The debt and the debt limit provide a tremendous amount of drama and uncertainty. The drama focuses on who is right and who is wrong, on what happens if (now, when) we raise the debt limit from its current $14.3 trillion. The uncertainty focuses on America’s credit rating, increased interest rates, the availability of checks for those on Social Security and the assault on the image and prestige of the United States.
It’s easy to strip away the drama and uncertainty. Will the country default on it’s debts? No. Will Social Security checks go out? Yes, unless President Obama chooses not to send them out, and face possible Impeachment. Will the image of the United States be tainted? Does anyone really care what Iran, Syria or North Korea thinks of our image? Does it help our credit rating, or our debt limit, if England, France, Morocco or Australia think we’re still the cat’s meow?
Once you allow yourself to remove the distractions of the potential and (in many cases) fear-mongering fall out, you are able to take a look at the true catalyst of the conversation, and the real debate therein. Past the drama is the bi-partisan hatred for the Tea Party – a growing group of American citizens who advocate for The Four Basics – The Constitution, Capitalism, Fiscal Responsibility and Smaller Government. I am a proud member of that group.
When the Tea Party started in February of 2009, no one could have known the size and strength that was to follow. No one could have been aware that it would be the force that brought about nationwide results in the 2010 mid-terms, providing victories for Tea Party candidates on the state and federal level.
During these elections, Democrats railed against the Tea Party. Janeane Garofalo, in coordination with then MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, worked hard to push the “racist” meme of the Tea Party. Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) have long advocated the description of “extreme” when talking about the Tea Party. Charges that the tea party is violent, that they want to eliminate government, that they want to engage a national theocracy (an altogether incoherent thought considering the Tea Party is focused on the fiscal issues, not the social issues.)
Most recently, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) quoted the Wall Street Journal, calling members of the Tea Party “Hobbits”. Then, not a day later, he called the Tea Party members push for a balanced budget amendment “bizarro.” On the floor of the House, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) stated that the Tea Party needed to “grow up.” Though not at the same level, in any way, as calling Tea Party members “racists,” it does show a dislike for the group, and its members.
Yet, in a style reminiscent of the Revolutionary war; totally outmanned by the Main Stream Media, and questions of their integrity by their “friends,” the Tea Party has survived, and thrived. According to a recent articles from The Washington Post and The Daily Beast, the Tea Party has won this debate/negotiation/compromise over the debt ceiling. This is a stunning revelation. The Tea Party has been maligned as uninspired and ignorant, its members attacked – verbally and physically! – and called racists and extremists. It was Sen. Reid who was saying that the Tea Party would fade away.
For all of the Main Stream cloud cover and vicious and insulting attacks from elected leadership (including the president) the Tea Party controls the political and cultural debate in America. If it wasn’t for the Tea Party, there would have been no debate on the debt ceiling. No debate on the spending problem in the United States. No effort to make the attempts to fight the machine and make America a fiscally responsible nation. The Tea Party has forced America to have the conversation, and the MSM was unable to stop it. Yet the articles and the media spin on the Tea Party fail to pinpoint why the Tea Party is so effective, so strong and so entrenched.
Americans are not drawn to the Tea Party because they are extremists or anti-government. This is a false premise, put forth by those who believe in insult, not investigation. The Tea Party are firm believers in government that is far smaller – in terms of dollars and scope. The Tea Party is not extremist, as there is nothing extreme about living within ones means. There is nothing extreme about the recognition that you can not spend your way into prosperity. There is nothing extreme about petitioning our government for a redress of grievances. Certainly, it would be folly for opposition Leftists to assert that utilization of the 1st Amendment is extreme….but they continue to be deluded by their false premises.
Americans are drawn to the Tea Party because it is honest, and it works. It brings a simple message – The Four Basics – that attracts the masses. Is it sensical that a group of “racists” and “extremists” would garner so many supporters? Of course not. Rather, the Tea Party is filled with those who recognize that the value of our nation is its citizens. Not the white citizens, the black citizens, the gay citizens, the cowboy poetry citizens, the Christian citizens, the Jewish citizens or whatever group that leftists want to play class warfare with today; but all citizens who believe that we must, “…ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
The theory of Occam’s Razor has been proven true by the Tea Party. It states, in part, “…simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones.” The Tea Party is not racist, not extremist, not well-funded by corporations, not a functionary of the neo-cons, not a construct of the banking industry. Nor is it an instrument of social conservatism, advocating on subjects like gay marriage, abortion or school prayer.
The Tea Party is about encouraging Americans to engage in their civic responsibility and opportunity. Its simple, forthright message rises above the MSM attacks and political savagery. It is undeniable, and unstoppable. The Tea Party remains in charge because the American people have remembered that they are in charge.
Thank goodness.
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