Blind Liberalism versus Bullying Conservatism

As a last semester senior at an all women’s school, I feel that I could have written the book on liberal ideals. A product of my environment and life choices, growing up first in Providence, RI and then moving to Boston, has made a liberal (at least socially) bird out of me. But moving to an overwhelmingly liberal area, at least within my age demographic, has taught me one thing – and that is just because something is liberal does not mean it is good, and just because something is conservative does not mean it is bad. What is bad is blind belief.

The Tea Party, in essence, makes a bit of sense. Although I have heard about this organization more and more often, I went to their website and straight to the “About Us” section. The Tea Party is based on three core ideals: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets. I thought, hey okay not all bad. Maybe we need a little fiscal responsibility as the United States is accumulating debt at so rapid a speed that my grandchildren will be paying for it. Constitutionally limited government has some merit as well. I personally do not want the government anywhere near my body, whatever I chose to do with it. And lastly, free markets. Criticize as you will, but eventually, people will stop believing in the “American Dream” of having nothing to having everything.

Next, I went straight to the Coffee Party page “About Us” section. Formulated from a rejection of Tea Party beliefs, the Coffee Party takes a hands-off approach. The Coffee Party also has three basic ideals: diversity, lack of formality or pyramid approach, and democracy. Basically, they want to get together in small groups from all different walks of life, and make decisions without the handholding and pushiness of lobbyists and paid advertisements. Anytime where people get together and vocalize a thought without beating the stuffing out of each other spells productivity.

But the pudding was on the main pages of both of these sites. I was feeling the message of the Tea Party…until I watched their videos. There were all these weird anti-Obama videos set to songs, just mixing the words “Tax,” and “Spending.” They probably think integrating YouTube will appeal to my generation. And sure, it might, but not exactly the kind of support you want, people who are humming mud slinging remixes.

So then I popped on over to the Coffee Party website. There was something soothing about their blog posts, talking about acceptance and getting along over coffee and talking about what matters. Like stepping into a warm bath that feels just right….Wait A Second! This is supposed to be about social change! Change does not happen over coffee! There needs to be perseverance and sureness of footing. We cannot assume that everyone (or anyone) is going to listen to social change posters uploaded onto Flickr.

The Coffee Party needs to put on her big girl pants and the Tea Party needs to stop going for low blows that make them look like the biggest kid in the playground. I bet Kermit the Frog would have an answer for this.