tea anyone? (my latest political rant)

~so obviously i'm not doing so hot with my resolve to stay away from politics, more breathing is definitely in order.

                         
As a born and bred New Englander raised on Revolutionary War history, I'm deeply offended by the use of "Tea Party" to describe the current movement being pimped by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and other right winged celobbys.


The original Tea Party was held to protest taxation of the colonies without their having representation in the monarchy of King George. Ironically it seems that members of this new Tea Party espouse the free market and trickle down economic theories that have decimated our public and private wealth for all but a small group of Americans and added even more insult to an already injurious tax code. They also support the recent decision by the Supreme Court legalizing the sale of  our country to the highest bidder.


Now only exceedingly wealthy corporations, private agenda organizations and individual billionaires will have representation in our government.  I'm not naive enough to think this hasn't been the case for most elected officials since the Reagan era, however there are still some members of Congress who seem to actually represent those who voted for them and not just those who paid for them. Regardless of whether I support either ones views, the names Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich come to mind. 

It's hard to say what is most frightening about this, the absolute and nearly irrevocable power of money or the ability of foreign business interests and governments to legislate U.S. policy.  Perhaps we should just go ahead and change our name now to the "Dubaited States of America".


The values of John and Samuel Adams, Benjamen Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Joseph Warren, Paul Revere, Robert Treat Paine and the many others who worked to found our nation are not represented by the actions of this new breed of "patriot". Seriously people, bitching about the state of the economy and how unfair government is to the working man while you're spending over $500 to attend a convention and rubber chicken banquet - plus travel and accommodation fees- is a bit clueless.

This time it's not the tea that needs to be dumped, it's the party goers.