"The Tea Party movement is an expression of what I think is a mainstream widespread sentiment in America that Washington is broken, that both parties are to blame, and that people want to elect folks that are going to go to Washington, DC, number one and do what they say they’re going to do primarily stand up for the agenda that’s coming from there and offer some clear alternatives that embrace the things that make America exceptional."
For more than a year now, voters have indeed been telling both parties to 'drop dead.' As of February of this year, more than 70% of Americans agreed with the statement, 'Washington is broken.' This is the truth that establishment Washington fears more than winning or losing an election - that Americans are rejecting it outright.
A comment received from a FB reader - my reply follows:
ReplyDelete'I am in absolute terror that the extremists will take over again! Didn't we have enough of that during the Bush years--fear mongering, division, exclusion, racism??? Aren't we grown beyond that? Did we learn nothing?'
If extremism means being fed up w/ government proceeding as if nothing will ever change, fed up w/ both parties working to ever expand the reach & power of government, thus securing themselves while squandering our futures, then I say brin...g on extremists. Let's try something new & get rid of all those who consider leading us into generational debt as responsible, regardless of their party affiliation. Dump any government official that says it's OK to buy the support of his/her own constituency, at the expense of the rest of the nation. Shred the false idols of believing that trying to preserve old economic & political models, when they have patently failed. & thinking that incivility only appeared in the last decade & is in danger of coming back is w/o grounding in history. It only takes a brief look at debates & editorials from any period of our history to realize that. Anger at the gov't & political parties isn't about racism or other evil intentions - it's about demanding that gov't represent us competently rather than 'eat out our substance.'
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