The Tea Party and Young Vampires

In the spring of 1989 my oldest daughter had been accepted by Indiana University and I was broke and in debt.  I was the only income in the house and the outgo was outstripping the income even before we figured in the cost of college.  While I was alternately angry, frightened, worried and discouraged about this situation, ultimately I realized that I had to do two things, bring in more money and cut back an already Spartan budget even more.  I used my master’s degree in economics to start teaching night classes at the local community college. There were no vacations; no new electronics; not a purse, not a coat, not a pair of shoes bought in that house.  It took a decade to climb out of this financial pit.  But it happened.

Every family that has had to deal with economic hardship knows this formula.  You have to spend less—and it hurts.  You and the people you love have to do without.  But it is for the greater good.  And you have to find some way, some how, to get more money—legally.  And it is for the greater good.   This is so basic it is almost too obvious.  It seems to me that our Congress should be able to see the same reality.  Instead they are staging a pissing contest so superficial and self-serving that we are appalling our friends and delighting our enemies--the ratio of which is about 1:30 by the way.  

            I feel the root cause of all of this discord is Stephanie Meyers.  She wrote the Twilight series of novels about vegetarian vampires who are under siege from vampires who want traditional vampire values.  Traditional vampires want to kill humans by sucking them dry (which is what Democrats feel about successful business people).   Our vegetarian vampires want to live at peace with everyone while simply being left alone to enjoy whatever vampire-like existence they choose (much like Americans in general).   But complicating things to the max are an army of young vampires.  Young vampires are undisciplined, emotional and ready to kill everything, including each other.  Enter the Tea Party.  New to the game, new to the town, and obeying only one overpowering and all consuming instinct: kill anyone who isn’t one of us.  Never mind that by killing indiscriminately they will bring down the wrath of the entire world on top of them, and assure their own destruction in the process.  Young Vampires don’t care.  Yup, that’s the Tea Party. 

            Now let me explain.  I like what motivated the Tea Party.  As a nation we have been living beyond our means and counting on anybody else to solve our problems, blaming everyone else for our failures.  The Tea Party was this nation’s much needed fiscal intervention.  But they are definitely young vampires who need discipline.  This is a nation rooted in compromise, not naked aggression.   I propose three things:
1.      President Obama needs to grab the Presidential huevos and use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling.  I’ve read this Amendment.  It will work. 
2.      Every Congressman needs to make a private list of six ways they could cut the budget and four ways they could raise revenue and then sit down and get to work. 
3.      The voters need to decide that no matter how much it hurts, that all of use voted for the people who got us into this and we are going to have to vote for the people with the guts to get us out.  Anyone who proposes a change that won’t hurt us personally is lying to us.  

Stay strong. Keep the faith. 

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