Tag Archives: Tea Party

July 12, 2012

It’s About Time

By Paul Stagg

It’s about time the US Army stopped (some) of the advertising spending.  And it’s about time one of the Tea Party folks in Congress actually did something to cut spending, even if it’s just a little bit.

Oh, wait.  She’s not a Republican.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who tried last year to end military sports sponsorship programs before her amendment was defeated, commended Tuesday’s announcement that the Army would end a 10-year run of sponsoring NASCAR.

“This program was not effective,” McCollum told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “By eliminating a wasteful program, they’re protecting taxpayer dollars and they can refocus those dollars on recruiting efforts that bring in well-qualified recruits to keep our Army strong.

“The Army now joins the Navy and the Marine Corps in pulling out of NASCAR as far as sponsorships go. Now I’d like to see, as they haven’t been able to show us any numbers that any of these sports sponsorships work, that we bring an end to the sports sponsorships.”

Where is the Tea Party, anyway?

Advertisement

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Libertarian/Political Stuff, Sports

April 14, 2011

Opportunism vs Idealism

By Paul Stagg

Lee Stranahan and I do not agree on a number of subjects.  We once had an argument on Twitter about healthcare, but have since made up upon realizing everything can either be blamed on George W. Bush or Gay Marriage.

This blog post of his is an example of someone who certainly leans Left who actually figured it out

The Republicans in Congress are going to get a lesson here, pretty soon.  Raising the amount of money the Federal Government spends (which is what the budget they want to pass does) is most certainly not why they won in 2010.  The lesson is going to come from idealists, who are starting to get a little rambunctious.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Libertarian/Political Stuff, Required Reading

July 16, 2010

A Festival of Stupid

By Paul Stagg

This week, we were treated to the revelation that the NAACP thinks the Tea Party is racist.

I’m not a member of the Tea Party.  As a libertarian, I’m a big fan of the smaller government, less taxes, more freedom parts of the movement, but not so much interested in the anti immigration, pro drug war, elect Sarah Palin (seriously guys?) parts of the movement.  I’m also not associated with the NAACP, which has moved to the edge of relevancy by finding institutional racism where there is none in order to rally a base and maintain some sort of collective voice.

In this little battle, the Tea Party clearly had the upper hand.  All they had to do was react to the NAACP proclamation for what it was, which is a small marginally relevant group of people making noise trying to get someone to pay attention to them; a group incapable of debating issues and instead interested in namecalling.  Which is to say they should have simply ignored it.  Take the high road, don’t give the stupid idea that the Tea Party is fundamentally racist (and that is a stupid idea) any credibility.

Instead, the head of the Tea Party not only responds, but makes himself look like a bumbling racist while he’s doing it.

Now, it’s clear to me what message he’s trying to convey, but he conveys it in such a way to make him sound like an idiot at best.  This is not what the Tea Party movement needed, and regardless of his intent, he’s now made the Tea Party look like the group that isn’t relevant, the group on the margin, lead by an idealogue of questionable intelligence.

The problem for those of us who love Liberty is that it sets us back, too.  Because regardless of what we say, we’re all lumped in that mean old racist corporate shill tea party group.  It gets tiring and old listening to people too stupid to even have an opinion argue about who’s a racist, or who’s mean, or what economic policy is right (when they don’t understand basic price theory).   It’s worse when no one will listen to you because you are associated with a simpleton.

Link via The Agitator

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Libertarian/Political Stuff

April 24, 2010

Why I’m not a Tea Partier

By Paul Stagg

It was one thing when they shouted ‘Run Sarah, Run”.

But this is really all I needed to know this isn’t my movement.

At the Gilbert protest, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio delivered the keynote speech.

Arpaio touched on a number of issues, including his chain gangs and his problems with the federal government.

If Joe Arpaio is part of any movement, I’m not.  Limiting the rights of people to come into this country has nothing to do with limiting the size and scope of government.  In fact, it’s the opposite.  If you think you need permission from the government to work, you aren’t really interested in limiting the power of government.

Edit:  And apparently I’m not the only one.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Libertarian/Political Stuff

April 15, 2010

More logic from the Left

By Paul Stagg

McQ at QandO remarks on a leftist group trying to infiltrate the Tea Party protests today (and, apparently, any day).  The focus of his post is primarily to point out that Tea Party folks need to record this stuff and call out the groups really acting out.

[It’s important to note here that I am not a member of the Tea Party movement.  While as a Libertarian I am in agreement with the movement on most things, the Tea Party is being co-opted by the conservative or paleo-con wing of the Republican Party.  Paleo-cons are certainly closer to my philosophy than neo-cons, they are still fundamentally statists.]

I have a more basic logical question.  If folks on the Left are convinced that the Tea Party movement is a bunch of mean, white, racist, homophobic rednecks, why would they need to ‘infiltrate’ the movement and act like racists and homophobes to discredit the Tea Party?  Wouldn’t that already be happening?  Doesn’t doing that actually prove that the Tea Party isn’t a bunch of racists, and you need to get involved to make them look like they are?

This is Lefitst Logic.

I guess that’s what happens when you can’t convince people your ideas are actually better, you need to call names (teabagger, racist) instead. Continue reading

1 Comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Libertarian/Political Stuff

%d bloggers like this: