Editor,
I respect the original libertarian Tea Party of Rep. Ron Paul, Adam Kokesh and Gary Johnson.
I applaud their opposition to the territorial pissing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, their support of individual civil liberties and the U.S. Constitution, and their libertarian stances on social issues.
As for the Christian tea baggers who jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon — such as Sarah Palin and her cackle of rads like Susana Martinez, Jan Brewer, Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell — they come off as hypocritical in their positions.
Is the Tea Party a libertarian non-religious movement or a radical Christian conservative movement?
The tea baggers are always talking about freedom, liberty and the U.S. Constitution. That is, if you are a white, Christian, conservative American. Then they have a few exceptions. The tea baggers want the tyrannical federal government to stay the hell out of their private lives and health care, yet they mostly support a federal ban on abortion and the evils of monogamous gay marriage.
These tea baggers are pro-life, yet they are mostly pro-war, too. Tea baggers support the failed war on drugs; the real Tea Party sees it for the sham it is. They rant about spending and the budget deficit, but they mostly support the costly failed terror war and Bush’s costly tax cuts. Tea baggers support the terror war, while the Tea Party sees it as a boondoggle for arms deals, heroin smuggling and the military-industrial complex.
These Christian tea baggers don’t seem to understand the concept of separation of church and state. When Dr. Laura recently went off on the radio, sputtering the N-word 11 times, Palin tweeted, “Don’t retreat, reload.” Gurl! Dr. Laura’s First Amendment right to use racial epitaphs was infringed? Tea baggers don’t seem to have a good understanding of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments.
A few months ago Palin tweeted, calling on peaceful Muslims to repudiate the ground zero mosque. It turns out it was neither located at ground zero, nor was it an Islamic mosque. Former Gov. Palin has endorsed former Rep. Steve Pearce. Pearce recently questioned whether President Obama is really an American citizen. Twenty percent of Americans and 46 percent of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim Marxist terrorist usurper.
Pearce’s campaign website states, “The U.S. Constitution protects our right to prayer and against the government halting expressions of faith,” yet Pearce was disappointed that Obama endorsed building a mosque near ground zero (he didn’t) … and the location should be moved farther away from ground zero.
Really? How far should it be moved? I am not as disappointed by the disastrous failed war/hunt for Osama bin Laden and weapons of mass destruction in Afghanistan and Iraq that has cost more than a trillion borrowed dollars, not to mention the deaths of thousands of humans. I am more disappointed by a multi-faith community center where New York teenagers can get off the streets to play basketball; moms can take kids swimming in the summer; people can exercise, take a cooking class and attend a bereavement group; attend a play; go to a concert, and oh, yeah, pray on Fridays. Scandalous!
I was stunned and disappointed to hear my Republican friends and family bleating the talking points about the Hamas ground zero mega terror mosque, how Islam is evil and their fear of Obama imposing Sharia law.
Terror is the use of fear or violence for political gain, and radical Islam does not have a monopoly on terrorist tactics.
The radical Christian tea baggers talk about “taking this country back!”
Do they want to take it back to the 1950s (pre-civil rights), 1861 (pre-Civil War), 1776 (all white men are created equal)? Do they want to take it back to the economic collapse of the fall 2008?
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It is time to move past these decrepit political parties and ideologies of the left and right. It’s time to take this country forward, not backward.
Brian Fejer
UNM student
