Thursday, September 29, 2011

Bad Intentions!

What are these Republican revolutionaries doing that Dems find so divisive and dangerous?
Best I can tell, their major offense is holding Washington accountable. Listen to them, as I did on Mackinac Island last week during the Republican Leadership Conference, and the only demand you hear is that politicians stop mortgaging America's future to reckless spending and swelling deficits.
All they want is for politicians to finally do what both Democrats and Republicans always said they'd do — make the government live within its means — but never got around to doing until the tea party forced their hand.
In other words, the tea party is the adult in a roomful of overindulged children who resent the call to accountability. How much greater would the debt be today, how much larger the deficit, if the tea party hadn't shouted, "Enough!"
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110929/OPINION03/109290333/Tea-party-gets-bad-rap-for-telling-truth#ixzz1ZMz9QVPi

This author puts his finger on the point - you cannot demonize what the Tea Partiers are asking the government not to do, so that only leaves one avenue for attack - intentions.  I gets back to what I first heard Steven Covey say:  "We judge ourselves by our intentions and we judge others by their actions."  In general, we project our own good intentions onto the political actors that we identify with, and we project bad intentions on those who advocate against our political actors.  What other possible explanation is there for politicians like Ted Kennedy?  Or Bill Clinton?  Clearly, their actions were unacceptable by many if not most - but their advocates saw a man with "good intentions."  

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