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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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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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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