Elmer Said:

Why do Tea Parties get much different media scrutiny than Unions?

We Answered:

I don't think they do. It seem like they get a pass especially from Fix Noiz for their bad behavior. If you a person who likes racial slurs, jokes, signs and hate, I guess the tea party movement is for you. Fix practically endorse the tea party but they're suppose to be fair and balance. Faux is an 24-7 infomercial for the GOP. ?

Deanna Said:

Now that Rand Paul has demonstrated clearly the limits of Libertarian/Tea Party thinking...what's next?

We Answered:

I don't see how Republicans think that Libertarianism is the way out of their morass.

Libertarianism is kooky. Sure, it has things that I like, that you like, that my dog likes (no leash laws?), but all in all people realize that it is kooky. That's why libertarian candidates never win anything and have generally fallen out of favor since, say, the 19th century (if that).

The real problem with Libertarianism is that encourages corporate fraud and harm by freeing it from the regulations of government. You can see this when regulations are lax, the country goes to hell - such as financial deregulation, oil safety deregulation etc.... In this limited way, we can see the 'seeds' of libertarianism all around us. Where a farmer hires an illegal and doesn't give him bathroom breaks, where a meat packer has too many rat hairs in his hamburger, where Bush frees BP from having an acoustic shut off valve in it's coastal oil drilling. And it's you and I - we throw away plastic bottles creating the 30,000 mile garbage patch in the pacific ocean; we step on the gas of our SUV and send a child with asthma in LA county to the Hospital; we buy Bananas from companies that shoot union members in far away places. The Free market corporate power is real, dangerous and needs much more regulation, not less.

Clarence Said:

Do you see any change in the role of the Tea Party in January 2011?

We Answered:

I submit that the role of the Tea Party has for all practical purposes already changed with the Republican takeover of the House in the midterm elections earlier this month. What this means, given that a substantial number of the incoming Republican freshmen were Tea Party backed (and various members of the Republican establishment are not overly sympathetic to the Tea Party's goals), is that now the Tea Party has a foot in the door in Washington come January 2011. After the swearing in ceremonies in January 2011 do nothing more than formalize a preexisting political reality, the Tea Party's role will be threefold:

1. Providing support (and, when necessary, criticism) of successful candidates it backed in the 2010 midterms

2. Continuing with unflinching opposition to the policies of President Obama and his political allies that serve to bring to the American public ever more government spending, taxation and control

3. Continuing to challenge the forces within the Republican party establishment that are trying in vain to make themselves more liked by the "mainstream" media by advocating decidedly non-conservative or Democrat-lite-type policies

Before the 2010 election, the Tea Party was the most powerful grassroots opposition group to President Obama's agendas and policies. That role was relatively easy. Applying a three pronged strategy of the sort I have hinted at above is invariably going to be more challenging, and is likely to require some coordination across the different nationwide chapters, even if the movement continues to remain a nationally decentralized one.

Leslie Said:

Is the Tea Party proud of itself for getting Rand Paul elected now that he is trying to defend BP from the gov?

We Answered:

I actually kind of liked Rand until I saw him use that term: "un-American". Labeling people who disagree with you reminds me of Nazi germany or Salem witch-trials.

Yes, accidents do happen, but when you increase the liklihood of them happening by not doing the things you know you should, then you are at fault!

If I didn't put my baby in a car seat and it was killed in an accident, would he or any republican be saying "oh well, accidents happen"? Or is that only for world-wide corporations?

And how the hell are they putting a boot to BP's throat? By giving them over a month to devise one failed method after another to clean it up and stop it up?