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Texas Tea Not What It Once Was

POLITICO says the days of the robust, ascending Texas TEA party may be over.

[A]s voters go to the polls Tuesday for the state’s primary election, it’s clear the tea party’s heyday in the Lone Star State — at least for the moment — has passed. A push to unseat two of the GOP establishment’s most prominent figures, Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Pete Sessions, has all but collapsed. And nearly all of the 23 House GOP incumbents seeking reelection are expected to glide to primary wins, many against underfunded, obscure tea party opponents.

It would make sense for 2014 to be a good year for the tea party crowd. After all, public resentment toward President Barack Obama is running high in many parts of the country, and midterm years tend to be dominated by an older and whiter set of voters — in other words, the kind of people who might describe themselves as tea party voters.

Yet for Texas conservatives, the heady days of 2010, when Perry suggested at a tea party rally that the state may eventually want to secede from the union, or 2012, when Cruz shocked an establishment candidate on his way to political stardom, seem like a distant memory. The Texas tea party’s struggles in a Republican year is a disappointment and, some say, reflects a deeper concern: that the once all-powerful movement isn’t as organized or effective as it once was.

“I don’t think the tea party has coalesced in 2014 the way they did for Ted Cruz in 2012,” said Toby Marie Walker, president of the Waco Tea Party. “But Ted was an anomaly — he was the perfect candidate in the perfect storm.”

Showmanship versus Statesmanship In Senate Again

When the debt ceiling votes were whipped (counted ahead of being cast) it became very clear that Harry Reid's democrats had more than enough to send the funding bill to the President for his signature.  But that didn't stop Ted Cruz from trying to hog the spotlight again by threatening a filibuster.  McConnell put a stop to those shenanigans.

The foolishness of being nothing more than an ineffective show off has worn thin with many in government.  Senator Ted Cruz wanted to filibuster the funding bill knowing all the time that in the end it would pass.  He knew this might force another government shutdown and in the process do great harm to the chances of republicans in the upcoming election cycles.  But he didn't care.

In the end enough republicans said "enough is enough" and shut him up.  The bill was destined to pass, and did, by a vote of 55-43, strictly along party lines.  Not a single republican voted for the bill.

Considering that the GOP is trying to get the majority in the Senate where they can then leverage their opposition into a defeat of such measures in the future, and that Ted Cruz and others are so blind to the need to control the majority in order to get their agenda advanced, it is clear that once again it was statesmanship that came to the rescue.

And for you tantrum throwers out there who insist that there must always be someone like Ted Cruz willing to take a stand, even if it means going against your own party, I hope you learn a lesson here.

The majority controls.  Right now the democrats have the majority.  No republican senators voted for the debt ceiling bill.  If we act as a united front we increase our chances of becoming the majority, where our nay vote will carry the day.  It's called being united in opposition as opposed to just showboating.

Thank you Mitch McConnell for making a very tough decision which was not politically popular.  That's the mark of a statesman.

TEA Party Liberals To Face Battles On Multiple Fronts In 2014

Ron Paul lovers take credit for the TEA party movement based upon a 2007 money bomb event on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.  Those involved in the modern larger TEA party movement deny Paul's paternity and say that they began Feb. 19, 2009 when CNBC’s Rick Santelli gave what is now known as the “rant heard around the world".

But there can be no doubt that between 2007 and 2009 there was nothing like the modern day TEA party movement anywhere on the radar screens of current events.  Today however things are much different.

Those who got there feet wet in politics as a part of the new and larger TEA party for the most part got involved due to the crashing economy, anger over the government bailouts and in reaction to many of the worrisome ideas being advanced by Barack Obama.  Over time the Ron Paul folks, the Libertarians, the anarchists and smart democrats changed the dynamics of the TEA party to their own ends.

What was once considered to be a movement designed to move the GOP back to its fiscally conservative platform has morphed into a protest movement which seems more devoted to altruistic ideals than pragmatic solutions.  Fixing problems in a real world sense is far less appealing to the TEA party than crashing the system entirely by removing anybody with any experience under the banner that everybody except their candidates are corrupt.

Straying from their original goal of being more conservative republicans into being the party of disruption has caused them to face a number of new challenges in 2014.

The US Chamber of Commerce and the business community in general have joined forces and declared war on the TEA party.

Now it appears that the social conservatives are about to gear up in the battle for the heart and soul of the GOP.

It shouldn't be assumed that the second front in the battle for republican votes will be fought alone by the TEA party.  Granted it has become more of a de-facto Libertarian organization when it comes to social issues, but Social Conservatives led by groups like The American Principles Project, Gary Bauer’s American Values outfit, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, Americans United for Life, the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage are now plotting to raise and spend mega-millions to move the GOP back on the track it took during the Bush years. [POLITICO]

How will this new dynamic affect TEA party efforts?  It may be too soon to tell, but the libertarian influences in the direction the movement has taken could prove problematic in the face of pressure from social conservatives.

For example, the idea that abortion should be a state's right to decide sounds a lot like the argument that abortion should be a woman's right to decide, a position which social conservatives will likely find unacceptable.

And neither is the Ron Paul position on prostitution and legalizing drugs likely to set well with the Family Values folks.

What might this battle on two fronts do to the TEA party movement?

On one hand the fiscal conservatives could take charge and return the movement to its original position making it a representative group for the "cut taxes, cut spending" republican ideology.

On the other hand, the Ron Paul libertarians might already have taken such control of the movement that it will have no choice but to act solely as a spoiler, unwittingly helping democrats and along the way losing members who don't want anymore democratic votes controlling the House and Senate agendas.

Or there could be a rising wave of libertarian thought in the nation that, through the TEA party, could change the direction of the country and cause tremendous social upheaval, much like the protests of the sixties did which of course were followed by years of liberal governments and devastating international blunders.

But one thing is clear.  The liberals in the TEA party movement will face a very big hurdle this year fighting their battles on multiple fronts in 2014.

Related articles

Has TEA Party Won The Battle Of Ideas In Washington?

Told Jah: TEA Party Leader Avowed Democrat

Social conservatives' big money plans

Has TEA Party Won The Battle Of Ideas In Washington?

POLITICO has a piece up on top of its website today that starts like this:

If this was a dud year in Washington, get ready for 2014 — the year to “go small.”

Lawmakers had already lost their appetite to “go big” this year, letting reforms of immigration, guns and the Tax Code slip away in the face of gridlock and dysfunction.

And now there’s a new problem. Lawmakers are reluctant to rely on the federal government to get anything done — a guilt-by-association consequence of Obamacare’s botched rollout. Republicans have called it an indictment of more than a website, but of Big Government itself.

While Democrats argue the problem is obstructionism — not ideology — the result will be the same: As Washington laments the end of a do-nothing year, lawmakers are fully prepared to do as little — or even less — in the new year.

“I think anything that has a significant expansion or role for the federal government is going to be problematic,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a top Republican message strategist, told POLITICO. “Because I just think there’s going to be such a cynicism and skepticism attached to any promises made with regard to the federal government’s role.”

Ron Paul, the Grand Poobah of the smaller is better ideology has been saying that the Republicans and Democrats are all the same, even saying on some occassions that they are all part of the same party.

Does this mean that his brand of governance which has usurped the TEA party movement has finally caught on?  The answer is no.

The reaction that POLITICO is predicting for 2014 is more a response to the ineffectiveness of the Obama administration and a growing uneasiness with what many used to dismiss, but now fear, are his nefarious plans for America.  In fact most of the anger and angst of the TEA party was born in reaction to Obama, has fed off of Obama's agenda and is still a reactionary movement rather than a pro-active one.

I saw this meme on Facebook sent out by a local TEA party group:

 

You have to ask yourself, what does this really say to people?  Is it some sort of rallying cry to keep the flames of discontent burning hotter than ever?

The phrase "More Constitution" means what exactly?  Lower taxes?  Taxes are undesirable no doubt, but they are certainly constitutional.  Does it mean more civil liberty?  We certainly have suffered in this area lately and numerous cases are working their way through the court system which ultimately decides, as the arbiter of these debates, what is and what is not constitutional.

How does this meme fit into the reality of political life?  What, no republican who wants more civil liberty and lower taxes can be trusted, and neither can any democrat?  Then who?  What other party is out there?  Aren't most of the TEA party candidates running as republicans?  And isn't it a fact that in places where they do, for the most part, they give democrats an added advantage of being able to run on their liberal agenda while republicans eat each other alive in primaries?

So just what does the observation of the POLITICO piece mean.  Has the TEA party won the battle of ideas in Washington?  Is there really some meaning to the concept of "More Constitution" that is controlling how elected officials act?

No, and no.

The fact is that even the proper role of government, as seen even by TEA party types, is considered dangerous territory.  Standing up in favor of building bridges and fixing roads, and repairing a half century or older infrastructure lights a match under the "big spender" accusers who have found a way, much like the protesters of the sixties did, to get attention in front of cameras and try to steer the policy of the nation.

Spend no money, collect no taxes, go to Washington, do nothing, dismantle the federal government, weaken our military, and withdraw into a kind of isolation that fools people into believing that the world will just leave us alone and allow us to prosper so long as we don't intervene in anybody else's business.

Foolhardy, reckless, ignorant thinking like this makes America vulnerable to the evil forces at work in the world.  If the worst happens it will be on the shoulders of those who failed to take charge in difficult times.  The blame will be squarely upon the heads of those who would give Israel over to the Palestinians, chemical weapons to Assad, control of Afghanistan to the drug cartels, who would remove border security and issue terms of engagement to our military that told them to stand up and take the first shot before firing back.

War is, as the saying goes, hell.  And hell is at our doorstep.  The last thing we need is a nation of bong hugging gamers driving the ship of state.

If the TEA party really wishes for an America that used to be, maybe they ought to be asking things like, where are the real men, the John Wayne's of our time, instead of asking that old time policy be implement by a bunch of impotent 'fraidy cats. 

Think about it.  America was strong, and stood up for itself in the days the Ron Paul folks wish they could return us to.  To get there might take a much tougher, rougher approach than the rally attending, flag-shirt wearing, malcontents and protesters can deliver on their own.

If a do nothing Congress is the result of a TEA party victory, then I think Merle might have asked the right question a long time ago: Are the good times really over for good?

 

Thank You Mitch McConnell

There is an article at the Wall Street Journal in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell does a great service for the GOP and the country.  He tells it like it is about America's frustration with government, what the TEA party is up to and why he clearly deserves to be the next majority leader of the US Senate.

"The most important election yesterday wasn't the governor of New Jersey and it wasn't the governor of Virginia, it was the special election for Congress in South Alabama, where a candidate who said the shutdown was a great idea, the president was born in Kenya, and that he opposed Speaker Boehner came in second." The victory of a more electable Republican, is significant, Mr. McConnell says. To govern, parties must win. To win, parties must "run candidates that don't scare the general public, [and] convey the impression that we could actually be responsible for governing, you can trust us—we're adults here, we're grown-ups."

EXACTLY!  Sure, you can grouse all you want about the fact that McConnell wasn't able to single-handedly repeal Obamacare, but just listen for a minute.  Expecting him to have THAT much power is a disconnect from reality.

Is the GOP in civil war? "No, I don't think so." Everyone agrees on the central issue: "We would all love to get rid of ObamaCare. If we had the votes to do it we'd do it in a heartbeat. It's the single worst piece of legislation that's been passed in modern times."But "we have a disability right now—it's called in the Senate '55 of them and 45 of us.' I'm not great at math, but 55 is more than 45. . . . I think it's irresponsible for some people to characterize themselves as sort of true conservatives, to mislead their followers into believing you can get an outcome that you can't possibly get."

And Mitch is spot on in his analysis of what many in the TEA party are really up to.

The tea party, he says, consists of "people who are angry and upset at government—and I agree with them." But "I think, honestly, many of them have been misled. . . . They've been told the reason we can't get to better outcomes than we've gotten is not because the Democrats control the Senate and the White House but because Republicans have been insufficiently feisty. Well, that's just not true, and I think that the folks that I have difficulty with are the leaders of some of these groups who basically mislead them for profit. . . . They raise money . . . take their cut and spend it" on political action that hurts Republicans.

In his usual calm, reasoned and measured approach to political reality Mitch has provided us once again with a voice of reason.  We need to elect adults, not tantrum throwing protesters.  We cannot beat back the Obama agenda until we get a majority in the Senate and hopefully control the White House.  And for all the good ideas that many in the TEA party have, and their understandable anger, many of those who are taking the lead in that group are in it for the money and the power and the prestige who are misleading their followers.

Are members of the tea party on the ground being fooled by operators, profit makers and cynics? "Yes," he said, followed by a brief silence. He declined to say more, but emphasized again that "I make a distinction between the leaders and the followers. I mean, I think a lot of well-meaning people are sending money to organizations having no idea they're gonna spend all that money against Republicans. Because they're being misled."

I've been saying these things for a long time now.  Thank you Mitch McConnell for saying them so much better.

Oh, and thank you for saying without a flinch something else I've been saying all along too.

He refers to the Senate Conservatives Fund. "That's the one I'm prepared to be specific about." The fund "has elected more Democrats than the Democratic Senatorial Committee over the last three cycles." The group is targeting Mr. McConnell with ads slamming his leadership during the shutdown. "Right now they're on the air in obvious coordination with Harry Reid's super PAC—Harry Reid's!—in the same markets, at roughly the same amount, at the same time." But says he isn't worried about his own race: "I don't wanna be overly cocky, but I'm gonna be the Republican nominee next year."

Damned right you are Mitch.

Thomas Massie's Goose Egg Cost America A Bunch

Here's what you get when a bunch of angry neophytes get elected to Congress with the help of anarchists and think that their only job is to throw a wrench in the gears of government as they act out their temper tantrums to the delight of a news media which is using their antics to splinter the GOP and help Obama.

The recent government shutdown and confrontation over the federal debt ceiling gained the Republicans nothing, at best – and may have cost them politically as a party. But it slowed the economy and undermined confidence in public finances in a way that will have a significant negative impact on future budgets of the United States. None of this should make for an appealing strategy, but Tea Party Republicans are giving every indication that they want to do the same thing again early next year. Their more moderate colleagues need to take a firmer hand.

On the political gains from recent tactics, it is hard to find any good news for the Republican side as a whole. Representative Thomas H. Massie, Republican of Kentucky, got it right when he said, “Goose egg, nothing, we got nothing,” in terms of policy changes. And opinion polls moved more sharply against Republicans than some had expected.

The shutdown and debt ceiling brinkmanship did real damage to the economy. The immediate and direct costs are nicely summarized in a blog post by James H. Stock – an academic economist on the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. His assessment is that the effect is a

0.25 percentage point reduction in the annualized G.D.P. growth rate in the fourth quarter and a reduction of about 120,000 private sector jobs in the first two weeks of October (estimates use indicators available through Oct. 12th).

Members of the Tea Party movement express concern about the longer-run federal budget – and the potential negative impact of future debt levels. But their tactics are directly worsening the budget over exactly the time horizon that they say they care about.

The major long-term issue the United States faces is rising health-care costs (not just the part that the federal government pays for), but an important part of our projected future deficits is interest costs, i.e., what the government needs to pay holders of its debt.

The United States dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency and safe haven; the asset that major investors, such as central banks and big international companies, actually buy is United States Treasury debt. In the short term, when Congress acts in a crazy and irresponsible fashion that makes the world feel more unstable, investors “seek safety” and actually buy American government debt, pushing down yields (bond prices and yields move inversely to each other).

Over a longer period of time, of course, investors get the message: United States Treasury debt is not so safe and cannot be trusted as in the past. They should look for alternative assets. The euro may bounce back. The British pound, Swiss franc and Japanese yen have all been contenders in the past. And the most real threat over the next 20 years is probably the rising international role of China’s renminbi.

In the American system, with its carefully conceived checks and balances, an organized and well-funded minority can do a lot more damage – as we have just been reminded. The only force that can rein in Tea Party extremism – and get the nation off the road to fiscal ruin – is resurgence among Republican moderates. [NY Times]

It is clear that reckless behavior like that of Massie, Amash, Cruz and others is doing harm to the United States.  Oh it might make you feel good to hear somebody echo your disdain for Congress, but in the end, which is better for you, a doctor who tells you what you want to hear or one with the skill and commitment to do what is required in order to save your life?

Cruz Makes A Funny In Welcome Home Speech To TEA Party

In Texas they love Ted Cruz, at least at the local tea party meeting where he spoke during a recent trip home.  And in his speech he was pretty funny.  He said this to the crowd"

“You may have noticed that all the Nigerian email scammers have become a lot less active lately,” Cruz joked, according to the Houston Chronicle. “They all have been hired to run the Obamacare website.”

Criticism Of McConnell Is Mind Boggling

EDITORIAL

Headlines all across the nation exploded today with criticism leveled at Mitch McConnell for his role in the "shutdown" negotiations particularly the expansion of funding for a years old dam project on the Ohio River inserted in the late night bill and approved by a wide margin of 81-18 in the Senate 285-144 in the House.

Calling the funding increase the "Kentucky Kickback" and other equally ugly things blogs, newspapers and commentators from across the political spectrum are attacking Mitch, claiming that he failed to hold the line against the democrats and that he got a little pork for Kentucky as a payoff for surrender.  Have people lost all perspective on politics and reality?

First of all, as Mitch correctly pointed out, if you have questions about the dam funding, ask Diane Feinstein and Lamar Alexander the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate energy and water subcommittee, respectively.  As reported by the Courier Journal:

Alexander said in a statement to Buzzfeed that the provision was required to safeguard $160 million in Army Corps of Engineers contracts for the dam. Alexander said he and Feinstein asked for the provision.

“It has already been approved this year by the House and Senate,” Alexander said.

The Olmsted project is one of the largest construction projects in the country, considered essential but way over budget.

Let's get this straight.  The TEA party bunch cries all over the place that they would like a limited government that does little more than provide a strong military, and builds interstate highways, bridges and dams.  A major construction project in one of the busiest corridors of commerce in the nation is sorely in need of replacement before the antiquated lock and dam system that has been outdated since 1988 fails completely.  The Senate waterways committee chaired by a democrat inserts a funding increase for a project which is already underway into the CR bill and McConnell is criticized for not stopping it?

The bill passed with 81 votes for cripesake!  How was he going to stop that?

And if the continued funding of a project which is under way already was necessary because of years of delays and funding uncertainties, who in their right mind would abandon it?  What the hell is wrong with you people?!

And let's get one more thing straight.  Even if Kentucky benefits from this funding, since when is a Senator NOT supposed to help his state?  Are you people dropping acid or something?

Look, the whole shutdown fiasco was a cesspool, but ask yourself.  Do you think Alison Lundergan Grimes or Matt Bevin could swim out of a cesspool with the kind of pearls in their teeth that McConnell got for Kentucky?  I mean, if the entire fight was about to go down to defeat it is a good thing to have a guy like McConnell up there helping Kentucky isn't it, considering that the democrats are in the majority?

Criticism of McConnell is mind boggling.  In fact the entire world of politics in Washington is like a brain eating amoeba, the longer it goes untreated the more we get close to a world of Idiocracy.

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Justin Amash, Thomas Massie and the others, get over yourself.  You didn't accomplish anything except get airtime for yourselves, disrupt the nation, and show once again how totally ineffective you are.

And those of you who continue to listen to those guys and jump on the "bash McConnell" band wagon at their invitation, let me suggest that this is going to be a very short ride.  Eventually the adults will take the keys away.

Until the GOP wins the White House and the Senate we need strong people in Washington who work FOR Kentucky, not some altruistic technicolor dreamworld image of a nation that has never, and will never be.

On Wednesday afternoon, Rand Paul defended Mitch McConnell in an interview with Terry Meiners on WHAS radio in Louisville.

"I would say Kentucky's very lucky to have Sen. McConnell," Paul said. "You need somebody who's willing to stand up for Kentucky."

I agree.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/16/2880106/mcconnell-takes-criticism-

from.html#storylink=cpy

All For Naught

Told-jah.  All the bluster, fluster and filibuster in the world was just the kind of huffing and puffing that was not about to bring down the house.  Neither Cruz, nor Lee nor Amash nor Massie had any depth to their game plan beyond appearances.  And despite their claims to the contrary, they are all about politics, and political imagery.

The government of the United States is run by those who hold the majority.  Right now, between the three components of getting things done (White House, Senate, House of Representatives) the democrats hold two of them.  It's just a fact and political reality that the slim majority of republicans in the house don't hold enough votes or power to get their way.  Plain and simple, and known to the actors on the stage before they ever began their charade.  But that didn't stop them from whining all the way to the car that daddy didn't buy them a candy bar at the checkout.

In the end all that the temper tantrum of the few accomplished was to give them rallying points back home among their base of political amateurs and malcontents.  Now the President and the Senate have won again, the House got nothing out of it except a black eye and republicans in general are scrambling to put a better spin on the whole mess.

Would it have been better for the GOP to have stuck together and let today's debt ceiling issue pass by without action?  We will never know.  But don't think for a minute that Ted Cruz and his Cruzettes won't tell you that THEY KNOW.

We now return you to your regular programing: deer season, football and planning for the holidays.

What, No Blame For TEA Party Over Shutdown?

EDITORIAL

The GOP is trying to spin the media into reporting that any government shutdown will be the fault of the democrats.  Of course the media is already in bed with the democrats so they are blaming the potential shutdown on republicans.  But why is none of the blame being attached to the TEA party?

Boehner didn't want a shutdown and neither did Harry Reid. But Ted Cruz and other TEA party emboldened legislators who have made so much noise and so many threats have ended up controlling the outcome.  In reality, they should be the ones who own the consequences of a shutdown.

Over the weekend talking heads with sources inside the Cruz faction, such as Kim Strassel, asked the Cruz folks what was the goal of their strategy.  The answer seemed to be that they could raise a lot of money off of the obstruction and get a lot of attention.  When pressed for an explanation of what their back up plan was, they admittedly had none.  The reports are that the entire thing was, just as many of us thought all along, just for show.

While experienced Washington legislators spend most of their time building coalitions of votes and getting things done, the TEA party/Ron Paul obstructionists seem to have no interest in actual progress.

Some say that the last government shutdown was expected to backfire on President Clinton.  Instead, political historians will tell you, it burned the GOP beyond recognition for several years.  And that may very well be the only back up plan Cruz and his faction have in mind.  After all, they ran as republicans but really see no value in the two party system.

They often cite President Washington's warnings about the development of political parties as one of the things that motivates them.  But as long as the system is set up to give a the party in the majority virtual control over each house of the Congress, lodging protest votes against republicans does nothing more than give more power to the democrats.  So why hasn't Cruz and company been going after democrats instead of bashing republicans?

Outside conservative groups—Heritage Action, the Senate Conservatives Fund—have raised real cash on this venture, and they've spent most of it attacking House and Senate Republicans. A bare trickle of dollars, if that much, has gone to directing public ObamaCare anger toward Democratic senators such as Arkansas's Mark Pryor, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, Alaska's Mark Begich, or North Carolina's Kay Hagan.

The result is that, while the defunders will get their vote in the Senate, they laid no groundwork—no sustained or coordinated advertising or Web campaign, no public uprising in key states—to pressure Democrats to vote with them. This is an error of embarrassing proportions. [Wall Street Journal]

It's as if Cruz and company joined a football team but insist upon bringing bats, and gloves and complaining that the teams aren't playing baseball.  How does that help their team win?

Boehner and company could seize upon this opportunity and use it as a teaching moment for the young TEA party folks. 

Politics is a team sport and not every rookie player gets to be the starting quarterback.  If these folks are not suited for the rough and tumble world of football, then maybe they would be better off to stay with soccer where, considering how little scoring is ever done, the entire thing is obviously just the kind of spectacle they seem to like.