Tea Party Movement Conservatism (#141777)
by Ernie Lazar on March 12, 2010 at 2:08 PM

Tea Party movement conservatism has its roots in the viewpoints first espoused by Alfred Jay Nock is his 1935 book, "Our Enemy: The State".

For a very long time, the extreme right in our country has sought to re-invent our understanding of what a political spectrum should signify or convey.

The fundamental underlying premise of their new proposed spectrum is that government is our mortal enemy. Furthermore, they contend that history proves indisputably that government is evil and dangerous and it always diminishes freedom and facilitates tyranny.

Therefore, the more government activism or intervention within a society -- the less freedom exists within society.

This conception of a political spectrum posits a continuous sequence of government activist ideologies (i.e. “statism” or “collectivism”) in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other.

Consequently, the new proposed spectrum places anarchy [no government] on the extreme right and totalitarian dictatorships [total government] on the extreme left. But the key to understanding this proposed spectrum is that all forms of statism are placed on the left because they are considered exclusively the result of left-wing sentiments and impulses.

Seen from this perspective, the more government involvement in our lives, the more that government controls or regulates human affairs, the less freedom exists and the more opportunity for tyranny to flourish.

Since the worst violators of human freedom and dignity in all of history have been those governments which maximized government intervention, i.e. totalitarian dictatorships, advocates of this spectrum don’t see much point in distinguishing between nazi, fascist, or communist ideology since they ALL resulted in horrific crimes against humanity.

The new "middle" or "center" of the proposed new political spectrum consists of those who consider liberalism, socialism, progressivism, communism, fascism, and nazism to be forms of "collectivism" or "statism" (aka PRO-government activism). ALL of them are thought to inevitably produce or lead toward tyranny – so not much point in making fastidious distinctions between or among them.

Groups whose ideology we currently consider “extreme right” (such as the John Birch Society) place themselves in the CENTER of the new spectrum because they claim to be ANTI-statist since they favor "limited government".

In essence, the new spectrum is a rather transparent attempt to pretend that everything despicable, dishonorable, frightening and dangerous originates exclusively from the LEFT side of the spectrum whereas everything decent, honorable, moral, and desirable may be found exclusively in the center and center-right side of the spectrum.

Thus the REAL purpose behind this proposed new idea of a political spectrum is to create an “enemies list”. Collectivists/statists of all kinds (i.e. anyone who advocates utilizing the instrumentalities of government to accomplish anything within society) are considered “the enemy” of human freedom.

Individuals/groups which subscribe to this political spectrum are very hostile toward current "establishment Republicans" such as George Bush, Rudy Guiliani, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, etc. because these guys are considered facilitators of "big government" while they PRETEND to subscribe to Constitutional limitations upon government activism. For example, Bush II, is excoriated for the Patriot Act, the new Medicare drug entitlement, "globalism" and undeclared wars.

During the 1950's, there was an equivalent movement that reviled President Eisenhower. Not normally remembered now -- but there was a protest during the 1950's against the Eisenhower Administration which also utilized tea bags -- sort of the precursor to the current Tea Party Movement.

At that time also -- there were numerous complaints about how "socialism" was being introduced into the U.S.

The 8/20/54 Congressional Record includes a speech by Tennessee Congressman B. Carroll Reece in which he explains how he became interested in investigating the subject of tax exempt foundations.

Reece begins by referring to 3 categories of information he discovered during his service on a previous committee [the Cox committee] which investigated tax-exempt foundations.

Quoting Reece:
"The first pointed to Communist or Communist sympathizer infiltration into the foundations; the second pointed to a much broader condition, namely, foundation support of Fabian socialism in America; and the third pointed to the financial aspect of the foundations."

Reece then explained what he meant by "Fabian socialism":

"Fabian socialism is not communism: it is a technique of nonviolent revolution by the consent of a duped propagandized population. It is the technique that brought socialism to Great Britain. In the United States, Fabian socialism has taken the name 'New Deal' and 'Fair Deal'. Of this there can be no doubt...Parenthetically, I want to say a brief word to those Americans who approve of the New Deal-Fair Deal-Fabian revolution, and therefore might call this investigation a tempest in a teapot. It is their privilege to do so, but it is my privilege to oppose this overt subversion of traditional American ideals...Although the Cox committee was not looking for Fabian socialism, the evidence presented before it disclosed to me what might be an important clue to the location of the nerve center of subversion in America--the left wing intellectuals whose prestige and influence seemed to be the product of the tax-exempt foundation grants. I therefore suggested to the Congress that the investigation be extended."

Contemporary news reports and editorials about the Reece Committee refer to it as an attack upon the Eisenhower Administration by 1950's disgruntled conservatives who were furious with Eisenhower because they had expected him to dismantle the FDR-New Deal and Truman-Fair Deal brick-by-brick and, thus, erase that entire era of Democratic activism and dominance from our country's history.

Notice, too, Reece's thinly-veiled contempt for intellectuals and their supposed association with "subversion" (a common theme in conspiracy arguments).

Today, this all probably seems quite bizarre to most Americans because very few of us want to repeal Social Security, unemployment insurance, workmen's compensation, or a host of other FDR-Truman programs and even fewer of us would accept the notion that such ideas or programs amount to "Fabian socialism" subverting our "traditional American ideals".