That’s the way most political
commentary about the right wing goes these days. I think it’s partially wrong.
Certainly Tea Party Republicans don’t trust our government: a Pew
Research Center poll last month showed that only 3% trusted the federal
government to “do what is right” most of the time. 55% of them said they were
angry with the federal government, twice as many as among other Republicans or
Democrats.
Conservatives talk a lot
about shrinking government, but when they are in power they do no such thing.
Federal spending increased
in each year of the Reagan administration and each year of George Bush’s
presidency. So did the federal deficit, which skyrocketed during both
Republican presidencies. Rick Perry, Tea Party favorite and Governor of Texas
since December 2000, has doubled
his state’s spending since he took office.
Conservatives want government
to stop doing some things and do much more of others. Their political targets
for reduction represent liberal programs they don’t like. They hate that many
of our state governments now allow marriage between homosexuals. They don’t
want the federal government to prevent discrimination against homosexuals. When
the Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act last week, only 10
Republicans voted
for it, and 32 against. Speaker John Boehner
says he won’t even bring the bill for a vote in the House.
They don’t want the
government to prevent companies from polluting the environment. Only 22% of Tea
Party Republicans have a favorable view of the Environmental Protection
Agency, while 58% of Independents and 77% of Democrats view
the EPA favorably.
Conservatives don’t want the
federal government to use tax dollars to help
the poorest Americans get by. House Republicans want
to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program over the next decade. But the
huge subsidies for big agribusiness were left virtually untouched.
Conservatives don’t want any
government to restrict a person’s ability to buy an automatic weapon. TeaParty.org says “Gun ownership
is sacred,” which is a strange statement from people who tend to take the Bible
literally.
They don’t like the National
Labor Relations Board, which tries to make sure workers are treated fairly.
Republicans in the Senate held up President Obama’s appointments to fill vacant
seats on the NLRB.
Small government works well
as a rallying cry, but it is designed to mislead. Listen to Tea Party
politicians, and you’ll get an earful about bigger government. Preventing
abortions. Regulating marriage. Building walls around our borders. Forcing
schools to tell Biblical stories as science. Continuing the war on marijuana,
which has forced an enormous expansion of our prison system. Reinforcing the
Patriot Act and its global network of surveillance.
TeaParty.org lists as one of
its core beliefs that “Intrusive government must be stopped.” But just a little
further along on that list is “Traditional family values are encouraged.” That
is code for imposing an evangelical religious agenda on American politics. A Tennessee Tea Party
group says its mission is “Putting God back in our schools - on our money
and in our lives to govern our country.” A New York Times article
in 2011 said, “The Tea Party’s generals may
say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and
file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.”
Tea Party supporters say they
don’t trust government. If they had power, I believe they would use government
to make their intrusive agenda into law. Suddenly the power of the state would
be their friend. I don’t trust Tea Party politicians to shrink government.
Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL
Published in the Jacksonville
Journal-Courier, November 12, 2013
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