The hypocrisy of the tea parties

Politics, they say, can be tough-- but that’s what makes it interesting.

The election of President Obama no doubt electrified many in this country and even around the world, not only because of his color but the hope, dreams and aspirations of a nation yearning for new leadership and direction after eight years of misdirection.

When he declared his candidacy for president, a lot of folks in this country did not like that.

Some wondered, “How dare he aspire for the highest office in the land?” For those people the position of presidency is not for people that looks like him.

Despite all the death threats and assassination plots, he was not deterred.

He went on to win the Democratic Party’s nomination and the whole brouhaha started.

Then, his antagonists knew that this guy was poised to win the White House. What did they do? They started questioning his eligibility to run for president, saying he was not born in the United States and that he should show his birth certificate even though he had already. And even the newspaper in Hawaii in 1961 announced his (Obama’s) birth back then. That was not enough for the delusional folks dubbed the “birthers.”

They never challenged Sen. John McCain’s eligibility, notwithstanding the fact that he was born in Panama.

I am not trying to suggest that McCain was not eligible to run for president because I know about the constitutional provisions.

Rather, I am trying to show the irony and the fallacy in their argument.

They do not like anything about this guy called Barack Obama because of his African heritage.

When the election came and Sen. McCain was defeated squarely in an Electoral College tsunami, these “birthers” devised another alternative; they quickly morphed into the Tea Party to disguise their idiosyncrasies.

Having observed this, their pseudo- astroturf movement for over a year and a half now, I have come to some conclusions. These Tea Party folks are a bunch of bigots, even racists, seeking to de-legitimize a democratically-elected president of the United States.

Worse about this movement is that Sarah Palin is part of this pathetic group of people. Not that I expect much from the quitter, former governor of Alaska, considering her foolish utterances about Obama being associated with a terrorist during the elections, but I felt that as a former GOP vice presidential candidate, she ought to have shown some restraint.

What exactly are the Tea Party folks protesting about?

They will murmur higher taxes, defense of freedom and big government. Let me try to dissect these issues one by one to expose the emptiness of their argument.

When it comes to taxes, President Obama has not even implemented the tax plans he campaigned on in 2008.

The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are still there. He intends to raise taxes on individuals and couples making over $200,000 and $250,000 a year respectively, when the Bush tax cuts expires.

Instead of them commending the president for cutting taxes for the middle class, they are busy vilifying and falsely accusing him of raising taxes even though he has not implemented any of his tax hike plans for the income bracket mentioned above.

Talking about freedom, the last time I checked it was President Bush’s administration that invaded the privacy of Americans through illegal wiretapping under the pretense of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

What is a greater breach of freedom than that? But you did not hear any of these noisemakers, sore losers and attention-seekers protest for invasion of freedom then.

They were fine with it as long as it was perpetrated by a Republican president.

The delusion of the Tea Party and small government baffles me.

Some of them even benefit from government-run programs like Medicare and Social Security. These government programs serve them well. Though they are not perfect, it works. Some of them even want those programs eliminated, a very barbaric thinking!

It even sounds very ironic to me that these same people protesting against big government did not say anything when President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

They never spoke out when he doubled the national debt from about $5 trillion to about $10 trillion.

Rather, they feel Obama is the person who has grown government and doubled the national debt. What a misnomer.

The ongoing hypocrisy tour of this group is just mind-boggling.

They are a bunch of sore losers protesting null tax policy change at the moment. They are out of power and becoming desperate by the day. I will continue to enjoy the follies of the tea parties while it lasts!