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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tea Pary Foreign Policy Update

The American Conservative » Reading the tea leaves
I want to find reason to be hopeful about the Tea Party– and hope that somewhere in its analysis of the factors bankrupting the United States is the high cost of pursuing a neoconservative foreign policy, adhered to by Obama as much as Bush. These hopes received a hard knock by reading here that a lion’s share of GOP congresspeople with Tea Party ties signed on to an idiotic resolution endorsing an Israeli military strike on Iran....Anyway, sorry to see the Tea Party folks be so easily led, though I’m not that surprised. Not only is Ron Paul not part of this nonsense, I doubt his son Rand would be either. But until the movement matures, it’s impossible to say whether it will be a neocon cheering section with middle American roots or something more promising.
Are advocates for small government at home and abroad the only constituency left in America without a political home?

4 comments:

D said...

To answer your question... yes. And those who study and understand government - and especially democracies - know why.

The true tea party, the one started by Ron Paul supporters in 2007, support small government all around.

The so-called tea party which decided that the quintupling of government under bush was OK - but the octupling under o-bomb-a is bad - generally display a sharp nationalism and jingoistic tendency.

A fun sociological test is to attend tea parties and question people on these topics. You may or may not be surprised to learn that 'small government' really means the same size government, but controlled by them. Big gov't is OK if directed at Iranians, bad for Americans. Big gov't is OK if it is spying on our enemies, but bad if it wants the money to pay for such a program. Big gov't is OK if my favored constituency wants a subsidy, bad if yours does.

D said...

The PERFECT example of this kind of thinking is displayed by non other than Manchurian Candidate Ron Johnson. To wit, speaking to a tea party group about the so-called patriot act and its spying provisions:

"I wasn't worried about it under Bush. Now I am worried about it."

Mr. Johnson, with that kind of power-worship and hyper-partisanship, I am worried about any power being placed with you.

J. Strupp said...

IOW, the majority of these folks are Republicans.

I think we found something to agree on D.

D said...

J Strupp,

Don't tell them they are mere Republican puppets. They will be the first to tell you, they are INDEPENDENTS.




......Independents who vote solely for Republicans, and half the time for establishment Republicans who are just as hubristic and megalomanical as the Democrats.


Perhaps not all is lost. After all, we did get LePage, Paul, Paul, Lee, Angle, Haley, and a few others past the Establishment Ceiling. I might be too cynical. We may get over the Statist Quo. Who knows?