Jan

David Brooks View of the Tea Party Movement

David Brooks has a pretty high opinion of himself and the current President and a pretty low opinion of the Tea Party Movement. In his recent New York Times column, Tea Parties Passion and Potential, Brooks describes the Tea Party movement as “…a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against.” Apparently Brooks hasn’t actually been to a Tea Party. If he had taken the time to attend even one, he’d understand that what the Movement is about is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the belief that the current and former administrations have been taking America further and further away from the Founding Fathers’ ideals. He is assuming that because he sees the Movement as being only about being against “…the concentrated power of the educated class…” and that “big government, big business, big media and the affluent professionals are merging to form self-serving oligarchy – with bloated government, unsustainable deficits, high taxes and intrusive regulation,” that the Movement “could be the ruin of the (Republican) party…” and will pull the Republican party into “an angry direction that suburban voters will not tolerate.”

Andrew Breitbart while preparing to speak at Quincy, IL Tea Party on 9-12-2009

Perhaps had Brooks taken the time to attend a Tea Party, he would have seen the attendees for what they are: true, proud Americans, from every class, race, background and political affiliation in the country. He would have seen stay-at-home moms standing together with black Marines, white biker-dudes and, most surprising to Brooks, given the comments in his column, even some from “the educated class” along with thousands of others joined together by their patriotism and loyalty to the Country’s foundations. Brooks wrongly assumes that one can be part of the Tea Party movement but not be part of the so-called educated class. That Tea Partiers are not all uneducated hicks from the backwoods who “don’t wanna have no government come try to take our guns from our cold dead fingers.” That actually, many in the Movement are highly educated but have fortunately escaped from the liberal indoctrination thrust upon them in most of America’s institutions of higher education.

More of the uneducated class at a tea party

Mr. Brooks, I have news for you: I am a proud member of the Tea Party Movement. I hold a Bachelor of Science Degree as well as two minor degrees. I have taken graduate-level courses and, oh my gosh, have actually passed the classes with high marks. My GPA was in the “A” average (even while attending college full-time while working and parenting two small children). My husband would probably be looked down upon by people like yourself because he is in a “Blue-Collar” industry. You wouldn’t understand that his blue-collar job ensures that you have electricity every time you decide to flip a switch in your house or that he is the one of the first in after major storms because until the power is restored, nothing can be rebuilt. You wouldn’t believe that my husband, in his blue collar, work outside climbing poles, hooking up “Green Energy” boondoggles like windmills and solar panels job also provides us with a six-figure income most years. Because of your pompous, biased view of the America, you have NO idea who the Tea Party people really are or what we are about.

We are the people who did not “Get Fired Up and Ready to Go” by Obama or by McCain. The person we most appreciated was Sarah Palin (for the most part) because she is not of the Establishment. She is an average American WOMAN who worked her way up through the leadership ranks from city council member to Governor and then to VP candidate. You hear her accent, and you think she is dumb because she sounds like “Fargo.” I hear her accent without bias because most of the people I know speak just like her, and sorry, but I don’t hang around with stupid people. The Tea Party movement is not about a Party. It is about the basic values that America was founded upon: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, the Right to Bear Arms, the Right to Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Press. And please don’t forget, States’ Rights. All of these rights are being infringed upon and/or ignored by the ones you call “The Educated Class.” You should be calling them “The Establishment,” because if the Tea Partiers are against anything, that is what we are against. You were right in saying that we are against a bloated government and ever increasing taxes and deficits because we are. We are against a government that believes that every dollar we make should be taxed and the money stolen from us given to those who have refused to do what we have done: worked hard to get to where we are without asking for government hand-outs. We are against spending money we don’t have. We believe in living within a budget and teach our children to do so, but how will they live when the deficits are so high that every dime they make goes back to the government which spent their money a decade prior? We are against saddling our children with massive debt. We are against taxation without representation, as the first Tea Party attendees were, and the way this Democrat-led Congress is ignoring the fact that the majority of Americans are against the insane Healthcare Reform Bill and trying to pass it while negotiating behind closed-doors, that sir, IS taxation without representation.

The younger and highly educated attending a Tea Party

By calling the divide in America a divide between the “Educated” and “The Tea Party” you are insulting American people who, as you rightly said, have passion for a return to the values that America was founded upon. We may be a bit fractious, we may be “amateurish”, but we are learning, we are finding like-minded individuals to join together with and we, as you sadly lament, will “shape the coming decade.”

I invite you to attend a Tea Party. Take your lips off Obama’s butt for a minute and use them to actually TALK to the people there. If you open your eyes and your mind, you may no longer be lamenting the power of an “amateurish movement with mediocre leadership,” but instead, rejoicing in the revitalization of true American politics – for the people, by the people and of the people.

Oh, and by the way, Mr. Brooks? My husband and I are also Suburbanites (proud Hockey/Swimming parents of four fantastic, patriotic children) living in one of the most liberal, highly educated, highly taxed states in the country, but you probably wouldn’t notice us because by your definition and people like you, we are considered “fly-over country” and not worth your time.