Feb

Focus Targeting, Save Country

The mainstream media do not know what to make of the “Tea Partiers.” Occasionally the participants are given a modicum of respectability, but overwhelmingly they are casually (and caustically) dismissed as merely “White” and “Angry;” the not-so subtle implication being that they’re unsophisticated racists looking for a reason to “riot” against a half-black president. Whereas before the media seemed to think the movement was destined to fizzle out due to its spontaneity and an enthusiasm they deemed artificial (think “astroturf”), for the most part they now examine it as if it is a culture in a petri dish, and needs significant studying before it can be diagnosed. The mainstream media’s attitude is somewhere between contemptuous and dispassionate, but consummately dehumanizing: Stay Away! and Observe and Critique.

The GOP establishment, meanwhile, is deeply conflicted: it is hesitant to engage the vocal hoards for fear of their, at times, overblown rhetoric, but recognizes its vote attracting potential. Yes – the Tea Partiers’ signs decrying Obama as a “Socialist” and (somewhat rarer) a “Fascist” contain truth on an intellectual level. Anybody who has taken the time to study the roots and methods of these ideological movements will admit this, particularly regarding Obama’s economic centralization. Honest scholars would agree. Still, the GOP recognizes that most citizens have absolutely no idea what Socialist and Fascist actually mean in an historical context, and simply view the language of the Partiers’ as inflammatory effrontery: end of story. Aligning themselves with people who appear to be downright rude isn’t necessarily good politics.

Complicating matters further is that the GOP as it exists today is terrified of such language because it is applicable to both parties. Therefore, to align with the movement is to agree to limit their own power; given its recent history, GOP supporters are not unfairly cynical about the party’s commitment to truly limited government (Bush expanded Medicare coverage to prescription drugs, remember).

Still, the Tea Party is aimed at legislative actions being passed today, and being that the incumbent party in both the Oval Office and the Capitol Building is Democrat, the Tea Party possesses and undeniable lure for Republicans.

For what it’s worth, the present writer views the movement as one of real and justified anger. The energy behind the movement is genuine moral outrage at the institution of government overstepping its necessary role of adjudicator of disputes and protector of individual rights. All political revolutions that tilt towards liberty begin with the anger that stems from being told what to do. In the case of the Tea Party, it’s not the arrogance of a single monarch but the Madisonian tyranny of the majority. This anger is as much American as the anger Jefferson immortalized when he penned the Declaration of Independence.

Now, let’s take a turn from ideal-driven armed revolution and enter the realm of conventional politics. Only kooks call for secession today. Concrete action need not be this incendiary.

The GOP should engage the Tea Party on two relatively easy but crucial targets: Cap and Trade and so-called healthcare “reform.” On the first, completely stop all attempts to impose any carbon tax, any cap on emissions, or further regulations in the energy sector. Expand drilling for oil and mining for coal, lift the nuclear moratorium. This will dramatically increase America’s output and drastically reduce the cost of doing business in America.

Healthcare reform should be all toward decentralizing. Make absolutely no compromises with the badly damaged Obama and the Democrat Congress. Stymie all efforts to create a universal coverage scheme. Cut red tape, and privatize as much of the entitlement programs as necessary. This can be done by refusing to remit the moral high ground to the statists. Free-market healthcare provides more for all, and does not force government to pick who lives and dies. It ceaselessly improves by innovation, and is the true progressive system, despite the rhetoric of the Democrats.

I humbly submit that these two goals would not only greatly serve your fellow citizens, but also be tremendously popular and relatively easy to achieve. The GOP can make the most of the energy of the Tea Party, and the Tea Party can claim to have rescued America from the clutches of controlling government guardianship. If this partnership is successful, the GOP can then begin to build the coalition necessary to role back the various statist programs that have plagued America since the New Deal.