In general terms, the Tea Party folk complain about government being too large, taxes too high, illegal immigrants too numerous, Wall Street too aggressive, regulations too lax, regulations too stringent, jobs too scarce, federal job stimulation too aggressive, health care too expensive, privatization too minimal, public options too threateningly dangerous, and President Obama too much at fault.
Vague, inconsistent, confusing and contradictory as these complaints are, the dearth of solutions is not surprising. Nor should we wonder at the illogic and simple-mindedness of what solutions are offered. Smaller government is, of course, the one general panacea that is put forward. How that is supposed to get us out of the deep recession and how it is to prevent sliding into another one the Tea Party folk do not explain.
During the first eight years of this century, the government has indeed given us all much about which to be disgruntled, and the slowness and scarcity, during the following two years, of change we could believe in has been frustrating.
So what advice is there for the Tea Party people to get them beyond impotent unhappiness and anger?
It would seem that the first thing to do is to seek rationally and honestly for the essential cause of our national malaise – so that their anger might attain a valid focus.
I suggest that this cause has more to do with the rise of corporate power than with anything else. As corporations increasingly gain power over our legislatures, our votes and our individuality, democracy dwindles and ultimately disappears.
The Tea Party adherents’ problem is that they do not realize or understand this basic cause of their furor. A removal of governmental controls has allowed the profit motive to go haywire — in the form of increased corporate takeover of the direction of our lives. Corporations do not govern; they control in order to maximize profits.
Jack London’s “White Fang” comes to mind as an analogy. As White Fang, a free wolf of the wild, experiences relentless victimization by a greedy, amoral system of domestication, he increasingly becomes vicious and vindictive himself. In his anger, he strikes blindly in all directions – retaliating against a victimization he cannot fathom.
The difference, of course, is that, as people, as American citizens, the Tea Party folk have access to a democratic system by which their victimization can yet be reversed if they will join with other patriots to revitalize democratic government in our country.
How might they proceed toward this end? First, and most urgently, they might insist that, as far as possible, all private money be kept out of the electoral process. Only then would a revival of at least a semblance of democracy be recovered.
Secondly, they might renounce the notion that government is the problem and work to oust the big money-grabbers (who use and oppress wage-earners), thus restoring good, regulatory government. This would mean insisting that our government cease to treat corporations as persons (which they are not) and begin to be treat them as things (which they are).
Finally, they might consider whether freedom may have more to do with cooperation than with mere self-interest.
Roland A. Duerksen is a resident of Oxford and a Miami University professor emeritus.