Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Tea Party

With the midterm elections coming up next week, it might be good to remember that the Tea Party started under the 2nd administration of George W. Bush.  Lots of us were upset with President Bush, particularly for his expansion of government and the deficits he was running at the time.  As Timothy Dalrymple writes: 

The tea started brewing under Bush. It’s important that Democrats and Republicans alike understand this. Democrats know that they are about to suffer a rebuke of historic proportions, but it’s important they understand the reason and not imagine themselves the victims of racism or irrationality. And it’s important for Republicans to understand that their legacy of government growth and deficit spending is also suffering rebuke. The Republicans will recapture the House (if they do) not because Americans love the GOP but because the Democrats doubled down on the Republicans’ big-government tendencies.

This election is about small government, reduced spending and reminding our elected officials that they serve at our pleasure.  The problem is not the Tea Party, the problem is that for too long, elected officials have forgotten that they serve us.  Some of them aren't listening, many of them aren't paying attention, and most of them have forgotten that they're beholden to us.   If the folks we elect don't pay attention, we'll do our best to hammer them the next go-round.

2 comments:

J said...

Jumping the gun a mite, the new Republican Congressional leadership in waiting is already planning massive financial deregulation. The inevitable result will be financial collapse in four to eight years.

Lax regulation caused the Great Depression of the 1930s and the huge recession of 2008. Wall Street bankers and brokers without proper regulation tend to make themselves filthy rich at the expense of lowly ordinary citizens. If the Republicans get their wishes, prepare you and yours for Great Depression #2 sometime circa 2014. And remember I said it.....

Pawpaw said...

I think they are jumping the gun. The biggest caution in politics is to not get cocky, and they're a cocky bunch.

The biggest players in the stock market are things like pension funds and market funds. The US government is a huge player, with things like mortgage funds, which caused the last bubble and burst.

Actually, if you want to talk about history, there are five fairly commonly accepted causes of the Great Depression. The market crash of Black Tuesday was just one of them. The others are the bank failures (which we've had plenty of lately), the loss of consumer confidence (people quit buying stuff), the Smoot-Hawley Tariff (which caused a problem with European trade) and the drought of that period. Lots of farms lost. Each of these were a player in the cause of the Great Depression.

The Republicans shouldn't get to cocky. We're pissed at them too.