The Tea Party is nothing new.
The activism we see from Tea Party radicals in Washington today is just a modern-day reboot of the same government obstructionist strategies that have been around since the early days of slavery.
From the battles over segregation and discrimination of the 1950’s and 1960’s to the war on voting rights that’s taking place in state capitols all across the nation today, Tea Party-esque strategies and values have repeatedly reared their ugly heads throughout American history.
As Chuck Thompson over at Salon.com points out, the Tea Party strategy of today is the “same old obstructionist strategy that’s been pursued by traitorous Southerners in government since long before Robert E. Lee’s doomed charge at Gettysburg.”
Thompson goes on to say that, “It’s part of the same soiled fabric that stretches from John C. Calhoun and South Carolina’s 1832 Ordinance of Nullification…all the way to the Newt Gingrich-led government shutdown…”
Simply put, the Tea Party represents the 21st century rebirth of angry 19th century white male Confederates who wanted to secede from the United States and start their own dysfunctional country based on a plantation economy.
Maybe we should let them.
And while we’re at it, let’s make it easier for Ted Cruz, Michelle Bachmann and the rest of their Tea Party friends to start their own plantation-economy style country, by starting a secessionist movement of our own in the “blue” states.
The idea of northern industrialized states seceding from America is nothing new.
Back in 1814 and 1815, the Hartford Convention took place.
In Hartford, Connecticut, Federalists met to discuss their growing grievances provoked by the War of 1812 and their disagreements over slavery.
Those at the convention discussed changing policies like the three-fifths compromise, which gave slave states more power in Congress, and requiring a two-thirds supermajority in Congress for the admission of new states, declarations of war, and laws restricting trade.
Ultimately, while outcries for New England secession from the rest of the union were strong, those cries were drowned out by moderates, and talk of a northern secession was dropped.
It’s time for a new Hartford Convention.
So what would an America free of Southern lunacy and Tea Party radicalism look like?
First, the disastrous Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision would be a thing of the past. In a modern, 21st century America, it would be clear that corporations are not people, and that money is not speech.
Similarly, billionaires would no longer be able to buy politicians in a “blue” America, so their mountains of money couldn’t corrupt democracy and the political process.
Next, the destructive policy decisions of the Reagan Revolution would be overturned: The Sherman-Antitrust Act would be enforced and the Reagan tax cuts would be rolled back.
The Fairness Doctrine would be rebooted, so that the media had to actually cover the news instead of programming infotainment to increase profits.
From there, we’d eliminate disastrous trade policies like NAFTA and the WTO, and return to the kind of protectionist tariff-based trade policies that built this country and our middle-class from the George Washington administration until Ronald Reagan began taking them apart.
And, the Medicare eligibility age would be lowered to the moment birth, giving us a national single-payer healthcare system.
When this is accomplished, America will reflect a 21st century version of the ideals and visions of the Founders.
If it takes a secession of “blue” America to achieve all of this, then so be it.
It’s time to let small-minded bigots go back to their plantation-style economies and let them run their states like third-world countries.
Meanwhile, the rest of us can get started fulfilling the dreams and visions that our Founding Fathers had for the “General Welfare” and a more “Perfect Union” of these remaining United States.
Join us in defending the truth before it’s too late
The future of independent journalism is uncertain, and the consequences of losing it are too grave to ignore. To ensure Truthout remains safe, strong, and free, we need to raise $43,000 in the next 6 days. Every dollar raised goes directly toward the costs of producing news you can trust.
Please give what you can — because by supporting us with a tax-deductible donation, you’re not just preserving a source of news, you’re helping to safeguard what’s left of our democracy.