True, the Tea Party was founded out of a frustration with big government and deficit spending but it has broadened it mission and message as it has matured. Now the natural corollary to smaller government, libertarianism has emerged in the form of an internet freedom plank in the GOP's party platform. One hopes with the election Ted Cruz and a few more like minded Tea Party senators the country can be spared the legislative assaults on internet freedom as were repelled in the Protect IP and SOPA bills. The House bill, SOPA was the driven by RINO Lamar Smith and was backed by normally sane Tea Party favorite Marsha Blackburn and had moderate Republican backing until the public let it be known that it was in no mood for such nonsense.
The GOP efforts are currently being modeled on the recent stance taken by the Ron Paul-founded Campaign For Liberty’s Technology Manifesto, as well as more right-of-center libertarian tech policy voices. Up until now tech policy has been the private property of regulation prone progressives with conservatives fighting a rear guard action to stave off a hostile take over of the internet. Now internet freedom has been written into the party platform.
“Internet Freedom”, according to the finalized draft language, would entail the removal of “regulatory barriers” for technology businesses, resistance to international governance of the Internet and the “constitutional protection” of personal data.
“We will remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new technologies such as mobile delivery of voice and video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem,” said the finalized draft.
Thank you for your comment. I confess I know a lot less about Marsha Blackburn than I should. I've only heard her speak once, at the Stand with Gibson rally in Nashville. Naturally she was sympathetic to Gibson or she would not have been speaking. It seems that once one has established his or her bona fides as a Tea Party politician all legitimate criticism is anathema to the Tea Party crowd. The picture that is beginning to form in my mind regarding Blackburn is that of a pretty conventional RINO who serves the entertainment industry too well and who attached herself to a popular movement. The 2006 and 2008 elections were hard on conservative Republicans. My own Congressman, Johns Hostettler, lost in 2006. He bucked the Bush administration on the African AIDs Initiative, the Katrina boondoggle, No Child Left Behind and the Iraq War arguing that if congress didn't have the courage to declare war it shouldn't be waged. The upshot of my point is that the Republicans who were around at the inception of the Tea Party were not necessarily the most conservative and certainly not the best the country has to offer.
ReplyDeleteI can understand your frustration when bloggers such as myself refer to Blackburn as "normally sane Tea Party favorite" but you must admit that was less than a full throated endorsement. Most of us rely on the image a politician creates with the big time bloggers such as Eric Erikson, Jennifer Ruben, and the Powerline crowd. As you will note I post under the name Hoosierman and coming from the same town as "Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock" I'm convinced the aforementioned bloggers do a less than perfect job of vetting our favorites. This blog did not endorse Mourdock against Lugar because he was cheating on his property tax. Okay, it was small change but it was still cheating. I've known Mourdock since 1992 when he first ran for congress and while I fell out of love with Lugar decades ago I was in no mood to endorse Mourdock. I have lost friends in my local group over that decision but I placed a Lugar sign in my yard anyway. Yes, I will vote for Mourdock but I'll watch his every vote.
Again, thank you for your informative comment and stay in touch.
Didn't know this about Blackburn. The seduction of power, money and influence is irresistible, even to those we perceive as strongly in favor of tea party principles.
ReplyDeleteThanks.