Tea Party
I would take the Tea Party movement more seriously if they were to actually address the entirety of the problem. The problem being not only big government but big business. What’s the value of trying to de-claw government if you don’t de-claw big business as well? The founding father’s deemed that the strength of America was in the small farmers and the small businesses. They wanted a separation of Church and State because the Church was the most powerful institution at that time. They could not foresee the growth and threat of big business.
The founding fathers, well aware that people and institutions could be influenced and corrupted, formed a government with checks and balances. It would be naïve to think that the people in big business are somehow more honest and level headed than the ones running the government and that we would all be better off if they were left alone to do as they please. Remember Enron? That fiasco came to light shortly after 911. On one hand, people obviously perceived the threat from without (the government made sure of that), but unfortunately, they did not properly perceive the threat from within which could potentially devastate the economy, and which just about did, leading up to the Great Recession.
So why would a bunch of ordinary citizens who comprise the Tea Party want to defend the rights of big multi-national corporations. There’s an old saying: divide and conquer. The powers that be prefer a weakened populace divided into so called Red states and Blue states, with groups whose main agenda, sadly enough, is to call other people ill names and engage in slogan-speak. And the media swallows this stuff up. They love simplistic, graphic images. The big honchos hope that this will keep people distracted so that they can continue to play their nefarious games. The last thing they want to see is a majority of people coming together to tackle problems.
But I’d bet the American people have a lot more in common than in what divides them. For the good of this great nation, we need a movement (many movements) to generate real dialogue, take aim at real problems which effect us all, and create real solutions. Does the Tea Party care to step up to the plate?
To be continued…
The founding fathers, well aware that people and institutions could be influenced and corrupted, formed a government with checks and balances. It would be naïve to think that the people in big business are somehow more honest and level headed than the ones running the government and that we would all be better off if they were left alone to do as they please. Remember Enron? That fiasco came to light shortly after 911. On one hand, people obviously perceived the threat from without (the government made sure of that), but unfortunately, they did not properly perceive the threat from within which could potentially devastate the economy, and which just about did, leading up to the Great Recession.
So why would a bunch of ordinary citizens who comprise the Tea Party want to defend the rights of big multi-national corporations. There’s an old saying: divide and conquer. The powers that be prefer a weakened populace divided into so called Red states and Blue states, with groups whose main agenda, sadly enough, is to call other people ill names and engage in slogan-speak. And the media swallows this stuff up. They love simplistic, graphic images. The big honchos hope that this will keep people distracted so that they can continue to play their nefarious games. The last thing they want to see is a majority of people coming together to tackle problems.
But I’d bet the American people have a lot more in common than in what divides them. For the good of this great nation, we need a movement (many movements) to generate real dialogue, take aim at real problems which effect us all, and create real solutions. Does the Tea Party care to step up to the plate?
To be continued…
posted by Andy Fraenkel at 3:04 PM
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