[... a left-leaning somewhat-independent friend of mine suggested I read this
NY Times opinion piece recommending that the tea party not push too hard. I got... a little carried away.]
There is no wisdom there. All he's doing is reading the tea leaves for
the November elections (a remarkably apt analogy!), then curling into
the fetal position and whimpering "Please don't hurt me too badly."
Comparing our current government to what was in place under Lincoln or
even when the Whig party was in power is patently absurd. The
comparison to FDR is a little more accurate, since he started most of
our big government projects... including, I should note, Social
Security, one of the entitlement programs that are about to
bankrupt us. I don't consider that a particularly good role model to
follow no matter how politically popular it is to force the relatively
young and healthy to pay for the health care and retirement of the
elderly.
Fact is, the Tea Party as a whole is damn tired of politicians telling us how far
we can go. Look at Obama -- how far has he gone, with his majority in
the house and supermajority in the senate? If we take the house, we'll
pass everything that we can possibly ram through the senate. If we
capture the senate, we'll pass everything we can ram through the
filibuster. We'll force the president to veto everything. And when he
does, come 2012 he'll have a record to run away from.
Has the department of education accomplished anything more than
increasing federal control over schools that continue to fail just as
badly while funnelling union dues to democrats? Eliminate it.
Has the department of energy accomplished anything more than blocking
new nuclear reactors from serving the energy needs of the country?
No? Eliminate it.
Did the recently-renamed department of mineral resources accomplish
anything other than spending our tax dollars inspecting drilling rigs
that failed anyway and spending more tax dollars pretending to buy
cleanup equipment that somehow wasn't available when it was needed?
No? Eliminate it.
Has Obamacare accomplished anything more than bankrupting medicare
faster and raising the cost of health care? No yet -- and what it
plans to accomplish is horrifying, so we'll eliminate THAT before it
has a chance to do more damage.
I can go on for hours like this. 2010 is just the opening volley.
2012 will clear the rubble. I fully expect Presidentess Palin to veto
any bill that she can't roll up tightly, sharpen the tip, and stab into
the heart of some vampiric beaurocrat. She's like Chuck Norris, only
cuter. And she shoots wolves. From helicopters. With frikkin' laser
beams. (Well, I may be exaggerating about the laser beams).
UPDATE: FDR can't be blamed for Medicare.