When one views the Tea Party platform, one can’t help but wonder: Are they trying to turn us into China?
Now before everyone starts frothing at the mouth, let me say that I do not think the Tea Party wants to turn the U.S. into an authoritarian state. Indeed, many who claim the Tea Party label are actually libertarians, and value our basic constitutional liberties just as dearly as the ACLU, though the former might bristle at this comparison.
The public policy of modern China has some eerie similarities to the policies staunchly advocated by the Tea Party.
For one thing, contemporary China, ever since the free market reforms of Deng Xiaoping, has been a Tombstone, Ariz. of capitalism – unruly and lethal. Because of the lack of environmental regulations, the nation’s major cities have devolved into carcinogenic cesspools. Similarly, the Tea Party, along with many so-called “establishment Republicans,” have repudiated Richard Nixon’s common-sense philosophy of environmental regulation. It was Nixon, after all, who founded the now-loathed Environmental Protection Agency.
If their cities are deadly gas chambers, then Chinese factories are gulags. China, along with other Asian nations such as Bangladesh, are the slave-run motor of modern consumer capitalism. Conservatives, while perhaps not calling for the complete dismemberment of American labor regulations, cannot be called friends of labor, with some Republicans even proposing that the minimum wage be abolished. Hey, whatever increases the Walton family’s bottom line, right?
Many Tea Party members, even the ones who claim to be religious, share one crucial trait in common with the Communist Party of China: Both adhere to militant atheist ideologies. The intellectual guiding light of the Tea Party movement is the philosopher Ayn Rand, one of the greatest foes of religion in modern history. In her many books, including the famous Atlas Shrugged, she called for people to embrace money and selfishness as their god, rather than Jesus or any other religious figure. Indeed, she regarded Jesus of Nazareth as a contemptible weakling, because he cared for others. Sacrificing one’s life for the good of other people, as Church doctrine holds that Christ did, seemed to her to be pathetic lunacy.
And finally, conservatives, with the majority’s baneful decision in Citizen’s United, have ensured that the judicial systems of both the U.S. and China will be only nominally independent of corrupt interests.
So, when next you are at the polls, ask yourself this question: Do I really want to live in China?
One can be a libertarian (small l) without being a member of the Libertarian Party. Libertarianism describes a political philosophy, not merely allegiance to a given party..
Again, I never said they were members of the Libertarian party, but libertarianism refers to a political philosophy…. people who had no affiliation with any Libertarian (large L) party have been classified as libertarians in the neoliberal vein (eg Milton Friedman, FA Hayek)
Tndeed, as I said in the piece, the ACLU, while not advocating for neoliberal economic policies, is libertarian in that oppose a huge national security state and a government which is big enough to unduly regulate people’s personal conduct (e.g. by censoring what books or movies they can watch or what belief system they embrace)
What I’m saying is that Tea Party members and Libertarian Party members are 2 completely different groups. Libertarians are not Tea Party people and vice versa. I wouldnt try and draw a correlation between Socialist and Democrats just because they are both they are on the both side of the political spectrum. Example…Democrats are essentially Socialist because they both support bigger government.
I don’t think I ever said in the column that they were part of the Libertarian Party. I merely said that they were libertarians– in the neoliberal “let’s have as little government regulation of the economy as possible” tradition.
Mr. Herron I beg you to research your subject better before making statements about groups that are completely wrong. The Tea Party is not part of the Libertarian Party. It troubles me to hear people make blanket statements about the Libertarian Party when they clearly have no clue what they are talking about.