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Tea Party movement finds conservative leadership lacking
Jul 02, 2010
Glenn Clark, Chairman, 9th Congressional District of the Republican Party, at a Tea Party protest along Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills.
By CHARLES CRUMM
Of The Oakland Press
On Dec. 16, 1773, British colonists in America protested what they viewed as taxation without representation by dumping shiploads of tea from Britain into Boston Harbor — a historical event referred to now as the Boston Tea Party. Today’s tea party movement galvanized around the health care reform legislation in a debate that consumed much of last year and stretched into this year.
People who attended tea party events said the health care reforms limit personal freedom and contribute to soaring federal deficits. Rallies were held around the country and across Oakland County, attended by people who were basically mad as hell and not inclined to take it anymore.
That’s an anger that still exists and may well spill over into ballots cast in this year’s election.
But rather than tea, it could be incumbent officeholders of both parties who may be tossed overboard by supporters of the tea party movement.
In general, tea party web pages and supporters say they’re for constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets.
They tend to view taxation with their current representation as dimly as the original tea party protesters viewed taxation without representation.
And they hold members of both major political parties responsible for runaway deficits with the only difference being that a Democrat-controlled Congress has managed to outdo the profligate spending of an earlier Republican-dominated Congress.
A national telephone survey by Rasmussen Reports in late March found that 52 percent of those surveyed believe the tea party movement has a better understanding of issues facing America than Congress does, while 30 percent felt Congress has the better understanding.
“They’re all to blame,” says Gary Kubiak of the Rochester area and the Southeast Michigan 9.12 Project, one of the tea party groups in Oakland County. “The Republicans have been soft, too.
“The tea party is about limited government, responsibility and constitutional values,” said Kubiak. “Instead of government to the people, it’s people to the government. It’s gotten turned around.”
To change that, they’re encouraging involvement in civic affairs, including running for office, but have no intent on forming a third national party.
“We’re looking for constitutional conservative people,” he said. “We need somebody to stand up for their values and not worry about being re-elected every time an election comes up.”
That would be fine with Chuck VanPoperin of Keego Harbor, who has a “throw the bums out” slant on today’s current officeholders in both parties.
VanPoperin, a retired civil engineer, said he’s not active in the tea party movement but might be interested in attending a couple of rallies.
“I want to be a Republican, but I think they have totally sold out to big business,” he said. “And the Democrats are afraid to take on big business for some reason. I’m pretty shy about being political, but it’s time people spoke up. It’s a sad state of affairs and that’s why the tea party is becoming more vocal.
“Both the Democrats and Republicans are more interested in getting elected and getting big contributions than they are in passing reasonable laws,” he said. “We have a government that allows the regulators of industries to be captured by the regulatees so that what they’re supposed to regulate, they make (matters) worse.
“The banks are an example, the airlines are an example, the oil spill is an example,” he said. “We ought to throw the congressional bums out. We ought to throw the lobbyists out and their way of making political contributions.”
Out-of-control spending in Washington is often cited among tea party followers and those who sympathize with them.
“I know many people who belong to the tea party movement and know that they are intelligent, educated and they carefully study the important issues affecting us today,” said Marsha Baergen of Troy. “They are very concerned with the concentration of power in Washington and the horrendous debt and spending.
“I am very concerned that we send a lot of tax money to Washington for Congress to send to other states and for frivolous vote-buying programs to get themselves re-elected,” she said. “If we get any tax money back, it has tight strings attached. I think our country would be stronger if Washington were weaker.
“It is a sad day when a community like Troy has to send so much taxpayer money to Washington, and yet we cannot afford to keep our library, museum and nature center open,” she said.
For Steven Hendin of Waterford Township, the tea party movement, while not perfect, has become preferable to the current Republican Party.
Hendin, 41 and a married homeowner, is disabled and finishing his final classes of seminary. He’s the volunteer president of The Road to God Ministry, a Jewish evangelism-based ministry, and calls himself both a Jew and a Christian. “I am stubbornly proud of both,” he said.
“I would also proudly call myself a true fundamentalist, both religiously and politically,” Hendin wrote. “I must honestly tell you that though I have always been a Republican, for I have always been a moral-based voter, my views are changing quickly. The simple fact is that those who called themselves ‘conservatives’ are on a declining slope to become ‘liberals’ and those who view themselves as ‘liberals’ are on that same slope to that view I would call ‘New Age Politics.’ In other words, they are politically everything, simple political promises with no follow through.
“The tea party is far, and I do mean far, from what I would want from a political party, but at least it is truer to being conservative then the GOP has become,” Hendin said.
Contact staff writer Charles Crumm at 248-745-4649, charlie.crumm@oakpress.com or follow him on Twitter @crummc.
Some of the local tea party websites:
- North Oakland Tea Party Patriots — www.nocteaparty.com
- Tea Party Patriots of West Oakland — www.teapartypatriotsofwestoakland.ning.com
- Southeast Michigan 9.12 Project — www.semichigan912.org
- Michigan Tea Party Alliance — www.michiganteapartyalliance.com
- Metro Detroit Freedom Coalition — medefco.ning.com
- Give Me Liberty — www.givemeliberty.org
- Lakes Area Tea Party — www.lakesareateaparty.ning.com-
- Michigan Tea Party — teapartypatriots.org/Group/Michigan_Tea_Party
- Tea Party Patriots — teapartypatriots.org/State/Michigan
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Pontiac Tea Party — www.PontiacTeaParty.com
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