by James Pate

Created on: October 13, 2010

The Tea Party movement is bad for America for at least two reasons.

First, the Tea Party movement lowers the standard of political discourse.  Saying that the federal government does many things inefficiently is one thing; likening Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler is something else entirely.  If Barack Obama is like Adolf Hitler, then what does that entail, in the eyes of the Tea Party activists who hold up signs with that sort of message?  Are there Tea Party activists who support armed revolution, and that's why there are Tea Partiers who show up at rallies with guns, or who carry signs that talk about the tree of liberty being watered with the blood of tyrants?  I am sure that there are well-intentioned Tea Party activists who choose to work within the political process, but demonizing Barack Obama by likening him to Hitler is not a good move.  It can encourage violence and stifle a diplomatic discussion of ideas.  But there are plenty of Tea Partiers who aren't open to a free and reasonable exchange of ideas.  Like the leftist movements of the 1960's-1970's, they love to shout people down and display gross disrespect to our elected officials.  As a case-in-point, witness the rude behavior of rightists at health care forums throughout America! 

During the 2008 Presidential election, I was dismayed by the hatred towards Barack Obama shown by people on the right, as right-wingers accused him of being a Muslim, or alleged that he was not born in the United States, or called him the Antichrist, or just talked like he was a rotten human being without the slightest shred of decency within him.  I was hoping that such hatred would wind down after Obama's election as President.  But it didn't.  It reared its ugly head again-in the Tea Party movement. 

People who like to make everything into a "Left vs. Right" debate will probably ask me if I criticized the Left for its hatred of President Bush.  My answer to that is "yes."  But does that even matter?  If the Right thinks that the Left was overly hateful in its criticism of President Bush, then it should set a higher standard for itself in its criticism of President Obama.  Right-wingers shouldn't express hatred of President Obama, and justify it by saying that the Left was hateful towards President Bush.  Two wrongs don't make a right.

Second, I fear that the Tea Party movement, if successful, will

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