FactThe Tea Party began after President Obama had won the presidential election of 2008 and was sworn into office in 2009. The Tea Party is NOT a political party like the Democratic, Republican or Libertarian parties are. The Tea Party is a movement of several different Tea Party groups like Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express and Tea Party Nation among many others both national and local. There is no central leader and no unified voice for the Tea Party. Members of the Tea Party are mostly Republican and the Tea Party endorses mostly Republican candidates in State and National political races.
The basic views / beliefs of the Tea Party include:
Reduced Government Spending.
Lower Taxes.
Reduction Of The National Debt.
Reduction Of Federal Budget Deficit.
Adhering To The Original Interpretation Of The United States Constitution.
FantasyOne of the many things the Tea Party is against is
The Affordable Care Act which passed in 2010. It is more commonly called
"Obamacare". It has also been called the "Job Killing", "Job Destroying" or "Job Crushing" Health Care Bill as the Republicans lead by new House Speaker John Boehner tried to repeal it with the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.", which thankfully failed.
The facts are The Affordable Care Act will actually increase the need for jobs in the healthcare profession as now millions of Americans that did not have or could not get health insurance before will now be able to get the care they need. Also there are no "Obamacare Cards" being issued to anybody because Obamacare is NOT a new healthcare company. The existing healthcare companies can expect an increase in revenues and profits as these millions of Americans get insured with them, which in turn means more jobs at healthcare companies processing these new insured members.
FactAnother thing the Tea Party is known for is calling President Obama a Socialist and stating the America is becoming a Socialist State. They do this without knowing exactly what Socialism means or does.
so·cial·ism
[soh-shuh-liz-uh m]–noun
1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2. procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/s...FantasyThe United States of America is not now, nor has it ever been a part of Socialism. There are no millionaire or billionaire socialists. There are no capitalists or entrepreneurs in Socialism either, both of which helped, and continue to build this country. Nor would a Tea Party be allowed to exist under a Socialist regime. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was NOT a Socialist because he proposed The
New Deal and created the
Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, which today is called Social Security.
The U.S. from the days of the founding fathers up to and during FDR's term was mostly
Isolationist. We did not get involved in foreign affairs and it took World War I and World War II to break the U.S. of its Isolationist polices, which changed forever on December 7th, 1941 when the U.S. officially entered WWII.
i·so·la·tion·ism
[ahy-suh-ley-shuh-niz-uh m, is-uh-]–noun
the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by avoiding foreign entanglements and responsibilities.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/i...OpinionIn my opinion, the Republican party USED the Tea Party for one thing only, to get back into power after losing the House, Senate and Presidency to the Democrats. The GOP needed an edge and they saw it in the Tea Party. In the 2010 Mid-Terms there were a few races were the Republicans sacrificed a regular GOP candidate to put in a Tea Party candidate, some of them won while others lost.
In Florida, Charlie Crist was kicked out of the Republican Party in favor of Marco Rubio in his run for the Senate. Crist was forced to run as an Independent and lost. In Alaska, Tea Party favorite Joe Miller won the primary, but lost to the incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski who ran as a Write In candidate in the general election.
The Republicans won the House back in 2010, but not the Senate. The Republicans in Congress have been fighting President Obama since 2008 and they stalled and filibustered nearly every piece of legislation that they were presented. Now the 112th Congress has a three way fight as GOP and Tea Party Republicans fight over control of the issues amongst themselves and the Democrats. This will make things interesting as we head towards the 2012 elections as the GOP Republicans start to distance themselves from the Tea Party Republicans and Tea Party as a whole.
I agree in principle with some of the Tea Party views. Who does not want lower taxes or feel that government spending, our budget and deficit are way out of control? If the Tea Party is to truly succeed it will need to distance itself from the people dressing up in colonial costumes at rallies. It will need to distance itself from the wingnuts like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. It will need to distance itself from the hatemongers like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck. If the Tea Party were to come together with a unified voice from intelligent, sane people it just might make the political impact they dearly want.
If not, the next two years will be a political E-Ticket Roller Coaster Ride with Americans screaming all the way until the train rolls into the station in November 2012. Keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times and hang on!