I hadn't posted to this blog in quite some time, but the recent political situation in the US congress has caused me to once again come here and vent. The Tea party has become a radical organization far removed from a tolerant moderate viewpoint and should be actively opposed by every sensible American.
I want to be clear about my viewpoint. I do not appreciate radical elements of ANY political stripe. In the past I have also been in total opposition to lefty nut jobs like Cynthia McKinney and Dennis Kucinich. They too showed a total lack of tolerance or even a basic understanding of the positions of those that disagreed with them. That said, the venom of the Tea Party appears to be rooted in something far more dangerous. The Tea Party has a conscious desire to destroy the American Government.
I was brought up with a deep respect for my country and its government. I understand who the framers of the constitution were, and have studied the federalist papers and understand what their motivations were and why they constructed the constitution the way they did. The separation of powers and the way power is balanced in that document keeps any one group from becoming a tyranny over any other. Creating that balance was nothing short of brilliant.
I also realize that the departments of the Executive branch are the arms of the government that provide services to the people and are necessary to the prosperity and peace we all take for granted in this country. These functions include Parks, Veterans and Disability services, and services for the poor and the aged. They carry out the constitution's requirement to "promote the general welfare".
The Tea Party seems to think only in terms of the government taking their tax money and giving it away to other people. They seem to think the functions of the executive can be accomplished by local organizations and churches without any government help. I wonder what would happen if they were told that they have to give the amount they pay in taxes to charities instead? I would bet that individually they would not like that any better. It's a selfish philosophy where its all about themselves and nobody else.
Many of these people claim to be evangelical Christians, but they actually ignore the Bibles many directives that a good Christian must help the poor.
Let me quote James 2:14 thru 2:17 : Dear brothers, what's the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren't proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, and you say to him, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty," and then don't give him clothes or food, what good does that do? So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn't show itself by good works is no faith at all--it is dead and useless.
The directive here is inescapable. But if you try to argue this with Tea Party folks you get an Ayn Rand argument about makers and takers. They will tell you that these "takers" will be more self sufficient if you don't help them at all. They take this position in direct opposition to their message of their savior, but will completely deny that is the case.
This brings me to another point about Evangelical Christianity. These people believe that the bible is absolutely perfect. They believe this to the point of denying scientific evidence. This comes out in such things as climate change denial, a belief that some things doctors do is not beneficial ( I've heard these luddite arguments on things like immunizations and even chemotherapy), they believe that the world is only 6000 years old and that cavemen lived with dinosaurs. That the Grand Canyon was carved by Noah's flood. No argument can sway them from these beliefs.
This sort of psychology, where you can deny evidence no matter how strongly that evidence proves you wrong is also applied to their politics. If you are a moderate of any stripe, you can generally apply the statement "I could be wrong, but..." to any statement of political position. Moderates listen to argument and make pragmatic decisions based on fact. These Tea Party people do not do that. They believe what they believe and they will not be swayed by any argument or common sense.
One more point I'd like to make about the Tea Party. It has a large southern faction, and these people still are fighting the Civil War. They see the federal government as still being the entity that crushed the Confederacy, and still feel that the south fought for a noble cause. For proof I offer a speech by Georgia representative Paul Broun on the floor of the house in 2010 in which he referred to the Civil War as "the war of Yankee aggression".
These people are doing nothing short of advocating for the fall of the american government. They need to be marginalized and despised. There is nothing positive or affirming about anything coming from them or from their message. They are a cancer upon the American body politic.
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