How can "one faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government," bully their party, hold our government hostage and threaten to destabilize the world's economy if their ransom is not paid?
To better understand the Tea Party movement, we have to distill the purposely created myths regarding this rogue organization. First and foremost: The TP movement is not a spontaneous and authentic grassroots uprising.
Quite the contrary:
A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption. read more
Second, in order to understand what the TP wants, we have to understand what do their puppeteers -- Koch brothers -- want. This journey begins with a quick study of the ultra right-wing John Birch Society (their father was a founding member).
Our corporate controlled press, while covering DC politics like a sporting event, has been woefully missing-in-action in muckraking these TP puppet masters. And this is what has been under-reported:
One big time Birch family, the Koch family, has spent (and continues to spend) huge sums to bankroll Birch ideas. David and Charles Koch, the sons of Fred Koch—one of the original founding members of the Birch Society and a friend of my father—have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in their favorite political causes.
Yes, I mean that. 100s of millions of dollars.
What we are seeing today is one wave of a Koch tsunami intended to defeat all Democrats and build a permanent GOP majority in the House and Senate. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision declaring that money equals speech has helped to fuel this juggernaut.
If you pretend that Koch defeats in the 2012 election have stopped them, you are kidding yourself.
When you strip away all the trappings, the Koch Brothers and their allies propose the identical ideas I heard from my father and his Birch allies: this is an unholy marriage of radical libertarian economics in the Ayn Rand model and a regressive, unrelenting culture war.
Put it together and you have exactly what the Birchers longed for: a dismantled safety net, a federal government 40% of its current size and a free-for-all, laissez faire economy where the rich pay no taxes, business has no regulation and the workers have no unions.
The government will be tiny, but what is left will control your personal life, your sexual preference, your fertility and your civil rights and your right to vote.
Welcome to the right wing future. source
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