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April 16, 2009
Post (tea)-partisan thoughts
Wednesday's "tea party" events had respectable participation throughout the country, including right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. While many are rightfully trying to make much of the turnout, and still others are wishing the crowing would stop, my largely disinterested view is that, overall, a Good Thing happened, even if the sum of accomplishments directly attributable to the protests was typically minor.
Yes, you had your usual suspects co-opting an honest expression of outrage at a too-large government and using it as handy cover for an array of other, decidedly less than noble sentiments. I know people who are angry that the United States elected a black president, and yet I in no way infer that the Tax Day Tea Party organizers share that feeling just because the former happened to show up. Likewise, the Democratic Party, easy enough to demonize (just look at the first four letters), shouldn't have been (and in many cases wasn't) the target of an irate mob, even if some folks waved signs that suggested it was.
No, from accounts I have read, pictures I have viewed, and conversations I've had with participants, these events were resplendent with patriotic pride, attended by people from varied backgrounds, and they made a statement that needs to be made. It's actually not good for everyone to think exactly the same way. The metaphors you've seen so many times: pendulum, tug-of-war, ocean tides--these are apt descriptions. They remind us that when too much weight (or force) is lumped onto one side of the see-saw, the ride stops, and someone's left hanging in midair. (OK, I had to throw another one in there.)
If, say, you're one of those who promotes increased spending in a recession, it will do you good to listen to and analyze opinions that say otherwise. Challenging one's sacredly held positions is exactly what makes them sacred. It can get tense at times, but even that tension is usually followed with a contrasting relief. (I recommend conversing with one's ideological "foes" over a meal, or heading to a good watering hole after a healthy debate.)
So what happens next? Will the tea partiers conclude that they "got it out of their system," and simply settle back into life as we know it? Is a larger movement underway, and this recent series of events just the harbinger? I don't have the answer, but I suspect that we haven't heard the last of this. If it were my bandwagon, I'd be buoyed by the number of people who jumped on it. (UPDATE: via Instapundit, some thoughts from National Review Online)
I only ask that, from whatever angle any of us engages with this, we keep an open dialogue going and welcome each other into a truly constructive critique of our current government (and, inasmuch as it matters now, what came before), as well as an equally meaningful discussion about the merits of the critique itself.
And most of all, I urge that we inform ourselves about candidates and vote. Very little of the rest matters if we don't do that.
Government , Political News , Politics is Personal | By joe lance | 9:00 PM
