Tea

Citizens Exercising their Rights

I’m alternately amazed, amused and appalled by the antics of the ‘Tea Party’.   The ‘members’ (a very loose term) of this confederacy seem to be an odd collection of anti-statists that range from libertarians to gun-rights advocates to anti-tax zealots to ‘birthers’ to militia members and appear to include a fair share of outright racists and 1950′s era states’ righters.  What they appear to have in common is a deep antipathy towards government.

Now this is certainly not a new phenomenon in American history.  Shortly after the constitution was ratified and George Washington was elected as our first president, the Whiskey Rebellion broke out pitting the small farmers of the frontier (then around Pittsburgh) against the eastern ‘establishment’ government over taxes (a familiar complaint.)

After the Whiskey Rebellion was suppressed, the Louisiana Purchase a few years later opened the frontier which, for many years, gave an outlet to those who wished to live without government interference or control.  After the frontier closed, a variety of populist, anarchist, social anarchist, anarcho-capitalists and other movements arose from time to time but were never able to make much of a dent in the idea of government.

Now we have our ‘tea parties’ which, while nominally opposed to a strong central government and what they view as excessive taxation are really an umbrella for the wide range of anti-government views described above.  I expect that we’ll have them around for a while but that, as the economy recovers,  they’ll gradually fade away or shrink as did the anti-government radicals of the sixties and the militia groups of the early nineties.

In the meantime, we have to live with them.  There are some things about the movement that I find quite distressing:

• Anti-Intellectualism They seemed to be opposed to deep thinkers and even to people who read more than a paragraph at a time.  It’s just stupid to keep saying that ‘no one has read this bill or that bill’.  They’ve all been read, just perhaps not by the tea party members or their friends.  Willful ignorance does not make you a better person.  Keep in mind that the founders of our country were intellectuals.
• Threatened or Actual Violence Waving your guns around and threatening violent resistance or even rebellion isn’t going to convince anyone.  Neither is throwing bricks through windows or spitting at people.  Certainly not all tea party members do this, but enough do to give the movement a bad name.
• Racism Certainly not all tea party members are racist, probably not even a majority.  But enough are to again give the movement a bad name.  Thinking that the 1950′s represented an idyllic time in America is mostly a harmless fantasy.  Thinking that America should be a White People’s Nation is not.  We are a multiracial society and demographics is not on your side.  Get over it.

I think tea party members also need to get over the idea that government is something that just ‘happened to us’.  Every aspect of our government is something that was put in place by people who were elected by a majority of votes.  That’s how democracy works.  Which brings me to my last two points – that there are some good things I hope (maybe fantasize) might come out of the movement:

• Increased Involvement in Government We live in a democracy which gives everyone an opportunity to have a say in how our government is run and by whom.  As a general rule, I believe the more people who participate, the better off we will be.  There is a lot of information out there; get out and read it and understand what you are voting for…and against.
• More Transparency in Government From the large, complex and wide-ranging Federal Government down to our state, county and municipal governments, the governments all belong to us and we have a right to know what they are doing, how they are doing it and how well or poorly they are performing.  Government at all levels needs to make sure that this information is freely available to all.

[Note:  the illustration is not an actual Tea Party rally even though it may resemble one.  Rather, it is a painting by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764) titled "Chairing the Member" - the last of his series on The Humours of an Election.]