to or heard from were asking for a strong leader or govt. They asked for:
1)Freedom
2)less spending
3)less taxes
4)less intrusive govt...eg, they viewed the health care bill as a major step towards socialism/fascism.
They were very emphatic on these points. They were selling books on the history of the US founding fathers at the teaparty, and not much else, except 'Creature from Jekyll Island'...they strongly oppose the existence of the Federal reserve.
I took a copy of the US total debt as a percentage of GDP, vs time, from a Casey report, to the meeting, and passed out copies of it, asking them if they had seen this chart...a very damning chart, which all voters should have as a mental picture before they vote.
Most of them said, yes, we have seen the debt chart, and they were selling copies of 'The Creature from Jekyll Island', and had an audio abbreviated version availbalbe for free, at the meeting.
No doubt there is variation in this group, it is not homogeneous, altho they are clearly looking for common ground. I noticed that they were very careful to try and be accomodative to various viewpoints, especially the religious vs atheist.
I think a real stumbling block for this group is religion.
Religious folks in the US who are strongly political tend to fall into two camps 1)those who think in terms of duty to Gods will, ie, oppose abortion, want education to reflect religious beliefs/values, emphasis on honesty, protection of property rights 'tho shalt not steal' 2) those who want to express Gods love, compassion, in political action...ie, the left, who want to enact entitlement programs.
These two groups are very incompatible, and at odds with eachother, and yet they both are founded on religion...so the Tea Party group has a dilemma..if they adopt a program acceptible to religious conservatives, they cannot present an effective critique of the religious left. Only a secular argument can succeed against the religious left.
RP |
