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Monday, October 04, 2010
Tea-Partiers Favor Mid-Road Values
By Paul W. Keaton
Santa Fe resident
Political pundits like Carl Rove and Charles Krauthammer understand, but do not appreciate, the distinction between "winning an election" and "winning the hearts and minds of the people."
An election is over on one day. Getting the trust and respect of the people takes decades.
In expressing their dismay at the nomination of Christine O'Donnell by the Republicans of Delaware (strongly supported by tea partiers), Rove and Krauthammer project a nearly hopeless prospect that the Republicans can retake the Senate. So what?
It was never the goal of the Tea Party to put the Republicans back in power. We have tried to explain that to both Democrats and Republicans many times. Do you hear us now?
O'Donnell's opponent, Mike Castle, voted for the cap and trade bill. That is a massive tax on our nation's energy usage — a redistribution of wealth program that even candidate Obama admitted, "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket."
Obama was just confessing that he knows corporations don't pay taxes — people pay taxes by paying corporations' higher prices.
In his Sept. 18 op-ed piece, Krauthammer sneers, "Of course Mike Castle is a liberal Republican. What do you expect in Delaware?" No one can speak for all tea-partiers. But I would venture an answer like, "a liberal representative, if that is what they prefer."
It's called "representative government." Then one might add that people deserve the government they get, and visa-versa.
Once more for those with tin ears, tea stands for "Taxed Enough Already" and partiers strongly support a return to the basic values of our founding fathers as expressed in the Constitution. That is what made our country great.
Sound fiscal responsibility is one of our most precious values. Cutting government spending is an urgent priority of tea partiers.
Most of us find the redistribution of wealth to be abhorrent. There is something fundamentally wrong with a society that preferentially punishes its most productive members.
One might ask, "So, are the tea-partiers winning the hearts and minds of Americans?" But that is the wrong question. Tea-partiers are the hearts and minds of mainstream Americans.
For instance, polls show that the ratio of conservatives-to-independents-to-liberals in the United States is about 40 percent to 30 percent to 20 percent, respectively. Any political pundit who calls himself a pragmatist should know this and understand that mainstream America is represented best by moderate-to-right policies. Anything else can only be called a coup.
And now, for the first time in many decades, we are awakened – no – alarmed and energized.
One goal is to place in both parties, politicians with mainstream values so no matter which party wins, untested extremists— left or right — can't destroy the country.
That is why the non-partisan push to oust incumbents and install term limits is gaining momentum: so we, the working class, can spend less time worrying about political mischief and more time doing what we love to do most — working hard and making a better world for the next generation.
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