Tea Party ain’t no Party!

Be sure you understand, because the name they have chosen tends to fool one, that the Tea Party is not a political party and, because of the nature of political parties, never will be.
by Charlie Leck

Somewhere along the way the Republicans – that is, the pure and original type Republicans – have come to realize that the Tea Party is not a division of, or a part of, the Republican Party. And, with this knowledge in-hand, they have begun to declare their independence from Tea Partiers. Now the Republican Party is seeking to find its way back to a position of strength and credibility.

And I have come to realize that the Tea Party isn’t really a political party. Knowing this makes it easier to understand the Tea Party; and this calms some of the fears I had about it. Now I realize that the Tea Party’s big moment is past. It has already reached its pinnacle and it is now plummeting back down to some realistic place as a “once was movement” in American politics.

What is a political party?
One needs to understand the nature of a political party to see why the Tea Party isn’t one. I’ve been quite significantly involved in party politics since 1968. Comically, it was a rebellion against the sitting and contented Democratic Party that brought me into it. No need to tell the story here. It is enough to tell you that I was elected the Democratic Party chairman of a ward on the southside of Minneapolis and as a delegate to the state convention of the Democratic Party. In those two positions I began to understand what political parties really were and why they exist.

Political parties make sense and, I believe, that they should be seen as essentially necessary. Edmund Burke (1729-1797) played a significant role in founding the contemporary political party system in America. For not a second did Burke believe that parties could be perfect instruments. However, he did believe that parties could encourage a certain level of cooperation among people with common goals (key word is common). He thought they would encourage political leadership to rise above their own interests and factional interests to work for a common good through agreed upon and realistic strategies.

In the biography by Jesse Norman, Burke is depicted as a man of great political strength who believed government could be held to account by organized political parties. Yet, Burke also realized that such parties should never become overly partisan. If they did, Burke felt that they would then fail to understand the broader public interests that were at stake and they would lose their power.

Using Burke’s concept as a means to define political party puts the contemporary Tea Party outside that definition. The Tea Party, which began as a more open libertarian movement, has grown to be a closed and completely doctrinally partisan organization. In other words, there is no room within the Tea Party for dissenters and non-believers. This doctrine, however, does not match that of the standard Republican Party.

I came into the politics as part of a very strong protest movement against the War in Vietnam. In some sense, there was an idea that we could take over the Democratic Party and force it to view the war as we did. Instead, because our convictions were so singularly partisan, we merely split the party, weakened it and allowed for the 1968 election of Richard Nixon (over Hubert Humphrey) to the presidency. This, of course, as seen through the eyes of unbiased historians, was a disaster for America that set us off course for a couple of decades.

It is the kind of thing that the Tea Party is now doing to America. We will see some of the results of this in yesterday’s election results…

I need to make these notes… In Virginia, working on the gubernatorial campaign of his good friend, Terry McAuliffe, Bill Clinton recently said: “There are more of us who believe that working together is better than constant conflict.” That is the basis for the political party system. It clearly defines the nature of a political party. And Clinton has proven himself one of the most insightful commentators in the world on politics and politicians.

McAuliffe won big in Virginia yesterday because Virginia has a seriously weaken Republican Party, which use to be the majority party in the state. It no longer is by a long shot and isn’t even when one combines the party regulars with members of the Tea Party. And, the Tea Party is clearly responsible for this significant damage to the Virginia GOP. It is happening elsewhere.

In New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie easily won reelection. This in a state where only 38 percent of voters favor the Republican brand of politics. The Washington Post says this is “much more about the Chris Christie brand than the Republican brand.” It is true that Christie has kept himself clear of association with less than moderate Republicans.

Even in Alabama, a Tea Party candidate in a congressional primary lost out to a Republican moderate last night. The moderate Bradley Byrne defeat the Tea Party backed Dean Young. It provides significant insight to what is happening in American politics.

[As the day goes on, I’ll add more relevant examples – if there are any – from yesterday’s election results as they become known.]

What the Republican Party is discovering is that it needs more moderate voices and less intolerant, loud, boisterous and radically conservative voices.

A political party without a clear and reasonably common goal is not really a political party.

The Tea Party is a renegade movement and not a true political party. It is similar to the Eugene McCarthy movement of 1968. To this day, I believe the McCarthy movement was correct in its ideology back then, but it failed to establish itself in politics because it did not allow debate, discussion and compromise on its issues. It was only a very short time before I was eased out of my position as ward chairman and state delegate (and I can now see why). The Democratic Party had to return to its more lenient and flexible roots or die. Were we McCarthyites responsible for Hubert Humphrey’s election loss? Yes! We were obstinate and inflexible and clearly indicated it was our way or no way. We got no way!

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What the Tea Party Really Is!

The last few weeks have been very difficult. They even became dangerous at times. If, however, we learn from this experience about what the Tea Party really is, the agony the nation was put through will be worth it.
by Charlie Leck

Goofy Senator Ted Kruz (Texas) decried the Republican U.S. Senators. He said they were “like an Air Force bombing its own troops.”

Kruz’s error is that he thinks he is a part of the traditional Republican Party. In fact, he is not. He chose to align himself with the Tea Party and that is an entirely different animal than traditional Republicans.

Americans must learn from this lesson. When they vote for Tea Party candidates, they are voting for right-wing extremists who have nothing to do with the traditional political entities. The true Republican Party is a party of conservative moderation. The goals make some sense and are worthy consideration and debate; and, those debates can be rational and sensible (even polite and considerate).

The Tea Party has been exposed in the last three weeks for what it is – for what it really is. I hope Americans can see this.

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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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When Republicans Are In Charge

     Photo by Van Winkle Law Firm

      (www.vwlawfirm.com)

North Carolina is one of my favorite states and places to visit
I’ve had extraordinary fun in Raleigh, Charlotte, Camden,
Columbus, Ashville and Pinehurst. The 2014 U.S. Open Golf
Championship will be played at Pinehurst’s wonderful #2
course. I had planned to attend. In protest, I think I won’t go.

Let us consider an example of what happens when this new brand of Republicans are in charge and then ask ourselves two questions: (1) Could it happen on a national basis if Republicans were in total charge? (2) Could it happen in my state if Republicans were in total charge?
by Charlie Leck

At this point, ideally, you should go read this NY Times editorial, The Decline of North Carolina, that appeared in this powerful and famous newspaper on 10 July 2013; however, since many of you will not want to, I'll summarize the important editorial for you…

A significant number of people in North Carolina have begun observing “Moral Monday.” These people gather on Mondays to demonstrate and protest “the grotesque damage that a new Republican majority has been doing to a tradition of caring for the least fortunate.”

You know, conservatives – especially conservative politicians – like to talk about honoring American traditions. One of the great ones, it seems to me, is our nation’s willingness to care for those who are down and nearly out.

I think conservative Republicans have forgotten this tradition. Oh, my! Not all Republicans. I know some of the best of them – men and women who are true to real conservative core values but who also deeply believe is caring for those in our society who are less fortunate and unable to climb up on the big, steady American bandwagon that moves toward success and comfortable lives.

The realistic understand that there will always be a segment of society that has not been fortunate – that is down on its luck – that has encountered serious set-backs – that has failed in ways that are not due to a failure to try. It may be what Jesus meant when he is quoted in the scriptures as saying, “The poor we shall always have with us!”

There are a large number of people in North Carolina who fear that their state is forgetting this. Certainly, the state’s legislative body seems to have forgotten a deep, abiding tradition to care for the less fortunate. The NY Times editorial says…

“But the bad news keeps on coming from the Legislature, and pretty soon a single day of the week may not be enough to contain the outrage.”

Republicans control both the executive and the legislative branches of government in North Carolina, giving them free hand to do pretty much what they want in terms of legislation. The NY Times describes what’s happening down there as “a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.”

Here is what the Republican Party has done in North Carolina and what it could do in state after state in the south and eventually in the conservative states in the north; and this would create such havoc in blue states that its expenses would rise uncontrollably as people flock into them to escape a brand of politics that I can only call unAmerican.

Last week North Carolina ended unemployment benefits for 70,000 of its residents. In a short while they will end them for 100,000 more. The remaining North Carolinians on unemployment will have their checks cut by a third. Unemployment in North Carolina is the fifth highest in the nation. It was the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce that convinced the legislature to do this.

Then the North Carolina legislature has weakened an already shaky education system and, in the long run, that will only hurt any recovery from the high unemployment rates that North Carolina is experiencing. Teacher pay is falling dramatically in North Carolina. The state legislature wants to remove all limits on class sizes. Many are predicting that a teacher exodus will follow. So, of course, will the quality of education in that state.

·         The legislature in North Carolina repealed the Racial Justice Act.

·         They refused to expand Medicaid.

·         The look to reduce taxes on the wealthy while raising it on all others.

·         The state senate in North Carolina has voted to close all the state’s abortion clinics. The House is looking at it. The Governor will sign it.

·         The legislature wants to, and probably will, impose voter identification laws and cut back on early voting (while many states are moving to expand such voting). It’s protection insurance for all ultra-conservatives.

Remember?
It was not many years ago that progressives were taking note and hope in North Carolina’s acts of compassion, thinking this state might become a beacon for the entire south. Now comes the dismantling of all that hope.

Take note!
This is what Republican conservatives like Tom Emmer and Michel Bachmann support. Off-hand, casually, they will say they don’t, but an examination of their campaign comments and their voting records will show they do.

This is what could happen nationally with Tea Party types in charges. America could be dragged down into the ditches of despair and disrepair.

This is the kind of politics the horrible Koch Brothers fund.

America, beware!

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[UPDATE] The Texas State House of Representatives has approved, on strictly party lines, a new abortion bill. The State Senate could vote on it sometime on Friday. The new law would ban abortions after 20 weeks and only allow abortions in surgical centers.…

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Why Do We Put Up with these Tea Partiers?

Meet a U.S. Congressman as loony as Michele Bachmann if you can believe that…
by Charlie Leck

Take Louie Gohmert if you will… Please! (a little line stolen from the extraordinary, late Henny Youngman)

New York Times writer Timothy Egan brought Louis Gohmert to my attention [read the Egan column]. This slightly off-kilter fellow is this U.S. Congressman from Texas (figures), and he is really strange, strange, strange! It never stops him from getting reelected because his constituency either admires him or thinks he’s comical enough to keep around. Indeed, Gohmert is one of the strangest ducks in the current Congress and one of the most outlandish and eccentric ever to hold such office. Currently serving his fifth term in the House, representing a geographically huge district on the eastern border of Texas, Congressman Gohmert seems remarkably unbeatable.

Gohmert is a graduate of Texas A&M University and has a law degree from Baylor University, eventually appointed by the state’s governor, Rick Perry, to serve as Chief Justice of the 12^th Court of Appeals. He’s also a U.S. Army veteran who rose to the rank of captain. He’s a good, old Southern Baptist who has served as both a deacon and sunday school teacher in his church.

In Congress, Representative Gohmert serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. He refers to himself as “a no nonsense” sort of guy.

I take a deep breath, shake my head, and wonder how Texas can keep producing such characters – guys with such spectacularly stupid ideas. It is because of guys like Gohmert that I am so nervous about ever visiting Texas. However, when you think about it, there are probably plenty of Texans who say the same thing about Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Minnesota. And, I must admit, they have a point! For, you see, Gohmert and Bachmann make quite a pair

As a cute aside, Gohmert plays on the red-uniformed Republican congressional baseball team as – you got it – a right fielder. It takes this assignment very seriously. During one game he tore his ACL in a collision with the Democratic Party’s catcher as he tried to reach home and score.

Get this!
Gohmert actually wants to make the following a rule of Congress: No Republican can vote for a congressional bill that has not received the support of a majority of the Republican Congressional Caucus. I mean it! He said it! Now, how is that for not voting your own conscience? Don’t we have enough problems getting things passed in Congress already? It’s crazy! Not for Gohmert.

Yet, the very same man has been heard to say: “If you ever stand alone and make people mad like I have, you have tremendous respect for people who do that?”

Err! What? Put together, the last two paragraphs don’t make sense!

Obama influenced by Muslim Brotherhood!
On April 25 of this year, the Huffington Post published a quotation from Gohmert that knocked the socks off a lot of folks [you can see the video of the statement here]: “This administration has so many Muslim Brotherhood members, uhh, that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for America.”

Oh, my! This guy was an appeals court judge in Texas! Wouldn’t you just love having him decide a case you’ve brought to the court? Honest to God! (I mean it!)

Gun Control and Bestiality
Representative Gohmert actually (I mean – actually) linked gun control to bestiality. Recently he was speaking on the limit of gun magazines and blurted out…

“And I point out, well, once you make it 10, then why would you draw the line at 10? What’s wrong with 9? Or 11? And the problem is once you draw that limit – it’s kind of like marriage when you say it’s not a man and a woman anymore, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not somebody who has a love for an animal?... There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate the traditional marriage, and it’s the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used, then it’s just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal.”

And I’ve been running around saying that Michele Bachmann is the craziest member of the U.S. Congress. Sorry, Ms. Bachmann! I really am! You’re now the second craziest.

The parking ticket flap!
A month or so ago, Representative Gohmert got a parking ticket for leaving his car in a spot reserved for National Park Service vehicles only! He became extremely upset about the ticket and went off on a rude rant. There’s actually a chance that Gohmert was improperly ticketed on that occasion (afterall, he’s a member of House Natural Resources Committee that oversees the parks), but displaying his temper and insulting park services employees just wasn’t the kind of thing a normal person does. It’s more like what Michele Bachmann would do!

With one more week of bombing, we could have won in Vietnam!
Really! He said it! A real student of history and war is this Gohmert character. With this one he wins the prize for being loonier than Michele Bachmann. OMG! With only one more week of bombing runs, Gohmert insisted, the Viet Cong would have been brought to its knees and would have surrendered. As one who stood four-square against that war and marched the streets in protest against it, I’m insulted and shocked!

I could go on and on… really! Gohmert thinks more guns, and not less, might really be the answer. He also thinks we may need our guns some day to fight off Sharia law from taking over America. He thinks the nation could be coming to the end of its existence because of its move away from biblical teachings. It’s one of the “main” reasons for the recent spate of public shootings, he says.

How do such fools get elected to the U.S. Congress?
I can’t blame it on Texans! We’ve done the same thing here in Minnesota! I can’t figure it out. Voters can’t be that crazy! It must be the comedy they love.

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Feb 28 and the Economy is Rolling

Here’s the deal! Oh, there is no deal! Congress is going to screw the nation again by failing to act on the Sequester problem – just when the economy seemed to be really picking up steam!
by Charlie Leck

Don’t you just love Congress – both of the bastards (the House and the Senate)? They have been an absolute laughing stock for the last eight years. They’ve been unable to cooperate and unwilling to have civil discussions on sensible compromise.

I’ve got my theory about what’s wrong with our Congress and that theory boils down to a guy named Grover and a political movement called the Tea Party.

I don’t mind if you vote for Republicans the next time around, just don’t vote for them if they have any association or sympathy whatsoever for the far right movement called the Tea Party.

If you want to be a sensible, responsible voting citizen, look for true moderates and true progressives for whom to vote.

Here’s why!
(1) Our sea ports are falling apart and, as the big, Minnesota company, Cargill, is warning us, this is going to affect international trade if we don’t get this problem fixed. (2) The nation’s federal highway system (both its roads and its bridges) is in terrible condition and this is going to affect national commerce, international trade and tourist travel if we don’t get this problem fixed. (3) The U.S. military system needs some major reformation to get it ready for a much more high-tech world than that for which it was originally built and that will require additional spending rather than decreased spending. (4) The economy is begging to break out and turn bullish and Congress won’t cooperate by setting it free. (5) Jobs are starting to be available in every part of the nation, but that good news can turn sour very quickly if the Sequester lasts even a short while. (6) The airline industry, already shaky, could really take a beating if it has to start canceling flights because available ground employees of the federal government aren’t available to help them take off.

Increase Taxes! Increase Spending!
The fact of the matter is that our nation needs a strong influx of federal cash to keep it rolling. Think of it as an investment because the return will be enormous if we can fix roads, bridges, airports, waterways, sea ports, ground transportation systems and the our military readiness. You might want to thrown improved schools into this mix as well.

What the radical conservatives of the Republican Party are talking about is the exact (180◦) opposite of this.

Sit back and watch it happen – or, get after your Congressional representatives and tell them, for God’s sake (I mean it!), to do something for a change. If you think it doesn’t do any good to write, email or phone them you are just absolutely wrong… wrong… wrong!

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