PDA

View Full Version : NY Times Alarmed: Tea Party Reading Unapproved Texts




FrankRep
10-04-2010, 12:12 PM
NY Times Alarmed: Tea Party Reading Unapproved Texts (http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/10/ny-times-alarmed-tea-party-reading-unapproved-texts/)


Tenth Amendment Center (http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/) / Lew Rockwell (http://www.lewrockwell.com/)
October 4th, 2010


Thanks to Bud Bronstein for this piece (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02teaparty.html?_r=1&emc=eta1) by Kate Zernike from the NY Times, “Movement of the Moment Looks to Long-Ago Texts.” Catch the ideological presentism. Instead of just reading the latest approved tomes and today’s issue of the Times, people are learning from “obscure” old books by dead people.

The Tea Party “has resurrected once-obscure texts by dead writers — in some cases elevating them to best-seller status — to form a kind of Tea Party canon. Recommended by Tea Party icons like Ron Paul and Glenn Beck, the texts are being quoted everywhere from protest signs to Republican Party platforms.” The idea of a movement animated by ideas (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591841836?tag=lewrockwell&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1591841836&adid=0TBJ03Y3XF1AFJXJ8PWZ) rather than leaders is just right. Bastiat (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/bastiat-collection.html), Hayek (http://www.lewrockwell.com/hayek/hayek-collection.html), and Mises (http://www.lewrockwell.com/mises/mises-collection.html) are magnificent, and also just what one would expect from a movement born in Ron Paulism (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/reading-list4.html).

But to this they add an unfortunate religion-based quite literal worship of the Constitution and the Founders, as promoted by Glenn Beck and FBI agent Cleon Skousen. There were good men among the Founders—and bad ones too—but they only get that title for founding the federal government. That is hardly something to herald. As Murray Rothbard (http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard-collection.html)—the intellectual and strategist the Tea Party really needs—pointed out, the roots of American liberty are far deeper than the unfortunate year of 1789.

Oh, and Tea Partiers, read Ron (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul-books.html) and Hazlitt (http://www.lewrockwell.com/hazlitt/hazlitt-books.html) too, as well as the authentic history of Tom Woods (http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods-collection.html) and Tom DiLorenzo (http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo-collection.html). NB: the whole NYT articles (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02teaparty.html?_r=1&emc=eta1) worth reading. I do love the concern that dead Austrian economists are influencing Tea Party people rather than that ADD-Keynesian Paul Krugman.

Oh no: “Bastiat (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984203710?tag=lewrockwell&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0984203710&adid=1T4Z9VQ5F71J5EAX7RY8&) called taxation ‘legal plunder,’ allowing the government to take something from one person and use it for the benefit of someone else, ‘doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.’ In his view, protective tariffs, subsidies, progressive taxation, public schools, a minimum wage, and public assistance programs were of a piece. ‘All of these plans as a whole,’ he wrote, ‘constitute socialism.’”


SOURCE:
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/10/ny-times-alarmed-tea-party-reading-unapproved-texts/

acptulsa
10-04-2010, 12:22 PM
God forbid. Hey, Times--we read the Constitution, too. Aren't we naughty? I know you haven't blessed it as 'fit to print', but we read it anyway.

And here is everyone who wrote it dead in their graves, too. I suppose they think we ought not enjoy Casablanca because most of the crew that produced it are gone.

But one can't blame them. They go to all that trouble to promote what is profitable for their benefactors, only to have people with pesky memories tell their children that just because the New York Times calls something 'progress' does not mean that it's in any way an improvement. How irritating.

Vessol
10-04-2010, 12:37 PM
I can see nothing but positive results of more people read Mises, Hayek, and Bastiat.

Throw some Rothbard, Spooner and some Thoreau in there for good measure and we might have a real peaceful revolution on our hands.

Maximus
10-04-2010, 02:51 PM
Like how they quoted from Justin Amash!

Austrian Econ Disciple
10-04-2010, 02:53 PM
I only wish the Tea Party was reading Bastiat.

Slutter McGee
10-04-2010, 03:26 PM
The article tries to tie the tea-party with the religious right. No doubt many tea-partiers believe what is said, but religious conservativism, thankfully, has yet to be a primary focus of the tea-party. Pretty good job by the author at distorting the facts.

Sincerely,

Slutter McGee

oyarde
10-04-2010, 03:26 PM
Does anyone still read the Times ?

JohnEngland
10-04-2010, 03:36 PM
I only wish the Tea Party was reading Bastiat.

Some of them are.

I'd say the Tea Party spectrum goes from Ron Paulians to Sarah Palinites.

djdellisanti4
10-04-2010, 03:43 PM
One of the same problems that I have with the Republican party, is now becoming even more evident in the tea party movement: Christianity. There must be some way to make religion a more personal, rather than political issue.