Just a few days ago, the local chapter of JSA at my high school decided to run a semi-informal debate about the Tea Party. Out of the 5 or so students present, only one(quite grudgingly) volunteered to defend this “grassroots” movement. Opposition to the party—somewhere close to what one might call “bashing”—seemed to arouse much more of a response from the other students. It seemed that there was no shortage of arguments that could highlight the overall illogicality of this political movement. More than anything, each of us—myself included—got quite a chuckle out of some of the core beliefs of the Tea party. These beliefs are painfully general, and seem to be somewhat incoherent. They include: fiscal responsibility, a constitutionally limited government, and free markets.
The chief reason these “core values” puzzle me is because they are obvious ; that is to say, nearly every American already agrees with these notions. Is there any politician currently in office who openly advocates for ”Fiscal irresponsibility”, or who disagrees with a government limited by our most sacred text, the United States Constitution? Most would agree that the Tea party is more or less a distraction. As a fellow who has personally attended one of these meetings, I can say a few things ; that is, most Tea party members are good Americans, but are sorely misinformed and unaware of basic facts. I do not agree with the policy of simply bashing the Tea Party. We must respect members for making the effort to improve America, even though their solutions for the troubles our nation faces are potentially more damaging than the issues themselves.
One of the most disingenuous claims the Tea Party makes is the notion that they are a “grassroots” organization. This term “grassroots”, is a favorite of many scheming organizations that aim to appeal to those Americans who view big corporations as evil. The solution is to make the public perceive the organization in such a way that they never feel as if it is large and monolithic. Trouble is, the Tea Party is far from grassroots, as there has been well-publicized evidence linking millions of dollars in donations from the Koch Brothers to the Tea Party(See: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer). Granted, multi-million dollar donations are a common feature of any political organization, i.e. George Soros’ contributions to the far-left.
In the end, the Tea Party mostly serves mere distraction. Candidates who run on the Tea Party ballot typically go on to betray the party, simply grabbing votes and giving nothing in return to supporters. All of this goes along with the increasing trend of loud, annoying, and utterly distracting organizations in America. Modern times have created a near-perfect formula for media attention which simply involves shouting loudly and having Fox News talk about you. This is the new order of things.
