Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Greg Hamilton
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000283B
|
00:05 Welcome back to our discussion of Tea Party,
00:09 sort of an English convention and the Boston Tea Party. 00:13 Got things started here 00:15 but we know this in the United States 00:18 it's become very common to talk about the Tea Party Movement 00:21 within the Republican Party. 00:24 You know, it's a very conservative movement. 00:26 It's a very inflexible dogmatic faction. 00:31 Do they have religious view points? 00:32 Is this tied up at all to the religious right, 00:34 do you think? 00:35 In fact, the Pew survey on religion and public life 00:43 just a year and half ago said 00:45 that the Tea Party is when surveyed, 00:50 when people of the Tea Party who supported them 00:52 or surveyed when asked what is your ultimate goal, 00:57 is it tax reform, is it less government, 00:59 or is it prayer in public schools? 01:01 And they said prayer in public schools. 01:03 The Tea Party has been co-opted 01:05 by the Christian right in America, 01:07 they're both southern based, 01:10 they both have come out of the south, 01:12 they both have pretty much harmonious goals. 01:15 Now, I realize that the Tea Party did 01:17 started independently from the Christian right, 01:19 I understand that-- 01:20 But they have merged in a practical way. 01:22 Their original purpose was to reduce taxes, 01:25 to limit the federal government and its rapid growth and size. 01:30 Okay, that was their two big things 01:32 they've always hammered away especially the Koch Brothers 01:35 who is their financial support out of Texas. 01:39 However that has-- in many ways at the initial stages, 01:44 the Democratic Party lean to the left 01:47 and has stayed to the far left 01:49 especially with the emergence of President Obama 01:52 whose foreign policy 01:53 and international religious freedom policy, 01:55 I've criticized on this very set with you 01:58 in past programs. 01:59 So the Democratic Party however 02:03 has supported secularism run a muck, 02:06 such as gay marriage rights, 02:08 and other things viewed as immoral 02:10 and which I think are immoral. 02:12 And to me that creates a backlash 02:14 because in the end what I see happening 02:16 is the Democratic Party being forced 02:18 especially once the Supreme Court rules on gay marriage 02:22 and it's inevitable they are gonna rule in favor of it, 02:24 that issue is out of the way. 02:26 The Republican Party it said in newspapers 02:29 especially recently in a Wall Street journal 02:31 saying that once the gay marriage really comes down, 02:34 they won't have the monkey on their back, it's done. 02:36 They don't have to address that as the key issue. 02:38 They can focus back on economics 02:39 and foreign policy. 02:40 So it will force the Democratic Party to be sustainable, 02:46 to move to the center and even to the center right 02:49 in order to remain viable in politics. 02:52 And to me that's very suggestive of something. 02:55 It's suggestive that that in the end 02:58 we're gonna find-- 02:59 I know this may shock you. 03:00 We're gonna find more in common 03:02 between the two parties than sets them apart. 03:05 And how so you say? 03:07 Because I think democrats will back pedal, 03:09 they will fall all of themselves 03:10 to try to prove how moral and righteous 03:13 and just as righteous and moral as the religious right 03:16 that sustains the Republican Party. 03:19 That's already started and in some ways that should be 03:23 because I hear many democrats point out correctly 03:26 that why should the Republican Party 03:28 so to be characterized 03:30 as the party of religious morality and so on 03:32 because that isn't so really. 03:34 There are many deeply convicted Christians 03:37 that are the democrats and so yes, 03:39 they are trying to sort of reclaim that ground. 03:42 And I do think you are right 03:44 even though we have a democratic president. 03:46 The US is in a rope would swing, 03:48 there's no question. 03:50 And external threats and internal economic things 03:53 and so on will only increase that. 03:56 Oh, no, this is an extreme rightward swing. 03:59 Yes and it's been gradual but it's been coming about-- 04:02 Yes, but in total it's extreme. 04:03 Right, and what the Democratic Party leans on 04:06 is the interfaith left to sustain them 04:08 and that interfaith left is growing bigger and bigger. 04:11 In fact, survey after survey shows 04:13 that the interfaith political and religious left 04:17 is getting nearly as strong as the Christian right in America. 04:20 The Christian right in America 04:22 has about a 29 to 35 percent influence 04:25 in terms of electoral power within the Republican Party, 04:29 the interfaith left which is growing 04:30 is about 30 percent within the Republican Party. 04:32 And just a few years ago 04:34 when John Kerry was running for president, 04:36 it was only 6 percent. 04:37 And so what you see is a more of an internationalist movement 04:42 the interfaith left movement 04:44 that moves towards this sense of ecumenical unity 04:48 which plays right into the hands 04:49 of Pope John or Pope Francis I, 04:52 who seeks to restore the legacy of John Paul II 04:55 and the ecumenical movement 04:56 as a means towards securing world peace. 04:59 I've seen the shift and I don't know 05:00 whether part of the answer can be found in Jerry Falwell 05:05 and D. James Kennedy and others that died, 05:08 the leadership disappeared 05:10 or whether it's a sociological shift. 05:13 It's a more touchy feely sort of a Christianity 05:16 that's rising up and now seeking 05:18 some political influence. 05:20 But it has shifted from the old religious right moral majority 05:25 to a more liberal religious coalition. 05:29 I think the whole gay marriage issues, 05:31 even though there seems to be threats in the south that are-- 05:34 that we're gonna resist the Supreme Court's ruling 05:36 and we're gonna break off in the United States 05:37 and become the southern United States. 05:39 I heard threats from all over the south about that. 05:42 I've read newspapers with people making that claim 05:45 and it's ridiculous. 05:46 Once gay marriage becomes the law, 05:48 they will adopt and they will move on to other issues. 05:51 And those issues will be focused on morality for sure 05:58 but I think we are gonna see 05:59 as more of a focus on Israel by the right 06:02 and more of a focus on ecumenical unity on the left 06:06 and eventually the two merge and see the same way. 06:08 I believe that just as the Sadducees 06:12 who were the priestly order of Israel 06:15 during the time of Christ 06:16 and the Pharisees during the time of Christ 06:18 find common cause to get rid of Christ 06:20 because of His popularity. 06:21 I see the same thing happen in United States. 06:24 I think more crises are gonna emerge in this country 06:27 that from outside threats-- 06:30 It's a fairly safe assumption. 06:31 From outside threats 06:32 whether be ISIS or terrorist attacks 06:34 that continually spark unity within this country, 06:39 false unity mind you but unity nevertheless, 06:41 just as Sadducees and Pharisees got together 06:44 to crucify Christ. 06:45 They will find someone and something to blame. 06:48 Yeah. 06:49 Well, they need to because they don't really-- 06:52 I mean, there's such a complex series of issues 06:54 facing the world and this country in particular, 06:58 there is no easy answers, 06:59 there is no way out of it so a scapegoat. 07:02 Whether it's calculatedly a scapegoat, 07:04 I don't think so but convenient group 07:09 or movement to sort of say 07:11 well, this is frustrating as we do better but for this. 07:14 You are right. 07:15 I think the Tea Party is going to meld 07:17 into the background of the Republican Party. 07:19 There will be a transform Republican Party-- 07:21 Oh, I think they are already 07:22 moving into mainstream republicanism. 07:24 Well, yes, they have been very successful 07:28 but fewer Tea Party candidates ran for office 07:31 in this last congressional election. 07:33 The Republican moderate its search again once again 07:36 trying to mainstream the party. 07:39 The Tea Party will still be very influential obviously 07:42 and have remade the party so it's really no longer, 07:44 really no longer the party of Lincoln 07:47 but nevertheless they will be a forgotten source. 07:50 They will be less and less of a factor 07:52 and it will be viewed as one Republican Party. 07:53 No, they moved the party basically to occupy the ground 07:56 that they came in under. 07:58 And I think the Democrats will do the same. 08:00 If Hillary Clinton runs for president, 08:03 I believe that she like her husband 08:05 will try to move the party to the center 08:07 unlike Elizabeth Warren if she were candidate 08:09 would be a populous left us all the way. 08:13 So I think, Linc, what you are seeing 08:15 is a hard shift to the center 08:19 and right by the Democratic Party more and more. 08:21 Yes, there will be scandals about 08:23 Hillary Clinton, her emails and everything else 08:25 but the bottom-line is what we will see in my opinion, 08:29 I'm not a prophet I just believe that 08:32 all the shifts are taking place now. 08:34 Your pundits, your journalists, your experts 08:36 and political science are all seeing this right now. 08:38 It's all taking place as we speak. 08:40 You kept to the bottom-line that we are heading 08:42 toward the period of greater 08:44 civil and religious liberty or contraction? 08:49 You know, there is a possibility for revolution. 08:52 There is always that possibility even civil war. 08:54 I just don't think it's going to happen. 08:56 I think if the gridlock continues 08:58 between a Tea Party led Republican Party 09:02 which I don't think will continue for very long. 09:04 I think is precipitated by a president 09:07 that they very much dislike and some would say 09:11 that it's prejudice and their opposition has to do 09:15 with bigotry towards the black president. 09:18 I don't believe that. Well, I think it's a component. 09:20 I think it explains that all. 09:21 I think it's based on the issues 09:23 and I don't, you know, I really don't want to label 09:25 the Republican Party that way at all. 09:27 I'm a republican but I'm just telling you 09:29 that the way I seen things happening 09:32 is if yes, if there is gridlock, 09:34 it does tend to lead towards instability, 09:42 panic by the people and they tend 09:45 to always blame the government, 09:46 the federal government. 09:48 And so therefore it leads to revolution. 09:50 What kind of revolution I don't know. 09:52 If it's a constitutional revolution 09:54 that would be huge. 09:56 But I don't think a constitutional revolution 09:57 will necessarily come out of all this. 09:59 What I think will happen is that the Republican Party 10:03 will out of necessity moderate 10:05 and I think when I say moderate not by much, 10:08 they will have the upper hand for the most part, 10:10 at least congressionally and in the Supreme Court. 10:14 I think if Hillary Clinton becomes president, 10:16 I think she will be a very weak president 10:19 just as Obama has been. 10:21 Well, you know, obviously like Christians throughout the ages, 10:25 we pray for the success of the government. 10:27 We pray that it can protect good laws 10:30 and that it not prove to be an enemy of true faith. 10:34 But these are dangerous times for the United States. 10:36 For the whole world, this is a great period of instability 10:40 and the great problems facing the US are almost insolvable. 10:43 Economic problems, 10:45 franking it seems to been a last minute lifeline 10:49 but in reality there is ecological degradation, 10:52 there's climate imbalance, more tornados, more droughts, 10:56 dust bowls is on the rise again. 10:59 These are huge threats. 11:00 It will actually jumpstart the instability in quite 11:06 probably unique directions. 11:08 I actually think the best days 11:09 of United States are still ahead. 11:10 Well, it could be. 11:12 I don't believe that we're at that point yet, 11:15 but I see all the earmarks of it 11:19 clearly even prophetically 11:20 but when that happens we don't know. 11:23 This is the time as the Chinese philosophers 11:28 I think used to say, dangerous opportunity. 11:30 Yes. Dangerous opportunity. 11:32 I think what we see with the Tea Party 11:35 was pretty much inevitable with what happened in 1980 11:39 and the revolutionary shift of the south 11:42 to the Republican Party 11:43 but also see an equally unequal shift 11:46 on the Democratic side with secularism run a muck 11:49 and then having to back track to become more centered. 11:54 I remember when I was much younger first reading. 11:57 Through the Looking Glass or Alice in Wonderland 12:00 and being taken with the Tea Party 12:03 and the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit, 12:06 and it portrayed a rather dysfunctional gathering of 12:10 some very disparate elements, 12:12 animals and creatures that didn't seem real. 12:16 But when I look at US politics today, 12:18 I'm starting to think 12:19 that we are down in the same rabbit hole 12:22 and that surreal things are possible. 12:25 The Tea Party is a very real phenomenon 12:28 but some of the things that it represents 12:30 while historically they can say nativistant 12:34 and just so exaggerated that they are almost laughable. 12:37 When you talk about religious tendencies 12:40 and the religious agenda you must take it very seriously 12:44 and as in now discussion we brought out some elements 12:47 could even be parallel to what we see in the Islamic world 12:51 with the move towards Sharia law 12:53 and an extremist religious vision 12:56 that comes up with its own internal logic 12:59 but externally seems bizarre and surrealistic. 13:03 For Liberty Insider, I'm Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2015-06-11