Extremist Tea Party - Follow up to previous blog

Like you didn't already know, but I am officially an extremist. Not by my extreme standards but by the NAACP. I'm reading their little story about the "Tea Party" (www.teapartynationalism.com) and all most all the pictures they have posted are extreme and I find inappropriate. I would have liked them sourced (date, tea party rally location) just so I know they are from actually TP rallies and not just other rallies. But I found one quote they used very mild so I must be extreme:

Donna Baker, a TPN member from Gainesboro, Tennessee, for example, wrote: “Yes, things ran quite well before the swarm of manipulated underclasses invaded our country. If they stayed home and made half the effort to change their country as they do marching our streets demanding our laws not be enforced, they could change their own lives. They are blindly being used and manipulated by other forces ... [they are] a huge burgeoning looming voting bloc.”

I don't believe things ran quite well before some date in this persons mind, but if these hard working people did change things back home, it might be a better place. I know that if my ancestors had also demanded better conditions I wouldn't be here either but my ancestors didn't expect this government to take care of them without assimilation.

Are real racists, homophobes and anti-Semites in the movement, yes just like there are communists in the white house (v.jones)

This report takes small incidents, bloggers and just a few photos out of thousands of rallies, millions of people and say they are all this way. I guess we all look the same to the NAACP.

1. Identify constitutionality of every new law: Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the U.S. Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)
2. Reject emissions trading: Stop the "cap and trade" administrative approach used to control carbon dioxide emissions by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide. (72.20%)
3. Demand a balanced federal budget: Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax modification. (69.69%)
4. Simplify the tax system: Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the Internal Revenue Code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words – the length of the original Constitution. (64.9%)
5. Audit federal government agencies for constitutionality: Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in an audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities. (63.37%)
6. Limit annual growth in federal spending: Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)
7. Repeal the health care legislation passed on March 23, 2010: Defund, repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (56.39%)
8. Pass an 'All-of-the-Above' Energy Policy: Authorize the exploration of additional energy reserves to reduce American dependence on foreign energy sources and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation. (55.5%)
9. Reduce Earmarks: Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)
10. Reduce Taxes: Permanently repeal all recent tax increases, and extend current temporary reductions in income tax, capital gains tax and estate taxes, currently scheduled to end in 2011. (53.38%)

Pouring everything into the ‘Tea Party’

In February 2009, Rick Santelli (CNBC) was reporting from the Chicago Exchange and called the stimulus plan government’s “Bad behavior” and mentioned a “Tea Party” protest (video). At the same time other movements were beginning in places like Seattle, WA. As these blogs got picked up by the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post things were set in motion and the April 15, 2009 tax day protest occurred in most of the 50 states.

The “movement” had identified mostly tax related and federal spending agenda items as it core reason to exist. A balanced budget, simplified tax system, limits on federal spending along with a rejection of health care legislation and “cap and trade” policies were and are at the center of the Tea Party.

However, everybody seems to pour their own beliefs into what they believe the ‘Tea Party’ stands for. If you are a progressive you see it as an “asto-turf” movement on cutting your pet projects in government. If you are a minority rights group you see it as a racist agenda organization that wants to take away the rights of “non-whites”. If only want to help the poor, they are against children and women, if you want to allow the tax cuts to sunset (as they will on Jan. 1^st, 2011) you see the party as being for the rich. Everyone who has an agenda seems to somehow dump that into the Tea Party. This includes Republicans who are spending money to incorporate or hijack the movement for their benefit. This cannot be allowed to happen

The ‘Tea Party’ isn’t even really a party, it is a movement without a center and that is the way it should be. Once it has actual leaders they can be corrupted by the other parties which will lead to its demise. There are parties running candidates but they are in individual states and are not a national organization nor should one be created.

Much like the premise of our constitution and our motto “E pluribus unum” (from many one) the ‘Tea Party’ movement must be grassroots and have a singular focus of limited government and yet be open to any candidate that believes in the same agenda.