It is now established that the Tea Party represents the extreme, radical wing of the Republican Party supported by big corporate polluters. I'm guessing that many well-meaning individuals disgusted with BOTH political parties initially drove the idea of a new party forward but now are lost as Cairo revolutionaries. That the Tea Party was co-opted was apparent as soon as mainstream Republicans like Dick Armey from Texas muscled in on the action. What to do, now?
Florida Governor Rick Scott appealed yesterday for Tea Party support of his agenda in the state capitol, Tallahassee, where his own party is firmly in control and Democrats are an irrelevant minority. Although the Republican leadership in the legislature is the most conservative in 100 years, it's not enough for Scott who seems to have no understanding of public policy other than what he can put together from his private jet window.
Since most Republicans in Florida, as elsewhere in the Southeast, are Christians: I have a question. Nowhere in the Bible or any other Christian doctrine does it say that limited, small government is a cornerstone virtue. This conflation of limited, small government with Christianity-- now being used as a ice pick to destroy the protections of people by government, wholesale-- is puzzling. Since when is it Christian to embrace politics that harm the poor, the incapable, or the defenseless like God's entire creation? Since when is it Christian to allow the thieves to thump the Bible as their authority? In their insistence on the curative power of "free markets" they are more like 19th century salesmen of medicines for intestinal worms, holding up jars of liquid clear as rain water to prove the efficacy of their snake oil. In fact, these political usurpers believe in free markets so long as they are "free" for them. The faithful have an obligation; not to blindly follow false prophets but to object and to put action to those objections.
Next week, US Senator Marco Rubio will be offering a companion amendment to the Continuing Resolution to fund the government, to that proposed by Congressman Rooney: to prohibit the US EPA from mandating protections of Florida waters from pollution. In 20 years, the state of Florida has failed to act on pollution standards for nutrients in state waters because of the influence of polluters. The amount of death and destruction this is causing to the environment and to people, including property values at our coastlines and on our estuaries and rivers-- is staggering. Since when does the Tea Party stand for environmental destruction represented by Rubio and Scott, both? Since when is the Tea Party committed to following the lead of Rubio and Scott's main supporters from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the jackasses at Associated Industries?
You can't reach any other conclusion that their end goal is to speed the destruction of God's creation. That's hardly Christian and it is something to think about, at Sunday prayers.
16 comments:
Gotta wonder whether there would be a Tea Party movement if we had a white male President regardless of his politics...
My view has been that the Tea Party represents a group of angry people who feel that they are no longer in control of the country's agenda and angry at the way the world is going (globalization, failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, fewer opportunities for high paying labor jobs, etc.). They are frustrated, don't understand that the policies they have always supported have contributed to the situation today and their response is to try to make things they way they were--whatever that means. A black President isn't part of that vision.
Tea Party shmee party..what Rubio is proposing is simple, old school political payback to his sugar industries, building developers and rock mining buddies who helped to get him elected. Rubio is a wolf in Christian clothing.
Every time I've seen the woman who is supposedly the head of this party, all she claims is that we have to reduce our debt, and when she is asked to say how, she answers that she doesn't know how, but "it has to be done." These people are a bunch of irresponsible loud-mouths who know nothing about government management and now want to rule this country. They are dangerous people, and yes, they don't like Barack Obama because he is Black.
Thank You Miaexile, Rubio is not a Tea Party person (whatever that means) he is an opportunist plane and simple.
Gimspierre you are right in the fact that the original Tea Party started unofficially by Ron Paul has deviated from its original intent which was to simply reign in government spending both on entitlements and military, with NO attention paid to social issues Abortion, Gay Marriage etc etc. Then Came the Sarah pailin and her crowd and the rest is history.
Gimspierre You are wrong in saying that smaller government destroys humanity (I am nota Christian) I would argue that the larger the government the more we are DE-humanized. Just step into any government office with an issue to resolve and this becomes CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Government programs on the surface sound helpful but for the most part when you scratch the surface and look inside the cost inflicted on middle classes outweighs the meager benefits that actually reach those these "programs" are intended for. Social Security for example you pay almost 15% of your income (directly and indirectly) for all your working life and if you make it to retirement get a meager monthly payment as opposed to what you would have had you put your money in a simply interest baring 401K (do the math).
I can go on forever (probably already have), suffice it to say that bigger wether its government or private corporation tends to have DE humanizing effect.
As for the Racial charges made by the ANON above about the Tea Baggers sure there are some racist in the Tea Party just like there are some in the NAACP or La Raza (The Race), not defending or condoning either one but lets at least be fair when calling a spade a spade.
There is a very simple way for this country to pay for Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and all of the other "entitlements" we pay for with our tax dollars:
Quit spending a billion dollars a week in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It boggles my mind that our elected officials are willing to compromise the health, safety and well-being of those they are supposed to represent in order to promote "democracy" in other countries. Democracy that they say America can no longer afford.
If I as a member of the Tea Party don't like Obama because he is black then why do I love Lt Cornel Alan West?
What you seem to miss is that people who take political positions mainly do it based on their values & not on their race. Or as another man I greatly admired said, "not based on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character
I will have to get back to you on where it says in the New Testament that the highest marginal tax rates for people making over $250K needs to be 39% (or should the rate be at the level John Kennedy's administration prior to his marginal tax rate cut?) & the Dept of Energy must be funded at $77 Billion a year.
I prefer the command from Jesus "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's & give unto God what is God's". Mark 12:17
The Iraq War so far has cost $756 Billion since the start of operations in late 2002 until the end of FY2010, which BTW was agreed upon by 82 Democratic Congresspeople and 29 Democratic Senators including Senator John Kerry ("before he voted against it"), Senator Hillary Clinton and now Majority leader Senator Harry Reid.
The 2009 stimulus bill which not one Republican voted for was $841 Billion of which about 65% has already been spent.
We certainly know jobs were "saved" or created by the "Military Industrial Complex" to prosecute the Iraq War. 9% unemployment after the stimulus bill is a little dubious of results. (unless the remaining 35% are really put to productive use like maybe a "high speed" chu chu train!).
The good news is at some point operations will wind down in Iraq and Afghanistan and these will no longer be expenditures. Social Security and Medicare and now Obamacare will continue into perpetuity.
Besides, does anyone actually believe that if Congress voted against the Iraq war, they would have had the prudence to place the $756 Billion in a "lock box" and save it for Medicare and Social Security?
We might not have needed any of the stimulus programs if we hadn't been pouring our country's resources down a black hole in the middle east.
ANON "The good news is at some point operations will wind down in Iraq and Afghanistan and these will no longer be expenditures."
Wind Down? Like in Iraq where the embassy is bigger than hialeah and over 50K troops will be stationed indefinitely.
As for the military industrial complex creating jobs, have you ever asked yourself at what cost both to our economy and human lives. Was invading Iraq o trumped up rumors crucial to National Defense? hint NO!!!!!
Couldn't agree more with your comments. I am both a lifelong practicing Christian and a progressive liberal voter. Not sure which bible these Tea Partiers are reading, but my God teaches charity, kindness, respect, and generosity. It angers and saddens me that an extreme sect of Christians have stolen the faith and turned the name of Jesus into a battle cry.
Listen, "member of the Tea Party", I'm sure that you love West because he's exactly what you all Republicans and Tea Partiers want:an echo of your voices, a duplication of your thoughts. You remind me of a local "political consultant" -- very well known in Miami, and his initials are JGR! -- who was a "registered Democrat because it had a greater impact when he moved over to support the Republicans." So is the West, and other Blacks, cases. The GOP and the TP love them because it makes them look like they are a group of people with no racial prejudices! LOL Go tell your BS to another idiot... like you!
Excellent point regarding the Tea Party member who aligns with Alan West so they don't look racist. As another member of the TP, I married my spouse who is of another race than mine precisely for the same reason. It had nothing to do with our shared values.
Assuming blacks cannot have an alternative opinion or possess beliefs other than those that leans left projects the concept that blacks have no individuality & all think the same way or should think the same way.
And to think, the left is considered "progressive"!
Wow...that was some rambling. By the comments, there are many readers the can decipher those paragraphs loaded with false premises and non sequitors.
There is no logical reason to your assumption that Christian = Republican and therefore....
Of course, some Christians are Republican. Duh. Many are not.
There are intelligent people that believe the problems facing Government is too much Government.
"You can't reach any other conclusion that their end goal...." Maybe YOU can't. Many intelligent people simply have a different point of view than you do. That does not necessarily mean they "want to speed the destruction of God's creaation".
Wonder no longer Steve...
"Gotta wonder whether there would be a Tea Party movement if we had a white male President regardless of his politics..."
The noise and distain from Republicans, Democrats, and Independants alike was brewing during GW Bush's Admin. People were disgusted with large government bailouts and the excesses of the growth of the Nanny State through GW Bushs' Prescription Drug entitlement. The name "Tea Party" stuck after a Rick Santelli rant in about Feb 2009.
Dispite what the Politicians tell their Useful Idiots to think, the Tea Party movement does not have anything to do with race.
Get over it. Most people sympathetic wtih the Tea Party believe that the government spends too much, regulates too much, and taxes too much. It really is that simple. Quit calling people racists...especially people that you have never ever met.
The Tea Party is neither a movement nor a political party...it's a temper tantrum!
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