Meet The New Boss...Same As The Old Boss

All is not well in the land of the Tea Party.

First, according to a recent New York Times poll, the tea party is the most unpopular it has been since they started polling on the tea party’s favorability in April of last year.

Secondly, according to data compiled by two researchers and published late in  2010, and recently updated for a paper back edition (American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us), the tea party ranks lowest in the 24 separate groups of Americans’ or individuals who they polled on. They are among the least popular groups of any kind of Americans in politics and culture right now. They have a lower favorability ranking than Sarah Palin, Democrats, Republicans, Atheist (God Bless Them), and Muslims – who were vilified for trying to build a community center in lower Manhattan.

The authors examine the role of the tea party in American politics and the data is painstakingly researched and brutally honest. For instance, when polled, Americans overwhelmingly stated that given a choice between a tea party president and Muslim president, they would prefer a Muslim president. Not a fake Muslim president, but an actual Muslim.

Wow.

Needless to say, the billionaire sugar daddies (Rupert Murdoch, David and Charles Koch, Dick Armye’s Freedom Works) that are bankrolling America’s so-called spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising have a public relations problem that threatens their self-interested and at times radical agendas.

The other fascinating thing that becomes clear from the data collected is the undeniable fact that the tea party, which is often billed as an non-partisan grass roots political movement, is actually nothing more than the same old republican base with a fresh coat of paint. In fact, past republican affiliation is the single greatest predictor of tea party support today. Also, next to being a republican, the second criteria for being a tea party cardholder is the desire to see religion play a prominent role in American politics.

Despite what Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck might have you think about the tea party express – the data collected shows that the tea party movement is not a bunch of independents that are upset with the growth of government, fighting the good fight, but actually, the same old religious, conservative wing of the Republican Party. 

The curtain has been drawn back and the wizard as been exposed.

Meet the New Boss…Same as the Old Boss.

Pay As You Go

Considering there have been 36 Presidential disaster declarations in 2011, (there were 267 such declarations from 2001 to 2005, but 330 in the five years that followed) and Hurricane Irene swept through the northeast and left a trail of destruction that is still playing itself out, one would think that budget requests and Congressional appropriations for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) disaster relief and recovery efforts would be on the rise. Sadly, that is not the case.

The 2012 Homeland Security appropriations bill will include $3 billion in cuts to FEMA’s budget. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), which has already been hit with budget cuts  (about $140 million) that will diminish its ability to track storms, and FEMA, like much of the federal government, will lose about a third of its funding over the next decade if tea party Republicans have their way.

Normally during times of great need the Federal Government puts aside its partisan bickering, and spends whatever is necessary to help make whole what has been broken or destroyed, and lend aid (food, medical, loans, relocation assistance) to help families and communities rebuild. That has always been one of America’s greatest virtues – we come together as a nation and we help each other. And this humanistic philosophy has served us well since the founding of our great Republic.

Alas, certain congressional leaders have a different view on what is the proper role of government, and what form should Federal assistance take on any given occasion. Case in point—speaking on Fox News Channel, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said a natural disaster like Hurricane Irene is an “appropriate instance” for a federal role, but that the government can't go deeper into debt to pay for unexpected outlays.

“We will find the money if there is a need for additional monies,” he said. But “those monies are not unlimited. And what we've always said is, we've offset that which has already been funded. Unfortunately the government continues to borrow money and to spend money it doesn't have."

The House Majority Leader equated the situation to what an ordinary family would do in a crisis, doing without a new car to pay for the needs of a sick loved one, for instance. Cantor is the poster child for the tea party, and his position has been the consistent view of majority Republicans since taking control of the House, even with disaster relief funding running thin after yet another severe weather event.

Cantor is a genuine profile in lack of compassion and empathy for the plight of people in need and worse yet, he is a walking disaster for the economy and his constituents. In fact, Cantor, who has been on vacation for a month, has not held one open town hall meeting to talk face-to-face with his constituents about their concerns. Maybe he is afraid they might ask him about jobs, the zero number that he has created and the thousands that have been or will be lost from the disastrous cuts embedded in the debt crisis deals.

The state of Virginia, which he supposedly represents, has suffered through the epicenter of an earthquake, the effects of Hurricane Irene and a near depression. But Cantor never lets a crisis go to waste. So now he and the heartless tea partiers have taken the low road again by saying that disaster relief ought to be offset by spending cuts.

Compassion for the rich and disdain for the rest of us: class warfare in full bloom for all to see.