Beyond the Tea Parties
Since April 15, the day I attended my first political protest, I have been trying to come to grips with what the Tea Party movement means and what it can accomplish. The best case scenario is that they will serve as a first step to building a new political movement, separate from the failed two party system. The worst outcome would be the movement completely co-opted by either the GOP or the fringe, tin-foil hat community, which would destroy any chance for a viable, relevant, movement. Seeing the discussions taking place on email lists and websites with some of the people that attended our local Tea Party has me concerned that the movement may grow into a large political movement with virtually no political influence. Emails abound with requests to contact representatives in Congress about some awful piece of legislation or to sign an online petition for one cause or another. All of which is fine, of course, but has virtually no shot of impacting the direction of the country.
The concerns expressed by these groups, as legitimate and urgent as they may be, will not be addressed with petitions and phone calls to congress. The problems facing the nation are many and grave but they are only symptoms. Any expectation that elected officials will be swayed to fiscal sanity by a petition is folly and phone calls are not going to reacquaint them with Constitution. To elected officials in Washington, the desires of the constituents matter significantly less than their own, most importantly to stay in office. You may be tempted to say that acting on the will of the people is the best way to assure reelection, but you would be wise to reconsider. Congress’s approval rating in Oct 2008 was somewhere around 10%, yet 94% of House incumbents and 86% of Senate incumbents were reelected. The problem you see, is with your Senator, not mine.
What do you think you would do at work all day if you were virtually assured that you would not be fired? Now consider if you had a say in how trillions of dollars would be spent. And the power to dictate the rules that govern billion dollar industries. And the laws that effect every American in all aspects of life from what happens in schools to what cars they drive. If you take a step back, our shock at government inefficiency and malfeasance makes us look pretty naive. Is it any wonder that Tim Geitner and Charlie Rangle don’t think they need to pay their taxes? Are you really surprised that the Republican controlled congress spent like drunken sailors?
Back to the tea parties, the focus of the movement can not be to stop congress from passing one bill or another, it must be to address the single greatest threat to liberty in America today, which is of course, the federal government. We must push for systematic changes in how Washington operates. We must find a way to end elected politics as a career and that means removing the incentives that keep people in Washington their entire professional lives. I’m very leary of term limits, myself, but it’s an idea worth discussing. Reducing compensation and eliminating pensions for congress is another. In the Bible, Jesus said that it is easier for a for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Maybe so, but that will likely prove trivial compared to getting congress to implement this level of change. Can such reforms be implemented from within the current two party system, I doubt it. So how do you get candidates elected? The current system is set with the two parties holding all the cards as anyone who has worked with third party candidates can tell you. So how do you change it?
These are the questions that must be answered. This is where the focus needs to be if there is to be any hope of ending any of the abuses we gathered to protest on Tax Day.
