The Reality Is That There Is No Difference Between Republican and Tea Party Candidates

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/26/reality-difference-republican-tea-party-candidates.html

The Reality Is That There Is No Difference Between Republican and Tea Party Candidates
By: Rmuse
Thursday, June, 26th, 2014, 1:06 pm


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What both extremists and establishment Republicans have an inordinate interest in is cutting all funding for social programs, ending regulations, and eliminating taxation. A couple of weeks ago a teabagger was giddy at the prospect of Republicans gaining a majority in the Senate because then “food stamps, minimum wage, Planned Parenthood, taxes, Medicare, women’s and gay rights, and education funding are going to be abolished.” The idea of eliminating those programs are not exclusive to extremists in the conservative movement and it is a mistake to think otherwise. In fact, any program administered by the federal government has been targeted by mainstream Republicans for ultimate elimination and if anyone thinks otherwise they only have to peruse the budget proposals from the Republican Conservative Committee and to a lesser extent Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget.

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It is high time for political pundits, and indeed all Americans, to stop segregating Republicans and teabaggers and call them what they really are; extremists intent on eliminating the federal government. It doesn’t matter if it is federal social programs, federal taxes, federal regulations, or the Constitution; Republicans of all stripes will go to any lengths to abolish the federal government’s authority to provide for the general welfare of the American people. In fact, in that sense, Republicans and their teabagger cohort are libertarians; except where civil rights and religion are involved. Both groups advocate for government interference in Americans’ lives according to the demands of the religious right, and each extremist wing hates civil rights protections for any American that is not a white male or evangelical Christian.

The danger in segregating establishment and extremist Republicans is that it gives so-called mainstream Republicans cover for policies and agendas that are contrary to the will of the people and result in negative polling. It is important to remember that everything teabaggers support has been deeply imbedded in the Republican Party and the racial opposition to President Obama enabled them to openly advocate for policies they have supported since FDR’s New Deal. Mainstream Republicans did not suddenly have the idea to abolish worker rights, minimum wage, Social Security, banking and Wall Street regulations, or child labor laws; they just found willing partners in the tea party to openly oppose those federal protections and would eliminate them tomorrow if they were able.

There may be “moderate” Republicans in Congress and state legislatures, but they are few and far between and for the most part are not what reasonable Americans would consider “moderate” at all. Republicans may appear moderate to garner electoral support during election years, but when it comes time to cast their votes, they are as extreme as the teabaggers and it is time to call the entire Republican Party what it really is; an anti-American and anti-government extremist sect.