Anti-Government Tea Party Movement?

By Douglas V. Gibbs

A year ago CNN Reporter Susan Roesgen proclaimed the Tea Parties are "anti-government" protests. The extreme biased media has been consistently describing the Tea Party Movement as a collection of people from Rightwing extremist groups frustrated over a perceived lack of government action on issues like illegal immigration. Other members of the press have stated the movement is all about taxes.

As a result of the Left's inability to understand the heart and soul of the Tea Party Movement, the mainstream media jumps at the opportunity to pin anybody, and anything, they perceive as anti-government to be "rightwing extremists" and "tea-baggers."

Fast forward to the Austin, Texas airplane event that resulted in an angry idiot flying his plane into an IRS building. Using their illogical logic, the leftists decided that the pilot, Joseph Stack, hated the IRS (which is true). The Tea Party Movement derived its name from "Taxed Enough Already," therefore the Tea Partiers must hate the IRS too (true to a point, but not entirely). So, since they both are "anti-government" and "anti-IRS," Robert Stack must have been a rightwing extremist tea party nutcase (false!).

First of all, I really don't care if Stack was right-leaning, or a leftist. In my opinion, he was an individual that made an individual decision to do a horrible thing - and to start pointing fingers at anyone for his actions is irresponsible. Tea Partiers or Leftists, Capitalists or Communists, nobody made Stack do what he did. He made the decision on his own. He made his own choice.

Upon further examination, it turns out that Robert Stack was not a "rightwinger," after all. In fact, at the end of his suicide letter, after spending paragraph after paragraph discussing his plight, and his dissatisfaction with the IRS, Joseph Stack finishes with the following:

"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed."

The final words of his suicide note indicate that communism appealed to Stack, and that he hated capitalism. . . two common leftist traits.

So, though in the end it really doesn't matter what ideology Stack embraced, it turns out that Stack was a leftwinger.

Liberalism is losing in the arena of ideas. Their president is a failure, their Congressional Morons are failures, and their proposals are crashing and burning. Therefore, they are resorting to the same dirty tactic that catapulted the left into power: Demonization from all angles.

Problem is, their whole argument is flawed from its very core.

Leftists, such as Susan Roesgen, are absolutely convinced that the Tea Party Movement has no teeth, and that it is just a bunch of angry anti-government extremists attending these events.

Tea Parties are not Conservative gatherings. When I look out over the crowd of people at these events, I don't see a bunch of Conservatives, or Republicans, and any other group. What I see is a bunch of Americans.

Once one steps out into the crowd at a Tea Party event, and begins to ask questions of the attendees, you quickly realize that most of these people have never bothered themselves with politics before. A large number of the attendees consider themselves to be Democrats and Independents. They know something is wrong with government, but they can't put their finger on it, so they attend the Tea Party events hoping to learn what the problem with government is, and how they can fix it.

Ultimately, by attending these Tea Party events, one realizes that the mood is indeed one that contends that government is not the solution to the ills of society, and in fact, that big government programs are the problem.

Does this make the movement anti-government?

The Tea Party Movement's primary position is that government should adhere to the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that the Tea Party Movement is not anti-government, but rather pro-Constitutional government (or, in other words, in support of a limited federal government that recognizes its authorities as being but a few enumerated powers listed by the U.S. Constitution).

Leftists cannot grasp this concept because they believe the government is the solution to all problems. This is why they call the GOP the "Party of No." They figure if the Republicans cannot provide a government influenced proposal to an issue, they must have nothing to put on the table.

Unfortunately, the establishment Republicans worry about what The Left thinks about them, and then begin to try to propose "compassionate conservative" ideas. Often, the members of the GOP that do this are "neo-cons," which more often than not are former Democrats that jumped parties, but did not leave their big government mentality behind.

Keep in mind that "limited government" does not mean no government. The idea of "limited government" simply means that the federal government, unless given authority by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, or by an amendment, cannot take on most issues. The states, as per the Tenth Amendment, may, however, take on the issues the federal government has no authority over, as long as it is not prohibited to the states by Article I, Section 10.

Being that the Tea Party Movement is pro-Constitutional government, and Robert Stack made it clear in his suicide note that he was an anti-capitalist, it is absolutely stupid to even consider it possible that the Austin flyer was associated with the Tea Parties, or was a "rightwinger." Even considering the possibility is a sure sign that the left is in a corner, and are willing to grasp at any straws to demonize their competition.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Susan Roesgen: Angry CNN Reporter Calls Tea Party Protesters Anti-Government and Anti-CNN - Blue Star Chronicles

Media Use Austin IRS Terror Attack to Slam Tea Party Movement - Infidel Blogger's Alliance

Joseph Andrew Stack’s Reputed Suicide Note - Fire Dog Lake

Corporate Media Blames Kamikaze Attack On Tea Parties - Prison Planet

First thoughts: Tea time - MSNBC