6/15/2010
J.M. Bernstein, you have it wrong (see The Very Angry Tea Party, New York Times, June 15, 2010). From the outside, all you hear is anger; granted, that seems to be what every politically-connected person hears. You suggest the Tea Party "wants nothing", and the people are somehow "jilted lovers" of some phantom government. In some ways, I think you may have uncovered part of the struggle, if not the essence, of the movement.
The truth is, many people that attend Tea Parties do feel jilted. However, they do not derive these feelings from some relationship with a phantom government. To me, it seems as though one segment of the Tea Party population feels jilted by their professed political party. True conservatives felt jilted by Mr. Bush Jr. and the Republicans. Those Republicans expanded the role and scope of the federal government, increased our national debt, and made a mockery of the Bill of Rights. To neo-cons everywhere, these changes were reasonable. True conservatives were left to defend conservative principles and were called unpatriotic in the process.
Enter Change We Can Believe In. That campaign distanced America from Mr. Bush's policies. Change advocates perceived a difference in Mr. Obama. He was going to close Guantanamo, stop indefinite detentions, get out of Iraq, and restore the Bill of Rights to its rightful place in America. Even the most outspoken progressive cannot claim that Mr. Obama has given us any substantial change in these areas. How could the proposed antithesis of Mr. Bush Jr. adopt virtually all of Mr. Bush's most outlandish policies? Many Liberals and progressives have come to realize the change they had hoped for will not come to fruition.
These are the jilted lovers at the Tea Party. They are angry and vocal, and yet their arguments aren't principled. Remember, they espoused government interventions not long ago. The liberals among them believed in an interventionist domestic policy, with a non-interventionist foreign policy. For the neo-conservatives among them, they believed the reverse. However, they have come together to make up the jilted lovers you seem to be listening to. Sadly, the entire Tea Party suffers from the media's focus on this anger. Both groups have fledgling ideals, and have yet to rationalize them in any systematic way. It is as if the drummer in a band can't quite keep a beat. You can hear it even above the vocals and electric guitars, and it ruins the song. You choose not to listen to the lyrics because the drumbeat is so unnerving.
The intense scrutiny of the Tea Parties so far fails to hear the essence of the voice. It's jazz music, with half beats and dissonance concluded by consonance. There is freedom at a Tea Party to build your principles, to make mistakes, and to question your currently-held beliefs. The jilted lovers at the Tea Parties are beginning to listen, but only make up the background vocals. The main lyrics are clear and ring true for liberty-minded musicians. For these folks, Mr. Bush Jr. offered no promise, and Mr. Obama offered no hope. The Tea Parties arose from a principled argument. The lyrics are simple, and yet pervasive. Freedom includes both economic and civil liberties, individual property and privacy rights, and a strong non-interventionist foreign policy that opens trade with all nations, but entangling alliance with none.
For libertarians, these Tea Parties are both a refreshing infusion and a frustrating banter. The background vocals seem to be taking the attention from the lyrics. However, at least people are beginning to listen to the song, even if their attention is misguided. Libertarians are now beginning to beat the drum loudly. Democrats, Republicans, and the media are aligning to stop the music, to make false accusations, to reduce the song to a sound byte, and to ridicule the entire Tea Party movement. Those groups are strange bedfellows indeed. However, it points out the inherent flaw in the belief that there is a difference between domestic and foreign interventionism. Those groups are not different to a Libertarian. Sadly, the media seems to identify itself as a Republicrat too. Instead, they should all listen to the lyrics. The lyrics were written eloquently in a profound document called the Constitution, and more people are learning the words to this song.