Memo to Tea Party: Stop Sucking

I want to understand Tea Party sentiment, because I think there are some morsels of good ideas hidden deep within their murky bowl of freedom chowder.

In the broadest sense, the Tea Party is a coalition of people who clamor for balanced budgets and elimination of wasteful government spending, and who also believe that government action should be within the bounds of the Constitution. I can actually get behind this idea. It's when the Tea Party folks use specifics, like eliminating the Department of Education, allowing health insurance companies to sell policies practically without regulation, and recklessly lowering taxes that are already low that I start to disagree. It's when the Tea Party folks use inflammatory language, like a desire to "firebomb" the Fed, that they turn me against them. It's when the Tea Party leaders lie about facts like the economic state of Social Security (it is after all fully funded) and mischaracterize certain politicians' stances, like calling Obama a socialist that I start to rally against them. And it's when Tea Party leaders dabble in social issues like gay rights and religious freedom issues that I find them unconscionably reckless and a danger to our society.

This is why it's easy to characterize the Tea Party as an angry white conservative mob blinded by hatred for outsiders and driven by sensationalism of cable news and AM radio. They are a divisive group, and their popularity stems from anger, a potent political emotion. Their specific policies would undoubtedly be bad for the country as a whole. But if in some alternate universe the Tea Party stood only for balanced budgets and responsible government, I could see extraordinary benefits from a tolerant group of tax-paying citizens who would push an agenda of control of government expenditures. They could act as a vigilant watchdog group, which could push for a more transparent government. Their political candidates could focus on the economy and be spokesmen and women for the benefits of conservation, austerity and efficiency.

But unfortunately we live in this universe and not some alternative version of it. Tea Party candidates are known for making radical statements that wouldn't help anything, like that non-discrimination laws are unconstitutional, that Americans would be better off if Social Security and Medicare were eliminated, and that Obama is either a socialist or a Muslim Nazi without a U.S. birth certificate, and he's trying to steal your money. And I don't see how it helps the country to put inflammatory liars into political office.