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HuffPost: Obama should harness Tea Party rhetoric

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | March 1, 2010 at 08:01 am

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President Barack Obama should harness the rhetoric of the Tea Party movement, and create a hybrid of states' rights and federal governmental help, the Huffington Post says.

It is predicted by many political analysts that 2010 is the year of states' rights, and that the states will become more integral to rebuilding the economy in regional ways.

Thus, if President Obama wants healthcare reform and economic reform to be successful, he ought to take a lesson from Tea Partiers, and concentrate on a fusion of state rights and federal help.

Howe and Strauss had suggested as early as 1997 that states rights would play a large part in the political refashioning of American in the coming economic and political crisis they called The Fourth Turning, which they had targeted, prophetically, for 2008, over a decade beforehand.

Go figure! Who would have thought that the rhetoric of the Tea Party loonies would be laden with gems? Those spin doctors have always been better than ours. So why not hijack "their" rhetoric, strip away the absurdities, create new "hybrid" state and federal programs, and make it the new Democratic message? Borrow from their spin doctors and use it for good! We can do this because we need good solid social programs that retrain the work force. We need jobs. We need affordable health care. We need local finance -- like community banking. We need incentives for companies that retool workers for the new economy. We need to give control back to the people who can reclaim their dignity through their day-to-day lives.
And we all know that the system is broken at the national level just watch the squabbling going on in Congress. We also know that disproportionate monies are extracted from the large voting states leaving them bereft with broken roads, broken schools and broken dreams. Why should senators from minuscule states in Podunk determine the future for the majority of folks that vote? Kibosh the nudniks, and take away their pork barrel spending that comes off the backs of the bigger, and more densely populated states. It is time to say no!

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at 10:48 on March 1st, 2010

That would be a good plan for Obama but I don't think he will be able to do it. He has shown he favors even more government.

Hugh Askew

at 15:13 on March 1st, 2010

Obama should harness Tea Party rhetoric

The only reason he should do that, is if he has nothing original to offer.............oh wait, he doesn't.

YankeeJim

at 16:35 on March 1st, 2010

I personally managed a program for Health and Human Services to create the first national credentialing standards for Doctors, Nurses, and Behavioral Health Professionals. This required a multi year effort, assembing lawyers, healthcare professionals -- public and private to address the fusion of ideas into an implementable program. The prospect of a terrorist attack of the bioterrorism variety finally forced states to consider credentialling and priviledging of healthcare professionals who volunteer across state lines.

This was an eye opener for me. There are times when states rights are down right immature when a nation is confronting such monumental needs that demand a cohesive solution.

When needs are unanimously common among all people, then it is time for the Federal Government to act with that being the peoples' choice. Sooner or later, the people will arrive at the right conclusion.

As in the case of civil rights, they may never have gotten there without the bold and moral leadership of leaders that cared more about getting it right than getting elected.

bpulhem

at 19:44 on March 7th, 2010

I think Obama and a lot of others are realizing that the Tea Party gems are not gems of wisdom. They are colds stones of hatred rage and division. Spoon feed that fact somewhat in every speech and their little game (The Tea Party and Glenn Beck) will be upended.