[quote=ucodegen]It starts getting hard to believe what the main-stream-media is saying, particularly when they omit one very important aspect on the S&P downgrade. This is the ability of congress to get it’s spending in order and cut the debt. Of particular concern was the growth in entitlement costs and inability for congress to reign in those costs.[/quote]

Sorry, ucodegen, but if that juvenile demonstration of digging in their heels and refusing to compromise is their chosen method (or worse, the only thing they know to do, which I suspect is the case) to get Congress to get its spending in order and cut the debt, they shouldn’t go around bragging about it.

That’s simply too uncomfortably similar to a two-year-old screaming and stamping his feet until his parents give him a cookie.

[quote=ucodegen] Of particular concern was the growth in entitlement costs and inability for congress to reign in those costs. Entitlement costs are one of the things that the “Tea Party”ers were pointing out. [/quote]

So I keep hearing. However, the Tea Party appears to be rather selective about which entitlements are reined in. That doesn’t sound like people who are concerned about their constituents and about the nation’s debt. It sounds more like individuals who are concerned about their friends and their campaign contributors.

[quote=ucodegen] The “Tea Party” group needs to find out exactly what they want to have as their position and shed the extreme elements. This will help them to keep on target. [/quote]

Whether or not they rid themselves of extreme elements, they should have established them selves as a true “party” well before this. As far as I’m concerned, their unwillingness to do this made it easier for them to change positions at will, and also to blame “uncomfortable” statements and situations on “rogue” elements that “aren’t really part of the Tea Party”.

Let me get this straight: I’m supposed to vote for the Tea Party candidate, but the Tea Party has no official goals, philosophy, officers, organization, offices, budget, etc.?

[quote=ucodegen]Both the Republicans and Democrats want the “Tea Party” to be represented as far extreme because it keeps everyone distracted from the lack of representation that the existing mainstream parties have presented to the American citizenry.[/quote]

I find it difficult to believe that the Republicans want to represent the Tea Party as “extreme”, given the way in which they totally sucked up to them a few months back. When, exactly, did the attitude change from “desirable” to “extreme”?

I’m not so worried about the Tea party approach being extreme as I am concerned about their simplistic approach to problematic issues. I find their discussions of problems and solutions shockingly one-dimensional. They appear to lack any capacity for detailed analysis and critical thinking.

I am also concerned about what I see as duplicity. They are monotonous in their repetition of the Tea Party tenets, which on paper don’t seem all that bad. But not only do I not believe that their education and skills are up to the job they are proposing, I think their intent may be a bit skewed. Once they took office in January, they immediately focused their attention on ideological targets that didn’t count for piss, budget-wise.