Curmudgeon's Corner

Tea Party - Flash In The Pan?

Posted by Al Campbell on Feb. 2, 2010

People Making A Difference, Political, Quality of Life, U.S.

The ‘Tea Party’ movement has prompted all kinds of commentary, including some that is intentionally derogatory from quarters that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Is this movement real?  Is it something that will last?  Is it a new ‘third party’?  Is it something manufactured by the extreme right?  Is it intended to provide a new home for the ‘tired old conservatives’?

The ‘Tea Party” movement appears to frighten many people; and those people are on both sides of the center, politically.  It is interesting that such a grass roots movement would carry so much apparent weight; an interesting anomaly unless you look at its origin and at what it’s members believe and strive to achieve.

I believe that this movement is real; it has evolved over the brief time that it has existed in the public eye.  It has withstood the attacks from both sides of the center…those from the people who are threatened by such a movement.

This movement is comprised of caring people, not a ‘bunch of whackos”, and it appears to have made believers of the ruling elite, given their protestations.  I suspect that it has ‘members’ (this term is used loosely) from what might be considered the near-right and the near-left; in other words, I suspect that it has appealed to the independents as well as to the more right-leaning members of society.

More than anything else, it seems to me that this is truly a protest movement aimed at both the major political parties.  It is the cry from the wilderness that portends a significant shift of voter loyalties.  The Massachusetts race for the “Kennedy seat” was not an aberration in my opinion.  That was the ‘shot across the bow’ of both major parties.

It seems to have gotten the attention of both sets of party leaders, too.  On the one side, the Democrats are reeling from the loss of their bullet-proof Senate majority and from what they fear will be continued losses in the fall elections.  That is a proper fear, a correct take-away for that party.

On the other hand, I am very concerned with what I see as the Republican Party’s take-away from this experience.  I fear that this party will continue to think that it has won the hearts and minds of enough people to begin that long climb back into power.  If that is the only take-away for the Republicans, they are destined to wander in the desert whether they have majorities or not.

The Tea Party movement is more, in my opinion, a warning shot from the people that we are fed up with politics as usual.  We are sick and tired of being sick and tired no matter the name of the political party currently in power.  We do not want, nor need, a massive government to tell us what is good for us.  We see the sole growth ‘industry’ in this country as governmental units, and we want that to end, and end now.

I seem to be including myself in this movement as I read the preceding paragraphs; I am not officially a part, but I am certainly a solid sympathizer.

Is the Tea Party movement simply a ‘flash in the pan’?  I don’t know the answer, but I think that this movement will continue to grow in strength and in voice until it senses that there has been real change in the way we are governed.  Until we see that we are once again driving our country rather being driven by our country, there will be a movement by some name.  There are those who say that such a movement cannot survive for very long; I disagree given the ability for social networking that exists today and that will only become more sophisticated.  The discontent with intrusive and over-the-top government, in general, promises to propel a majority of people to the changed-state they desire.

The threatening nature of this movement to those in power, on both sides of the aisle, is understandable.  The effort to diminish its effectiveness by name-calling and “tsk-tsking” is simply the power structure showing how ignorant of our wants and needs it is.