A few months ago I grew tired and frustrated by the antics of our elected representatives in the Senate. Considering the morass we find ourselves in, a third party might not be such a bad idea. Then I thought; How would we do that? It won”t be easy. I watched the Tea Party convention to see how it”s done. I came away with the conclusion that it would be a lot harder than I had imagined and that the Tea Party is doomed to failure from the get-go.
The main reason that its failure can be predicted is that it is unreasonable. It appears that most of the people attracted to this party are very angry, conservative, senior Republicans gathering around potential candidates who, for various reasons, could never be elected president of the United States.
The conservative far right of the Republican Party, sometimes referred to as the lunatic fringe, is home to the religious right, ideologues, professional haters, worried gun owners, single-issue voters and other individuals who want to cast a larger shadow than they are entitled to. Combined, these people may represent 40 to 45 percent of the Republican Party. The Tea Party is not likely to draw too many more followers from the more rational voters of either party.
Judging from the pre-convention interviews, many of the convention goers were seniors concerned enough to become involved in politics for the first time. Shame on them. It”s like going to see Hamlet in the final scene of the last act. You missed the best part.
Our democracy is broken. The minority has rendered the majority impotent at a time when action and agility are sorely needed and desired by most of our citizens. There is no way the Tea Party could win an election with a larger majority than the one the democrats now enjoy. The only way they could win the right to govern this country is to elect a dictator. It”s past the time for the Republican leadership to stop worshiping at the false idol of ideology and come back to the democracy our founders created.
Ralph Rosendin
Lower Lake
