Tea Party Traitors
The recent meltdown of the Republicans in the debt ceiling negotiations reminded me anew that the Republicans are good at talking the conservative talk, but when it comes down to actually walking the walk—they morph into Tea Party Traitors.
Tea party friendly candidates in 2009 pledged to slash spending by $100 billion, could only come up with $57 billion in cuts. Only three Republican senators voted to reject the GOP’s budget plan as being so weak as to virtually mean nothing. The three, Ron Paul (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-WY) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) make up the Tea Party Caucus in the Senate.
For decades Republican politicians have used conservative rhetoric to win elections yet come to Washington, DC to spend as much as the Democrats. Critics on both the Left and Right who say the Tea Party is a passing fad are correct in the sense that the Republicans who’ve typically exploited that term haven’t accomplished anything conservative for decades. For the Tea Party to mean business it necessarily must deviate dramatically from the Republican status quo and seize control of the party leadership.
Until that battle is won, Republican leadership will be wholly unwilling to do anything to substantively address our big government woes, including some who’ve carried the Tea Party banner. The disconnect between voters’ desires and the establishment’s will remains wide as ever, reflecting the same disconnect that has long frustrated Americans from across the ideological spectrum with Washington politics.
The Senate and House Republicans who voted for the Budget Control Act of 2011 proved once again that they are not the revolutionaries they pretend to be.
The Tea Party versus the GOP must be waged at every level, from the precinct to the county to the state, to wrest control from the Tea Party Traitors..
