I’m generally sympathetic to the ideals of the tea party movement when they are boiled down to their small-government, self-reliance basics.<\/p>\n
The idea of proceeding very cautiously with any intervention of the government in our personal lives strikes me as a good principle, wired directly into the founding principles of our democracy.<\/p>\n
Polls regularly show that about two-thirds of Americans are willing to give this philosophical approach to government a try, with some basic caveats.<\/p>\n
And a smaller, but still significant pool of voters — roughly a third — are downright furious over the expansion of the Federal government’s power and its over-sized debt.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to my basic question:<\/p>\n
With that large a pool of potential supporters, why can’t the tea party find a better slate of candidates?<\/p>\n
Here in New York state, Carl Paladino has demonstrated repeatedly that his ability to talk about real issues is limited at best.<\/p>\n
He spends half his time trying to explain away his latest rhetorical gaffe, or accusing the media of favoritism.<\/p>\n
It’s not just that Paladino is losing badly at the polls; it’s that he is clearly temperamentally and intellectually unsuited to the task of running America’s third largest state.<\/p>\n
Then there is Sharron Angle in Nevada, who has views so muddled and contradictory that it’s difficult to sort out what she stands for, other than her occasional hint that a revolution might be in order if she’s not elected.<\/p>\n
Then there is Joe Miller from Alaska, the arch-libertarian who turns out to have taken advantage of nearly every government program — from unemployment benefits to farm subsidies — that he now derides.<\/p>\n
Then there is Christine O’Donnell, whose own campaign advertisements have focused on her heartfelt argument that no, in fact, she is “not a witch.”<\/p>\n
Did we mention tea party House candidate Rich Iott who, it turns out, took up Nazi SS re-enacting as a hobby?<\/p>\n
And then there’s Dan Maes, the tea party-backed GOP candidate running for the governorship in Colorado, who claimed that a bike-sharing project was aimed at “converting Denver into a United Nations community.”<\/p>\n
And what about Sarah Palin, a woman whose political resume is marred by her decision to quit the governorship of Alaska, and whose public life has become, quite literally, the stuff of reality television shows?<\/p>\n
Again, the point here isn’t that some of these candidate are unelectable. In fact, many of them might very well squeak into office.<\/p>\n
The larger point is that the tea party movement needs to evolve a better system for vetting and testing its candidates.<\/p>\n
Currently, the movement operates largely as a collective counter-punch, attacking Democrats and moderate Republicans with gusto, embracing anyone who can give the Big Guys a black eye.<\/p>\n
But beating the guy (or gal) you dislike is only half the fight.<\/p>\n
The other half is finding honorable, qualified, and competent people who can express their views, debate in a civil way, and work effectively in Washington.<\/p>\n
Yes, obviously, the mainstream parties screw this up sometimes, too.\u00a0\u00a0 There are some bone-headed candidates running as “Ds” or as establishment “Rs” this year.<\/p>\n
But this issue has become the Achilles heel of the Tea Party.<\/p>\n
To succeed long-term, the movement has to find credible, thoughtful leaders — people who can be angry and productive at the same time.<\/p>\n
Who knows? With a little work and patience, maybe tea partiers will find their equivalent of Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama, someone who can take the movement to the next level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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