TEA Party no Longer Partying

I supported the TEA Party elements of cutting spending, limiting government, and reinstating Constitutional rule.

The movement has drifted from the pragmatic to the problematic.

In the last two election cycles, TEA Party activists have killed successful primary candidates for the general election, and shoo-in Republicans have lost out.

The GOP needs to ally the Tea Party and the Establishment elements in this country.

We have seen the results of limited government libertarianism pushed to its limits: Barry Goldwater. Yet like the majority of libertarians, the argument for less government must be replaced with more of something else.

His signature quote defines where reform can turn into self-righteous indignation:

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"

"Extremism" is a violation of liberty. "A pursuit of justice" can never be moderate", nor should we center our lives on attaining just at all costs. The final rendering in a case or a conflict cannot be the defining future of man.

And a representative Democracy cannot be based on extreme approaches to anything, nor justice as a means or an end for everything, to begin with.

Just telling people that the government is not supposed to do anything creates more fear than regard. God has established authorities in our lives, and they carry the sword for a reason, whether they do poorly or not does not have to affect or wrongly influence us (Romans 13: 1-7)

Like Progressives, Libertarians of the Goldwater variety espouse a vision in which men and women are ruled in a more complete fashion. For Progressives, the state would adjudicate everything, a concrete version of Rousseau's "General Will". Libertarians want government removed entirely so that men and women can be led from within by their own will.

Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can such leading and prospering emerge. The Holy Spirit governs throughout the world, outside of man, nations, and time itself. The Holy Spirit prompts men and women from within, so that they do not have to depend on outside authorities to lead and prosper them.

The governance of the Holy Spirit cannot be dictated by the state or through force. The extremism of liberty and the moderation of justice will never exist in any country.

The absolutist libertarian impulse refuses to recognize anything but the most minimal authority in the lives of the private citizen. Murray Rothbard advanced a theory of complete private governance. Such a scheme runs contrary to Scripture.

Goldwater lost by the largest margin for a Republican Presidential candidate in US History. Romney's loss was not nearly as bad, but it was egged on by this notion by TEA Party elements which just want to cut, cut, cut.

There is no cutting outright unless there is something to replace it. Life is more than fighting for one's rights, and the alarmism which sponsors people to engage in vitriol to  make one's point vitiates at the same time.

I attended a TEA Party rally in Torrance, CA just one week before the 2012 Presidential election. I felt threatened and out of place. I did not like the sense of vitriol which I perceived from some of the members, although I respect their respect for the Constitution and Limited Government. But just as Reagan's rhetoric about "Government is the Problem" could not excuse him from working within government, so too shouting "Taxed Enough Already" will not get the message through without accepting that even in the  most secure and respected of stances on issues, compromise must play a part.

The primary challenges over the past two cycles have kicked out moderates or liberal Republicans instead who would have won the seat. Granted, Republicans like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe favored spending, though not as much as the Democrats, it was Olympia Snowe on the Senate Finance Committee who worked with two other Republicans (Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi) to work with three other Democrats to come up with something. The comity on that committee is sorely needed yet sorely lacking in Washington today.

Yes, our leaders must shrink the government, but we cannot shrink the citizenry in the process. Yes, we need to respect the Constitution, but the Constitution was put in place to help form a "more perfect union", not foster private, uncaring disunity among the disparate elements and interests. Government is instituted to protect our rights. Do we know what those rights are? Have we outlined how the expansion of rights without natural law has crippled the rights accorded to us in the Amendments of the Constitution?

The proliferation of rights by judicial, administrative, or legislative fiat is wrong, but the right to organize, to practice one's faith, to express one's opinion, to pursue happiness: those rights cannot be removed, and our government needs to protect them. As for "Big Government" or "Government Helping People", let the states and the cities do that job: they do it, and they do it better. The TEA Party made their points in 2010, and now they have to allow their leaders to govern. The libertarian-progressive pursuit of the perfect or ideal candidate will never come. A tax increase with real spending cuts is the way to go.