These “Tea Party” activists are simpletons: they are always bringing up the “founding fathers” and the Constitution - as if any of them ever read the Constitution, much less understand its provisions for the foundation of our government. “We want our country back!” they cry. It’s laughable. They are like the evangelical Christians that misquote the gospels and ask, insipidly: “What would Jesus do?” They are stooges and shills for those who would use them to their own cross-purposes - those who would undermine the very foundations of our democratic institutions. (There are some that believe they have the right to take up arms against their lawfully constituted government!) They are not patriots, they are not loyal citizens, they are fools.

If you listen to these people the founding fathers were all Christians, they didn't believe in taxes, they didn't believe in making capital investments in this country, they didn't get involved in private business.

Then I have to point to the whiskey tax, the bank of the U.S., and the fact that the original tea party was a bunch of occupy wall streeters. They disguised themselves, boarded private ships owned by colonialists, took privately owned tea and destroyed it all because they were mad at a government who owned none of it. In other words just like any other aimless riot.

Of course the mindless right ignores these things.

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Truth, Justice and the American way

Actually, most Tea party activists I know are also history buffs, and we do discuss Constitutional Minutia. We also ten d to enjoy biographies and quotes from the Founders.

To illustrate, Tea Partiers tend to enjoy Limbaugh, Beck, and Levin, who all make frequent, in some cases nearly constant reference to history, the Constitution with quotes, and who make constant exhortations to their flocks to study these things for themselves.

By Contrast, I don't remember ever hearing A Democrat Politician encourage his zombie-like followers to read anything other than party tracts, preferably the shorter ones. In my opinion, they simply can't risk their drones being contaminated by actual knowledge.


Conservative, including Tea Partiers know that historical, business and above all practical knowledge will support their cause.

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“Quod scripsi, scripsi"

"Sometimes, the source of the beautiful dawning light that drives back the darkness, is your house burning"

Um, it was "taxation without representation." I recommend that you read up on it.

And the Founders were at least nominal Christian, and interestingly quite tolerant in the matter of religion. (see Benjamin Franklin and the first American Synagogue, and George Washington on Catholicism in America.)


Some ere quite fervent.

All who wrote on the matter expressed the need for religious devotion in order for the Republic to flourish.

The often repeated myth that they were a nest of Deists is largely just that. Deist influence ran through some of the philosophical thinking of the day, but it is a far stretch, (lie,) to say that the Second Continental Congress and later the Constitutional Convention were some sort of Deistic cult gatherings.

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“Quod scripsi, scripsi"

"Sometimes, the source of the beautiful dawning light that drives back the darkness, is your house burning"

Excuse me but I don't think you can prove I said anything wrong. The tea party was exactly what I said it was. I know all about it. Do you? Who owned the ships? Who owned the tea? Who broke the law and destroyed products belonging to others because they were mad at someone else? How many of the tea partiers turned out to be looters and stocked their homes with this stolen property?

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Truth, Justice and the American way

Not exactly.

I believe the man signed off on giving the states greater "flexibility." But that is rather vague. And it is certainly a far cry from one's wanting to issue waivers on the requirement to either work or engage in job trainng...

Why don't you go look into it.

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Truth, Justice and the American way

I really don't think I need to.

Why don't you?

I cannot help but laugh whenever someone resurrects the "founding fathers" for some improbable thesis in a vain effort to rewrite our history. (The “Tea Party” activists come to mind.) Our so-called founding fathers, when viewed candidly, were colorful enough characters without our adding varnish to them. Franklin, who is considered to be the "First American" came close to forsaking hearth and home for England. Even Jefferson, with all his slaves (he owned over 600 during his lifetime), was hardly the egalitarian we would have him be; and despite the efforts of modern-day Christians to convert him, in truth he was a deist, who had no qualms about revising the Bible to suit himself. See The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (1820). The "times that try men’s souls" bring out firebrands like Paine; who, if he was not a founding father, was certainly the midwife of American independence, and abetter to the overthrow of the French monarchy as well. Like Jesus, we would not be able to stand him. (Indeed, Paine was such a pain in the arse that he managed to make himself persona non grata in England, America and France!) Our perception of these characters is clouded by the dark glass of history, and distorted by attributions that represent so much wishful (rather than critical) thinking. It is like crediting Rembrandt’s paintings with depth of hue when their darkness is due to his having used cheap paint.

The TP focus has been on Congress and getting it fixed by getting rid of the worst of the Rep. party. It will back Romney for no other reason than to get Pres. Obama out of office. For me, Romney's a piss-poor choice, just slightly better than McCain, but I'll hold my nose and vote for him because he's a better choice than the alternative. The TP is smart enough to not split the vote (ala Perot) for POTUS and instead focus their efforts on Rep. primaries.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold