Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Sarah Palin's Bad Tea

Posted by Jack Hunter on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:46 AM

During her speech to the first ever National Tea Party Convention in Nashville on Saturday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin discouraged the very idea of a national organization, urging the movement to stay leaderless and decentralized. This was the most important and valuable part of Palin’s speech.

As for the rest of it—Sarah sounded pretty much like the same old Republican Party.

Despite the many independents that make up the movement, the tea parties in large part represent a long overdue reexamination of conservative principles. A big-spending Democratic president seems to have awakened grassroots conservatives enough to finally lament the big spending of the last Republican president, and plenty of incumbents from both parties face voter backlash in 2010 and possibly beyond, particularly if they supported bailouts, stimulus, national healthcare, or other massive debt-incurring legislation.

The tea partiers are right to acknowledge and denounce Bush’s big-government growth of Medicare, the implementation of No Child Left Behind, and Dubya’s other expansions of the domestic state. But what they still seem to forget is what made conservatives so tolerant of big government during that time—an almost religious preoccupation with supporting the Iraq War.

Today, defense spending remains the largest part of the federal budget, dwarfing the bailouts, stimulus, healthcare, and other government programs that offend tea partiers most, and President Obama is still expanding that budget and escalating our wars. One would think cost-conscious voters would at least question Obama’s wisdom in continuing Bush’s exorbitant foreign policy. Yet few tea partiers are asking such questions, and according to Palin, Obama’s primary weakness is that he’s not enough like George W. Bush.

Following up her tea party speech on “Fox News Sunday,” Palin said of Obama, “If he decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and our allies, I think people would perhaps shift their thinking a little bit and decide, Well, maybe he’s tougher than …he is today, and there wouldn’t be as much passion to make sure that he doesn’t serve another four years.”

What is Palin trying to say? That tea party anger towards Obama would lessen if the president was to “toughen up,” becoming even more intent on waging war? Does Palin believe that the massive domestic spending conservatives don’t like would be tolerated so long as Obama increases the massive foreign spending conservatives do like? Isn’t this exactly what happened under Bush?

Read the entire article

Topics: National Politics
  |  

Comments (9)

Showing 1-9 of 9

Add a comment

How cute. You are asking conservatives to think.

report   
Posted by mat catastrophe on February 9, 2010 at 9:10 PM

Was that written on Sarahs left hand or rignt hand?

report   
Posted by charlestowne2 on February 9, 2010 at 10:50 PM

I keep thinking the Democrats are secretly supporting the Tea Party to get back at the Republicans for supporting Ralph Nader in '04

report   
Posted by gadsen on February 10, 2010 at 4:48 AM

Jack, you should differentiate the tea partiers from the teocons...they are being co-opted by the GOP...

report   
Posted by empty on February 11, 2010 at 11:31 AM

Defense spending is only 21% of our budget, over 60% is spent on entitlements, hell social security is equal to what we spend in defense, never mind medicate...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/polit…

report   
Posted by screddawg on February 16, 2010 at 7:02 AM

Good point on defense spending. It was after all the "peace dividend" that in large part allowed President Clinton to balance the budget, and then even produce a surplus. Unwise tax cuts and an unfunded war put an end to that.
Remember Vietnam? A 10 % surtax was imposed to fund that war.

report   
Posted by FCB on February 16, 2010 at 9:11 AM

A 10 % surtax that they even took out of my measly military pay. These days, the military is paid over twice as much, even adjusted for inflation.

report   
Posted by FCB on February 16, 2010 at 9:13 AM

A short but deep thinking analysis. The trouble is that most do not fully understand the breath and magnitude of what Ron Paul advocates. They just want to cherry pick one or two points that they like. It is sad to say that many who oppose big government only oppose those part which they do not like and are quite prepared to see the bits that benefit them continue to grow.

I admire the Southern Avenger even though I am listening not just out-of-state but in a different continent.

report   
Posted by Reader Out of State on February 17, 2010 at 6:23 AM

Sarah Palin is God's little joke on the GOP for the crap that happened over the past 8 years. This chick has never had an original thought (hence the writing on her hand). She was for the Bridge to nowhere, then against it, she hates hollywood but goes there to rack up on free stuff, she has great family values but she cant keep her daughter from getting knocked up. And she is who conservatives want? Let me just thank you in advance for the November elections. You neocons are gonna hand the dems a victory and we are very grateful.

report   
Posted by ladyliberal2010 on March 8, 2010 at 9:40 AM
Subscribe to this thread:
By Email
With RSS
Showing 1-9 of 9

Add a comment

Classified Listings
{ more } Recent Comments
{ more } Reader Reviews
Most Viewed

Powered by Foundation   © Copyright 2012, Charleston City Paper   RSS