Lying By Omission
Tea Partiers support smaller government, lower taxes & a strong military with a strong foreign presence.
Ron Paul, in his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008 had a fund raiser on he anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, 12/16/07. (link). Many consider this to be the beginning of the Tea Party Movement.
By August of '08, however, the Tea Party of Sarah Palin & Glenn Beck was not exactly what Ron Paul had in mind. (link).
Does smaller government sound good? sure Lower taxes? great
But how?
The Tea Party claims it has no social agendas to pursue.
So what do they want to cut in spending to reduce taxes? Not the military.
So, let's look at what holds the Tea Party, whose candidates are "you", together. By examining this, we can get an idea of what their policies will be in shrinking the government.
About 11% of the population identifies itself with the Tea Party. This is a bit smaller than the Black or Latino population.
It's predominantly white - in line with the US population.
A little over half make $50k or more per year - about the average but well above the American median income.
Members are 48% Republican, 28% Republican leaning & about 8% Democratic - nationwide it's more along the lines of 30% Republican & 35% Democrat.
It's membership is 81% Christian - about in line with the nation.
The majority, 57%, consider themselves "Christian Conservatives", about twice as much as the average American at 22%.
They are 85% opposed to gay marriage, about twice the national average.
They are 65% anti-choice opposed to 45% nationwide.
They are more than twice as likely than the national average (25% / 11%) to think the government favors black people over white.
Looking at these samnesses & differences from mainstream society where can we expect to see government shrinking?
It is likely they will find some shrinkage in reducing services they see as benefitting black people.
They will likely work to create a tax structure more attractive to their financial base like regressive sales taxes over income taxes.
Actually, it is likely Tea Partiers will want to expand government to pursue it's religious agendas forcing churches to not marry gays & forcing doctors to not perform abortions & forcing young girls to be disabled or die from bearing the unwanted children conceived by brutal incestuous rape. Dunno if they will shrink funding for dealing with the orphans or disabled mothers.
I fear they, like organizations like HSUS will be wolves in sheep's clothing. Their insistence that they are average Joes when in reality, like animal rights advocates, they are a minority. The fact Rush Limbaugh plays prominently in both groups is disconcerting.
They claim to be angry with Washington & the status quo but support several candidates who do indeed represent the status quo but are staunch supporters of the religionist agenda that permeates the Tea Party.
Their not being up front about this is essentially, lying by omission.
The Tea Party appears to be nothing more than another rebranding of the old Moral Majority & Silent Majority of the past - groups touted as a majority but never more than a very vocal minority emboldened with a strong & potentially dangerous streak of zealotry.

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