Tea Party In The USA

Across the country today (note to media: April 15th is not called the “Ides of April”), so-called Tea Parties were held to protest – well, to protest against a lot of things.  I was on site at the rally in Salem, Oregon.  If you’re a little lacking in your Tea Party knowledge (or if you’ve been watching too much TV), here’s a summary of what most Tea Party members believe:

• The US has taken on unsustainable debt
• “ObamaCare” should be overturned as quickly as possible
• People are Taxed Enough Already (TEA)
• The Federal Reserve should be at least audited, and possibly disbanded
• The federal government is too intrusive and has overstepped states’ authority
• Illegal immigration threatens national sovereignty
• Don’t even think about more gun restrictions
• The IRS and/or the income tax severely harm their freedom

In addition to these basic tenets, there seemed to be a strong pro-life contingency at the rally.  For casual political observers this may not make sense, but the reality is that Roe v. Wade is seen as a huge attack on the right of states as well as a typical example of the insane lengths the Supreme Court will go to in its efforts to distort the Constitution.

Today being April 15th, the event largely focused on curtailing government spending and reducing tax burdens on future generations:

Despite being in Oregon where there was a planned attempt to infiltrate the Tea Party movement with fake members who would feign radicalism, there were no Nazis, racists, or anything of the sort.

Political observers should note that the organizations seemed to all play nicely together.  The Republican Party was clearly in charge of much of the event, but did so without monopolizing the time, and minor parties were allowed to freely circulate.  So while some might cast the Tea Party movement as having been coopted by the establishment, for now, it’s in everyone’s best interest (Republicans, FreedomWorks, 912 Project, etc) to spend their energy focused on common enemies.

Still, the Republicans would do well to take care.  The Tea Party movement wouldn’t have coalesced if the Republican Party had been on its toes in the first place.  For the moment, Republicans seem likely to make huge congressional gains in November.  Whenever the Republicans do finally gain power, they are likely to be viewed at least as suspiciously as the Democrats – because at least the Democrats don’t pretend to agree with the Tea Party movement.  If the Republicans in power prove once again that they are “Socialist Party B” to the Democrat’s “Socialist Party A”, don’t expect any punches to be pulled or any protests to cease.  Whatever is clear about the Tea Party movement, it is that there has been a complete disintigration of any party loyalty formerly held by its adherents.