Is The Tea Party Too Extreme?

The Tea Party is not extreme but it is firm, feisty and uncompromising.

Let me back up and build this argument from first principles.

First, God exists and God is the Divine Center of love, spiritual and moral goodness.

We are made in God's image and likeness, so love, spiritual and moral goodness should radiate from us in all we think, say and do.

The spiritually and morally good person is preoccupied with being virtuous. To be virtuous is to be moderate. To be virtuous is to be politically aware and active. To be virtuous is to be a self-actualizer, an egoist more than an altruist. To be virtuous is to search for the truth, and live in the truth.

Now let us return to the accusation that Tea Partyers are extremist, rigidly ideological, radical or intransigent.

Offhand, I would suggest the the Jeb Bush-Mitch McConnell type of moderation is actually surrender and capitulation. They are not principled middle-of-the-roaders but are appeasers and cowards that favor modestly growing big government rather than full-blown racing towards making the government spread everywhere as the Left plans to achieve.

Obama and the Democrats are lock-step fanatics and radical Marxists that, by any means (judicial, presidential, congressional, swaying public opinion) necessary, will set up a one-party, socialist dictatorship in America, where none have private wealth or liberty, and the American Castro dictator will rule all, and run the economy from Washington.

They are not one whit backing off on their plan, in the next two years, to complete their growth of the federal government to its maximum size, and they are determined to do it by extinguishing personal liberty and constitutional protections of those liberties that limit governmental overreach.

Rhinos can offer cant about avoiding gridlock by cooperating with Obama and the Democrats, but they really like big government, and are content to surrender or do very little.

Genuine conservatives like the Tea Partyers are not radical but are principled.

Let me digress again to explain how the virtue of moderation applies to political planning and action.
My concept is that a dishonorable means, an immoderate means, defeats the noble aim. Only an honorable, or moderate means, enables the reformer to achieve or complete the noble aim sought after.

Specifically, to grow government is to grow evil. Liberals seek to pass laws, grow bureaucracies and extend regulations into the private lives. Their ends are not always evil ends, but their means of achieving these ends are always evil ends.

The Tea Party is a grassroots organization of common people whose instincts, intact and insightful, have alerted them to the fact that liberals are doing evil things to our society by growing government, and this must be stopped, and stopped now. They will not compromise on this.

They would argue, as I would as an ethical and political moderate, that if the Left wants environmental protections, consumer protections, civil rights and gay rights, for example, these liberal causes must be championed in the private sphere while government is shrunk back to the percentage of GDP that is held in 1890, after abolishing the IRS and income tax.

Therefore, we may seem extreme, but we are not violent revolutionaries, but seek to work through the legal process. But we recognize that the Left has evil fanatical plans implemented by evil fanatical means that is tearing our country apart.

The Tea Party wants them to utilize nongovernmental means (moderate, honorable means) to gain ground. On this account they are correct, and uncompromising. They must be firm to denounce and obstruct the evil being done upon the American people by the Left.

The reforms the Tea party wants implemented are in line with constitutional republicanism, small government, and unleashing the free enterprise system.

I would add that citizens need to grow into educated supercitizens that direct their politicians to improve how well, efficiently, honestly and frugally that government operates.