Two Victories for Tea Partiers

When the news said that the Tea Party had achieved two victories in the Primary Election, I was very confused. These people have been portrayed by the Fox News types as the hottest thing going in the political realm these days. I had been certain that the dumbing down of America had led us to the brink of total collapse. For now, at least, we can continue to see them as just another fringe group, making token attempts to change our nation into a gun-loving, bible thumping, shout down. Although many of us might empathize with the direction the United States has taken since the advent of the "Reaganomics", the "Moral Majority", the "Drug War", economic "Free Trade" policies and "No Child Left Behind", we are not yet ready to take up the banner of the Tea Party rabble. I'm glad that they have chosen to stand up and voice their opinions, but now we can see that the sum total of their disorganized approach and inflammatory rhetoric was only able to win them two "victories".

As we have seen before in politics, hindsight is rarely twenty-twenty. These two elections may have gone their way without any effort on their part. We may never know. As we have seen, a resounding victory in the Primary Election has little bearing on the general election. sometimes those folks go on to achieve the office for which they are running, and sometimes they don't. In my experience, crossover voters frequently vote in the opponent's Primary just to meddle with the results. The first time I heard of this effect was when a pagan friend of mine, someone who shall remain nameless, voted for Pat Robertson in the Primary only to cast their vote for Lorna Fulani in the General Election. for those too young, or too mainstream to know who that is, she took up the banner of the Rainbow Coalition after Jesse Jackson sold them out and threw his support behind Democrat, Jimmy Carter. In that election, a small minority of Americans cast their vote for Reagan, but they called it a "revolution" when he was voted in. Just 52% of eligible voters showed up for that General Election, but all the news was about a "landslide victory". Many, who had thronged to hear about the Rainbow Coalition, were inspired by their platform and anxious for our country to come together into a more compassionate and equitable place were frozen out of the process when their figurehead leader copped out and went with a proven leader. Carter had certainly proven that he was more compassionate, intelligent and capable than Reagan, but that couldn't inspire people to get to the polls that November.

During the next month and a half, let's take a look at who has helped us get to a better place and who has not. If your representatives have really taken our country down the wrong path, I say, get rid of them. Just remember that when a new guy comes to office, it can take half of his first term to learn the ropes and become effective. We need change, but that change that we need is not to be set adrift in a sea of ineffective opinionated newbies. The ship of state runs most efficiently when held on an even keel. Just as a sailboat loses momentum each time it tacks, our country looses a great deal by constantly vacillating between extremes.

If we look carefully, the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, they did not lead us to a better place, nor did the hands off approach advocated by economic pundits. The American public has the right to demand equitable ways of funding their government as well as effective limits that protect the health and welfare of our population. The wealthiest among us have shouted down any attempt to slow the effects of global climate change. They are making a case for never having to pay for the "right" to play in our economy and they have a dismal track record when it comes to investing to spur the economy. Sure there are ways of tweaking our laws and regulations to achieve a better country. I'm all for that, but throwing everyone out just to start over seems unreasonable. Luckily, only two hot-headed rabble-rousers made the cut for November. With a bit of luck the public will see how dangerous it is to be a reactionary. Crisis management hasn't worked for business or industry, why would it work for government and politics? We should all write to Fox News for pointing out and bringing into sharp focus what we should all be ignoring.