Now, I know what I’m about to say will be unpopular among many of my friends in the Republican Party. I have been persecuted for speaking these truths. But I really am not fond of the Tea Party.
I said it, start the hate mail.
It’s not a general dislike or disagreement with their principles. In fact, there is much in their concepts of fiscal responsibility and libertarianism that I not only appreciate, but very much agree with. The government should not spend more than it takes in. People’s taxes should be low to promote greater comfort in personal spending. The government should allow companies to succeed or fail on their own merits and only step in to protect small businesses from monopolies (and, frankly, to protect American companies from foreign ones when the foreign companies are supported by foreign governments, giving them an unfair advantage).
But, there are a few things that we have to realize. The government is compelled by constitutional fiat to provide certain services and by common sense to provide others. Public education is an absolute must to provide if we want to see our children prepared for the basics of concerned citizenship. Social aid programs (Social Security, Medicare, TANF) have to have support to function, so that our elderly and our indigent have the capacity to survive. We don’t live in the jungle, so Darwinism doesn’t apply to this situation.
It’s not their fiscal conservatism that offends me. It’s the social conservatism.
I’m an educated man and one who pays attention to what he reads. I am a libertarian when it comes to social issues as well. Libertarians believe that people should have individual freedom to do what they wish so long as that action does not affect the rights of another. It is the promotion o a laissez-faire thought process.
That means that the government has no right to tell me what I watch, what I read, what I think, who I sleep with (even if my wife does), who I marry, what poisons I put into my body when it doesn’t affect anyone else. It means that, in my home where I am not violating the rights of another human being, I must be allowed the freedom to do what I wish, whether it makes you comfortable or not. I am not going to violate your rights as you have no right of comfort. You have the right to express yourself, to believe, to write, read, or watch what you wish. You don’t have the right to limit my ability to pursue those things I want to do.
The problem with the Tea Party, the very intellectual dishonesty that I can not stand, is that they say they are libertarian, their fiscal policies even suggest it, but their social policies would make me believe, think, feel, and act as they want. It is the first step on the road to fascism. It is the first set of freedoms denied by historical figures like Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Mao, and Castro.
Do I honestly believe that Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, or Rick Perry are the next Hitler? No. I don’t. I figure they’re simply doing what they think is best. I even believe that they value freedom and liberty and are not fully aware of the natural consequences of their actions. I don’t believe they are evil. They are simply ignorant and misguided.
And the question you have to ask yourself is: Do you want to follow the ignorant and misguided?
Because that is where the Tea Party wants to lead the United States.
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