The November elections are going to surprise. Who will be surprised is intriguing.
Could it be?
As a founding member of the Barb City Tea Company I think I’m somewhat qualified to say that the Tea Party movement has been misread. The Republicans are party crashers and the Democrats are in denial.
The Tea Party Movement is not partisan.
For us, when the Barb City Tea Company started with an unsuccessful effort to put the Home Rule question on the April 2009 ballot, there were already other tea parties that had formed in surrounding communities. It seems people, and it really didn’t matter which political party affiliation, were angry with City Hall, U.S.A.
City Hall raised just under a dozen taxes and fees in little over a year with little or no regard for anyone or anything else other than their revenue streams. We were mad because no matter how high they raised the cost of providing government services they had to borrow even more.
Republicans saw their chance and jumped on the bandwagon early and there are some grassroots-in-costume-only official Tea Party committees who are doing quite well at fundraising. Some Democrat tea partiers went underground so as to not be identified as a wing nut after the GOP crashed the party.
So the question of how much impact the Tea Party will have on the balance of power in the U.S. House and Senate is only part of the story. Democrats should be worried. So should the Republicans. It won’t be pretty for almost any incumbent in a contested race — even at the county board level.
The Tea Party movement won’t end with this mid-term election and incumbents will remain the target as long as bureacracy only exists to protect the bureacracy. Voters are less afraid of change than they are status quo. This is a grassroots movement that will shake the tree tops like an earthquake.
We’re still mad.
Some people lost their jobs. Some their homes. Some lost their life savings. But bailed out bankers got their bonuses. Public administrators got their raises. Mortgages became negotiable. Property taxes still aren’t. And the appetite for borrowing money and extending the public credit lines grew unchecked. In fact, the bond appetite was fed with recovery money that was manipulated with full time equivalent formulas instead of any real job creation.
Crooked governors signed game show deals and got hung juries. Pay to play became an acceptable form of government. The County Board sold landfill space to 17 counties in exchange for pet project tipping fees.
Maybe it is time for some bottoms-up re-prioritizing. Finally.
Let the surprises begin.
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I'd really welcome a true viable Independent running candidate that wasn't so tied into partisanship. I think conditions are ripe for a Ross Perot 2.0.
I don't think the Tea Party is the answer. The perception is the Republicans have marked the territory on them for their camp or they have already marked themselves as witches and other various ding bats.
The real tragedy in our so called "Democracy" is that elections are decided to elect leaders for the masses with such a small percentage of the eligible voter population participating.
We are jaded with the system and feel whether it's Democrat or Republican nothing gets done but giving themselves raises for pointing the finger at each other in critique of their actions with no real solutions themselves. So why bother? The entire political process needs revamping.
Our candidates should be picked randomly from a pool of willing accomplished participants. Much like getting picked for jury duty but with a modest income and a constant scrutiny of outside influence. There should be equal limits on how much each candidate can spend to campaign. Special interests and their manipulative wallets need to go. There should be term limits on every office period. No more of this career politician bs.
Let's face it, we are no longer a country that is governed by the people for the people. Instead, we are a country where money talks. Capitalism is great but like anything else in excess it can be harmful. It can pervert and corrupt a fair Democracy. We aren't given a choice to vote for the best qualified candidate to lead but for the biggest bank accounts spent on the relentless attempts manipulate votes with negative ads. As it is now we must realize there's only three types of people to lead us. Those who count and those who don't.