Are you happy with American democracy? According to a recent poll on CNN over half of you aren’t. And after listening to the Health Care Summit in Washington today I’m not either. Here’s why: it seems everyone can agree that our health care system is wack, it’s been wack for a while now, and we can’t do anything about it. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought one of the glories of democracy was that if a majority of the people feel something isn’t working right they have the capacity to change it.
Apparently in modern America that’s just not the case. And people are angry. The most vocal group is the ridiculous Tea Party.
This “Tea Party” thing is actually pretty interesting. When I first heard about it I was quick to dismiss it as some dumbshit redneck group. Especially after all the Foxnews rapture and astroturf talk, I thought “there is no way this will grow into anything. But after this year’s CPAC it seems to be heading that way.
Because it’s a movement dammit! It’s democracy, it’s people fighting for a cause, and it’s been boiling under the surface for a long time. It’s been boiling in all of us, in our dissatisfaction with the way the world is operating.
What really sucks is that this sort of thing is quickly politicized, and this politicization immediately draws it up out of the pure desire for something better and plops it into the arena of sleaze, of popularity, of the cable news cycle, and it’s quickly tainted.
If it could stay pure and hopeful, if it could speak to some basic human desire, then people from across the political spectrum could join in, but instead you’ve got people like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck latching on.
And because it has become political, it is less righteous and more dangerous. These people are fairly extreme in some of their views, some of which are culturally conservative, and the more the media disregards the Tea Party, the more people write it off as fringe movement full of crazies, the more its members are justified, not just feel justified but are actually justified, in their fight.
And yeah, the whole movement is hyper hypocritical in its positions, but we’re all hypocrites in lots of areas in our lives. Be that as it may, it would be cool if there were some way to bridge the divide between the Tea Party and the liberals who feel disenfranchised over the state of things. I’m pessimistic about any real revolutionary change, but if there was ever a time for it seems like now is as good as any.
If the Tea Party could just boil its message down to a more basic level, below the politics, and have some key points it might actually be productive:
- Smaller Government (Especially less government intrusion in day to day life/a libertarian slant)
- Lowering the national debt
- Energy Independence
- States Rights (Let liberal states be liberal, let conservative states be conservative
- Campaign finance reform
- Extremely limited special interest influence
- A commitment to take the government back from big business and put it in the hands of citizens
A cool ticket would be a Tea Party candidate and someone like Ralph Nadar, or like a Ron Paul Dennis Kucinich ticket.
What sucks is that a big part of the Tea Party’s platform and momentum is a massive opposition to everything Obama, which plays right into Republican’s political wishes (and their politicians don’t really want anything to change, they just want to be back in power: see the George W. presidency).
The ultimate task would be to boil a message down to something below political ideology, something purely human that people could rally around despite differences in things like abortion and gay rights and welfare and other supercharged issues. Those things would take care of themselves, especially if you allow states to decide for themselves what they want (although I really think it’s preposterous that gays are still not equal citizens (I’ll save it for another post)).
If all the liberal groups just blindly oppose the Tea Party, then the cycle will keep getting worse. The liberals have got to take a proactive stance on it and find common ground on the most important issues. Namely:
- What do we ultimately want from our government?
- What are the fundamental flaws in the system and how can they be addressed and then remedied?
I think we should have sent an ambassador to the Tea Party convention and extended a peace-offering. Click the link below to hear my impromptu speech, and let me know what you think.
I’m liking your blog. You are obviously giving some serious thought to some serious stuff. Your degree is serving you well.
Haha thanks Mindy. I don’t know about the degree serving anything well (although it sure was fun getting it) but I appreciate the complement.
Interesting thoughts, but I do not know if the Democrats would be welcome. I think if Ron Paul were still in charge of the movement a bipartisan solution could be possible. However, with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin in charge I am worried about the Tea Party devolving into a form of populist authoritarian power. The origins of the Tea Party are shockingly similar to the emergence of the extremist Jacobins groups like the Montagnards. In fact, the rhetoric of many of the Tea Party leaders reminds me of Robespierre. I understand the discontent with the current political system but getting one monster to fight another is a recipe for disaster.
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