Tea Party Madness Started Years Ago

As the campaign of 2010 reached its zenith on election day (or its deepest pit, depending on how you view these rituals), I kept asking myself "why are these tea party people so angry?"

When President Obama was elected, he did what he said he would do and what the American people voted for. His Democrats passed the financial reform bill that kept the economy from falling into a well carved and deeply cut Republican ditch. His Democrats passed a health care reform bill that has only begun to pay dividends for the American people. No, it couldn't be all of those things that made them so angry because those Obama initiatives were actually good for the American people. It must be something else.

I am only an amateur psychologist, but I venture to say that their anger is pent up from watching their favorite son, Bush 43, spend and borrow, and borrow and spend for his entire 8 years in office. The tea party conservatives in America kept quiet. To criticize Bush 43 would be out of step with their brothers in the Republican cult. No, the answer goes back much farther. The anger starts with Bush 43, and to some extent, Reagan 40. Bush 43 saved the banks with the $700 billion TARP money.But he did not tell his voters he would favor such an expansion of government. And Reagan nearly tripled the national debt. Not a good thing in the eyes of the tea party folks.

So, under the surface, the tea party simmered. Their subconscious mind told them their favorites had broken from the conservative movement, or horrors, were never really with them. They also knew they had been lied to for decades. Every Republican President in their memory had always said he was for lower taxes and smaller government, but they never delivered. That made the tea party Americans very mad. Heck, that would make me furious. And this year their madness exploded and hit both mainstream political parties, Democrats the hardest, but they were not and still aren't happy with the Republicans.

If you tea party people want to feel better about your participation in the political process, start by telling your candidates to "put up or shut up." If they can't give you a program they would cut to make a difference in the federal budget, tell them not to bring it up anymore. If they can't tell you a major federal agency they would eliminate to make government smaller, tell them not to bring it up anymore. You will find that these people have very little else to talk about. You may then have an opportunity to recruit candidates to your cause who actually know something about governing, starting with an understanding of the US Constitution.