Hey, Tea Party! Where were you 4 years ago?
Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by BryanAlvarez in Politics
Tea party gatherings have been growing steadily over the past year, and have nearly doubled in size since its conception in 2009. They have been making stops at as many major American cities as they can get to and have had good turnouts with supporters. For those that still do not know who the Tea Party is, they are a populist group whose goal is to organize various events to protest big government spending. Initially starting out as a protest against the stimulus packages and bailouts of 2008 and 2009, they have now turned their aim towards the new health reform put into law by Obama, and have even made note of their anti-abortion stance.
Thus far in the era of the Obama Administration, we have seen the national deficit grow to an all time high, the spending of about 1.5 trillion dollars between the budget and the stimulus package, as well as health reform. Many people are starting to second guess what Obama is actually intending on doing here in America. Given the new health reform that has recently been passed many people are very much upset about how taxes will be raised.
One of the main goals of the tea party is to reduce the deficit back down rather than spend, spend, spend its way higher and higher every year. It is already well known that George Bush Jr. had raised the national deficit more and faster than any president previously, having gone on a spending spree to help start a war and bail-out big businesses that already had questionable ethics. But you have to remember that the money being spent by the Obama administration, rather than going into the hands of “big government,” big business, and expensive war budgets, is being spent on social programs. Of course, the stimulus package was a failure. It shouldn’t be a surprise that giving money back to big business, that money is going to the heads of the corporation (to help them run the corporation, of course), not to its workers (who were continually getting laid off before and after the stimulus).
The main difference between the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration is that the money spent by Bush went to developing third world nations and bailing out big business, while the money Obama is currently spending is going into the hands of big business and to social programs. See the connection here? As it turns out, Obama has spent less than Bush so far, and has done greater good for the majority of the American people. However, we’ll see how this plays out in the long run.
So my question to the Tea Party is “WHERE WERE YOU 4 YEARS AGO?” As it turns out many were at home content with the violence in the Middle East and continually rising gas prices as long as taxes didn’t go up and that there was a Republican in office. The fiasco that was the Bush Administration is the reason why Obama is spending so much money. Money needs to go back into the system. It needs to go back into social programs, such as health care, education and jobs. Given that less than 20% of Americans believe in the cause of the Tea Party, and over 70% of these Tea Party followers are white, middle-aged men, it should be no surprise that all it took was a Democrat in office to get them off of the couch and out to complain about something.
As CNN political analyst Roland Martin said recently, the “tea party protests are a good thing.” Yes, standing up for what you believe in is a good thing. Being vocal about it is also a very good thing. The democrats and independents were protesting Bush the entire 8 years he was in office; and yes, for every Hitler-Obama picture you see there were just as many Satan-Bush pictures going around. Either way, that form of protest is childish and if you are to be taken seriously as a protester you must put those signs down. The main problem with either side of the debate is when people start taking their opinions and placing them as fact. Many people have been put on television (FOX, CNN, etc.) saying that they truly believe Obama is secretly trying to destroy the United States. That is not news. That is one paranoid, right-wing conservative nightmare being put into the minds of everyone.
Why in America is it necessary to have some form of scare tactics to bring people together? Can we not rally behind a cause in a mature way? Many are against health reform out of principle rather than how it will affect the country. Unlike the Iraq War, health reform is not going to cost the lives of innocent people. If these same people that are in the tea party movement were to use their efforts to cloth and feed the homeless or maybe even start a new business enterprise instead of rallying behind a political stance America might be a better place.
If the kind of action that the tea party movement has brought keeps up, another Civil War will take place. They are doing more harm than good for everyone including themselves. As we all know, a divided country will fall, but a united one stands strong.
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