Tea Party Contract from America

[kalm]

And...please explain how the productive class has been taken advantage of and how, based on productivity you justify compensation that is 100's if not 1,000's of times greater than the average worker. What does a hedge fund manager produce?

Also, regardless of McCain-Feingold, corporate rights are not enumerated in the constitution, and public funding of elections is the answer. Let a candidate or politician stand on the issues and their voting record, conservative or liberal.

Kalm, you advocate broad, sweeping prescriptions that wipe out hundreds or thousands of times more healthy cells than diseased cells, and in the end may not not cure the disease and will introduce even more insidious diseases.

Why does it bother you so much that someone makes more money? Why is it so very important to tear someone else down? Markets suck, but they work better than anything else.

By the time someone is making 100's millions of dollars, they are no longer being rewarded for their productivity, they are being rewarded for their power. It becomes anti-democratic.

Markets suck when, through a lack of regulation they create and entrench oligarchies. Broad sweeping prescriptions are required right now because broad sweeping changes have occurred to our financial system. Glass-Steagal was a broad, sweeping prescription that worked pretty well.

[Gil Dobie]

I do like the part where the TP wants to change the corrupt Washington political scene. Obama didn't change that, even though some thought he would, or said he would, his platform was to change America, but we still have corrupt politicans.

And if teabaggers controlled the federal government they'd be corrupt as well. Look at all the politicians, media personalties, speakers, etc. making a TON of money off the teabagger rallies.

Corruption and government are intertwined. It's always been the case.

"The world is the will to power - and nothing besides!"

No doubt, it's hard to find someone that stands for something that can't be bought.

[OL FU]

And if teabaggers controlled the federal government they'd be corrupt as well. Look at all the politicians, media personalties, speakers, etc. making a TON of money off the teabagger rallies.

Corruption and government are intertwined. It's always been the case.

"The world is the will to power - and nothing besides!"

No doubt, it's hard to find someone that stands for something that can't be bought.

Sounds like SK has seen the light. Damn good reason to not give any more power to the federal government.

[Chizzang]

No doubt, it's hard to find someone that stands for something that can't be bought.

Sounds like SK has seen the light. Damn good reason to not give any more power to the federal government.

I know I know..!!!
I agree completely OL FU
The only problem is that it requires elected officials to take away power and control from the Federal Government and somehow once they get elected they seem to forget all the stuff they said - to get elected - and then go right on doing what all politicians do... working on getting re-elected and loading more control into their own hands

it's a catch-22 buddy...

As you know: I have a similar issue with Lawyers
Lawyers have created a system that requires lawyers to operate it
and 1/2 the politicians are lawyers - so of course all this makes perfect sense to them

[Ibanez]

Quick aside - one thing I can not stand is any group that claims to be "Patriots", implying that those who do not believe exactly as they do are not.





Protect the Constitution - pretty ambiguous - in what way?

You are right on both counts, Jon.

I wonder what it will take to rebuild a national consensus on what it means to be American... what it means to be patriotic?

I am also disappointed than many of the top ten Tea Party planks are ambiguous.

You have to have ambiguous goals, that way to never really fail to achieve them, you just adjust the language.

And what it means to be a Patriot is pretty simple (in my view).

I consider myself a patriot because I love this country so much that if asked(b/c they wouldn't let me volunteer) I would give my life for it. I love my country and what it stands for. I love my country, in spite of its shortcomings. No country is perfect, but ours has done some pretty amazing things and have brought many amazing innovations and inventions into this world that have made the quality of life greater. My country is going down the wrong path but I have confidence, that we can still change course.

[Ibanez]

Slightly off-topic, but I was watching a professor talk about how the Tea Party might be in the early stages of becoming a completely new political party in the United States. He was talking about how some Republicans don't want to be associated with it, and others obviously do, and this movement may become a complete split from the GOP. Anybody think this is a real possibility? I think it's a very interesting topic.

I doubt it. If the teabaggers become viable then it will really amount to infighting amongst Republicans and it would only be brief... a couple of election cycles maximum.

If a true third party were to emerge with lasting influence it will have to come from the middle and not from the far left or the far right.

Moderates aren't going to forge a new Political Party. It will be fringe elements. Moderates are more likely to switch parties.

[native]

Sounds like SK has seen the light. Damn good reason to not give any more power to the federal government.

I know I know..!!!
I agree completely OL FU
The only problem is that it requires elected officials to take away power and control from the Federal Government and somehow once they get elected they seem to forget all the stuff they said - to get elected - and then go right on doing what all politicians do... working on getting re-elected and loading more control into their own hands

it's a catch-22 buddy...

As you know: I have a similar issue with Lawyers
Lawyers have created a system that requires lawyers to operate it
and 1/2 the politicians are lawyers - so of course all this makes perfect sense to them

Well said, but I find it tragic as opposed to hilarious.

[Appaholic]

What it mean to be an American? WTF is that?

It means 1 million different things to 1 million different people. That's the beauty of America. Why have so many people forgotten that?

If the government were not an organized criminal cabal, wastefully redistributing wealth and aggrandizing themselves at the expense of the productive class, danefan, then we could indeed share that beautiful American value of individuality. Obamaworld, like other paths to socialism, does not encourage individuality.

nor does a government steeped in the tradition of American Christianity...

[OL FU]

Sounds like SK has seen the light. Damn good reason to not give any more power to the federal government.

I know I know..!!!
I agree completely OL FU
The only problem is that it requires elected officials to take away power and control from the Federal Government and somehow once they get elected they seem to forget all the stuff they said - to get elected - and then go right on doing what all politicians do... working on getting re-elected and loading more control into their own hands

it's a catch-22 buddy...

As you know: I have a similar issue with Lawyers
Lawyers have created a system that requires lawyers to operate it
and 1/2 the politicians are lawyers - so of course all this makes perfect sense to them

no doubt about it, but you know the odds are pretty damn good that it is going to happen when people vote for candidates that tell you they are going to increase the power of government