talon | Coffee, Tea, Or

Presumably, the "Tea Party" has the goals of fiscal responsibility, a constitutionally limited government, and free markets. It all sounds good, but then, most of its members of it have spent a long time twisting words to mean something totally different or following those who twist the words. I live in a state that has embraced the Tea Party and they spew the same nasty, dirty, mean-spirited rhetoric that they spewed when they were just Republicans. I find it odd that most of the people who are embracing the Tea Party are Republicans who claim they are not pleased with the way the Republican Party is playing out - and yet they are essentially saying the same things in as angry and vile a manner as the very Republicans from whom they say they are distancing themselves.

I really like the written statements about themselves and if that's all I had to go on, I'd seriously consider their platform.

Unfortunately, I know too many "Tea Party" members locally and I want to stay as far from them as I can. I don't want to listen to them deliberately mangle Obama's name, crack jokes about watermelons, make monkey noises when talking about Obama's speeches, and perpetuating ugliness and anger. I don't always agree with Obama - less so as he tries to please everyone - but I would never disrespect the office of the President of the United States in the way the local Tea Party members do. They have no manners and appear to be every bit as bad as the worst of the Republicans.

Of course, living is such a heavily Republican/Tea party state, I haven't met any Coffee Party members. Their website isn't as well-structured as the Tea Party's and it's certainly not user-friendly, what with needing multiple passwords to do things on it (at least 3). It seems to be more about the donations than the actions and philosophy if one goes strictly by their website. Its Mission Statement isn't as well-defined as the Tea Party's either. It seems to be saying it wants cooperation between the government and the governed, which is a pretty poor way of securing the cooperation they claim to want. I think the Coffee Party needs some good linguists to help them write their Mission Statement. It's sloppy.

So I dislike both the Coffee Party (for its ineptitude and sloppiness) and the Tea Party (for its ugly meanness).

I don't like Republicans and Democrats because they're just the decaf versions of the Tea and Coffee Parties.

I don't the MoveOn party because it feels like being herded without any consideration for my voice. It's bodies and numbers, and the leadership knows best, and how is that different from what we already have?

I want a Multiple Choice Party, one where people aren't locked out because their party isn't the one in power. One where they get to vote regardless of the candidate's party affiliation. In Oklahoma, if you're not registered as a Democrat or a Republican, you don't get to vote in many elections. I think if we're choosing someone as important as the person who will be running for president, then every eligible voter gets to vote regardless of the sponsoring party.

I want our politicians to remember they are our employees and were hired (voted in) to speak as our voice (not for us, with us) and do the job for which we selected them.

Our job as citizens didn't end with the election, it continues as we make sure the elected employees do the job right, without being bribed by lobbyists, big businesses, or other things.

I want a government that operates - not transparently, because I know all to well how you can hide important information in a mountain of information - intelligibly, with the important information extracted out and offerd in plain English and not legalese.

I really dislike that so many of our politicians were lawyers, it predisposes them to think in loopholes and circles and obfuscations, where they make work where there doesn't have to be any. I dislike that our politicians feel they have to introduce bill after bill after bill every single session, and add riders to other people's bills and so on. I dislike that so very many bills introduced are so similar to one another that it seems as if the serial numbers of previous bills have simply been filed off and its been resubmitted.

Our politicians' job isn't to create more laws, it's to keep our country functioning with the lightest touch instead of the heavy whip.

Maybe what we need is a Supervisors Party.