Although many here on the west coast in California see the Tea Party as radical, fear mongering, ultra conservatives, the movement has some great ideas to bring that it highlights. Most people see the negatives in the movement, and it makes seeing the positives a lot more difficult, even if they are blatant.
The Tea Party is an umbrella movement- and as such it encompasses many different political views. This is great as it has allowed ideas from all over to sprout up, however it also contains controversial ideas that followers rally behind. These are the tenets of the movement that are making us take steps backwards from achieving unity. These principles cause many who look at the movement to immediately discard it as a radical organization.
First I would like to point out the socialism scare. The fear mongering that corrupt ultra conservatives, such as Glenn Beck, throw out to gain media attention. Many people within the Tea Party believe President Obama is gearing our nation towards socialism. Now it is true, if someone eighty years ago wanted to create free healthcare in our nation that person would have instantly been branded a socialist. It is true that our nation has created more socialistic methods of governance such as welfare. Liberals would call this progressive, and conservatives would call this unconstitutional. Both sides have a good point, as it is great to help the downtrodden, yet turning a private industry into a government controlled public one is socializing that industry. But that is not the point I am making here, I will save that for another article.
Now if you are reading this and think to yourself, well I know for myself that Obama is an evil socialist and I need to educate the world on this issue! I'll take whatever political strategy I want! Then it may appear we have met a dilemma, that we have reached a point in which partisanship is appearing amongst our own. Let's not be hypocrites, lets not be partisans. If you are a Tea Party patriot and you believe that we are heading into a socialist revolution, don't go spouting to the world the word SOCIALIST! Don't go picketing and write on your sign that socialists are taking over the government. All you are doing is turning people off of the more important aspects of our movement. People hear you bawling about socialism and instantly think our movement is wrong. Whether you like it or labeling socialism is viewed by independents and liberals as radical fear mongering. Instead of labeling people socialism, indicate the facts- how our government is intruding into private sectors of industry. We cannot let ourselves be a radical movement, or even be viewed as one. A radical movement will never achieve an end to partisanship. We must all find a path in which we can work together, and sometimes keeping your fears private is a part of doing so.
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are not the people we should rally behind. Many Americans view Beck and Palin extremely negatively. Glenn Beck is considered a man who uses the media to play off of uninformed conservatives with information that is twisted and sometimes flat out incorrect. The general public views Sarah Palin as a joke. Palin quit her job for which she was elected, slapping the entire state of Alaska in the process, just to make money and attain fame through the Tea Party. Beck feels out ideas and then runs with one once he finds some backing for it: he failed at asserting that Obama hates white people when he felt resistance, so he dropped that and switched gears. Palin and Beck are seen by the left, independents, and even many conservatives as leaders of the blind and ignorant. Whether you like them or not does not matter, what does matter is what America thinks. Fellow Patriots, we must drop these two candidates as our spokespersons as they only do us further harm. If we are to end partisanship we must be willing to work with everyone. The first course of action to do such would be to no longer rally behind these two figures. Any less would be hypocritical, and far from taking strides towards a national unity.
Social issues must be tackled as well. Many within our midst oppose same sex marriage, abortions, and civil unions. Many want to ease gun control laws. These are issues that should not be highlighted in our movement. These issues are matters of ones opinion, and are not things that can be changed by debate or factual evidence. These are not issues that should be decided by the federal government, but left to the states. Including such topics as tenets of our movement will turn away people who believe otherwise from joining our movement. We could never be a non-partisan movement if we highlight such issues. We shouldn't be a movement that only appeals to conservatives, but rather allow independents and liberals to join us into one umbrella movement for all Americans. By doing so we can focus on the important aspects of our movement.
Although religion is a great thing, as it guides people to follow good morals and act as good human beings, religion should not be a front to our movement. The left and independents see that as radical, and fear us as hyper religious freaks. We will never get anywhere with that kind of label.
As long as we there are beliefs in the tenets of our movement that many people consider radical we will be partisans. This is a non-partisan movement, let's not be hypocrites.
God bless America.
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