The Tea Party Bullies

In recent years, the American public has seen the outrage of people calling themselves the Tea Party Republicans.  These people are an ultra-conservative wing of the Republican party, and have been bullying their way through Congress since 2010.  Why?

They would have you believe they are all about fair taxes and the reduction of needless government spending.  They would have you believe they are fighting for the working class citizens and the rights of the people.  They would have you believe they are shouting the voice of rural America and trying to reform government to make it easier for people to rise up the ranks of the economic ladder.  They would have you believe they are trying to make a stronger America.  In reality, they are doing just the opposite.

Here is a good look at what they claim to be and who they actually are.  The document shows that most of the Tea Party constituents are upper-middle class white males.  Their arguments for fair taxes have actually made the tax code less fair for working class members, and blocking the stimulus packages presented by Obama have actually caused less job growth, and strengthened the upper class of our society.  Their arguments have been heard - tax breaks for job creators.  However, when these tax cuts get involved, they often benefit only the highest earners in our society, and the private sector jobs have not been increasing as much as the corporate profits.  For instance, MacDonald's has seen an increase of four billion dollars profit since Tea Party Republicans took hold, and their average work-force has not budged from the federal minimum wage standards, which have stagnated since 2009.  Another place to look are the banks and wall street, which have made record profits since Tea Party Republicans decided to give them tax credits.

But the most infuriating thing about the Tea Party is their insistence on 'more freedom.'  They have done nothing but try to restrict the freedom of individuals since they came into office.  A liberal website, called Politicus USA marks each and every one of their legislating goals, which include removing the freedom of choice from a woman, returning to a segregated society based on race, allowing murder of abortion clinic doctors, removing the funding of WIC, Medicaid, Welfare, fighting LGBT rights across the country, and allowing Jim Crow laws to return, among other things.

I don't know how this helps the American people have more freedom.  It seems to me that this group of people is fighting to return us to the 1920's, or even the 1850's.  There are even some that want to arm militias to protect against invasion - what kind of invasion they're speaking of, I have no idea.

To me, this group of people are bunch of right-wing nuts who started out with good intentions and got de-railed from the message they originally voiced.  When I first heard about the Tea Party - which was using the fair taxes, equal rights for everyone rhetoric - I thought it was a good idea.  But when I took a better look at what they meant by fair taxes, and listened the rhetoric they continued to spout about bringing more freedoms to the people, I realized they were just a bunch of scared conservatives who were worried about what having a black president would do to them.  That's just my opinion - there are many others, including some from the conservative right, that share my opinion.  Even Rush Limbaugh has said the Tea Party is killing the Republican party.

Here's some more of what the Tea Party has done around the country.  As you can see, they have done more to restrict the freedoms of individuals - save gun rights - and have worked hard to remove the voice of the American populace.  However, because many of their supporters are multi-millionaires and can afford to flood the media sources with misinformation, our population thinks the Tea Party is fighting for the common man.  In fact, they have done nothing of the sort.  They have made it harder for government to create jobs, have used the government to put down the rights of the working class or the poor, and have removed rungs of the social ladder to make it harder for people to fight the tyranny of the wealthy minority.

Yet, when confronted with these facts, the Tea Party resumes their idealistic rhetoric of returning America to what its founding fathers designed.  But what did the founding fathers design?  In my studies, they created a government that could change with the times - adapt to the role it needed to play to protect the rights of the people.  So, what rights have we lost since Obama took office?  Since Tea Party members took hold, they've done nothing but try to regulate the rights of individuals while promoting the rights of corporations.  How has this made our country more free?  How has this made our country's tax system more fair?  How will auditing the IRS prove anything?  How will destroying the Affordable Care Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, or pushing aside the Immigration Reform Bill proposed by Obama do anything to help our country be more free?  I would love to hear some answers on that one, because no Tea Party member has been able to answer them without stuttering through their own rhetoric of what they stand for.

Let's just call the Tea Party what it is, and be done with it.  They're a bunch of bullies. They bull their way into congressional office by speaking a mean game of restoring freedom.  When they gain the seat, the first thing they do is restrict them.  They lie to us, as many politicians do, and tell us they are working to make things better for the common man.  In fact, they make it harder.  They remove our social safety nets by de-funding healthcare (Medicaid and Medicare) for the extremely poor, de-funding social security benefits for elderly and disabled, de-funding infrastructure works to help create middle-class jobs, de-funding welfare (SNAP assistance) and telling us to 'get a job' (which often times pays less than welfare), and they remove the rights of people to voice their opposition through a vote.  How is this strengthening America?

Yet, because their supporters have money, the Tea Party pushes its message on us with their propaganda of returning America to its idealistic past.  I do not want a country bound in slavery.  I don't want a country where women cannot vote or choose abortion if they will not be able to fund, support, or properly care for their child.  While I am personally pro-life, I do believe that everyone should have a choice in the matter, and restricting a woman's rights while simultaneously de-funding the social services that would provide care for the unwanted/improperly cared for children seems a bit draconian and borderline imbecilic.  After a decade of federal 'abstinence only' education, followed by years of welfare/medicaid-medicare/social security destruction - what have Tea Partiers done if they've not hurt the country?  They've forced a moral code on the population of America through legislation.  They've forced their fundamentalist Christian viewpoints on people who may not necessarily be Christian.

In essence, since taking office, they've worked to restrict freedoms, make taxes less fair, and worked to promote the wealthy.  This is exactly to the opposite of what they were founded to do, and I would be ashamed if I ever called myself a supporter of the Tea Party.  Their original message had weight.  Their work goes against their espoused values.  I would call the Tea Party a gang of bullying hypocrites.  But you are free to choose your own opinion, and you are free to believe your own facts - because that's America.  Not this 'my way or the highway' rhetoric the Tea Party has been spouting for the past three years.