Liberals struggle with Tea Party reality
By Paul A. Ibbetson
web posted April 25, 2011
So where does the Tea Party stand today? If you ask that question in different locations you are going to get many different answers. If you listen to lefties such as columnist Ted Reinstein, you will hear that the Tea Party is a dying dinosaur suffering from what he describes as the terminal illness of being uncompromising. Reinstein blames the recent slow budget compromise on unbending Tea Party-supported Republicans who he asserts would destroy the country to get their way. Of course he also portrayed the GOP's original $100 billion budget cut proposal as "devastating." Who is living in reality here? Reinstein repeats the same mantra often chanted by liberals that the political right can only be "right" when they act like the left. The Tea Party and their candidate's refusal to break from conservative values in exchange for liberals' acceptance continue to be a painful and puzzling enigma to the left. This has brought about many false descriptions.
Back in 2009 liberals like Nancy Pelosi erroneously described the Tea Party as "AstroTurf" and said that attendees were funded by the "high end" with the organization being heavily influenced by the Republican Party. Since that time, Tea Party voters have often voted against liberal Republicans with decent results. Time has made it easy to see that Pelosi was wrong in her "AstroTurf" assessment of the Tea Party but was she wrong because she was attempting to deceive the public or because liberals can't seem to truly fathom everyday people that champion controlled spending, an adherence to the Constitution and traditional American values? To be fair to Pelosi, Reinstein and other liberals, it's a hefty amount of both.
Nancy Pelosi has been going through her own harsh struggle with reality recently; remember, she use to be Speaker of the House until the "AstroTurf" rose up and voted Republicans into power and herself off the top spot in the House of Representatives. It's not just liberals in the Democrat Party that are having a hard time understanding the reality of the Tea Party; it's also the liberals in the Republican Party. As Tea Party groups form and swell their numbers in anticipation of the 2012 elections, there are some long-standing RINOs (Republicans in name only) that are about to get a wake-up call. Republicans such as Richard Lugar of Indiana are going to be challenged by the Tea Party voting bloc. As documented by national affairs writer Tom Curry, the conservative-minded Tea Party is in opposition of Lugar who co-sponsored the DREAM Act, supported the reduction of America's nuclear defense in the START treaty and was one of a handful of Republicans that supported Obama's liberal judges Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Lugar will be one of several liberal Republicans that Tea Party voters will attempt to "send out to pasture."
As of this moment liberals by and large are still in Tea Party denial. They hate these Americans for being conservative, but the hard realization that likeminded conservatives greatly outnumber them and are coming to the polls to defeat their liberal ideology and send their banner carriers home has not fully come to reality. But it will. The realization of a major conservative push toward 2012 will be seen first at the local level. In Kansas, the recent Tea Party rally in Manhattan saw gay rights activists protest the event in the aftermath of a major city election in which conservatives won a majority. This local conservative victory, brought to fruition in part by Tea Party voters, now threatens the continuance of the recent, most far-reaching homosexual ordinance in the state's history. These local political victories by conservatives across the nation are a validation of conservative voting blocs such as the Tea Party, and a precursor of major victories to come. The pendulum is swinging to the right but with more than the force of gravity. Conservatives are fed up and they are organizing locally and nationally to take back the country. Liberals will soon be unable to escape this reality. 
Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his Ph.D. in Sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the several books including the 2010 release, "Oliver's Tale: A Squirrel's Story of Love, Courage, and Revolution." Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association's 2008, 2009 and 2010 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 FM. For interviews or questions, please contact him at mibbetson91.9@gmail.com.