High Tea

Deer Creek Falls - Grand Canyon, Arizona

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. Thomas Jefferson

Someone needs to inform syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts that his recent editorial, “Race Had a Role in the Rise of the Tea Party,” will not earn him another Pulitzer Prize. Most troublesome is his reliance on the tiresome tactic of profiling any contrary idea or person as racist. Not so long ago this accusation was akin to intellectual checkmate but no longer. Mr. Pitts may have a legitimate and fundamental objection to the Tea Party platform, however, attaching disingenuous labels to ones opponents has less to do with journalism than muckraking.

The Tea Party is a grassroots organization whose origin is largely a response to incompetent leadership on the part of Democrats and Republicans alike. Representing a broad spectrum of society, its members exercised their constitutional right to redress grievances created and exacerbated by the political establishment. Politicians and their cheerleaders like Mr. Pitts are uncomfortable with groups which promote less government and more individual responsibility.

Arizona's Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva wasted no time using the race card to voice his objections to his state's enactment of legislation aimed at dealing with illegal aliens. “We're going to overturn this unjust and racist law,” he stated, conveniently omitting any mention of the legal status of the immigrants, the judicial precedent for the law, the considerable financial burden placed on the state, or the number of border crossers from countries affiliated with terrorist organizations. However, Mr. Grijalva is a shrewd politician who assumes most traditional politicians cut and run rather than be accused of being racist. Not surprisingly he received succor from the President and the City of San Francisco, which with few exceptions extends sanctuary status to illegal aliens.

While driving to work I was listening to Imus in the Morning on a local radio station. Mr. Imus was lobbing soft ball questions to Senator John Kerry, who plays in his comfort zone when handling questions with answers he has memorized. Then out of left field came a question about illegal immigration in the form of “do you still beat your wife?” or “are you still drinking heavily?” Big John was thrown off balance and during the long pause that followed, one could imagine his neurons slowly firing. “You're trying to trick me. Aren't you?” he declared as if his profound intellect had rescued him once again. “It's the employers' fault. If they would not hire illegals, they wouldn't come here in the first place. If people would have had the good sense to vote for me in 2004, this wouldn't be a problem in 2010.”

The situation is insane. The official 10% unemployment rate in the United States is overly optimistic and substantially underestimates the problem. The agricultural and service industries need employees, but unemployed Americans are unwilling to take these jobs; it is more lucrative to collect welfare. What is more, these jobs are beneath their dignity, although their egos remain in tact when accepting a welfare check. Mexican workers fill these jobs and often perform better than their pampered American counterparts. The problem is not the Mexican worker providing for his or her family. It is those who do not work – American and Mexican alike.

In his 1995 book Race and Culture, Thomas Sowell contended that culture is a better predictor of success than race. Certain subgroups within each racial category perform better than others. Doing well has more to do with work ethic, adherence to moral principles, parenting skills, the importance placed on education, and avoidance of destructive behavior. Anyone from any race or ethnicity would struggle if raised in an environment of rampant crime, illiteracy, and unemployment where 70% of births occur out of wedlock.

Much of the Tea Party's energy and allure stems from the frustration that our leaders have not been faithful stewards of the American culture. Rather than dealing with issues directly, politicians find it easier to postpone confrontation by recklessly spending money on the symptoms and ignoring the source. The denouement occurred when unethical financiers teamed with an inept Congress to throw the country into a depression that did not need to happen. It was apparent both parties were to blame and neither could extricate America from the morass. Failed social programs, an inability to secure the borders, an incoherent foreign policy, mounting debt, and the federalization of the health care industry are reason enough to mobilize and elect new leaders.

There has never been a more pressing time to clear the political slate. John McCain, whose political life never measured up to his heroics in Vietnam, John Kerry, who made a fortune marrying wealthy women, Congressman Hank Johnson, whose guffaws are Internet legends, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would rather be popular than do what is right, and Nancy Pelosi, so out of touch with reality that one wonders which asylum she calls home, represent the deadwood which concerns the Tea Party. There will be no new ideas emanating from these beacons; their time is past. If only they would go quietly into the night.