REALLY?

Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty said on CNN’s Sunday State of the Union show, “The Tea Party movement represents new energy, new ideas, passion around these themes of:  ‘we’ve had enough’; ‘government’s too big’; ‘the debt’s too big’; and to the extent that accrues to the Republican side of the ledger, we’ll take that energy.”  

REALLY?

Governor Pawlenty, you are wrong — the Tea Party does not bring new energy or passion, much less new ideas.  Tea Party energy, passion, and ideas have been around for decades — perhaps more than a century.  These ideas, exemplified by Kentucky’s Republican Senatorial candidate, Rand Paul, are in many ways the ideas of the Olde Confederacy.  States Rights and (no rules, no regulations) Laissez-Faire Capitalism — these are the old ideas of the Deep South — the ideas we fought a Civil War over.       

The South fought a war with the Union for the right of the states to maintain their economic system based on slavery, and for private businesses to have the right to refuse service to anyone they decided to discriminate against.  And they believed that the Christian God was on their side, against the wicked North (led by Abraham Lincoln) that wanted to take these rights away from them and federally impose “equality for all” on them.  When they say “we’re losing our rights and our freedoms (often prefaced  by ‘God given’)” these are the freedoms they want back.  

Big-Government, in many ways, means to them that the Federal Government is imposing “outsiders’ rules.”  We sometimes wonder if the Rebel Yell (still alive and well in the South) — “The South Shall Rise Again!” — doesn’t somehow mean more to them than just ‘colorful language.’  When we hear the Governor of Texas, and others, implying that they’d look favorably on the idea of their states seceding from the Union — well, it makes us wonder if the Old South has ever stopped fighting the Civil War, or the ideas that they fought to preserve.

So, they’re against what they call Big-Government (i.e. outsiders’ laws — such as Civil Rights?) being imposed on them, and they’re also against the federal government running a deficit.  WOW.  Where were they when W. doubled the deficit and ‘President Cheney’ said that deficits don’t matter, while that administration spent, and spent, and spent with their tax-breaks for the rich and federal contracts for their friends and supporters?

And, no, Tea Partiers, you do NOT own the deficit issue.  The Dems balanced the budget and left W. a surplus;  and they left the Paygo law for the Republicans to follow — which they didn’t do — instead letting the law expire so they could spend with impunity.  So, the left is pretty livid about the financial disaster that the right has left for the new administration to fix, and dear Tea Partiers:  We won’t let you self-righteously and hypocritically take that issue from us.

The Tea Party people are the same old people fighting the same old fights they’ve fought for ages.  They get energized from time to time and put people like W. into office, but they are not a new force — just the same old group saying the same old things, and with the same old anger and rage. 

They rage because, deep down, they know they’re on the losing side for America’s future.  And, they are P-Oed about it.  That’s your “passion and energy” Governor Pawlenty.  You’re welcome to it, because it will bring your party down.

So, when you hear Republicans like Rand Paul say, “The Tea Party has a message:  We’re here to take our government back” it’s important to understand exactly what back means, and what changes they actually have in mind.  It looks like back really means B-A-C-Kwards.

REALLY!