Political commentary
Collin Reischman
– Managing Editor –
The National Tea Party Convention was held in Nashville, Tenn. this past week, when the moderates, centrists and independents of the country sighed a deep breath of frustration and disbelief.
There’s nothing wrong with good ol’ fashioned protest. It is a part of our history. Things like dissent and revolution are in the blood of America’s citizens, and we know this well.
The Tea Party knows this better, and has not hesitated in exploiting our love of unconventional methods and allergy of large government influence.
The Tea Party-ers may not have an official platform yet, and no official policy book, but their message is clear: we don’t like President Obama, and we will fight his administration and government on every issue we can because we don’t understand the definition of things like “socialism” and “patriotism.”
The “teabaggers,” as they hate being called, paint themselves as heroes — patriots who are protecting their nation from a socialist agenda that wants to steal their guns, abort their children, impregnate their daughters, and hand the nation over to dangerous terrorists.
Sarah Palin graced the convention with her unusual style of eloquence, jabbing at Obama’s “hopey-changey stuff,” and reminding us of that classical liberal mantra, the government that governs least, governs best.
Finally, we understand why she left the Governors Mansion of Alaska: she didn’t want to govern too much! Sarah Palin. Hero.
This is a party which understands that the government needs to keep its hands off of their health care and medical procedures! Unless, of course, that procedure is an abortion.
This is a party that knows socialist programs and government handouts are a bad thing. Unless of course, it’s to build public libraries, police stations, interstate highways, or clean energy products for new jobs.
These patriots won’t stand by while a terrorist is read his or her Miranda Rights like a typical citizen; unless that terrorist is the “shoe-bomber” and George Bush is still president.
This is a party whose keynote, Mrs. Sarah ‘American Maverick Hero’ Palin, knows of the importance of offshore drilling and perusing nuclear energy, unless it’s President Obama who proposes it, at the State of the Union.
This is a party for the everyman, as long as those everymen could pay hundreds of dollars at the door to attend the convention.
Perhaps it was said best by Palin: “We need a Commander-in-Chief, not a professor of law,” thundered Palin. Of course, Palin is right. We don’t want some fancy-schmancy law professor in charge of the country. Those Harvard elitists and their big words, fancy speechs and complex understandings of the inner workings of the legislative process — we need less of them and more Sarah Palin.
We need more women like her; women who have left their only major elected office position to pursue a career as a Fox News contributor.
We need more people willing to abandon these pathetic “public office” and “elected” positions and will simply go on the lecture circuit. If only more of today’s minds would abandon their constituients to be famous and haughty in front of like-minded individuals.
Palin knows that real leadership is not found in legislation or public office.
She knows that real courage, real leadership, comes from being elected governor, leaving the office and making unchallenged and unchecked remarks about the opposition’s lack of Commander-in-Chief’ness.
