First, the Tea Party as it was meant to be. The Tea Parties started out touting classic Libertarian ideals – the sort of thing you would hear from Ron Paul and Bob Barr:
- “Stop borrowing money we don’t have and giving the bill to our kids!”
- “This national debt is unsustainable!”
- “Enough government spending!”
- “Let’s take care of our problems at home before trying to take care of problems elsewhere!”
- “The Federal Reserve/Fractional Reserve system needs to go!”
They had a point. We keep borrowing money from a private corporation – the Federal Reserve – which simply prints it. We keep borrowing money from other nations, with absolutely no plan on paying it back. And we spend it frivolously, on things like corporate bailouts, unneeded wars, and a host of other things the American people are generally opposed to. Since 1913, the Fractional Reserve system has wrecked homes, businesses, and even entire countries through compound interest (c.f. Bechtel). Besides that, our spending is indeed unsustainable. “American Recovery Acts” can be passed over and over, but all these things do is delay the inevitable. Even the most ardent Obama supporter will have to admit that these economic recovery plans are not solutions but temporary band-aid fixes.
If we want to see a real change, the Tea Partiers realized, there are a few fundamental issues we need to address.
First, the “fractional reserve” banking system is a scam against everyone who participates in the financial world – which almost everyone must. I call it a scam because they charge interest on money that they alone create – so that the more money there is, the more is owed to them. This is why we’re REALLY in debt without end.
Debt=slavery. Besides that, they create the money out of nothing (“illegal consideration”) – which is technically illegal according to Jerome Daly vs Minnesota. This is the system our country and, through the IMF, the entire WORLD, operates on. The original Tea Partiers, like Ron Paul, wanted to eliminate this system. They wanted to audit and dismantle the Federal Reserve just as Andrew Jackson dismantled the Central Bank of his day (and warned “never again”). Governments and peoples should not be continuously sliding further and further in debt to a small group of unelected bankers.
Second, the original Tea Party valued Free Market Capitalism, which means a fair market that self-regulates through competition. Sure they are for deregulation – something I have sort of a problem with – but they also recognized that it is not a “Free Market” if companies that abide by American standards are forced to compete against companies that don’t. American companies that must provide a decent wage and health care for their employees, manufacture here in America, and use American money for their overhead spend WAY more money than companies like Wal-Mart, who use Chinese money for their overhead yet get paid in American money. It’s sort of like playing “King of the Hill” against Mohammed Ali – sure, you can call it “competition,” but everybody knows better. Thus, the original Tea Party wanted to close our economic borders somewhat – it makes no sense to lose billions every year in trade deficits.
Third, the original Tea Party recognized that the enormous amount of spending that goes to support the “Military-Industrial Complex” is completely unacceptable. In a Twilight Zone where a hammer costs $800, the American taxpayer is funding over 46% of the entire PLANET’S military spending! The closest ANY country comes to our military is China, at 6.6% of the world’s military spending. That’s right – six percent opposed to FORTY-SIX. Check it out.
And where is all this money going, you ask? At a rate of over $8,000 per SECOND, our tax money is going to things like:
- $800 hammers and other frivolous waste
- Private contractors (mercenaries) such as Halliburton, Blackwater, etc.
- Wars which do not make us safer but make our mercenaries EXTREMELY RICH
- Funding “the enemies of my enemies” – in the past, this included funding for Saddam Hussein, the Shah in Iran, Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, a host of dictators in South America, and the list goes on and on.
The original Tea Partiers recognized that this is horrible, wasteful, deceptive, murderous, and downright stupid behavior. And as part of their pledge to limit federal government, they pledged to stop this stuff.
This is good stuff. You’d pretty much have to be a brainwashed lemming, or an out-and-out socialist, to not think so (my opinion).
And now… enter Sarah Palin and her NeoConservative crowd. All the sudden this is the face of the Tea Party.
Let me explain. It is INSANITY to say that NeoConservatives like Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, Phil Gramm, and the Bushes are ANYTHING like “real conservatives” or libertarians like Ron Paul. They’re two very different animals. Trickle-down economics is NOT a conservative idea. Pre-emptive war is NOT a conservative idea. Neither is cutting taxes during war. Neither is expanding the money given to a corporatist military-industrial complex.
Where the REAL Tea Party stands on these issues, the NeoConservatives who hijacked the movement are for the status quo. They are establishmentarians. See these two articles about how the base of the Tea Party is dissipating due to the shady politicians who have hijacked it.
http://firedoglake.com/2010/02/08/palin-drives-libertarians-out-of-tea-party/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/will-palin-and-the-neocon_b_456824.html
Here are examples.
- The new Tea Party movement yells about “fiscal sanity,” yet they support the pre-emptive Iraq war and even want to fight Iran and Argentina regardless of the consequences (ever heard of the SCO?). While they ask for more money for the military-industrial complex, they ask for HUGE tax breaks. If they want fiscal sanity and reduced debt, how are they going to finance their warmongering?
- The new Tea Party movement yells about a “Free Market,” yet they are not willing to close the trade deficits by enacting tariffs or doing anything meaningful about outsourcing. How are we going to have a “Free Market” in American if our competition is based in China?!
- The new Tea Party movement yells about “unsustainable debt,” but they have no politices aimed at combating the Federal Reserve, IMF, or fractional reserve idea. How can we get out of debt when supporting a system that operates BASED ON DEBT? They talk a good talk, but how are they going to get us there?
*******
Until there is a movement that is willing to make the STRUCTURAL changes we need, “Change” is an empty promise – whether you’re an Obama or a Palin. We’re not going to change a single meaningful thing by electing the Tea Party in November… we've got to the ROOT of the problem.
Don’t let their empty slogans fool you. Many tea partiers mock Obama’s “Hope” and “Change” slogans as empty promises (WHAT change? HOW will you go about making this change?), but are somehow unable to see past their own slogans (WHAT government will shrink? Will you cut the military? HOW will you go about getting out of debt?). You’ll find these new Tea Party people have good goals but no ideas for how to get there.
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Stand on your principles, but make sure they're supported by facts. The end.
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