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WHY THE TEA PARTY IS WRONG
Newsweek (October 25, 2010) addresses some of the errors made by proponents of the Tea Party in discussing the up-coming election.
Christine O’Donnell, who would be a Senator for Delaware, has taken much of her slant on the Constitution out of context. She told her audience at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., that her “qualification for the Senate is an eight-day course she took at a conservative think tank in 2002.” She said that the Constitution is a “covenant based on divine principles” and that for decades the government has been anti-American and disrespectful of it. She asserted that the Tea Party has rediscovered the true meaning of that "hallowed" document.
The leading speakers for the party, such as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin have broadcast this latter claim: the Constitution is a holy instruction manual for turning back social progress, turning social security over to private hands, and eliminating regulations on all businesses, public safety and security notwithstanding. They want to return the country to what it was in 1776.
Such dangerous interpretations are based on the mistaken idea that the elite of the Founding Fathers wanted to create a Christian nation. This is not true.
Such men as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and pamphleteer Thomas Paine set out to create a secular society in which citizens could pursue happiness and did not want a state religion: the Constitution expressly specifies a separation of church and state. The thinkers were men of the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment. They had seen the damage done in theocracies. Indeed many immigrants have fled such countries to live free in the United States.
In this election each of us must assume that the Founding Fathers were correct in wanting a living Constitution. As times change, things not dreamed of in the 18th Century, must be placed into the context of law, to protect the reasonable desires of the voters. Wild assertions do not help us confront the very real difficulties this country faces in the 21st Century.
Christine O’Donnell, who would be a Senator for Delaware, has taken much of her slant on the Constitution out of context. She told her audience at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., that her “qualification for the Senate is an eight-day course she took at a conservative think tank in 2002.” She said that the Constitution is a “covenant based on divine principles” and that for decades the government has been anti-American and disrespectful of it. She asserted that the Tea Party has rediscovered the true meaning of that "hallowed" document.
The leading speakers for the party, such as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin have broadcast this latter claim: the Constitution is a holy instruction manual for turning back social progress, turning social security over to private hands, and eliminating regulations on all businesses, public safety and security notwithstanding. They want to return the country to what it was in 1776.
Such dangerous interpretations are based on the mistaken idea that the elite of the Founding Fathers wanted to create a Christian nation. This is not true.
Such men as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and pamphleteer Thomas Paine set out to create a secular society in which citizens could pursue happiness and did not want a state religion: the Constitution expressly specifies a separation of church and state. The thinkers were men of the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment. They had seen the damage done in theocracies. Indeed many immigrants have fled such countries to live free in the United States.
In this election each of us must assume that the Founding Fathers were correct in wanting a living Constitution. As times change, things not dreamed of in the 18th Century, must be placed into the context of law, to protect the reasonable desires of the voters. Wild assertions do not help us confront the very real difficulties this country faces in the 21st Century.
posted by Ed Fisher at
3:28 PM
1 Comments:
It is absolutely false that there is any "leader" of the Tea Party. It is very different in each area of the country. Those who try to put this movement in a box by defining it with controversial celebrity personalities do not get it. Most of the people involved in the "Tea Party" political movement are just ordinary citizens who can no longer watch as our government is taking over our hard earned incomes and intruding into our daily lives. Everyone is trying to label this movement with extremism or "right wing nut" labels. There are extremes in every party. Stop listening to media biggots in either Party. MSNBC, CNN,Fox News,and the national networks are trying to own the definition of the "Tea Party". The only definition that is anhywhere near the truth is: ordinary people who are trying to stop the over-reaching bloated growth that our self serving elected officials have been constructing in our state and federal governments.
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