To Teach or To Sneer
Authentic conservatives and their libertarian allies have long been a small minority in a larger movement that, for the most part, rejected their radical critique of the managerial state. The “paleos” were singled out for attack by the neoconservatives, that exotic sect of ex-leftists prophetically described by Russell Kirk as “this little Sacred Band—which had made itself exclusive, and now finds itself excluded.”
Today, the neoconservative stranglehold on the American right has been broken. As the role of George W. Bush, their dauphin and dupe, in bringing us to our present predicament has been revealed, right-wing activists involved in the grassroots Tea Party movement have learned their lesson from those years of betrayal and “big-government conservatism.” Speaking to CNN at the Utah GOP convention, where incumbent four-term Republican senator Bob Bennett was rejected as the party nominee, Tea Party leader David Kirkham averred,
I don’t think it’s a matter of “conservative.” I think it’s a matter of fiscal or financial responsibility, what the Tea Party people are about and the vote for TARP and the vote for the bailout was, in our opinion, pretty fiscally irresponsible and that’s what’s raised the ire of most people. . . . That one vote affected a lot of things, changed the rules of the game. President Bush said that where we have to abandon free market principles to save the free market and fundamentally, we just don’t agree. There’s just no way.
The hysterical fear and genuine hatred in the eyes of the “mainstream” media as they cover the rise of the Tea Party phenomenon is hard to miss, and that alone is a good clue as to what they’re about. That’s why I was baffled by a recent article penned for the Christian Science Monitor by Jim Bovard, a libertarian whose work has appeared on Antiwar.com, attacking the Tea Partiers as hypocrites who
oppose big government, except when it is warring, wiretapping, or waterboarding. A movement that started out denouncing government power apparently has no beef with some of the worst abuses of modern times.
It seems Bovard attended a Tea Party in Rockville, Maryland, in the course of which a speaker called for war with Iran, and the sentiments expressed were anything but libertarian or authentically conservative. He proffers poll numbers showing that 57 percent of the Tea Partiers recall Bush with fondness, and that some have the bad taste to admit openly that they like Sarah Palin. And nothing was said about the wiretapping begun by the Bush administration and continued by Obama. Horrible! Terrible! Unbearable! And proof that the Tea Partiers “hate liberals more than they love liberty.”
Bovard’s view of the Tea Party phenomenon is oddly myopic. Maryland, thick with government employees, is hardly a Tea Party stronghold. The insurgent right-wing populism that is now taking the GOP by storm came out of the West, where the first Tea Party demonstrations took place. It was the Ron Paul brigades, and before them Libertarian Party activists, who started the tradition of protests in front of post offices every Tax Day.
The Tea Partiers are not a monolithic organization but a diffuse antigovernment populist movement, sparked by the bank bailouts. Here is a perfect opportunity for libertarians to educate the inchoate right-wing populist masses. And Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty are certainly driving the lesson home: The Republican Party of Maine has recently adopted a platform that stipulates the party’s adherence to Austrian economics! Can a movement like that be all that bad, even by Bovard’s exacting libertarian standards?
Libertarian economic theory, particularly the variant of it promulgated by Ludwig von Mises and his American followers, frames the current crisis in terms ordinary Americans can understand. By making the Federal Reserve a hot political issue, Representative Paul has shown the way forward for libertarians.
We are going into debt and destroying our own economy in order to prop up the government of Afghan “president” Hamid Karzai, a hash-smoking fashion plate whose authority barely extends beyond Kabul. If the Republican Party of Maine is now adhering to Austrian economics, it won’t be long before they realize that you can’t have an empire and a free market. But of course they won’t learn anything if, instead of teaching, we sneer at them from the august pages of the Christian Science Monitor.
This article first appeared in the July 2010 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.
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One Bill Kristol is now trying to ingratiate himself amongst the Tea Party types. His most recent column at The Weekly Standard is obsequious to the Tea Party while, at the same time, Kristol projects that the Tea Party is supportive of the neo-conservative project in the Middle East. He explains that support for the troops in Afghanistan is an equal concern of the Tea Party as is the concept of limited government and hype-deficit spending. Is Kristol so obtuse to think that military protection of the Karzai government of Afghanistan is of equal importance to the Tea Party as is the Obama spending spree? Of course not. Kristol is just practicing the usual neo-conservative mode of operation of leeching off a force more powerful than itself in hopes of taking over that force. The neo-conservatives are the fleas that plan to ride the dog. Not a bad plan. It has worked before.
"Kristol is just practicing the usual neo-conservative mode of operation of leeching off a force more powerful than itself in hopes of taking over that force. The neo-conservatives are the fleas that plan to ride the dog. Not a bad plan. It has worked before."
Thanks Derek. This time,however,the dog is a Grizzley running for Vice President of the Republican ticket and it seems to be working.
I wish Ron Paul would start attending some of the tea party rallies across the country so he could test the authenticity of the movement. I suspect at this point it is simply another republican front. If Paul and his followers were allowed to voice their opposition to shipping billions of American dollars to Iraq and Aghanistan while the American economy continues to constrict, I might re-think my position. But since I know better, I see this tea party move as just another republican front organization designed to provide smoke and mirrors while the real establishment maneuvers.
" The Republican Party of Maine has recently adopted a platform that stipulates the party’s adherence to Austrian economics! Can a movement like that be all that bad, even by Bovard’s exacting libertarian standards?"
Yes.
"Libertarian economic theory, particularly the variant of it promulgated by Ludwig von Mises and his American followers, frames the current crisis in terms ordinary Americans can understand."
Good luck but I doubt ordinary Americans can or care to understand Austrian economic theory.
"We are going into debt and destroying our own economy in order to prop up the government of Afghan “president” Hamid Karzai, a hash-smoking fashion plate whose authority barely extends beyond Kabul"
Now most Americans would understand this and it might appear to the ordinary chump that at least one face of that two faced duoploy who rules over us would mention it. But the chump would be wrong because those who rule over us are also ruled over, and their rulers do not pay very much to mention these facts but instead are paid to say such things as "cut spending", cut "big government", "support our troops", "On to Iran" and other such cost cutting measures. I recently heard one news man ask Pat Buchanan why nobody mentions this tpeo fo hypocrisy and he said, "there are folks --some paleos-- who mention it, but you fellows never mention the paleos." Now, I wonder why?
The tea parties are only as good as their local leadership. The tea party in Idaho, for instance, supported the hack Raul Labrador:
http://conservativetimes.org/?p=5465
..
Please let me preface by saying I have not attended any Tea Party rallies and my interaction with them has been limited. However, the Tea Party members I have come in contact with have not struck me as being well educated and informed as touted. They reminded me of the 1992 Ross Perot fanatics. Once again let me say my contact with them has been limited.
I am not sure what they actually stand for. Their message is not consistent when calling for a smaller Federal government while lauding military globalism. I can't help but conclude there is a significant strain of politically correct, race pandering Republicans amongst them,and that, well makes them no different than the Republicans.
It is somewhat amusing the NAACP has accused the Tea Party of having a racial element. I wonder what they'll do to try appease the race baiters that their minds are right. Get ready for some more South bashing rhetoric from the right.
I agree with Bruce with regards to Austrian Economics, an obscure theory that is about as relevant as Newt Gingrich's latest bloviation or who plays shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates to your average American. If I could steal from Walker Percy, whenever I hear a libertarian prattle about Austrian economics, a curtain falls down in my head.
Bryan,
I have to agree with you. The Palin faction at least of the Tea Party relies more on emotion, the raw anger, of what is going on. That is all they have. There is no real plan to actually acheive a constitutionally limited governemnt as envisioned by the Founding Fathers other than to elect Republicans, which is not really much of a plan.
Robert,
You are dead on about the hypocrisy of the Tea Party with regards to war, as well as other things. Remember when that Tea Party group held a demonstration against Obama cutting NASA funding? The Tea Party blaming Obama for letting BP try and clean up the mess? NASA has been a boondoggle, especially in the Shuttle era. I mean how many times do you need to carry a bucnh of rats and squids in a low orbit trajectory to study the effects of no gravity when you have 7 humans on board usually? That little car they landed on Mars didn't really bring back much more than Viking did in 1976 in terms of pictures or data, but it sure got the NASA geeks going!!!!! The Ron Paul faction of the Tea Party movement is more consistent in their limited govt thinking and more informed than the Palin faction, but since Palin looks a lot better her forces will win out. In fact, her hijacking of the movement has rendered it useless as a vehicle for change.
"It was the Ron Paul brigades, and before them Libertarian Party activists, who started the tradition of protests in front of post offices every Tax Day."
What a huge waste of time.
This is why outside of the internet, I tell people that I am an apolitical person, and don't care for activism or politics.
Sure, I have principles, but I'd rather tend to my own gardens than do such nonsense.
That people waste time like this is why I don't claim to belong to any political group in real life. Normal people figure that whichever one it is, it's probably stupid and you're stupid to belong to it.
Stopped by the Tea Party get-together in New Haven on April 15th, and saw mostly gramps and grannies sitting on folding chairs picnicking with coolers. Lots of patriotic paraphernalia everywhere. Local candidates, mostly screaming bores but thankfully including one real babe, had info tables set up and got to speak for a few minutes. A handful of asylum escapees with end-of-the-world signs and demeanors to match provided some much needed entertainment, along with two cretins across the road with signs, one reading "4 whites only," who were trying to get the local TV crew to film them. Fox News' attention, in my view, has only one motive, and that is co-opting a good-natured grassroots movement for the sole purpose of furthering its Israel-first agenda, just like they're promoting Sarah Palin, who they'd otherwise pillory like the rest of the media were it not for her goose-stepping servility to a foreign nation and the Janus-faced enemy that rules the media with two faces, fabricating the average citizens world view with one face to the left and the other to the right.
Regarding the Tea Parties, let me compliment the editors on the most recent issue of the magazine which centered on the Tea Parties. It was excellent, especially Chilton Williamson, Tom Piatak and Tom Fleming.
Derek,
Wait until you read the current issue, "Discovering Our Roots."
It is one of the best magazine issues I have read in anywhere for some time and it seems to me almost incredible that such a thing is still available. There is no other conversation of this type taking place anywhere in the periodical world. It reminded me of the old Modern Age quarterly I looked forward to receiving during the days of my youth some thirty or fourty years ago. God Bless them --all of them. And you too for participating in it.
Derek Leaberry @ 13:
Thanks for your kind words.
14. Robert. Until Modern Age was taken over by tepid dilletantes and Neocons.