As I read through the news Sunday, I found a particularly interesting story. On Sunday, a group of conservatives held a rally at the World War II and Lincoln Memorials to protest the government shutdown and President Obama’s agenda. The protest was similar to tea party rallies held in earlier years, with headliners such as Sen. Ted Cruz and former vice presidential candidate and Gov. Sarah Palin. Both of these iconic tea party leaders spoke, as well as a number of others.
Let me preface the rest of my column by saying that I fully support the American right to freedom of speech and the nonviolent protest movement. I believe that Americans should all feel free to protest whatever they would like openly and loudly. However, I believe that Americans should be logical and thoughtful in their opinions and protests, and this goes tenfold for our elected officials and high-profile public figures. We should not be blinded by political rhetoric and irrelevant information. With that being said, I wish to respond to the tea party’s latest rally in our nation’s capital. A few actions and speeches warrant a response.
First off, Larry Klayman, a representative of the advocacy group Freedom Watch, asserted that President Obama was of the Islamic faith by advising the crowd to call upon the president to “put the Quran down.” Let’s be clear here: President Barack Obama has stated on multiple occasions that he is not of the Islamic faith. Furthermore, is there really anything inherently wrong with being a follower of Islam? Not in this country. We are not a Christian country: We are a country where all are free to practice any religion. So, even if the president was Muslim, it should not be a problem. The president’s religion certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the government shutdown. In fact, I look forward to the day when our country can move past its religious discrimination and elect a Muslim president.
The tea party demonizes the president and his policies, making it appear that he is out to destroy America and its people. Once again, we see the tea party dramatizing events and creating opinions without fact. I really don’t believe President Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid is out to ruin the American people. I also don’t believe John Boehner or Mitch McConnell is out to ruin America either. All of our public leaders have a great love for country and aspire to see America on top. They just have different ideas on how those goals should be achieved. This is simply reality, but the tea party doesn’t seem to understand what reality is.
Lastly, as part of the rally, members protested the government’s shutdown of national parks and monuments, laying all the blame on the Obama administration. The closing of parks and monuments is part of the government shutdown, which should be blamed on all members of Congress. Congress is charged with creating and passing a government budget to prevent a shutdown. The only concession it has to give is to make it moderate enough for the president to sign.
Here, surprisingly enough, I’m not trying to lay blame on the Republican Party for shutting down the government. I lay blame on radical members of the Republican Party — the tea party. The tea party uses immense political rhetoric with little to no factual basis. It chooses to politicize events and turn them into public relations moments, instead of working across the aisle to solve problems. Our political leaders should be held at a higher standard, and they should certainly use fact-based evidence and relevant information. Yes, the Democratic Party has radicals and leaders who sometimes fudge the facts. I don’t appreciate those officials either. However, in my opinion, the tea party faction is a much louder, stronger voice than any radical movement in the Democratic Party. Radicalism, on either side, is not favorable and not realistic.
Members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, should moderate themselves and sit down to create a federal budget. The American people are tired. We are tired of a government shutdown and of the petty arguing. And, most importantly, we’re tired of the radicalism and lack of facts.
Adam Blackwell is a senior public policy leadership major from Natchez.
