A few weeks ago I joined a Tea Party web site because I like to hear what the "other side" has to say. Even if I don't agree with someone's basic philosophy I still want to know where they stand - you never know where you can find some common ground, or maybe hear a point you hadn't considered. Unfortunately, they're just as wacky & misinformed as the news portrays them. They are also prolific bloggers - for fuck's sake I can't keep up with the dozen emails/blog entries they post everyday on this one single site. Here's the latest blather with my comments added:
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Tea Party: "On March 3, 2011, the Obama regime announced that it would allow Mexican trucks to go throughout the United States to deliver loads. Epic fail is an understatement for this policy, which is going to have a lot of casualties."
My comment: NAFTA, enacted in 1994 by President Clinton, opened the borders to Mexican truck drivers (and Canadians too, but they aren't brown so TPers don't care). In 1995 Clinton severely restricted Mexican truckers crossing the border to the point that they could only transfer their goods to American truckers within I think 18-20 miles of the border. Bush later tried to reverse Clinton's ban but was blocked by Congress (and the Teamster's Union). Eventually the Supreme Court ruled Clinton's ban a violation of NAFTA. What Obama did was meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discuss stricter safety standards for Mexican truckers before the borders opened up again.
Tea Party: "The first casualty will be American truck drivers. A lot of Americans make a good living as truck drivers. Not any more. Mexican truckers are not paid nearly what American truckers are paid. Businesses operate in their own interests. If they have a choice in shipping their goods with an American trucking firm that costs twice as much as a Mexican firm, they are going to choose the Mexican firm. It is not that they are not patriotic. They have to stay in business."
My comment: Well maybe just until the Tea Party succeeds in busting up unions, then American trucker's wages will go down and they'll be able to compete again. We wouldn't want them to continue making "a good living" at the expense of those patriotic businesses that are currently forced to hire foreign labor to keep their doors open. :::eye roll:::
Tea Party: "The second casualty will be American citizens. Mexican trucks are not up to the same safety standards American trucks are. They are not going to be subjected to safety inspections at the border. They are just going to be waved on through."
My comment: Another Tea Party lie since all Mexican truckers will have to comply with all US laws & regulations as part of the deal. But beside that point, the Tea Party is the "deregulation party" so what's their beef? They want less government, or so they say, and they are fighting fiercely to kill regulations in America. You'd think they would hold up the Mexican government as an example of Tea Party values. No, huh?
Tea Party: "The fourth casualty will be both American citizens and the American Truck Driver. American truck drivers are required to have a commercial driver’s license. Something as simple as a speeding ticket can cost an American truck driver his CDL. There will be no accounting for the traffic record of a Mexican driver. He could have dozens of speeding tickets and accidents and his Mexican license will not be revoked. "
Tea Party: "The fifth casualty is sanity. Not only are we destroying a sector of the American economy and putting a lot of Americans out of work, but the taxpayer is going to subsidize this. All trucks are required to have something called the EOBR (the electronic on board recorder). This neat little piece of gear costs $3,000 plus a monthly maintenance fee. American truckers must pay for this themselves. The Obama regime is going to pay for this for Mexican trucks."
My comment: Meh, they haven't convinced me they're all about jobs, especially after the disasterous budget plan they've recently passed in the House and all the defunding they've done lately. They do realize defunding = job loss, right? Anyway, the second point in their paragraph is actually true - that all trucks have to be eqipped with GPS and we are paying for it. GPS isn't in the NAFTA agreement as far as I can tell so if we want to keep track of Mexican truckers, then we'll have to foot the bill. But I'm quite certain the Tea party isn't against real-time tracking on brown people, they just feel the brown people should pay for it. They aren't freaked about Canadian truckers.
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The more I listen to and read their rhetoric the more convinced I am that the Tea Party is being used by people like Koch & Murdoch. Using their most basic fears against them, these mega-corporation heads (and others) have rallied hopelessly short-sighted individuals and lathered them up to do their dirty work. Tea Partiers believe they are fighting for their god and country when in reality they are being used to further the agenda of corporatations. Not one of them realizes that if their agenda is successful they will suffer as tragically as the rest of us. The only ones that will benefit from the Tea Party values are big corporations.
Things may well work out for them in the short-term (anti-abortion laws, gay marriage bans, closing borders), but that's the smoke & mirrors part. Those are the fears their leaders are using to get them hot and bothered while the real agenda remains to eliminate the middle class and put us all at the mercy of the biggest corporations. Most of the TPers I know fall smack into the middle of the middle class they are seeking to destroy. When we're all standing in line at the food bank, thank a Tea Partier.
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