I don't understand GOP based "Tea Partiers."  Many, not all, are motivated by race, but are probably not racists.   But it doesn't matter if they're not racists because, to their own detriment, they appear to be so motivated by race until it impairs their sound judgment-making processes.

A case in point: I met a GOP-based couple recently.  White, retired working class homeowners.  Concerned about the world they were leaving for their grandkids.  But their foremost concern was fear for the next increase in property tax.  They expressed a dislike for all tax really, but had a morbid fear of property tax. 

It was not difficult to get them to acknowledge however, that the price of medication, medical care and a lot other necessities had already gone thorough the roof.  I'm sure we could have agreed on a number of other things because their concerns were no different than that of working class democrats: Affordable health care, social security, availability of education for the grandkids… But I was curious as to how this congenial American couple, these lifetime wage earners, allowed themselves to fall in goose step with the very group of elitist politicians who are vowing to take these things away.

I wanted to know, so I asked.

They responded that democrats like to keep "raising taxes," engage in "overspending," and "big governments."  

I wasn't interested in discussing what the appropriate size government should be, or any of the other GOP platitudes, because they are primarily designed to dodge issues, not offer solutions.  But seeing as how this nation has the worse education aspirations in all the civilized world and half the uncivilized one, I wanted to know why we can't effectively educate our kids without denouncing the practice as "overspending."   Really.  Why can't we add more teachers (if that's what is needed) without complaining that it's making the size of government too big?

I was not about to shake up this gentle couple, so of course I held my tongue.  As much as I saw this as a teachable moment, I could not even bring myself to suggest something as benign as "if every American paid his fair share (not suggesting THEY didn't), taxes would not be a burden for any of us."  But that was TOO anti rightwing and could also make it seem like I was trying to pick a political fight.

Say, I got started, they would respond, then one thing would lead to another and pretty soon I would have found myself trying to explain that the only way we get to enjoy all the things THEY said they like, affordable health care, education for the kids, the whole bit, is because of the taxes we pay. We couldn't have them otherwise, unless of course we accepted the GOP's paradigm of deregulation and privatization.

From experience, we know deregulation means a return to oil companies, which are not exactly a fan of green technology, being back in charge of setting our energy policy.  Insurance companies would be unchained to once again charge outrageous premiums and decide who's entitled to live and who's to die, by denying claims.  Wall Street money managers would resume their games of chance with our pensions, hard earned retirement funds, and home mortgages ...  Not to mention the dreaded return of credit predators to the scene of their previous crimes of deception and greed. 

Most Democrats seem to feel that an occasional hike in taxes can't compete as a "hardship" when it comes to deregulation and privatization which leads to joblessness, lower wages and higher prices.   If the GOP/Tea Party don't like paying taxes, fine, neither do Democrats.  So come up with an acceptable way to finance education and all the other services.  Do it without abolishing the board of education, social security, et al and turning life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in America over to the private sector.

This summer when President Obama signed an emergency bill into law to help states save the jobs of teachers, nurses, firefighters, GOP minority leader, Boehner dismissed the effort as being for "government jobs that weren't worth saving."

Really?

Some day the GOP may well get the numbers in Washington it needs to enact laws that will allow it to deregulate and privatize this nation, but what will happen to my tea party friends when their grandkids  have to go to a school run by a Wall Street firm, that "won" its education contract by greasing the palm of some sleazy politician?  What's going to happen to my Tea Party friends if they lose their home when the next economic bubble bursts? 

What's going to happen to all those working class tea party stiffs who stood with corporate tycoons when they find out they've been had?  

What happens to tea when the party's over?