I don’t know if it’s just me, but when did donning yourself with tea bags and dressing like Benjamin Franklin become acceptable beyond the drunken binges of a Halloween party?
In observing the current political landscape of our country, it seems all the more present that clear-minded progressive thought has been replaced by the insane babblings and backwards thinking of the Tea Party movement.
When the aptly named “Tea Party” found its roots in early 2009 there was a generally held skepticism about whether or not they wanted to be tied to any right or left wing agenda. However, with their growing radicalism, we see that this denial of political party allegiance is a myth, as the Tea Partiers align themselves with the rapacious neo-conservatism of the Republican Party.
Led by the ranting of Dick Armey and the ever-clueless Sarah Palin, the members of the Tea Party movement believe that they can solve our present problems by pining for the nostalgia of colonial-era America and thereby “take back our country.”
Senior Andrew Krywucki voiced his feelings on the Tea Party stating, “It’s a free country, and it is their right to express their feelings the way they want.”
Granted, our country is faced with an incredibly devastating recession and because of this, people have the right to lash out in ways that match their anger. But why do they lower their standards to levels of such mind-numbing idiocy in their attempt to voice their displeasure with the Obama administration? In trying to voice this displeasure they take a sixth-grade understanding of the Constitution and attempt to relate it to how modern government operates.
Among their complaints with the current administration is the belief that government is too big, that Obama is a socialist, and that healthcare coverage for our most deprived citizens is somehow a bad idea.
One of the many ridiculous yet effective tools of the Tea Party is to label any type of government assistance as “socialism.” With the assistance of Fox News, the Tea Party effectively spread their displeasure with the health-care reform bill as “Obama-Care” and “socialized medicine.” This incredibly cynical view of legislation is how they feel they can avoid government influence. Instead of opening their minds to the real issues of our country, they take the road of ignorance and refuse to understand how to solve such problems. Instead of labeling healthcare reform as foreign government hegemony let’s call it what it truly is – a progressive restructuring of our money-driven healthcare system that will work to cover the least affluent among us.
In refusing to change any notion of limited government policy, the Tea Party attempts to invoke the “lessons” and “morals” of our revolutionary colonial era at their painfully comedic rallies.
At Tea Party rallies you will most likely see people wielding signs demanding a return to the lives of our founding fathers. This belief is inherently illogical. The men who drafted the constitution were indeed products of The Enlightenment and would not want us to be held back by the restraints of the past.
The Tea Party however, would rather see us live as cynical Hamlets and live with the overarching fear of a lost father figure to guide us. Instead, we should find this leadership within ourselves and apply it to our modern problems and concerns. As such, we can hopefully avoid the call to “take our country back” and move it forward.
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