Tea Party Report on the GOP
Phil Orenstein • April 28, 2009 • Uncategorized
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on April 15 at Tea Parties across America. Hardworking folks who cherish their American birthright of freedom and independence took to the streets on Tax Day to protest big government solutions, rising taxes, out-of-control spending, bailouts of big banks and automakers, nationalizing major industries, tripling the deficit, illegal immigration, and demonizing our returning military Veterans, gun owners and American Patriots as right-wing extremists.
The crisis began last year when panicked policymakers tricked us into believing the global financial system would melt down if the Troubled Asset Recovery Plan (TARP), “bailout” plan wasn’t immediately enacted. But the economy tanked anyway, unemployment rose and government spending soared to historical heights. After telling the Republican opposition to shut up, “I won,” President Obama signed a pork laden stimulus package of $787 billion for special interest groups that was rammed through Congress before anyone had a chance to read the entire bill. The anger and frustration reached the breaking point just prior to Tax Day when Congress approved Mr. Obama’s massive $3.6 trillion budget for increased spending on health care, energy, climate change, and a host of cradle-to-grave entitlements, which sent the National Debt soaring to over $11 trillion. To cover this, the Federal Reserve is now feverishly printing money enabling the government to steal more of our hard-earned wealth and bankrupt our future.
Days before the Tea Parties, Janet Napolitano released an alarming Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report on “Rightwing Extremism” targeting War Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and ordinary Americans holding conservative viewpoints as potential terrorist suspects. Formerly silent Americans who were out protesting are the individuals who maintain views opposing abortion, illegal immigration, gun bans, and ever-expanding government power. The fact that our government has these ordinary Americans on a watch list as potential right-wing extremists has a chilling effect on our freedom of conscience and expression. Big Brother is watching and the people are mad as hell and ready to march on the Capitol on July 4th.
This is a spontaneous grassroots movement, not “Astroturf” (fake grassroots) events as perplexed politicians and journalists such as Nancy Pelosi and Paul Krugman of the New York Times insinuated. The idea was born on February 19 as CNBC reporter Rick Santelli’s “rant heard round the world” called for a Chicago Tea Party and an end to taxpayer bailouts of irresponsible government and individual borrowers. Contrary to Paul Krugman’s ridicule in his op-ed piece that Tea Parties are a failed new GOP strategy “manufactured by the usual suspects” and “supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires,” the organizers of the events were ordinary hardworking folks who shunned political parties and rejected worn-out ideological labels. They did not get their marching orders from Republican strategists. They acted independently, inspired by Santelli’s famous rant and Glenn Beck’s 9-12 Project, “designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and principles of the greatest nation ever created.”
The Tea Party participants utterly reject the Republican Party and its pathetic leadership, in their eyes. Not only do they believe Republicans are part of the problem for the past eight years of big government spending, but also that the McCain campaign purposely threw away the 2008 election in order to play a part in the historical moment of electing the first U.S. black president. They are even more disgusted with the performance of the GOP today. The Chicago Tea Party rejected Michael Steele’s request to speak and we haven’t heard from our RNC Chairman since GOP candidate Jim Tedisco conceded the congressional race in New York’s 20th district. After losing six House seats in the past election Steele made capturing this seat the highest priority in order to turn the tide of Republican fortunes toward victory in 2010. With New York on the verge of bankruptcy, Tedisco’s defeat in a majority Republican district, and only three Republican Congressmen left in the state delegation, Republican activists are now calling for State GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello’s head.
Even more dishonorable are the GOP leaders of New York City who are steadily being bought off by billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg who rejected the people’s vote for term limits and is now running for a third term. Former City Councilman Tom Ognibene recently agreed to run on the Republican line for Mayor, but instead of rallying behind this brilliant statesman, the GOP leadership has been running scared and chose to endorse Bloomberg who is not even registered in the Republican Party. Just days after Bronx GOP leader Jay Savino pledged his enthusiastic support for Ognibene, he decided instead to endorse Bloomberg, making himself the third county leader to buckle. The exception to the rule is Queens County Chairman Phil Ragusa who said he would never allow Bloomberg to rent the GOP line and the Queens GOP now seems to be boldly leading the charge with the recent victories of Senator Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and the special election win for Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and a slate of winning candidates for November.
Bold and righteous actions pay off. But the moral cowardice that the rest of our party’s leadership has exhibited is sending people running from the Republican Party ranks in droves. Our Party is moribund on the national scene as well. Instead of blasting the Democrat’s stampede to socialism, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va), dreading the “party of no” moniker, keeps expressing his willingness to work together with the president and unite, while the country burns. In response to Rush Limbaugh’s incisive remarks that he wants Obama and his socialist agenda to fail, Cantor exclaimed “no Republican wants this president to fail, wants this country to fail, wants the economy to fail.”
The disgraceful GOP message of indulging the president is a lie. The GOP is presently lost at sea with no message period. The overriding strategy appears to be dutifully playing along until Obama fails, and the economy goes into a severe tailspin, with unemployment soaring, riots breaking out in the streets, and widespread violence. They anticipate that by 2010 people will put the blame on the Democrat’s miserable failure on Obama’s watch and come rushing back to elect Republicans by landslides. The people of America aren’t fools. The American Patriots who marched on Tax Day see through the hypocrisy of the spineless GOP leadership and abhor their apprehension to stand up in opposition to the Obama administration. The people hear conservative talk show hosts telling the truth, attacking Obama’s destructive agenda and his apologetic behavior overseas. The conservative media are doing the job of speaking out for our freedom and liberty which are being dismantled on a daily basis while congressional Republicans are doing nothing to stop it. Other than the few exceptions, for the most part they are career politicians, failed ex-lawyers, living in gated communities, sending their children to the finest private schools, and are looking out for themselves and the next election. They don’t care about our country. If we can’t honestly self reflect and admit that we are part of the problem and boldly go on the offensive, the people will eschew the Republican line at the polls in November, if we have a country left by Election Day.
Comments
One Response to “Tea Party Report on the GOP”
Leave a Reply
[...] Phil Orenstein, a Republican from Queens, has written about the recent Tea Parties on the Democracy Project blog. The Tea Parties offer an important opportunity to the RLC. If the RLC can integrate the Tea [...]