The whole TEA Party thing is very confounding to the Left, but it shouldn't be. I and others have been pointing out since the beginning that this was not a "Republican" thing. In fact, the situation that allowed the Democrats to take control of Congress was more about the failure of Republicans to give people what they want (less government and less government spending) than it was about any attraction people had to the Democratic Party.
All that has obviously changed. The budget deficit has surged to an all-time high of US$1.42 trillion and that is without health care "reform" or Stimulus II. People feel burdened while the Left likes to disparage these folks by calling them tea baggers, they forget that what they call themselves is Taxed Enough Already.
But some Democrats and Leftists (in general) have deluded themselves thus far into thinking that these people were shills for the Republican Party; they called their demonstrations "astroturf". But then it became obvious to even the main stream media that these folks were not Republican shills; they're a movment all their own.
The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.
But even here the media doesn't have things exactly right. When does "Conservative" mean in this context? Sure some are social conservatives, but not most. So some are say anti-abortion, but not most. Some are anti-gay marriage but not most.
What does unite these Republicans, Democrats and Independents is they are all more fiscally conservative and more Federalist than Congress; and in many cases this means Republicans as well.
Begun as a loosely affiliated groundswell of Constitution-waving protesters in tri-cornered hats, the Tea Party movement is now starting to rock the political establishment in key arenas.
The growing numbers of Americans coming out to the Tax Day Tea Party, the Fourth of July Tea Parties, and then the 9/12 Tea Party march on Washington are going back to their home districts and keeping up — even intensifying — the fight for smaller government and more transparency on spending and taxation.
As the evidence mounts, opponents of small government and a restrained Federal Government has come up with a new delusion: That the movement the Republicans started are now turning on their masters.
And they continue with their delusion that any and all criticism of the President and the Democratic majority is racially based. The latest instance refers to a Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry an interracial couple. He was referred to as a right-wing hate-monger.
But it turned out this guy was a life-long Democrat until 2008. I wonder what happened in 2008 that made him change parties?
Here's the situation that has the Left worked up: They are going to lose seats in Congress next year and they are doing their best to blunt that embarrassment now. They are even more fearful that they will lose control of one or more chambers of Congress and they need to do something to prevent that from occurring.
I've got an idea: How about not spending so much, pass legislation that addresses our runaway spending, and pass health care legislation that actually addresses the issues?
I'm afraid that Congress just can not go there the way it is currently configured.
So change is gonna come.
And if Republicans do again get control of Congress, they had better heed the lessons or change is gonna come again.
And again.
Until we get a political class that has some respect for the constiutional limits of federal power.
