The Tea Party

“… and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

The current political playbook instructs readers that should you be a mindless incompetent who wishes to maintain your elected office, deflect examination of your record by turning the focus on a perceived greater threat to American democracy.

In short, spare no opportunity to demonize your political opponents’ as the cause for your incompetence, wrapping your arguments around such phrases as ‘crazy’, ‘unpatriotic’ and any other terminology that cannot be defended: the old canard of asking an opponent a question along the lines of when did they stop beating their wife?

It is that approach to political discourse that has framed the debates and discussions about the emergence of the Tea Party.

With all due respect to the members of that particular political faction, I believe that their rise as a political force has not been properly explained in a manner that can fit into conventional pop culture idiomatic form.

To wit:

The Tea Party of the 2010 elections are the Marx Brothers of their time.

This is not intended as a disparaging dismissal of the party, but rather a defense of their emergence to those who would dismiss them as merely an epithet.

The Marx Brothers, as opposed to their comedic contemporaries and progeny, did not choose to dismantle the societal norm; rather, they accepted the framework that was in place and simply acted within that given restriction. It is when by doing so that the entrenched interests took exception to their actions. They were not the revolutionaries looking to overthrow the status quo; they merely pointed out its absurdity by working within it.

This is where the Tea Party gets its strength and garners the harsh response by the political elite and their media flacks.

The congressional members elected as part of the Tea Party caucus did not undertake a military coup to obtain positions of power. They did not subjugate the United States Constitution; rather they directly followed it. They were legally placed on their respective ballots and by the electoral process rules in effect for all candidates won the election. There was no illegality, no subterfuge, no assault upon the Constitution.

So the question must be asked: what is the level of stagnation in the body politic when duly elected members of Congress can be ridiculed and labeled as crazy because they fairly brought their own ideology to government?

This is a dangerous trend that must be addressed by the American electorate. We must move beyond the entrenched two parties; the elevation to halls of power by the Tea Party is the definition that demonstrates that the nation has begun that necessary realignment away from an entrenched two party system.

Those who oppose the Tea Party have a simple solution – do what they did. If they can make a winning argument to win an election, that is American democracy in action.

Ridiculing the Tea Party is nothing more than a demonstration of ineptitude by their opponents.

Those who garner more votes win elections and are awarded the custodial and temporary positions pf power.

It is as simple as that

Let Freedom ring!