A posting last September 20 said the tea party (TP) has taken on the character of a puritanical movement. That is, if you want TP support, you have to endorse its positions on all issues or risk having TP opposition in primary elections. It has already targeted three Senators (Hatch, Lugar, and Snowe because of their supporting the Democrats on some issues. And in the House the TP has intimidated the GOP leadership and most of the rank and file into supporting the TP positions on deficit spending, size of government, and debt ceiling issues.
But among the GOP presidential aspirants the TP has had mixed success in getting its way. Some GOP would-be's are willing to take a stand against the TP on some issues. Mitt Romney has said he believes in global warming and has declined to endorse one strong anti-abortion pledge. Tim Pawlenty, who panders to the extreme right, says he opposes cutting the defense budget which the TP has targeted for cuts to support its bedrock position on reducing federal spending. Jon Huntsman seems to be seeking a more centrist position, is on record in support of gay and lesbian rights, and has declined to sign any of the pledges initiated or endorsed by the TP.
Meanwhile, the current darling of the TP, Michelle Bachmann, founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House, is a staunch believer in the fiscal, governmental, and social policy issues of the TP and the extreme right wing of the GOP. Herman Cain, seeking name recognition and grandstanding for the far right, recently chose to spout anti-Muslim, anti-mosque rhetoric during a visit to Murfreesboro, TN, where construction of a new mosque has been a community issue for months. Given the attachment of Bachmann and the as-yet-unknown candidacies of Sara Palin and Texas governor Rick Perry, taking on the TP seems to have less risk for some of the presidential candidates as long as they don't stray too far from the increasingly conservative center of gravity of the Republican party.
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Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a very recent visit to China said that country ". . . is no longer a rising power. It has, in fact, arrived as a world power."
In a January 18 posting, the topic was the endless roller coaster ride in U.S.-China relations. In the posting I said, "I don't know whether it's because the Chinese are easily offended or that they think they still need to muscle their way into the role of a world power . . . . If the first, then maybe there isn't too much we can do about it; if the second, 'enough already,' you've arrived."
The Chinese have certainly made their mark on the world stage as a major nuclear power and as a very wealthy nation able to invest its money and win friends and influence people by funding activities ranging from infrastructure projects in Africa to purchasing the bonds of fiscally ailing countries in Europe. But at the same time China doesn't seem able to shake its inclination to look around for things that offend it and then react like a second class power.
The most recent occasion was the Dalai Lama's latest visit to the United States and his meetings with congressional leaders and President Obama. It is difficult to see how the Dalai Lama, who may serve as the spiritual/political head of Tibetan dissidents living abroad, remains much of a threat to China. Tibet has been securely, if forcefully, incorporated into the Chinese state, although not without some recurring unrest, and the U.S. has recognized that de jure and de facto situation. Yet a foreign ministry spokesman said the Obama-Dalai Lama meeting "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and harmed Sino-U.S. relations," interpreting the meeting as interfering in Chinese internal affairs.
Then there's the case of the Norwegian fresh salmon. Reacting, or over reacting, to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed Chinese dissident last year, China started holding up Norway's signature fish export for days or weeks, thus killing the freshness of the fish. Other Norwegian products continued to flow into China with no problem, but in delaying fresh fish sales and marketing, it makes the Chinese look like they chose to get into a bush league argument.
And there were other instances of bush league reaction such as the halting of the sale of rare earth, needed for high tech manufacturing, to Japan over an overblown issue of a Chinese-Japanese boat collision. Bottom line: China should act like a world power with class rather than a second tier rising country looking for ways to be offended.
There are too many issues for anybody to try to control every aspect of someones's voting. I understood the Teaparty as started with people who were more worried about economics than about social issues. To me it seems like some small core is trying to control the "movement" to push their own agenda. I think they ought to leave the social issues out and just focus on spending and the economy, i.e. financial issues. That core is just tryhing to control things the way they want it and are usurping the underlying sentiment of the Teapparty.
ReplyDeleteIf China really wants to be a World Power then they need to develop a thicker skin or they are going to be constantly embroiled in petty skirmishes. It isn't becoming of a World Power.
We should applaud those who take their own stand against the rigid ideology of the Teaparty purists though I agree with dpchuck that the TeaParty did not start about social issues. I think also that it is some individuals who want to push their own super right wing agenda and are calling the shots on what the TeaParty is all about. I never understood it to be about social issues only financial ones.
ReplyDeleteIf China keeps acting so thinned skinned and is so easily offended that they have to respond to every perceived slight they are not going to have many friends.
dpchuck and Jeffrey
ReplyDeleteSince both of you touched on some of the same or similar points, will respond to you jointly.
As you imply, the tea party is not a single organization and there are a variety of organizations with tea party in their name which just seem to be in business for themselves. The TP became a vehicle to attach to for groups interested in social policy and so the TP has come to be a conglomerate of anti-big government and social policy interest groups. And the TP became a movement that big money people like the Koch brothers could use for their own self-interests. All of this is unfortunate for political candidates who are focused on the fiscal/governmental issues but who now have to pass litmus tests on social issues.
I think a big part of the Chinese sensitivity is rooted in part of its history of being exploited by other countries. Such exploitation, for example, led to the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the l9th century when the Chinese rose up and battled with the British, French, German, and Japanese who had carved out privileged positions for themselves and controlled major Chinese ports and so much of the Chinese trade. The Boxers also took on the Christians whom the Chinese saw as taking advantage of China's weakness and whose missionaries were buying up land cheaply from Chinese peasants, a la the missionaries in Hawaii who came to do good and ended up doing quite well. Nonetheless, the Chinese are going to have to thicken their skin and act like a world power. As to not having many friends, Jeffrey, it's amazing what money can buy. If not friends, at least not enemies.
It isn't looking good and we are too close to the deadline.
ReplyDeletepostmann
ReplyDeleteYeah, it does look bad. But there is one big motivation for doing something. The congressional summer vacation begins on August 8, so they have to do something before they go, at least that would seem logical. But given what has been going on, logic seems to have little to do with it.
It certainly looks goo late for a grand or even a medium sized bargain. Given the amount of supporting legislatiion needed to make such a bargain happen, there is indeed too little time. I hate to think of it this way, but right now the McConnell idea seems to be the best poker game in town, but as a meaningful remedy to the fiscal problem, it stinks.