The Tea Party Republicans have won the off-year election. The House and the Senate are in Republican hands. Well, okay, it’s true that the voters have not spoken yet, but that has not stopped Republicans, pollsters, and the Washington elites from hailing the new era.
Alas, I see snakes in the Tea Party’s Eden. Its members are being played, like foolish rubes and codgers, by the slick beltway Republicans, and seem doomed to crushing disappointment in the coming years.
For proof, look no further than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that big marble temple across the street from the White House, which Glenn Beck and other TPR champions have been hailing as a wonderful defender of the good old America that existed before the evil elites hollowed out the industrial base, stole our money to bail out Wall Street insiders, and allowed those awful immigrants to wreak havoc on our culture.
Because the Chamber is in a squirting match with President Obama over whether its secret donors represent foreign interests, the TPR types have rallied to its defense. After all, as any good Islamic terrorist will tell you: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
But have Beck and the others looked at what the chamber stands for? Have any of you read the policy priorities on its Web site?
Let’s take, for a start, the issue of immigration. Surely the chamber wants to ship all those shady dark-skinned moochers back home.
Well, no.
The chamber promises to use the Republican Congress to “push for comprehensive immigration reform” with an “earned pathway to legalization for undocumented workers already contributing to our economy” and a “guest or essential worker program to fill the growing gaps in America's workforce.”
Geez. Do Glenn and Rush know this? Last time I looked, the only growing gap in the U.S. workforce was the gap in the number of jobs for American citizens.
Okay, you say. But surely the chamber is on our side at putting Americans to work here in the good old U.S. of A. The chamber means business and business means jobs. It surely realizes the effect on our communities of plant closings caused by Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and other foreign competition.
Well, um, actually the chamber supports new trade talks toward “a commercially meaningful Doha Round agreement” and some more of those NAFTA-like trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama and “investment treaties with China, India, and Vietnam” and the welcoming of Russia to the World Trade Organization. Sounds like the chamber is a little more interested in Wall Street than Main Street to me. Kind of explains the foreign donors, eh?
All right. But surely any sworn foe of Obama, like the chamber, must be on our side when it comes to punishing those wealthy chiselers in the security industry.
Yikes. According to the chamber Web site, it’s for all sorts of Wall Street plums--like “customized OTC derivatives at a reasonable price and without the burden of margin requirements” and a continuation of the big bonus system for Wall Street executives, “which promotes long-term shareholder value and profitability” and “does not constrain reasonable risk taking.”
It’s sad, you know. All those good-hearted patriotic Americans, persuaded by the Fox elites that their country is in danger--and being suckered into an alliance with the very group that got us here.
- Check out our editorial cartoons on the Tea Party.
- See which members of Congress get the most in campaign donations from the finance and credit industries.
- See photos of Glenn Beck's D.C. rally.
Reader Comments Read all comments (13)
Jack Golding of KS 4:29PM October 22, 2010
HopeforAmerica of WA 3:20PM October 22, 2010
Colette of SC 11:31AM October 22, 2010