He surely had something to do with inspiring the formation of the tea party but had nothing to do with the sort of non-economic tea partiers that showed up for all other sorts of reasons and wrecked any chance of it taking a real hold with people who are repulsed by those issues.
If the tea party was purely about economics and fiscal health, it would have attracted people for other wings and movements, Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin, Wendell Berry, Jim Hightower etc. etc. aren't all that far apart on matters of the economy and fiscal policy. It's the other stuff.
If Sanders and Nader had started it....with prescisely the same views and platform planks on debt and the size of government as the folks who would be considered the founders do in fact hold (and their views aren't that differnet if you check them out) 90%+ of those who consider themselves to be tea partiers would not be...would not have been attracted.
The tea party political arm is dominiated by crackers who see it as a conduit to regressive social and cultural policy formation. Dozens of them made their way into the U.S. House of Represetnatives and hundreds were sworn in to state houses this winter. I'd defy anybody to find me ten of them who's primairy political concern was federal economic policy, or more improtantly knew or understood a damned thing about it, before Pres. Obama was elected.
So in the dark on such matters it's ridiculously easy for **bleep** Armey and the Koch Bros. etal to lead them iike lambs to slaughter.
We need honest discussions about our econimic future. It's a horrible vision. There has never been a body so openly and unashamedely dishonest in our modern history than the current GOP Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. Thankfully, Rep. Paul isn't one of those...one can only hope that he will get increased face time. And you are probably right that he should be concerned for himself if he gets too much of it.
Most of you wnigers here seem to be big time Christian Zionist defense hawks. Content with the imperialist, "cop to the world" program. It becomes amusing, then, to see you turning around and fawning over Congressman Paul.
