The Solipsistic Tea Party

The Tea Party movement seems extraordinarily self-centered, selfish, self-interested and self-absorbed. Such an attitude could ruin everything we have thought of as America!
by Charlie Leck

My word of the day came through from Dictionary.com this morning – solipsism – and I found it interesting. It kept coming back to me as I sat back to read through the New York Times and then the Washington Post. The Tea Party movement would destroy Medicare and Medicaid and bring an eventual end to Social Security.

Word of the Day for Monday, October 14, 2013

solipsism \ SOL-ip-siz-uhm\, noun
   1. Philosophy. The theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
   2. Extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires, etc.;
       egoistic self-absorption

America has been great and unique because it has cared!
There is no doubt that America has been a unique nation among the nations of earth. Over the years, others have followed America’s shining example. Now, many of those nations watch in wonder as the Tea Party tries to reshape America into something far different than the words engraved in the interior of Lady Liberty.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

The quotation was taken from an 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus (The New Colossus).

France presented the remarkable statue to us as a gift. It was a response to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The French had been inspired by Lincoln’s courage and his tenacity and his utter belief that all men should be free and a part of the great dream that is America.

But now, the new far-right conservatives in America wish to attack the entitlement programs. Rather than viewing those who are not full participants in America’s wealth as “tempest-tossed,” they see them as dead-beats. What the Tea Party wants for America is frightening and revolutionary!

I have always felt it is the duty of the fortunate to help those who are less so. Now, the Tea Party members are rightfully going to cry out about those who are “dead beats” and “criminal” who are getting “helped” by the system. That complaint is justified, but it is one thing to arrange the system so that such people are cut out and quite another thing to cut out everyone because of those types.

America is unique! Long may it be such!

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What the Right Wing in America Really Wants

Bernie Sanders is an independent U.S. Senator from Vermont. He is one of my everlasting heroes (my paladin) and always will be. If I want the truth on an issue, I turn to Bernie.
by Charlie Leck

There are an awful lot of people out there who are supporting the actions of the right-wing of the Republican Party. I’m fully aware that they do not know what they are doing and they don’t understand what this very radical political movement really wants to do.

Here’s a video of what Bernie Sanders recently said about just this subject. I pulled it from his Facebook page… (be sure to follow Bernie on Facebook).

“The truth is that the current government shutdown and the willingness of right-wing Republican extremists to default on the U.S. debt for the first time in American history is part of a right-wing ideological agenda which goes far beyond defunding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

“The Koch brothers, and their billionaire allies, want to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the E.P.A, the concept of the minimum wage and virtually every federal program passed during the last 80 years designed to protect the well-being of working people, the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor. Everyone should understand that their long-term goal is to move this country into an oligarchic form of society where the political and economic life of the nation is controlled by a handful of extremely wealthy families.”

 

Watch Bernie on a recent MSNBC interview discussing these issues.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on MSNBC with Thomas Roberts --
Will govt. shutdown become financial meltdown
www.youtube.com

When I read some of the things that a number of my Facebook friends say about their support of the radical right movement in American politics, it really frightens me. The changes this movement wants to bring about it America will be very far reaching and will have a dire impact on so very many people! Oh, my! Medicare, Social Security and the environment would be in big trouble under their plan. So would many other institutions we simply take for granted in America these days. Please try harder to understand what these fellows (like the Koch brothers) want for America. I find it hard to believe it is what you want!

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America’s Poor Reading and Math Skills

American adults perform poorly when measured against adults from other leading economic nations in math and reading skills!
by Charlie Leck

How do American adults (aged 16-65) do when compared with like adults from 21 other nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDC)?

Jack Buckley said we are “weaker in numeracy and problem-solving skills than in literacy, and average U.S. scores for all three are below the international average and far behind the scores of top performers like Japan or Finland.” Buckley is a commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (part of the Department of Education) here in America.

My curiosity was alerted. Was the American sample made up of members of the current U.S. Congress?

Getting serious for a half-second, this kind of international study should worry us. The story about it in the Washington Post is very brief. You can read it here!

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How the Tea Party Works

Don’t have misconceptions about the Tea Party. They are not a sweet, innocent bunch of idealistic constitutionalists. They play as dirty as the dirtiest politicians.
by Charlie Leck

U.S. Senator Rand Paul got caught speaking near an open mike a week or so ago. (Don’t ever open your mouth to say anything private when you are near a microphone. That should be rule #1 in politics.) Well, here’s what that microphone caught Rand Paul, U.S. Tea Party Senator from Kentucky, saying to U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell…

“I just did CNN. I just go over and over again: ‘We’re willing to compromise, we’re willing to negotiate… I don’t think they’ve poll-tested. We won’t negotiate.”

I don’t think I need say more. We are in an era of deceitful politics and some of those politicians who want to appear to be the most idealistic and principled are some of the most deceitful ones.

You see, the Tea Party can not win votes in the principled and traditional manner; i.e., in votes on the floor of the House or Senate. So, they turn to other ways that amount to national blackmail – like holding up the nation during a shut down – like threatening to bankrupt the nation by not providing a manner in which it can pay its debts.

The Tea Party sucks and stinks…
and I don’t know how long it is going to take some people to see and understand this. The members of this crazy political party are not sweet, little innocent citizens with lily-white reputations and histories. They are, in many cases, as nasty a politicians as one can find. Their goal is to tell the majority within this democracy to be damned because they plan to get what they want even though they are a small minority with danged-little backing.

It’s time to stop giving them any respect; and it’s time to send them packing.

Reading recommendation…
I recommend E.J. Dionne’s column in the Washington Post, “Shutdown: The tea party’s last stand!” [click here to read it] You might want to hold your nose as you read.

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Blame it on Boehner

The Tea Party is a nasty force in American politics, but it is small and can’t prohibit significant legislation from being passed when the traditional Republicans and Democrats work together on important matters!
by Charlie Leck

I won’t go on and on here. I’ll lay it out plainly. John Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is to blame for the mess we are in now. Had he allowed a vote last week on spending, the budget and extending our line of credit, things would now be solved. There were enough Republicans and Democrats in agreement in the House that they would have passed something that the Senate would have found acceptable.

The Speaker holds great power in the House and he would not allow such a vote to take place. He thinks he can use this crisis to beat the President over the head enough that he’ll get significant compromises out of the White House. He won’t!

End it Mr. Speaker! Get it over with now. Stop using the Tea Party to achieve your petty goals.

If you want more details, here’s an article that appears in this morning’s Washington Post that details just how Boehner could do this… “Boehner could end the shutdown now, but he’s got his eyes on a bigger threat!”

Here’s an observation made by Robert Costa of the National Review…

“I think John Boehner is frustrated by leading the Republicans in the House, but I think he very much loves being speaker. To understand him you have to understand that. … He loves being a major American political figure, but he’s not a Newt Gingrich-like figure trying to lead the party in a certain direction. He’s just trying to survive and enjoy it while it lasts.”

We should have hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of emails going to John Boehner, telling him to end the shutdown. Ways to contact him, including email and a toll-free telephone number, are listed here.

In yesterday's blog I provided a list of those members of Congress who affiliate themselves with the Tea Party.

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Do Not Embarrass Us!

It is difficult to expect much from a congressperson these days, so I keep my expectations very low; yet, in this congress, even those lowest hopes are no longer met. My simplest hope was that Congress would not embarrass us!
by Charlie Leck

My post on Facebook this morning was short and sweet. It was a quotation from the poet, e.e. cummings…

“a politician is an arse upon
which everyone has sat except a man”

Know that an arse is defined by dictionary.com as…

arse or ass
   1. the buttocks
   2. the anus
   3. a stupid person; fool
   4. sexual intercourse
   5. effrontery; cheek

“get one’s arse into gear…” …to start to do something seriously and quickly

The same dictionary reference, under its “word origin and history” reminds us also of the expression first attested in the 1530s…

arsy-versy or “backside foremost”

Today’s Congress, I would therefore proclaim, is acting very arsy-versy!

OMG
How can one say any but stupid things about this Congress? It is such an embarrassment.

e pluribus unum
(the Roman poet, Virgil)

“one out of many”

The entire Congress should be formally censured. Under such a procedure all the representatives of Congress would be lined up in front of the entirety of the American people as a formal condem-nation of their actions and behavior is read aloud. Then it should be demanded that, because of this censure, none of the congressional representatives be allowed to run for federal office again.

The Tea Party Congresspersons…
Here’s a list of the representatives and senators in Congress who have, in one way or another, indicated they are members of the Tea Party movement. These are the folks who are mainly responsible for the shutdown of our government.

Representative Sandy Adams, Florida

Representative Robert Aderholt, Alabama

Representative Rodney Alexander, Louisiana

Representative Justin Amash, Michigan

Representative Michele Bachmann, Minnesota

Representative Joe Barton, Texas

Representative Kerry Bentivolio, Michigan

Representative Gus Bilirakis, Florida

Representative Rob Bishop, Utah

Representative Diane Black, Tennessee

Representative Paul Broun, Georgia

Representative Michael Burgess, Texas

Senator Richard Burr, North Carolina

Representative Dan Burton, Indiana

Representative Quico Canseco, Texas

Representative Eric Cantor, Virginia

Representative John Carter, Texas

Representative Bill Cassidy, Louisiana

Representative Jason Chaffetz, Utah

Representative Howard Coble, North Carolina

Senator Tom Coburn, Oklahoma

Representative Ander Crenshaw, Florida

Senator Ted Cruz, Texas

Representative John Culberson, Texas

Representative Jeff Denham, California

Representative Charlie Dent, Pennsylvania

Representative Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee

Representative Jeff Duncan, South Carolina

Representative Blake Farenthold, Texas

Representative Stephen Fincher, Tennessee

Representative John Fleming, Louisiana

Representative Virginia Foxx, North Carolina

Representative Trent Franks, Arizona

Representative Cory Gardner, Colorado

Representative Phil Gingrey, Georgia

Representative Louie Gohmert, Texas

Representative Paul Gosar, Arizona

Representative Trey Gowdy, South Carolina

Representative Ralph Hall, Texas

Representative Andrew Harris, Maryland

Representative Vicky Hartzler, Missouri

Representative Tim Huelskamp, Kansas

Representative Randy Hultgren, Illinois

Representative Lynn Jenkins, Kansas

Representative Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania

Representative Steve King, Iowa

Representative Raúl R. Labrador, Idaho

Representative Doug Lamborn, Colorado

Representative James Lankford, Oklahoma

Senator Mike Lee, Utah

Representative Billy Long, Missouri

Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer, Missouri

Representative Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming

Representative Thomas Massie, Kentucky

Representative Kenny Marchant, Texas

Representative Tom McClintock, California

Representative David McKinley, West Virginia

Representative Patrick Meehan, Pennsylvania

Representative Gary Miller, California

Senator Jerry Moran, Kansas

Representative Mick Mulvaney, South Carolina

Representative Randy Neugebauer, Texas

Representative Rich Nugent, Florida

Representative Steven Palazzo, Mississippi

Senator Rand Paul, Kentucky

Representative Ron Paul, Texas

Representative Ted Poe, Texas

Representative Tom Price, Georgia

Representative Rich Nugent, Florida

Representative Trey Radel, Florida

Representative Phil Roe, Tennessee

Representative Dennis Ross, Florida

Representative Ed Royce, California

Representative Matt Salmon, Arizona

Representative Mark Sanford, South Carolina

Representative Steve Scalise, Louisiana

Representative David Schweikert, Arizona

Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina

Representative Pete Sessions, Texas

Representative Adrian Smith, Nebraska

Representative Lamar Smith, Texas

Representative Steve Southerland, Florida

Representative Cliff Stearns, Florida

Senator Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania

Representative David Vitter, Louisiana

Representative Tim Walberg, Michigan

Representative Lynn Westmoreland, Georgia

Representative Joe Wilson, South Carolina

Representative Ted Yoho, Florida

Representative Todd Young, Indiana

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Your Government is Closed!

On the first day of a national health care program in America (the Affordable Health Care Act), your government has closed its doors. Thanks to the Tea Party. May they all get thrown dramatically out of office.
by Charlie Leck

In a year, election campaigns will be at their height. Congressional Representatives and U.S. Senators will be asking for your vote. I beg you to remember this day. If you have a Tea Party politician campaigning in your district or state, give them the boot. Work hard to defeat them! Get involved!

Don’t forget – in spite of what they now say (and will be saying next year) – they are the buggers who shut our government down again! They do not deserve to be serving in Congress!

Michele Bachmann will not be running again. With all the scandal in her background now she wouldn’t have stood a chance. Let’s make sure someone like her does not come out of the 6th district just over here to my west a mile or so. Tom Emmer, who is as bad as Bachmann, will try for the seat. Don’t let him have it. There is plenty of scandal smearing Emmer’s reputation also. The Sixth District deserves reasonable representation.

We have got to establish a reasonable Congress again. I don’t care if it is controlled by Republicans or Democrats. I just want reasonable and fair men and women to serve us in every part of America.

I recommend David Gerson's column in today's Washington Post: The Tea Party's Revolt Against Reality.

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