It’s Time for Them to Go

The Tea Party began in the US as a result of Barrack Obama and his election in 2008. Obama inherited one of the worst economies since the Great Depression and took swift steps to help alleviate the collapse of the housing market. Some conservative members of Congress thought this to be outrageous and organized themselves around the principals of smaller government, lower taxes and less government regulation and interference in economic matters. But being republicans, they couldn’t stop there. The Tea Party had little formal structure and a decentralized leadership which led to fracturing of this group. One of the most dangerous offshoots of the Tea Party is known as The House Freedom Caucus. The Freedom Caucus, as they are known, boasts about 40 members currently and has been the bane of existence for Democrats and Republicans alike. The Freedom Caucus began after the 2014 mid-term elections because, I guess, Tea Partiers were not conservative enough. Freedom Caucus members believe in the fiscal policies associated with the Tea Party and they oppose many of the social issues they think are destroying this country. The stated goal of the caucus is to push the Republican party and more specifically the Republican leadership further to the right and vest more power in the rank and file House members.

In a Freedom Caucus America, abortion would be illegal, planned parenthood would be completely de-funded, marijuana possession would be punishable with the harshest of sentences, same sex marriages would be outlawed as would be interracial marriages, corporate greed would be allowed to run amok and there would be no such thing as any sensible gun control in the US. The difference in these right wing nut jobs as opposed to other right wing nut jobs is the fact that without them, the Republican majority in the house becomes the minority. As a result, The Freedom Caucus wields way too much power in the House of Representatives. If things aren’t going their way, they play games with House rules and try to obstruct anything that they don’t agree with. They were instrumental in the ouster of speaker John Boehner because (gasp) he wanted to work with House Democrats to actually get something done. Now we hear that The Freedom Caucus has perhaps turned against Speaker Paul Ryan and plan to not support him for Speaker if the Republicans should maintain control of the House. From this outsider’s view, the Freedom caucus is a bunch of children who want what they want and other points of view are not tolerated.

I am surprised that someone has not yet started a super PAC to specifically target Freedom Caucus members this fall. That’s a PAC I would gladly contribute to. The so called Freedom Caucus is bad for government and bad for America. The government works only when elected representatives listen to one another and are able to reach some kind of compromise. Freedom Caucus members seem to be more interested in winning and losing than in good responsible government. To quote Al Gore from his 1992 Convention speech, “it’s time for them to go”.

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