Up until now, I had looked upon the Tea Party as libertarians who had been led to believe that affiliation with the Republican Party was an avenue for affecting change in government, to shift it in a more libertarian direction.
In theory, I believe in a lot of the same talking points as they do: lower taxes, curtailed spending, less interference in the lives of everyday citizens by government bureaucracy, etc. Yes, there was the occasional near-racist rant here and there, a smattering of homophobic nonsense, but nothing that I hadn't heard before regardless of the offender's political leanings (yes, even liberals).
Recent events, however, have highlighted the hypocrisy and lack of true principles in the Tea Party movement. I have watched as bullshit in Washington, ignited by these asshats, has put a ridiculous burden and strain on people just trying to work and live their lives. Yes, I still firmly believe that mainline Democrats and Republicans are guilty of both creating an environment where something as insidious as the Tea Party can take root, as well as amplifying and prolonging the pain that the Tea Party started, but the Tea Party and their pseudo-libertarian shitserving are the root cause.
I've also seen so-called "limited government" Republicans use the very government largesse and overreach that they abhor to prosecute a dear friend of mine for an extremely minor series of pranks from four fucking years ago, resulting in a federal prison term and ridiculously exorbitant restitution being levied on a family man who is having enough of a hard time getting by, and for what? The online equivalent of toilet papering a house.
I've seen the appropriation of the "libertarian" moniker by people who wouldn't have the slightest clue what a libertarian is if Frederick Bastiat himself was standing in front of them.
If you consider yourself part of the Tea Party movement, save me the trouble and remove yourself from my friends list. You useless, slimy sacks of shit are not promoting personal liberty. You're not libertarian. You're bigoted, homophobic, religio-elitist intellectually lazy slobs with no concept about what freedom is. Those of us who actually are libertarian don't see "killing taxes" as a goal in itself. It's a part of a much bigger whole. You see, libertarians have a couple things you have no concept of:
1. Compassion: While we don't agree with the notion of government coercion in order to help the poor and needy, we still recognize the need and moral imperative for giving them the tools necessary to elevate themselves into a better situation. You idiots would rather leave them out in the cold.
2. An actual idea of what freedom is. Freedom is unfettered by your fool notions that your morality defines the boundaries of freedom. The limits of freedom only exist insomuch as it starts to interfere with those same freedoms of others. Religion, philosophy, and spirituality (or lack thereof) are yours and yours alone. Your expectation that others should live up to your personally chosen code is the antithesis of liberty.
3. Respect. A libertarian recognizes and respects the intrinsic value in other human beings. A person is not "less than" simply because he or she doesn't conform to our personal standards of acceptable behavior. Homosexual? Minority? Pagan? Atheist? Muslim? Punker? Farmer? Factory worker? Who cares? It's not your place to enforce your personal morality in others.
No, Tea Party members, you're not even a little bit libertarian. You're a detriment to the liberty movement and harm the notion that we can live in peace with others inside and outside our own borders without government intervention. Stop trying to hijack the descriptor, and stop working so hard to prove the other side right, because you're the only reasons they have ammunition to use against us. Now, kindly, fuck off.
