Robert G. Oler

I do not disagree with anything you say about The Constitution.

to my mind it is a “living document” otherwise The Founders would not have put a method in it for changes…we are after all trying for a “more perfect” Union. They could not have been to unhappy with the evolution, a great deal of it started while they had the shot at leadership…

I think that you have come “close” to the teabag movement.

It is a movement in large measure spurred and shaped by 1) neos who are unhappy that they are not in power anymore and 2) by “personalities” on the TV and RAdio who are blazing away for their own ratings (and hence renumeration).

but, and again this is a generalization, the teabaggers as a group are mostly the “lower end” of society who are seeing their world (mostly white, narrow religion leanings, mostly rural) sort of fade as the nation becomes more “ethnic” and less rural.

this is the latest move of the “buchanan wing” of the party and it alone has never amounted for much.

These people have always been to some extent dissatisfied.

What is unique today is that dissatisfaction is spreading into the mainstream of American life and politics. In the 2008 election it manifested itself in the election of President Obama. It manifested itself in how the “middle” of the political spectrum broke for him away from McCain and certainly away from Palin. As Obama continues to “drift resolutely” the fear and uncertainty grows a lot

I was having breakfast the other day with a community service organization (I was their speaker). The topic was “the new space age” and what was amazing to me, even right across the street from JSC…is that the sentiment was summed up by the President of the organization “nothing the government does works anymore”.

that is a problem

Robert G. Oler

The so-called “teabaggers” – and btw I don’t like that term either for the reason mentioned above – are simply scared. They see things going on in this country, >10% unemployment, deficits spiraling out of control with seemingly no end in site, the federal government increasing its powers seemingly exponentially (starting with the Patriot Act under Bush, just in case anyone thinks this is a “right wing” rant, I’m throwing him and the rest of the Republican pary under the bus too). Suffice it to say, they don’t like the direction the country is going, and like I said they’re scared. And to quote Yoda from Star Wars “fear leads to anger…” and so on.

Unfortunately, many of them are also merely partisan hacks who are just pissed that the neo-cons are no longer in power, and they seem to be the loudest of the bunch. And of course, instead of discussing “ideas” they just go right back to attacking the other side and round and round we go.

“‘We love the founders and how they did The Constitution” I always ask “which part slavery, where Senators were elected by the states, or women not having the right to vote’.”

Here’s my answer, FWIW. The consitution was written by men, who were not perfect, and therefore the consititution; like all things created by human beings, was not and is not perfect. Some of the problems you point out were corrected later (slavery through a bloody civil war and the ammendment process, women’s voting rights by ammendment). As for the States electing Senators, that wasn’t really a bad thing. The original purpose of the Senate was to represent the state governments, not the people, and to serve as a check against the federal government usurping powers that should be left to the state (the 10th ammendment). When they changed that, they removed that obstacle so that now the fed can pretty much do whatever they want and to hell with the states.

The founders realized that whay they created wasn’t perfect, otherwise they wouldn’t have included a way to ammend it. What they got right though was that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. So they designed a system with checks and balances between the 3 branches and clearly defined powers and responsibilities for each. Thomas Jefferson put it much more eloquently I ever could:

“Giving Congress a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole Constitution to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly, no such universal power was meant to be given them. The Constitution was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.”

And James Madison also:
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”

Yet another idiotic comment about the “right wing” from Robert, who also insists on repeatedly using the same offensive term.

thank you…

I read the Palin facebook page almost every day. It is an assorted collection of folks who more or less are “teabaggers” and they refer to themselves as “teabaggers”.

so I missed the insult that Rand picked up. I’ve never heard the term used that way…

another characteristic about the right wing, is that they are absorbed with sex…

Robert G. Oler

I know this wasn’t directed at me but…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teabagging

Robert G. Oler

SORRY that got sent way to early..

to pick it up…for the most part the Tea gaggers while (for the most part) well meaning are 1) not very sophisticated politically or historically or really in anyway and 2) are in many respects are a GOOD PART of the sickness that is in The Republics’ body politics.

Countries like people go through difficult times, and they go through times in their lives that are massive change periods. For instance we all have tough moments because of events (as do countries) but we all also grow up…the transition from childhood to teenage years is hard so is teenage to young adult hood etc etc.

During those periods there is at an individual level a longing for the past for a life that was well understood that had the certainty that comes with the past not the future…and that is where the “teabaggers” are.

That is seen in their “title”. The folks who reved up the Boston tea party (aside from being what we would call today “terrorist”) were in fact trying to constitute a legal rebellion based on the fact that they had no representation or means even to achieve it. That is not the case for the folks today.

All the “Teabaggers” today have representation and Most of them can vote at every election. The problem of course is that they cannot win. Their ideas just wont sell because they are for the most part ideas of fantasy and are logically inconsistent.

“We love the founders and how they did The Constitution” I always ask “which part slavery, where Senators were elected by the states, or women not having the right to vote”. The answer is something like “well not those parts but states rights” so yeah you were against Bush V Gore? “No that was just the Supreme Court fixing where the state had gone wrong” …..ignoring of course that if the 10th were the 10th of old then the state courts would be the final say so on states issues like voting.

What the teabaggers are all for is “situation based outcomes”…(“We knew OJ was guilty but those liberals let him go”.) something that a nation under law of course stands against. While we all may “know” something the standard is we need to prove it.

The teabaggers are losing on the issues and that has brought forth their worst trait which is “lets shut down debate”. This ranges from people who just try and shout down opposing views to the real idiots who show up at political rallys with sidearms.

They are of themselves not a real danger to The Republic.

But they do represent something…and that is a deep settling fear in The Republic among “the normal folks” that things are going badly off track. And if no one can come to a theory of how to get us back on track…well the worse things get, the better simpler solutions sound.

That is how we got into Iraq.

Robert G. Oler

Whether you agree or not, that does not justify your using such an ugly, baseless, inappropriate and offensive term. Anderson Cooper managed to muster up the class to stop doing so, and apologize for it. You should as well.