Why the Tea Party Will Fail
Tea Party Protester Apr. 1, 2010
Tea Party Protester Apr. 1, 2010
The Tea Partiers will fail because for them to succeed we would need to shred the US Constitution and start over. That would require a revolution, and that’s not going to happen.
You just have to examine what they stand for. They claim to be strict constitutionalists, but they can’t stop screaming that what Democrats are doing is unconstitutional – against the will of the people.
The Tea Partiers must have forgotten that Democrats won two elections – one in 2006 and another one in 2008.
Obama and Congressional Democrats campaigned on health care reform. So it’s disingenuous for the Tea Partiers to now claim that Democrats are defying the will of the people by pursuing the agenda that they campaigned on.
In a representative republic, the people’s will is determined by elections and not protests – just ask liberals who rallied by the tens of thousands to stop the Iraq war in 2003.
But if the Tea Partiers have their way, no matter who gets elected, a radical right-wing agenda must be adhered to. If not, bricks will be thrown, guns will be drawn, politicians spat on and death threats – thinly-veiled and otherwise – will be hurled.
The problem with the Tea Party is that they have no faith or respect for our democracy. They seem to not realize that when liberals win elections, they have not only a right, but an obligation, to implement the agenda that they campaigned on.
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for more on why the tea party will eventually collapse on itself and Palin:
http://democratdeal.blogspot.com/2010/03/carnage-along-path-rise-and-fall-of-tea.html
“Obama and Congressional Democrats campaigned on health care reform.”
Great point!
Obama and Congressional Democrats did NOT campaign on the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, Gatoraid, backroom deals with BigPharma…or the individual mandate. In fact, Obama campaigned against the individual mandate.
ObamaCare is not the health care reform Americans had in mind when Democrats were campaigning in 2008.
The problem with the left is that the left has no respect for the Constitution…the very document through which the people loan their power to the president and Congress.
BTW…our government is not a Democracy, it’s a Republic.
The US is democratically elected representative republic.
As for the special deals, most of those, if not all of them, were scrapped. But even if they weren’t, the reality of the imperfect political process seeps in once the campaigning is over.
And you’re right, the health care reform that passed was not the single-payer Medicare-for-all that those who voted for Obama wanted. However, like I said, once the campaigns are over, what is possible to accomplish is limited by the imperfect political process that our representatives in Congress and the White House have to work within.
As for your assertion that the left has no respect for the Constitution, I’ll need something more than a vague accusation devoid of any facts to back it up.
I think the people who have no respect for the Constitution are those who say that Obama’s a communist and liberals have no business governing after winning two consecutive elections (2006 & 2008).
The constitution sets up our form of government, if you don’t like it, then you should seek to overthrow the government and set up something different, otherwise deal with the fact that conservatives lost the last two elections and progressives won them. Get over it. If you can win back control of the government in Nov., you can run the government.
“As for your assertion that the left has no respect for the Constitution, I’ll need something more than a vague accusation devoid of any facts to back it up.”
Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2iiirr5KI8&feature=player_embedded
This isn’t just a question of who wins elections and who runs the government. The more important issue is how the winners govern. Elections never authorize Congress to disregard or abuse the Constitution.
If the left is not constrained in any meaningful way by the Constitution, it’s accurate to say that the left does not respect the Constitution.
Both sides of the aisle claim the other side is violating the constitution when the other side wins. Liberals did that when Bush was in office and now the right is doing that with the Dems in charge. I’m not going to argue that with you because it’s pointless.
When Democrats win – Democrats get to govern.
When Republicans win – Republicans get to govern.
The unconstitutional argument is just not specific enough to warrant any serious debate – it’s an attempt by one side to completely invalid the other side with one stroke. You need to argue specific policies and not abstract ideas.
[...] wishful thinking from a Tea Party hater: The Tea Partiers will fail because for them to succeed we would need to shred the US [...]
“You need to argue specific policies and not abstract ideas.”
Here’s one specific point:
Forcing citizens to purchase a service. And to top it off, most will end up purchasing that service from the Government.
Well then we should get rid of Social Security, Medicare, Federal Income Tax. We’re all forced to shell out money to the federal gov’t to pay for things that we all don’t agree with. People who are opposed to war, are forced to pay for it.
The only way to solve this problem, according to your argument, is to get rid of the federal gov’t. You can’t have a federal gov’t, but then have it only do what you, as an individual want it to do. It’s called collective action – some people have are forced to do things they’d rather not do. Deal with it or overthrow the government, but to pretend like it’s unconstitutional because you don’t like it, is intellectually dishonest.
“The problem with the Tea Party is that they have no faith or respect for our democracy.”
Lesson:
This is not a Democracy. This is a republic.
More accurately it’s a democratically elected representative republic.
Democrats won. Democrats get to govern, regardless of the pols and the screeching from the Teabaggers.
“But if the Tea Partiers have their way, no matter who gets elected, a radical right-wing agenda must be adhered to. If not, bricks will be thrown, guns will be drawn, politicians spat on and death threats”
Oh please. This from someone who probably admire Ayers and Dhorn.
Bobs, is your Ayers reference directed at Liberals or Tea Partiers, because it’s the Tea Partiers that are acting like terrorists? So many on the right are so alarmingly confused by reality.
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