You would not believe how miserably hot it is outside right now on this, the longest day of the year. It is ungodly hot. Not unless you've spent sometime in the south. To this New Englander, it's just mind bloggling. To step out the door at eight in the morning and feel the heat hit your face is unreal. There's just so much moisture in the air out there that in the morning, the glass doors were steamed over, the vehicles are slick with water.
I read "The Right's Disturbing New Anti-Statists," by E. J. Dionne this morning. Every now and then I break out of reading stuff that just reenforces my own point of view and read something instead that challenges it. That way I don't feel as though my brain were being to atrophy.
Basically, he seems to be saying that the tea party movement is displacing the old Christian conservative right wing as the vangard of the conservative movement. Anotherwords, instead of the conservatives getting all up in arms over social issues that go against the Christian religion, they are now instead getting all up in arms over fiscal and government issues, such as a balanced budget and the size and role of the government.
I myself find this to be a good thing. Isn't it better to have a movement that is based on fiscally sound policies and efficient, small government than it is to have a movement based upon religious edicts? Wouldn't the left find more common ground with the former movement?
Apparently not, at least to this author. He goes on to copy sloguns from various Tea Party web sites, such as "a community committed to standing together, shoulder to shoulder, to protect our country and the Constitution upon which we were founded!" and "a user-driven group of like-minded people who desire our God given Individual Freedoms which were written out by the Founding Fathers."
Later on in the article, he describes this kind of thinking as "disturbing." The very structure and forms that created this country, upon which this country was founded, are now disturbing to some on the Left. The Founding Fathers themselves were anti-statists.
How eye opening is that?
I remember last summer being grief stricken and horrified as I began to look deeper into the America of today. I had no idea it had drifted so far left, so far from the individual liberties and free market principles that had made it great. I just assumed that they were woven into the very fabric of this country and could never be lost.
But I was completely wrong.
The fact of the matter is, the tea party movement is just the face of a larger swing, one that is not, as he points out, based so much on religion as it is upon commen sense and our common American values. If it were based on religion, it wouldn't be as far reaching as it is.
Americans, quite rightly, are standing shoulder to shoulder in their horror over the national debt, deficit spending and an out of control government. It's wonderful that we can do so and not let social and religious issues divide us.
By the way, I want to point out that I don't believe liberals or progressives are out to destroy the country or anything ridiculous like that. I think they are Americans who sincerely believe that the government should have a greater role and responsibility in the lives of its citizens. They believe this is the right thing to do. They believe in things like fairness and accountability to the government, as opposed to the free market.
This does not make them radicals, no more than my believing in smaller government makes me one. I enjoy writing about my political point of view because it helps me think through what I believe in a more specific and logical way than I would otherwise, but I wouldn't want anyone reading this to think that I'm labeling them "anti-American" simply because they hold opposing political view points. They are, like Jon Stewart once said, respected adversaries, not the enemy.
