Coffee with a Progressive - Should Tea Party Activists Heed History?

    It’s going to be another hot August day, but I’m enjoying the view of Long’s Peak while I drink my morning coffee.  Aren’t we lucky to live here in Colorado?  Oh, I see that the Denver Post has arrived with the YourHub community supplement which means I’ll probably be having a virtual coffee klatch with my leftist neighbor in Arvada, Jack Van Ens.  I see he has written another article about those Tea Party hooligans, “Tea Party activists should heed history.”   Looks like I will be spilling my coffee and talking to Jack as if he is here with me.  

  
  Jack, do you truly believe that the Tea Party is calling for a return to the Articles of Confederation? 

    Do you believe that our founding fathers wanted the federal government to be the sole legislative body of the United States?  Wouldn’t they be very unhappy that the federal government has taken over the health care industry, the banking industry, the car industry and the housing industry?   

    Jack, do you believe that once the federal government seeks new roles without its having been so mandated by the people it has overstepped its bounds?  Is the notion of a bloated federal government with powers far beyond those enumerated in our Constitution perfectly reasonable?  Do you think that the government should be allowed to force people to sell their property to another private individual or group if the government deems it important? (See Kelo v. City of New London)  Is there no limit to federal government power and nothing government can't justify with a little warping of the Commerce Clause?

    What would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and the rest of our founding fathers think of today’s federal government?   Would they not say that our freedom and liberties are being slowly taken away from us?  Would they not believe that our federal government is entrenching on our individual liberties?   

    Do you agree with Benjamin Franklin who stated, “The larger the government, the smaller the peoples liberties.”?

    Don’t you agree with Thomas Jefferson’s statement,” I am for a government rigorously frugal and simply applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt and not for a multiplications of offices and salaries merely to make partisan.”?

    Jack, do you agree with Thomas Jefferson who said, “I place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. We must make our choice between frugality and liberty, or excessive spending and servitude. If the debt should be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be despaired of and we shall be committed to a career of debt corruption, and rottenness. The discharge of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destiny of our government.”?

    How about Thomas Paine’s statement, “The preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.”

    If the founding fathers were around today, wouldn’t they be in total shock by the amount of money that our federal government is spending?  Wouldn’t doing away with the huge debt be their highest priority?    Isn’t it safe to say that our founding father would not just sit by today and watch as their nation spins down the drain of financial ruin?  Wouldn’t our founding fathers be Tea Party activists calling for fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets?

    Jack, you must stop reading those Huffington Post blogs, and stop watching MSNBC for crying out loud!   What are they putting in the water over there in Arvada?.