Excellent summation on what the TEA Party is....and what it isn't.
Being a member of the Tea Party is simply a STATE OF MIND for the average American who understands the value of focus, dedication and effort in obtaining a better standard of living for themselves and their families. WITHOUT government intrusion.
All of which I ardently believe in, but the implied suggestion (even in your very measured post) is that since I don't identify myself as being part of the TEA Party mind set, I am not an average American and I don't understand the value of "focus, dedication and effort in obtaining a better standard of living" for myself and my family.
I do. I just don't think that new is necessarily better than established and that untried is necessarily better than seasoned, and that appears to be the crux of the TEA Party movement: replace old and seasoned with new and untried. Destabilize the system in order to achieve more suitable results. When you destabilize any system, the one thing that you can't expect are predictable results.
I recall being absolutely baffled (back before there was a TEA Party) at the conservative support for a Fred Thompson Presidency.
Fred Thompson was the savior who would bring us out of the desert.
I looked and looked and tried to find reasons why anyone would be so willing to hand the reigns of power of the greatest economic and military power in the world to Thompson, and I couldn't find any.
To wit, Fred Thompson was a man applying for the position of CEO of McDonald's based on his experience as a part-time fry cook in a franchise in Poughkeepsie, but that was the conservative choice for President!
All of it riding on a lack of a record to criticize which of course meant that lacking any acts that could be criticized, he was obviously a true conservative.
I believe that one of the greatest reasons why conservatives that now identify as TEA Party are so often disillusioned with their candidates (see: Mia Love, Marco Rubio, etc) is that they so very often throw their support behind someone new fighting against the GOPe who lacks any manner of a resume, but that when those individuals transition from being a candidate to actually being a part of the functioning government and rhetoric is replaced by actual governance, reality sets in and things like needing enough votes to get anything done transform that campaign rhetoric into actual Congressional actions and forces them to compromise. They weren't sent there to compromise however, and their constituents feel betrayed.
I associated myself with the Tea Party because even back during the 08 campaign, I 'saw' that Barack Obama was the Trojan Horse, meant to destroy our standard of living at home...and our stature around the world.
All that said, if the so-called Tea Party called for another march on Washington today.....I'd be there with bells on my shoes.
Yet, in 2008 there was a conscious choice made by many on the right to not support McCain, and in what amounts to a national TEA Party vote (coupled with the obvious racial pride support), the voting public opted for new and untried, over established and seasoned, and we got the disaster of a Presidency that we've been enduring these past six years.
And THAT is the problem with voting for new and untried... like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.
I support seasoned and established because I have enough information on those candidates to pretty much KNOW what I am voting for.
I support the GOP because I KNOW what to expect from them and ten times out of ten that's better that what I KNOW I can expect from Democrats