The following column was published by the Huntsville Times on April 18 , 2010. No part may be republished without the permission of the publisher. The title has been changed to the original submission title.
On Sunday, March 21 the United States as we know it ceased to exist. On Monday morning, March 22 the sun did not rise. Although the stock market already crashed after the Socialist Obama administration took office, what was left of the Dow disappeared. In Huntsville, administrators of Huntsville Hospital announced that the hospital would be closed. All because the deadly health care bill passed.
Oh wait, none of that happened. Although, if you attended the TEA Party protest on Easter in Huntsville at the Space and Rocket Center you would think that it did. Spring is here right on schedule, Huntsville Hospital is still gobbling up downtown and the stock market, the most purely capitalistic of institutions, has soared.
Meanwhile at the TEA Party, signs and speakers lamented a government takeover of the health care system. I need some help here. I have a hard time understanding how eliminating rescission, allowing those with pre-existing conditions to have access to insurance, or allowing parents to carry children on their insurance up to age 26 contributes to the Socialist downfall of the USA. But the TEA party attendees weren't into the details. Maybe their objection is the requirement that all of us should have private health insurance (which was originally a Republican idea). When originally pitched, the mandate was to prevent freeloading on the system; it was for everyone to accept personal responsibility for their own health care. Somehow when Democrats signed up for this idea, it suddenly became socialist tyranny.
So how would I describe the TEA Party in Huntsville? This was a pep rally for conservatives. Yes, the crowd is angry about what is going on in the country, but there was no room in Huntsville for the racist signs and behavior that have been filmed in other rallies.
The Tea Party Express is a traveling medicine show delivering a patriotic hodgepodge of ideas, some fact, many fictional, between pitches for magazines, CD's, DVD's, T-shirts and direct donations. By the end of the show, everyone was well aware that it took $400 to fill up the tanks of each of the three busses. I could not help but chuckle when I heard one audience member reply after one pitch "why don't you drive a smaller bus?"
The speakers tailored their messages to fire up the crowd, so we heard only talking points without depth. Complex issues were reduced to slogans. The deficit is bad, but no one tried to connect the dots on who to blame for it. I did not hear any mention of the Bush tax cuts, Medicare part D or the Iraq war as contributing to the systemic deficit - all unfunded, all Republican (thanks Richard and Jeff).
The perception that the deficit suddenly happened since the Obama administration took power seemed to be the norm.
The crowd cheered at the idea of taking the country back from "them" whoever they are. The people they listen to tell them that their America is being taken away. No one seemed to believe that this is simple hyperbole. The mention of the names of the disciples of Democratic doom, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, brought up a cheer from the crowd. These are the true believers. Many of the signs decried high taxes and crippling deficits. They want to cut taxes and cut the deficit. Let's see, 2 minus 1 still doesn't equal 3 does it? The argument that we can cut taxes and grow our way into a surplus has lost all credibility.
It was true in the 1960's when the maximum individual rate was 91 percent, but with marginal rates in the 30's now, the tax disincentive factor is simply not there.
Of course, we heard the usual pabulum about cutting government waste, but if you believe that we can balance the budget by cutting taxes and cutting waste, I have some Gulf front property in Oklahoma that I can make you a real deal on.
On the whole, Easter afternoon with the TEA Party Express national tour was an entertaining time.
Every good medicine show has to have effective shills and these entertainers knew how to captivate the crowd between the commercials. But if you attended expecting to hear a serious discussion of the issues facing our country or wanted to learn about credible conservative ideas then you were bound to be disappointed.
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