Tag Archives: Tea party

Mar 6 2015

Bi-Partisanship, Folly, and Fantasy

 

The rookies are in! With the legislature now in full swing, the freshmen members have descended upon Augusta. These have come, with visions of their own grandeur rife with the fantasy of how their silver tongue and persona, steeped in the magnanimous, will alone bridge the partisan divide. Soon, the rude awakening will occur, or so we hope.

Why do I hope for a rude awakening? It may help the reader to understand my disdain of the modern clamor for bi-partisanship if we first examine the partisan divide. For this purpose, I will borrow and embellish an illustration from a columnist far more accomplished and respected than I, Peggy Noonan. This is from a column she wrote in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago entitled “Why Its Time for the Tea Party”.

Ms. Noonan likens the partisan divide to the increments on a yardstick. The one-inch mark would represent the extreme right, what some call “right of reason”. The 36-inch mark would represent those on the left, who just transported in from their spaceship through the StarGate on moonbeams. The 18-inch would represent the middle ground or the Nirvana of bi-partisanship.

While media elites, the Democrat Party, and moderate Republicans continue to loudly decry the lack of bi-partisanship from Conservatives and Conservative Republicans alike (Yes, there are some true Conservative Republicans that still exist.), the true reasons for the political divide are ignored either by intent or lack of political gravitas. The prevailing system of governance of today would be settled somewhere around the 28-inch mark in Ms. Noonan’s ideological yardstick. Conservatives would like the government to be running somewhere in between 5 and 10 inches but the yardstick seems to be increasingly tilted towards the 36 inch mark at an alarming pitch.

This is infuriating to voters, who have clearly spoken to their candidates on the campaign trail and have an expectation of legislative behavior based upon campaign promises. The elected legislators once in office are immediately barraged with a call for bi-partisanship and are assured that this is what the majority of people want. But the negotiations are happening at the 28-inch mark and, when Republicans hold up their accomplishments, with an “it could be worse” smile, the people throw their hands up in disgust. We are still at 28 inches, in fact, its now 28 and ¾ inches. We haven’t gained an inch.

The people are outraged! The Democrats and moderate Republicans admonish Conservatives for their lack of bi-partisanship, more concessions are made to salve the perceived political faux pas, and the Nation and States slide deeper into the mire of Socialism. Republicans are left looking like buffoons.

True and healthy bi-partisan tension can only occur on the flat plains of the middle ground. Bi-partisanship will never work until some courageous partisans refuse to be thwarted in their resolve to pull the mired wagon of government back to the 18-inch mark. Then and only then can bi-partisanship function on equal footing.

The fantasy of many Republicans to be that bridge over troubled partisan waters will never come to fruition as long as this fallacy of bi-partisanship exists. It is folly to build a bridge on anything other then a solid footing. We have wasted too much energy constructing monuments to futility in the mire only to see them sink away. Its time to pull back to the high ground of common sense, where negotiations truly work.

Dec 2 2011

Bismirch

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/andytorbett/Documents/Besmirch.doc

Besmirch

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or so they say.  But the clear lines between truth and perception have faded precipitously in recent weeks.  Anarchy once again blindly assaults the very foundations that hold and gird the stalwart common man.  While pure imitation remains still the purest form of flattery, the claim to imitation with vile intent holds no form of flattery and is by no means pure.

Americans have watched with no small consternation as the Democrat party has embraced with relish the anarchist tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Our military has at times engaged their enemies with “shock and awe”.  In the streets of our cities, Americans have been assaulted with “shock and recoil”.  But the leaders of the Democrat party have embraced this behavior, championing the tantrums as legitimate.

The Democrat party does not need the offensive methods of the Defecate Wall Street movement as some new aggressive revolutionary campaign.  The Party, whose symbol is an Ass, has a heinous bag full of tricks that would make the not so happy city campers’ duffels look paltry in comparison.  There is a more sinister reason to why the Democrats have locked arms with these vagrants.

The constant theme threaded throughout the commentary used to describe these “protests” has been “like the Tea Party”.  Other frequently used descriptive terms have been “tactics of the Tea Party” or “things in common with the Tea Party”.  The Democrat Party, either by design or by crises seized, is attempting to smear the Tea Party with the misbehaviors of those who smear the streets of our cities with their refuse.

Americans are by nature law-abiding, God-fearing and peace-loving.  With good reason and to maintain those standards, they will ignore and separate themselves from those who act out with delinquent behavior.  It’s repulsive to honest people and they prefer to have nothing to do with the stench.  What an effective political ploy!  To encourage behavior that has all the intellectual integrity of a drunken hormone addled teenager and then label it, as the “tactics of the Tea Party”. This would be a very effective way to diffuse the energy of hard-working Americans.  Now Democrats can smear the Tea Party the same way Occupy Wall Street’s movements have smeared the tops of law enforcement vehicles across the United States.  Now the rights of freedom loving Americans to protest can be sullied in the same way as the rights of young women to safe nights sleep has been violated in their tents on the streets of our cities.  One commentator said it best when he observed that there are only two places where there are “rape free zones”: prison and Occupy Wall Street.  Yes, Americans are disgusted.

But there is no comparison.  Tea Party rallies were usually one-day events, at the most a weekend, because the participants had to get back to….work.  The Occupy groups have camped out, supported by the very “one percent” they protest.  The media worked at a ferocious fever pitch trying to find deviants within the Tea Party to highlight.  Now they are working with the same ferocity to cover up the disgusting behavior of the Occupy anarchists.

Leaders of the Tea Party have, perhaps out of good will, tried to acknowledge that there are some possible similarities between the two.  This is playing directly into the hands of the groups who wish the Tea Party’s demise: the Democrat Party and their media allies.  The Tea Party must stand resolute in its assertion that there is no similarity.  The foundational motives are polar opposites.  The Tea Party is calling for the restoration of a strong and vibrant America.  The Occupy group is calling for its utter destruction.  The Tea Party is calling for the chance that all Americans can work in freedom to pursue their dreams.  The anarchist blocked streets so that Americans cannot get to work, children cannot pursue their education.  This columnist was taught in my grade school social studies class that we were all entitled to our free rights until we infringed upon the rights of our fellow citizens.  Just a thought to ponder from an 8th grade Social Studies teacher.