What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
I'm in Prague for a few days -- I knew you all were wondering where I was, right? -- and spent last night with a collection of journalists, some ex-pat Americans, some British, some Czech -- trying to explain what the Tea Party movement was all about.
It's hard, I think, for Europeans to truly understand what this kind of movement means. After all, when Europeans march in the streets, it's to protest government austerity.
They did a lot of that yesterday, in fact.
That's what a lot of American politicians worry about, too: that when (if) a Republican Congress starts making real cuts -- things along the lines of Paul Ryan's Roadmap, which entails cuts in Medicare, Social Security, and a lot of other fat entitlements -- the Tea Party might just....evaporate, with everyone retreating to their various interest-group corners.
That's what a lot of Republican Party types worry about, is what I told the group. That when it comes down to it, the people demanding a smaller government just aren't serious.
Or maybe, one Czech guest suggested, what they're worried about is that the voters really are serious.
It's an amazing contrast, though, from where I am right now: People in Europe, taking to the streets, demanding their government entitlements. People in the United States, taking to the streets, demanding the opposite.
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May '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
American exceptionalism....again.
Jul '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
"People in the United States, taking to the streets, demanding the opposite."
Well, for now. "Cut" them "entitlements" Here in the U.S. and I bet those on the receiving end will be in the streets; with the antiquated press there to tell Us how cruel We are. Those recipients have all the time in the world.
May '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
When public employees in Greece rioted to preserve their perks, the American press called them "anti-government."
Sep '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
When they decided to ignite Marfin Bank (because the employees had the nerve to ignore a general strike and try and work, thereby earning their paychecks), they actually killed a few employees.
Jul '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Don't worry Rob, the Congress will never dismantle the Entitlement State.
Jul '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Creating government dependency and you guarantee street theater at budget time.
Aug '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
I've lived in Europe, eastern and western, for many years, and it saddens me to say that a century of catastrophe and trauma have damaged them very badly, perhaps fatally.
All those countries - even England, where the roots of individual freedom grew and were nurtured - have succumbed to darkness; the assumption that government is a permanent parent that essentially owns you and owes you. Individuality and freedom wither away, along with religion, under that regime.
When Nietzsche declared that "God is dead", Marxist 'progressives' celebrated. We now see the fruits of that belief. Don't forget that Nietzsche blew his brains out later on.
America was a shining lighthouse for the world from its founding until recently. We've been under worldwide assault since the Soviet Union fell, but haven't fully recognized it. The lighthouse still stands, and the beacon shines, but it's flickering.
Sep '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
I soooo hope the Czech is right, or, the great American experiment is over.
Aug '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
I've lived overseas almost 20 years, and I've gotten to know quite a few expats from other lands. In my experience, it's hard to overstate the fundamental difference between the conservative American and general Euro views of The State. Even my friends from the UK sometimes find it hard to wrap their minds around the conscious, intentional rejection of government 'assistance' in many aspects of their lives (health care is the obvious example, but there are others). Most of them do not get the Tea Party at all . . . .
I think more hope in the short term for understanding comes from down under; more Aussies have a 'Don't Tread on Me' independence that resonates with ours.
Jun '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
I understand that Eurocrats in Brussels are planing to ban shoelaces. It's part of a program to reduce childhood trauma. Henceforth, all shoes will be manufactured with straps of velcro.
Next up: improving the French bidet. Why Europeans shouldn't be forced to clean their own . . .
Jun '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
The Euro-left has begun to understand that social democracy contains the seeds of its own distruction and we have the benefit of their experience.
However Nov 2nd turns out, the test for conservatives and tea-party Republicans will be to address the immense problems in health care, education, broken family structures, irrational immigration, and support of those no longer able to work in a way that enhances liberty and promotes growth.
Sure, sure. if Wilson and FDR hadn't yada, yada, yada, and if people had had to "root hog or die," we wouldn't have these issues, but we inarguably do
I don't see a passion for problem-solving coming from the right -- probably because we have real private sector jobs and don't see a federal fiefdom devoted to solving other people's problems as the high-point of our careers.
Still, cut my taxes and leave me alone can't be the response.
I would love to see a series of conversations on Ricochet on each of the above issues, with the contributer's defining the terms and with commenters challenged to offer solutions that could realistically resolve those problems, say within a generation.
Aug '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
It's obvious that runaway public spending has robbed the Czech people of the basic joys in life. The picture is evidence of a void that has occurred when they shut down the " People's Park"and the popular ride Raging Iron Curtains, a rustic wooden rollercoaster, which was enjoyed by all. The biggest thrill for the children was to try and stand up with arms thrust into the air, intensifying the stomach churning drops.
These reminiscing students shown in the picture sadden us with their gestures of long-lost fun in their protests against the state's cutbacks.
You can take away the food, but don't take the fun away from these once-resilient people.
Or it could have been too much Pilsner Urquell !
May '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Pilgrim, the right has been offering solutions to these problems for years. It's not a question of ideas, it's a question of political will. When you advance these ideas to "conservative" politicians in private they will tell you that they agree with them but are afraid they will be drawn and quartered by the press if they try it. And maybe if you spent 85% of your time in DC you still think that the Post, the Times and the three network news divisions rule the waves.
That's why the concerted efforts against FNC, talk radio and the internet. You can't control public opinion when the public is offered a alternate viewpoint.
Aug '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
EJHill
Pilgrim, the right has been offering solutions to these problems for years. It's not a question of ideas, it's a question of political will. When you advance these ideas to "conservative" politicians in private they will tell you that they agree with them but are afraid they will be drawn and quartered by the press if they try it. And maybe if you spent 85% of your time in DC you still think that the Post, the Times and the three network news divisions rule the waves....
So true. And what will change the political will in our direction? Dire necessity. We're seeing a reverse of the FDR/Depression scenario, where the nation will be forced to unwind the Statist-'progressive' apparatus. Or we'll perish.
Our condition is much like the old Soviet Union under Gorbachev and glaznost.
Sep '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Pilgrim:
I would love to see a series of conversations on Ricochet on each of the above issues, with the contributer's defining the terms and with commenters challenged to offer solutions that could realistically resolve those problems, say within a generation. · Sep 30 at 7:15am
Re the recommended 'series of conversations'. I've watched the first ten minutes or so of the Robinson interview of Berlinski. In it she says that somebody(?) put together for Thatcher a wiring diagram of the UK's thirty-year-ago problems. It showed the interconnectedness of the problems and how they would 'all' need to be attacked simultaneously. I wonder if we're not facing a similar situation.
Jun '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Patrick in Albuquerque
Re the recommended 'series of conversations'. I've watched the first ten minutes or so of the Robinson interview of Berlinski. In it she says that somebody(?) put together for Thatcher a wiring diagram of the UK's thirty-year-ago problems. It showed the interconnectedness of the problems and how they would 'all' need to be attacked simultaneously. I wonder if we're not facing a similar situation. · Sep 30 at 8:50am
It's not that complicated. 1) Put a hiring freeze on the federal government. Use the ways and means committee to chop away the funding supporting redundant agencies. 2) Bust the labor unions, especially those that support public employees. 3) Reduce the number of cabinet positions. The president by executive order could roll the duties of the Commerce Department (it's essentially a weather bureau) into the Interior Department. Veteran's Affairs could be folded into the Defense Department, etc, etc. 4) Bust the teacher's unions. The only job of the Dept. of Education should be to supervise a nationwide voucher program.
From me to the next congress. No charge.
May '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
If I had to eat European cooking every day, I'd feel like I deserved something more, too.
Jun '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Europe is so over, it's not worth the air to talk about it.
May '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
~Paules
It's not that complicated. 1) Put a hiring freeze on the federal government. Use the ways and means committee to chop away the funding supporting redundant agencies. 2) Bust the labor unions, especially those that support public employees. 3) Reduce the number of cabinet positions. The president by executive order could roll the duties of the Commerce Department (it's essentially a weather bureau) into the Interior Department. Veteran's Affairs could be folded into the Defense Department, etc, etc. 4) Bust the teacher's unions. The only job of the Dept. of Education should be to supervise a nationwide voucher program.
From me to the next congress. No charge. · Sep 30 at 9:05am
Where do I have to move so my kids can have you as a teacher Mr. Paules? Any chance you're up for some on-line tutoring?
Jun '10
Re: What Europe Needs is a Tea Party
Trace Urdan:
Where do I have to move so my kids can have you as a teacher Mr. Paules? Any chance you're up for some on-line tutoring?
Hey, Trace, if Ursula would give me a platform, say Sunday mornings @ 0900 Pacific, I would be willing to string up a weekly lesson for the edification and amusement of Ricochet readers. The religion quiz seemed to be popular. Why not?