Tea Party Challenges Ron Paul

An interesting article on Alternet.org, about how three Tea Party affiliated candidates are challenging Ron Paul in the 2010 Republican primary.

Some informative excerpts:

"One group was inspired by Paul's Boston Tea Party metaphor and started organizing Tea Party protests throughout the country, opposing -- as Paul does -- big government and a 'runaway' federal budget.

"Yet today's Tea Party movement bears only a handful of similarities to the so-called Ron Paul Revolution. Both are anti-tax and anti-spending and they have issues with the Federal Reserve. But Ron Paul libertarians, on the whole, are also focused on ending the post-9/11 wars, are proponents of government accountability and transparency, and often are closer to progressives on civil liberties -- especially regarding the war on drugs -- than they are to the average right-winger....

"In fact, many Tea Party adherents -- like neoconversatives -- are pro-war and pro-Homeland Security, whereas Paul has built a reputation on opposing the second Bush administration on everything from the PATRIOT Act to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan....

"it seems as though the Tea Party has recognized the growing appeal of libertarian ideals among right-wing voters, and has co-opted that rhetoric to diffuse its own far more right-wing message. While it may tout libertarian-style beliefs as its rousing cause, the actual unifying theme seems to be anti-Obama, with some anti-immigrant sprinkled in along with the parodoxical meld of anti-unionism and anti-big business.

"Due to this convoluted platform, the Tea Party continues to be a much more fringe group than the Ron Paul Revolution."

It's true. "Ron Paul libertarians" are opposed to war and support civil liberties. These positions stem from a broad and consistent philosophical base.

These positions also go beyond the crude, one-note "Obama bashing" of such libertarian pretenders as Wayne Allyn Root and his talk radio cheerleaders.

Read the entire Alternet.org article.