Recently the Gallup poll reported that support for the tea party was down from 32% in November 2010 to 22% today. Quite frankly, I am not surprised and expect further decline unless the tea party can become less dogmatic and extreme.
When
the tea party first came on the scene, I was all on board. I opposed
Obamacare and run away deficits and wanted Republicans to stand strong,
vigorously oppose Obamacare and not raise taxes. I felt I was part of a
movement. I saw the tea party as a movement of newly energized people who for too
long had been silent. On April 15th, 2009 I attended a tea party event and wrote enthusiastically about the experience. I was exited when Tea Party Express rolled into town and reported on it.
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April 18, 2009 |
From
the very first however, I was put off by some of the fringe that I saw
attaching itself to the movement. At an early tea party event on
Memorial Plaza (also called Legislative Plaza), either the event
referenced above or another early event, there was a John Birch Society
booth. I was surprised. I thought the JBS had disappeared long ago. I
had not heard anything from them in years.
The John Birch Society
emerged sometime in the 50's as a conservative, anti-communist
organization. There were chapters all across America. Many respectable
people joined the organization. On specific policies I
almost always found myself in agreement with the JBS.
However, the
problem with the John Birch Society is not the position they take on most issues but that they are nuts. When they
talk about "the insiders" they do not simply mean people with influence the way you and I might use the term. When the JBS
talks about "insiders" they are talking about people who belong to a
secret society that has been pulling the strings since about 1776 with
the formation of The Illuminati. According to JBS, The Illuminati has front groups and
subsidiaries like The Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral
Commission, The Bilderburg Group and others. The JBS believes almost
nothings just happens or is the result of clashing interest or ideologies
but is planned and controlled by a handful of elites they call "the
insiders." Not everyone in the JBS even knows what the organization
believes and they join not knowing. If they are only causal members they may be clueless about what it is they have joined.
By the mid 1960's, the JBS had gained so
such power in the conservative movement and in the Republican Party,
that William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater issued a
joint denunciation of the organization and urged conservatives to
disassociate from it. After that the organization
twiddled.
With the advent of the tea party, the John Birch
Society found fertile ground for resurgence and growth. One of the
projects they took on was something called Agenda 21. Agenda 21 was a
1992 UN sponsored study suggesting a course of action for sustainable
development. It was not a treaty. Some countries voluntarily
implemented some of the Agenda 21 recommendations. The JBS developed
training kits where one could become an expert on Agenda 21 and
present slide shows and produce brochures and teach about it. These classes were taught
all over the country, including here in Nashville. According to the
JBS, Agenda 21 is a plot to take away all property rights, force people
to live in tiny apartments and kill 97% of the worlds population by
poisoning them with aspartame and fluoride. Crazy I know, but that is the theory. Everything from wide
sidewalks, to roundabouts, to traffic calming, to mass transit, to art in public places,
to bike share programs, to water conservation, to reintroduction of
wolves in the wild became suspect as part of the grand conspiracy of
Agenda 21.
The reemergence of the JBS caused me concern
but I viewed them as nutty opportunist attaching themselves to the tea
party and that did not make me less enthusiastic about the tea party.
There were also others associated with the movement that made me a
little uncomfortable, but I dismissed them as the extreme fringe or
people simply carried away with enthusiasm and exhibiting over-the-top
exuberance. In the early days it seemed that the speakers and leaders
never engaged in excessively militant rhetoric and discouraged any thing
that would bring discredit on the movement. Contrary to what some in
the mainstream press said, I never saw even the slightest
hint of racism associated with the movement.
In September, 2009 I attended a "
liberty rally"
at municipal auditorium that made me a little uneasy. The primary
spokesman at the event was Dr. Bob Basso, who portrays Thomas Paine in
numerous YouTube videos and
personal appearances across the country. There was a big crowd and lots
of enthusiasm and waving of flags and cheering at the event. I joined in the
enthusiasm of the moment. However, Basso pandered to the birthers at this event. He
said something to this effect: “I have been
called a community organizer and to a certain extend I guess I am but,”
and here he paused and reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of
paper and held it up and said, “I am a community organizer with a birth
certificate.” The audience went wild and cheered. I did not. I think the birther
movement is a discredit to the conservative movement and I want no part
of it. As his speech went on, I also cheered and applauded. I also want to
throw the bums out. I want to reduce the size of
government, etc. etc. I want to “take my country back.” As his talk went
on however, he nearly advocated secession and resistance to paying
taxes. I am not ready to take up arms and man the barricades. I knew this brand of tea partyism was something I did not want to be part of and I said at
the time, "
I feel that if the extremism is not curtailed the movement will be discredited."
While
there were various other events that I attended and enthusiastically
endorsed, such as the Gibson Guitar event and the Education Reform event, more and more I found myself parting ways with factions of
the tea party. One group identified as "tea party" is the Glen Beck
associated 9-12 group. In July of 2012, our own local 9-12 chapter took
out a full-page, $5000 advertisement called, "an open letter to Governor
Haslam and the people of Tennessee." It said the actions of Governor
Haslam would make us subject to Sharia law and attacked Governor Haslam
for
his administration's hiring of a highly qualified Tennessee attorney
who happened to be a Muslim. I find that just nuts and a waste of
time and money, and bigoted and wrong.
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Nashville Tax Day Tea Party rally April 15, 2009 |
People identified as "tea party" were
also heavily involved in efforts to stop the building of a Mosque in
Murfressboro. While I recognize the threat of radical Islam, you do not
combat that threat by denying Freedom of Religion. Opponents of the
Mosque took the unbelievable position that Islam is not really a
religion but rather an ideology and therefore should not have the
protections of freedom of religion guaranteed in the Constitution. It
seems a lot of tea partiers have a much different interpretation of the
First Amendment than I do. Maybe if they can deny First Amendment
protection to Muslims, then next it will be the Church of Scientology,
then Jehovah Witness, and maybe Mormons. After all, Mormonism is not
really a religion but a cult, I can hear them argue. And Buddhism? Why, that is not a religion; it is a foreign philosophy. Buddhist don't even claim
a deity. Surely the First Amendment does not apply to Buddhist. Don't allow them to build temples! Where would it
end?
While I disagree with the way some in the tea
party movement interpret the First Amendment, I also
disagree with them
on the Second Amendment. While they want to shrink the First Amendment
to mean much less, they want to expand the Second Amendment to mean much
more. Some who claim to be supporting the Second Amendment want to
interpret the Second Amendment to mean they can trample my private
property rights and can carry a gun into my home or my place of business
even if I have a "no guns" policy. Clearly the second amendment is a
restriction on government, not on the right of someone to prohibit guns
on their private property. Elements of the tea party defeated Debra
Maggart, a good leader of the Tennessee Republican Party in the State
legislature, over this issue.
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Ben Cunningham at Gibson Guitar Rally Oct. 2011 |
Another issue that causes me
concern is the many tea party people who disregard the Supremacy Clause
of the Constitution and support the
discredited theory of nullification. Nullification says each state can decide whether or not a
federal law shall have effect in their state. Even George Wallace when
he stood in a school house door to stop integration of the University of
Alabama did not do so on the basis of nullification. When the National
Guard was federalized, he stepped aside. Tea party members of the State
legislature have introduced laws that would require local law
enforcement officers to arrest federal agents enforcing federal law. I
am not ready to join an armed rebellion and engage in insurrection.
The tea party also has a history of supporting real losers for public office. Nationally there have been
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May 21, 2013 IRS protest |
some "tea party" candidates elected who I admire and support such as Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Curz, Tom Coburn, and Mike Lee. However, the tea party has also supported some embarrassing losers like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware of "I am not a witch" fame, and Sharron Angle who won the primary to run against Senate majority leader Harry Reid and then lost the election when a more establishment Republican could have probably beat Reid. Candidates backed by the tea party effectively cost the GOP five winnable Senate elections in 2010 and 2012 in Nevada, Delaware, Colorado, Indiana and Missouri. Todd Akin lost in Missouri, Richard Mourdock lost in Indiana, and Linda McMahon lost in Connecticut.
Here in Tennessee, the tea party has lined up behind Joe Carr. Carr supports nullification, does not
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The Tea Party supports Joe Carr for "Sentate" |
think Muslims have the right to First Amendment protection and thinks the Second Amendment allows an individuals to carry a gun on to private property where the owner does not want one to carry a gun. In addition Carr has ran a bumbling campaign. Should, by some miracle he win the Republican nomination, Democrat Terry Adams would most likely be the next Senator from Tennessee.
The tea party is not a political party, but rather a movement. It is a conservative-libertarian-populist movement and I have considered myself part of it. Even when disagreeing with some of the factions in the movement and some of the leaders of the movement, I still though myself as part of it. No one person can speak for the tea party. I have occasionally been asked if I am part of the tea party and in the past I have proudly said I was. If to be a member in good standing of the tea party however means one has to support Joe Carr, believe in nullification, believe the First Amendment does not apply to Muslims and believe the Second Amendment trumps property rights, then I no longer want to be part of it.
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