We're talking about a deep divide within the Republicans that I believe threatens the continued ability of that party to represent American conservatives. To sum up what's come before, the idea is that starting roughly in 1980, the Republicans became more and more the party of the new global trans-national corporation. These corporations, because they were not tied to any one economy or government, had no direct incentive to improve America. The US was just one market and opportunity among hundreds and its well being was secondary to maximizing revenue. The focus they wanted from their politicians was on the minuscule changes to tax law and regulation that would result in billions of dollars in additional profits for them but which had little to no effect on most Americans who simply didn't move enough money to benefit.
This is where the Liberals get off calling the Republicans 'the party of the rich'. It's a simplistic statement, and somewhat misleading. The Republicans had become less the party of the wealthy and more the party of the large. When a company moves billions of dollars every year, a fraction of a percent change in tax law can be hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue. The pressure was on Republicans to make those changes and represent those interest.
Meanwhile, the Republican party kept up the rhetoric with voters using ambiguous truths such as 'we are pro business' and 'tax cuts benefit the economy' all the while glossing over the fact that the business they were for had nothing to do with 95% of American entrepreneurs or business owners and the economy they were benefiting was rarely one most of us participated in. All the while, the media fostered a war between left and right that kept us from talking to each other.
But believe or not, people aren't stupid. You can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but never all of the people all of the time.
So let's talk Tea.
The Tea Party fascinates me. If you visit their home page and read their charter, these guys look like top rate lunatics. They want to repeal the tax code and put a new one in no longer than the total number of words in the original US constitution. They want to undo the Administrative state - removing the EPA and numerous other national executive administrative agencies unless explicit reference to them can be found in the constitution. All of this, of course, ignores the realities of running a government that must content with billions of people as opposed to the anticipated thousands that were present at the time of the founder's lives.
But I digress.
What's fascinating about the Tea Party is that what you have is political outrage by conservatives. It's a diffuse rage. If you step back and look generally at their demands, they are expressing a passionate desire to see versions of old Republican policy enacted in ways that take those principles to extremes even Rush Limbaugh would balk at. They identify Liberals and the current administration as their opponents, but this is mostly because they are, at their hearts, conservatives and therefore they assume that liberal democrats are the cause of their angst.
It's my position that the Tea Party is the Republican voters in open revolt against their own party who they see, rightfully, as not representing them anymore. It's not hard to see that recent conservative policies such as trickle-down economics, deregulation, and even tax cuts are no longer helping the US economy. However these people also do not condone the Democrat's answer to these failures. They do not want to see government step in where private enterprise is failing.
So what to do? How does a conservative handle being marginalized by their own party who now functions as the mouthpiece for a new economy of which they are not a part? Their only real choice in political opposition is to embrace the abhorrent progressive answer which involves a kind of government conservatives find intrusive and overbearing.
These vocal, active conservatives have no voice.
So they find one of their own.
Tomorrow I talk about how the Tea Party might bring drive deadly nails into the coffin of the Republican party if handled improperly, and what conservatives today should be thinking about in regards to their future in American politics.
This is where the Liberals get off calling the Republicans 'the party of the rich'. It's a simplistic statement, and somewhat misleading. The Republicans had become less the party of the wealthy and more the party of the large. When a company moves billions of dollars every year, a fraction of a percent change in tax law can be hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue. The pressure was on Republicans to make those changes and represent those interest.
Meanwhile, the Republican party kept up the rhetoric with voters using ambiguous truths such as 'we are pro business' and 'tax cuts benefit the economy' all the while glossing over the fact that the business they were for had nothing to do with 95% of American entrepreneurs or business owners and the economy they were benefiting was rarely one most of us participated in. All the while, the media fostered a war between left and right that kept us from talking to each other.
But believe or not, people aren't stupid. You can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but never all of the people all of the time.
So let's talk Tea.
The Tea Party fascinates me. If you visit their home page and read their charter, these guys look like top rate lunatics. They want to repeal the tax code and put a new one in no longer than the total number of words in the original US constitution. They want to undo the Administrative state - removing the EPA and numerous other national executive administrative agencies unless explicit reference to them can be found in the constitution. All of this, of course, ignores the realities of running a government that must content with billions of people as opposed to the anticipated thousands that were present at the time of the founder's lives.
But I digress.
What's fascinating about the Tea Party is that what you have is political outrage by conservatives. It's a diffuse rage. If you step back and look generally at their demands, they are expressing a passionate desire to see versions of old Republican policy enacted in ways that take those principles to extremes even Rush Limbaugh would balk at. They identify Liberals and the current administration as their opponents, but this is mostly because they are, at their hearts, conservatives and therefore they assume that liberal democrats are the cause of their angst.
It's my position that the Tea Party is the Republican voters in open revolt against their own party who they see, rightfully, as not representing them anymore. It's not hard to see that recent conservative policies such as trickle-down economics, deregulation, and even tax cuts are no longer helping the US economy. However these people also do not condone the Democrat's answer to these failures. They do not want to see government step in where private enterprise is failing.
So what to do? How does a conservative handle being marginalized by their own party who now functions as the mouthpiece for a new economy of which they are not a part? Their only real choice in political opposition is to embrace the abhorrent progressive answer which involves a kind of government conservatives find intrusive and overbearing.
These vocal, active conservatives have no voice.
So they find one of their own.
Tomorrow I talk about how the Tea Party might bring drive deadly nails into the coffin of the Republican party if handled improperly, and what conservatives today should be thinking about in regards to their future in American politics.
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