I follow politics pretty closely, and I am a proud born and bred Democrat. Recent actions of the Tea Party peaked my curiosity about exactly what it stands for, so I went to its website and read its mission statement.
The Tea Party was founded in 2009, according to its web site. Coincidently, this was shortly after our first African American president took his seat in the Oval Office. Only one percent of the Tea Party is African American, according to a CBS News and New York Times poll. I believe this also says a lot about the party’s ideals and beliefs.
Its mission statement says, “Tea Party members share similar core principles supporting the United States Constitution as the Founders intended.”
The Tea Party says it believes in individual freedoms. For the Tea Party, as long as a person is a white, heterosexual, Christian man, he is free to make his own choices.
It seems to be the belief of the Tea Party that women need to be controlled because they are weak and do not know how to care for themselves. The Tea Party has backed legislation to make birth control virtually inaccessible for women. It also wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and make abortion illegal again. With no access to birth control and no legal way to terminate a pregnancy, even in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, women stand to lose a lot of ground in their fight for equality and individual freedom.
The Tea Party shares the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. Even according to the Bible, its view of a traditional marriage is wrong. Because of the strength of its belief, the Tea Party wants to deny gays and lesbians the right to legally marry. In doing so, it denies these couples the same rights and benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy.
It seems interesting to me, and more than a bit disturbing, that the legislation being proposed by the Tea Party only affects small populations of people, and infringes on the rights of those people to live a free and happy life.
The Tea Party touts personal responsibility. With the exception of the “do nothing” Republicans in congress right now, I cannot think of a single person who does not, to some extent, accept the blame when something goes wrong in their lives.
The recent improvement in the unemployment rate has been barely spoken of, but I cannot tell you the number of times a bad jobs report was met with criticism of the President and his inability to set the country back on its feet.
Tea Party backed Republicans who refuse to accept their share of the blame. They refuse to acknowledge that perhaps the reason the economy is still in bad shape is because they have determined that President Obama would be a one term president. Republicans backed by the Tea Party have done everything possible to block any legislation for jobs or economic improvement that comes in front of them, even if it is something they supported or proposed to begin with.
I do not believe the founders of our great nation would approve of the Tea Party’s view of the way things should be. In fact, I am sure they are rolling over in their graves just thinking about how the Tea Party has defiled their beloved constitution.
