"But the Tea Party movement is
largely a media invention. A new twist in the Republican versus Democrat
epic. In an effort to win by any means, off-year Republican presidential
nominee John McCain chose a one-term Alaskan governor as his running
mate. She, it was reasoned, would bring in women voters, who McCain was
failing to excite. Because she chose to bring a fetus with Down Syndrome
to term, she also stood to motivate evangelicals, unhappy with McCain for
various reasons. It was a potential masterstroke politically. No one was
under any illusion that Sarah Palin could be a competent president, or
even discuss current affairs in an intelligent way. But now, because she
was the vice presidential candidate, she is the media’s frontrunner for
the Republican nomination in 2012, and by extension, the leader of the
Tea Party movement."
The Real Tea Party
by Charles Stampul
In a move to break American resistance to taxation, British Parliament in
1773 relaxed a tax on exports, allowing a struggling English tea company
to send its surplus product to the colonies. The tea would be priced low,
but carry a tax payable to Parliament. Sensing a trap, the colonists
organized. At Charleston the tea was seized and stored by customs agents.
At New York the ship was turned back. At Boston, the seat of American
agitation, 340 trunks of tea were thrown into the harbor.
We’re seeing similar protests today. Jury nullification of drug
convictions. The launch of Wikileaks to reveal government secrets. And
perhaps the closest thing to the Boston Tea Party to date, coordinated
resistance to naked body scans and evasive pat downs at airports on
November 24, 2010. Standing largely apart from this Tea Party inspired
activism, is “the Tea Party movement.”
Young people adopt new and unusual sayings to individuate from parents,
schoolteachers and other adults. “Off the hook,” was one such phrase. It
was popular several years ago. A year or so later you heard one of the
View ladies call something “off the hook.” By this time youths were
saying “off the chain.” Responsible, financially secure, community
involved, set-in-their-ways adults caught up, forcing young people to
drop the phrase altogether. It’s like this for libertarians and the Tea
Party.
Ron Paul supporters used the 2007 anniversary of the Boston Tea Party as
a special fund-raising day. Then in 2009, after a string of bank
bailouts, the Libertarian Party of Chicago organized the first Tea Party
gathering. They invited CNBC black sheep Rick Santelli. In an inspired
rant that became a Youtube sensation, Santelli called viewers to Lake
Michigan for a Chicago Tea Party in July.
But the Tea Party movement is largely a media invention. A new twist in
the Republican versus Democrat epic. In an effort to win by any means,
off-year Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose a one-term
Alaskan governor as his running mate. She, it was reasoned, would bring
in women voters, who McCain was failing to excite. Because she chose to
bring a fetus with Down Syndrome to term, she also stood to motivate
evangelicals, unhappy with McCain for various reasons. It was a potential
masterstroke politically. No one was under any illusion that Sarah Palin
could be a competent president, or even discuss current affairs in an
intelligent way. But now, because she was the vice presidential
candidate, she is the media’s frontrunner for the Republican nomination
in 2012, and by extension, the leader of the Tea Party movement.
Just as they failed to challenge the reasons given for going to Iraq, the
media is now failing to expose individuals like Palin who rail against
national debt, but want to maintain, even grow the military-industrial
complex. Thousands worried about how the government’s mounting debt
stands to change the American landscape and lifestyle are being duped by
the media and political opportunists to support establishment Republicans
and the status quo.
There have been points in American history when political parties have
made 180-degree turns. Certain principles or planks are abandoned by both
major parties, leaving an opportunity, if the support for the principle
or plank is great enough, for either to take it on and take control. 150
years ago the Democratic Party championed reserved rights of states. 100
years later, it was a Republican issue, which Democrats opposed. Along
with following the Tenth Amendment, neither party in the last fifty years
has proposed reining in the American military.
There is the opportunity for the Republican Party, by following Ron Paul,
and leaving Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rudolph Giuliani and
other neocons behind, to capture a new moderate center, opposed to war
and worried about the government’s ever-growing measures to control and
corral its subjects. By offering credible solutions to the debt crisis,
the Republican Party could become a dynasty rivaling and undoing the
damage of the Democratic dynasty of the 1930s and 40s.
If this should happen there will be little mention of the Tea Party. The
Tea Party was an act of rebellion that brought forth a revolution. A
similar act today would have a new name and new characteristics. History
is not made looking backwards. Perhaps, if politics fails or seems
hopeless, it will be national withdraw you money from banks day. If at a
certain hour of a certain day everyone who voted for Ron Paul during the
2008 Republican primary withdrew their funds from American banks they
might trigger a U.S. Treasury market collapse and end the Fed.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig12/stampul2.1.1.html
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