The Tea Party Caucus is led by Michele Bachmann and has (as of March 31, 2011) 66 members to it, all Republicans. The Tea Party looks like it is here to stay. Though for awhile it looked like the comet Lovejoy flying towards the sun that is the anger spouting from every direction that makes up the enjoyable and pleasant current political milieu. But, fight fire with fire and you get bigger flames.
Enough of the bad analogies. I cannot promise to present a fair and balanced assessment of each of the members of the caucus for two reasons. First, that objectivity is trademarked by FOX News and I am afraid that if I try and copy it my phones will be tapped by Rupert and co. Second, that type of objectivity is not truly possible. Everyone has their own biases, even such optimistic fellows as myself. However, what I will promise is to give an honest assessment of the things that these members are doing from time to time, both their good points (which they have) and their shortcomings.
To begin with, I'd like to take a note of the caucus' head, Michele Bachmann. There is a virtual cacophony of Bachmann bashing out their on the web so I'll try and limit myself to a few quotes that have earned her some pretty scathing counterpoints.
1. First, let's focus on both the John Wayne Waterloo remark where she mixed John Wayne the actor and John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer and when she wished Happy Birthday to Elvis Presley on the anniversary of his death. While this shows poor oversight, who has not fallen prey to misreading something on Wikipedia? Those of you who have not throw the first stone.
2. The John Quincy Adams and the founding fathers working to end slavery. Ok, Q as we call him upstairs wasn't really a founding father, but he was around at the beginning of America and a member of one of the earliest political parties, the Federalists. You can tell her to represent history a little bit better on this one. It's bad, but not awful. The other part about the founding fathers working tirelessly to end slavery is hard to defend. I'm not going to do it. Lambasting can continue.
3. The attempt to link swine flu to Democratic presidencies. Wow. Not only was she factually incorrect this is just odd. Maybe she was trying to be funny?
4. When she spoke about the media needing to look at congress and ask if they were pro-American or anti-America she was reported as looking to install a neo-McCarthyism. At first blush this one seems pretty wrongheaded too. Nobody that wishes to build a stronger, more united America should hanker for the days of the Red Scare. However, this one could also be rephrased a bit to sound more intelligent and intellectually honest. If she sharpened her rhetoric skills she could pose it this way "the media ought to look at whether the current representatives are acting in a way that is consistent with the core, historical and foundational values of America". But, she is a busy woman and does not have the fifteen-twenty seconds that it took me to formulate that question.
5. When she equated the earthquakes and hurricanes that have recently struck in the US with God's wake up call she divided people quite well. Some shared her sentiments and were encouraged by her speaking, but most laid into her with some good reason. Tying God's wrath to congressional spending is wrongheaded on a number of levels. However, tying God's wrath to natural disasters is something many Scriptural literalists do all the time. Understanding how the Infinite mind works completely is an impossibility for finite ones and attempting to do so can sometimes do more harm than good. Because God acted one way at a specific time does not guarantee He will do so at others. This is illogical and it's probably bad theology. But, we can discuss theology later. However, for those who use this as a way to demean the simpleminded religious, your simplistic views on religion belie any critical thinking. An abstraction cannot be used to determine the whole, nor should one so easily cast aside 6,000 years of reasoned thought.
6. As to the abolishment of the minimum wage that she proposed, this is not an unique or new idea. There is a school of thought that minimum wage actually keeps wages down rather than lifting them up as they are thought to do. This has to do with market principle. While Bachmann delivered her now famous quote with the eloquence she is becoming known for, this idea certainly can be debated without resorting to calling Michele names.
7. Though I think I have been just in my assessment of what many are calling Mrs. Bachmann's biggest flops and have even, to an extent defended some of the ideas I think she was trying to iterate I have to end on a down note. When she mentioned both HPV vaccine and the effects of carbon dioxide she showed herself pandering to a specific crowd and was caught out in uninformed and ill-researched speech. She was trying to stir up her base on two unpopular topics for conservatives, vaccines for STD's for children and global warming. This gets all the conservatives hot under the collar and maybe not without merit, but you can't make things up Michele.
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