I remember so vividly, people with libertarian leanings cheering passionately that a new breed was coming in to change The Republican Party.
The Tea Party was taking Washington...small government, the Constitution...you know the rest...
Many of the cheers were coming from the younger generation, who really don't understand how twisted politicians really are. That, yes, they will lie to you just to get your vote and support.
But, that's what experience is for...the young, oftentimes, must learn their lessons the hard way. We all go through it.
Two politicians that really stick out in my head that received abundant cheers were Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Both are of Cuban descent (which is supposedly a big deal in Politics-land), and both were talking Constitution, small government, beating back Obama's big spending ways, etc.
They were Tea Party darlings.
Here's Matt Kibbe, President of the Tea Party group FreedomWorks, back in 2011 on Cruz:
“After evaluating the candidates in this race, we believe that Ted Cruz will best serve the interests of hardworking Texas taxpayers by advocating the principles of lower taxes, less government and more individual freedom,” he said.Jim DeMint, now head of The Heritage Foundation had this to say:
“He’s proved himself an effective advocate for the founding principles that made our nation great: personal freedom and responsibility, local control and adherence to the law as it is written, not the way some politicians wish it was written,” wrote DeMint.Cruz was providing lots of rhetoric himself:
“It’s easy to be demoralized, to look at these elections and throw up your hands in despair. Things can change very quickly,” he said. “It took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan, and I am convinced the most long-lasting legacy of Barack Obama is going to be a new generation of leaders in the Republican Party standing up and defending liberty and getting back to our values.”Nice, happy and fluffy stuff.
What young Ron Paul supporter could resist?
Ron was leaving the political stage, why shouldn't the GOP scoop up the kids? You can't just leave them there for the Democrats.
Then there's Rubio:
Here's Marco giving the same BS rhetoric in thanking The Tea Party Express for their endorsement:
So what's going on now that the smoke has cleared?
Well, the tune has changed.
Here's Ted Cruz now on Social Security and Medicare:
“I’m encouraged by any steps that President Obama is taking to save and preserve Social Security and Medicare.”Wow....talk about lower taxes, less government and more individual freedom. What a turnaround!
“I think it should be a bipartisan priority to strengthen Social Security and Medicare to preserve the benefits for existing seniors and to enact fundamental reform to ensure that those programs remain strong and vital for generations to come.”
And here's Marco Rubio now on The Military Empire:
“While the President’s budget attempts to address some of the defense cuts imposed by sequestration, I am concerned that it does nothing to reverse the damaging impact that cuts have already had on our military readiness. America is becoming less capable of projecting power and deterring conflict wherever it arises. For example, despite almost daily evidence of the increasing threat to the United States posed by rogue states with ballistic missiles, the president’s budget cuts spending on missile defense.”Way to go Tea Party-ers, you picked a real humanitarian!
It's reached the point where you have to actually agree with DailyKos!!
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are supposed to be the new faces of the Republican Party—young, Latino, and a living symbol that the party can change. But when it comes down to it, on matters of substance, they are no different than the same old Republicans.Yes, politics has not changed, politicians have not changed, The Republican Party has not changed. The only thing that has changed, is a bunch of young, libertarian, Ron Paul supporters find themselves actually supporting the big government monster.
Follow @ChrisRossini
I'm a Ron Paul supporter, and I'm no kid (42) and I'm no Rubio supporter. I don't think Rubio was *ever* really on board with the Tea Party, but I thought everyone already knew that.
ReplyDeleteCruz on the other hand HAS actually stood up for the Constitution on several occasions, most recently in the gun control debates with Feinstein. I still believe in the Tea Party, but my money is on Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Justin Amash, and yes, Cruz.
I haven't tracked all the Tea Party offshoots, so I don't know if the Tea Party Express came from any legitimate offshoot of the status-quo rebellion (which describes most of the Tea Party -- only a small part is the Ron-Paul-inspired liberty movement). However, it should be noted that anyone, or any organization can refer to themselves as "Tea Party."
ReplyDeleteIn a way, this is an offshoot of the anti-IP debate. If the anti-IP contingent got their way, everything would be like the Tea Party. You could create a store and call it "Macy's", "JC Penny's", "Walmart", or after any other established store. Brand loyalty would be meaningless since anyone could copy your products' names, graphics, etc.
Chris, nice piece. I think those among us who are having their ideas helped along by Ron Paul have to follow a learning process.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, there is huge pro-state propaganda spoon feed since you're 5 years old about the process of government.
The only way to counteract this propaganda is to have role-models of the alternatives. You and Bob are doing your part to do that.
We all have to do our part to educate those who will listen and tear down the propaganda walls brick by brick.
I personally found libertarian fiction played a huge role in helping to conceptualize a possible libertarian world. L. Neil Smith, Victor Koman, J. Neil Schulman are a few authors that pop into my head. The Probabiliy Broach and Pallas were excellent teachers. Fiction allows you to experiment, contrast, and model possible outcomes that don't exist with our modern date statism.
Secondly, we have to come to terms with the fact that throughout history, those in humanity overwhelmingly prefer statism over liberty. Liberty has been a very small minority opinion in our species.
Thirdly, the fight for liberty is counter-culture and as such it takes extreme vigilance, time, effort, and personal hardship to promote.
'If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!'
Most of us take actively or passively take the other road because it suits them. For the most part, the chains are light enough to bear in our relatively short life-spans.
During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King's tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came. http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-three-percenter.html
Lastly, education about the facade of politics is the only way things can change. Eventually, those that have the intelligence, wisdom, and determination to see through the propaganda in order to get to the crux of issue will have the tools to continue the education of those who will listen.
We cannot comprehend it because of who we are, but there will be those who prefer the state to control aspects of their lives. There are those that prefer to use force as a group to control the individual at whatever cost because it suits their needs. This is a perpetual conflict that will never end.
I personally started my own path down this road based on my perceptions of gun rights with ancillary reinforcement using the events surrounding the Holocaust. Gun rights eventually morphed into the bigger picture, but not without "falling" into the right group of people by accident. And certainly not without being disillusioned by the political process. This is what made me see that all politicians are the same: http://gunowners.org/nws9402.htm
"Please realize that NRA acquiesced in passage of the Brady Bill only after we achieved a number of amendments to the bill, the most significant of which is a provision exempting holders of concealed weapons permits (among others) from the federal waiting period." -- Letter by Robert C. Nagle, NRA's Research and Information, writing on behalf of NRA President Wayne LaPierre, March 13, 1994
"I sat there with the majority leader [Sen. George Mitchell] and everybody else had gone home, and we made an arrangement. We let that [Brady] bill pass." -- Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), August 23, 1994 (p. S 12363 of the Congressional Record)