The Reality of Political Movements

            In the article titled, “Does the Tea Party movement represent another great awakening?” by Glenn Harlan Reynolds and Joseph Lowndes, both professors make several points regarding the reality of the Tea Party movement. Firstly, the Tea Party Movement is a political, religious, and racially motivated movement, despite the fact that Reynolds mentions the contrary. The Tea Party’s own website indicates their sole beliefs lie with Judeo-Christian values (Eichler 2014). They also believe gun ownership is sacred and that abortion should be outlawed. The Tea Party movement, named after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, was first created for people angered by government bailouts, increased deficits, and increased taxes. It was designed for people who did not like what the two major parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, were doing about the federal budget and taxes. The Democrats believe the federal government should help with local issues such as initiate poverty programs and other forms of public assistance. However, the Republicans advocate less government involvement in local issues and want to lower taxes; their stances on policy are similar to the ideology of the Tea Party movement.

 Bipartisanship is not an answer for supporters of the Tea Party movement. However, individuals such as Christine O’Donnell and Glenn Beck strongly support the Tea Party movement and advocate certain social issues specifically on the Fox News Network, but the main purpose of the Tea Party movement is to focus on less government involvement in regards to businesses and less government spending. Political movements always create an ideology in order to get what they want and these can be good or bad and prominent political figures can have a vast influence on these ideologies. A political leader should use their ideology for the good of his or her people and when they don’t use it for good, a political movement is necessary in order to restore balance in government.

The Tea Party is mostly supported by conservative GOP politicians and apparently both parties have similar views in regards to social issues and foreign policy. According to Lowdnes, “a significant percentage of tea partiers appear to be in their 60s or older- placing them in the generation that expressed the most negative reaction to the advances of the civil rights movement.” The latest research also shows that most Fox News viewers are in their 60s (Thompson 2014). Although this fact doesn’t necessarily conclude correlation equals causation, many tea party advocates appear to have similar views as far right-winged Republicans. Former presidential candidates Michelle Bachmann, who has been dubbed the “Queen of the Tea Party” and Sarah Palin have had several interviews discussing their views on foreign affairs and other social issues. There are countless examples of blatant unawareness on foreign policy and on basic scientific common knowledge. Bachmann claimed HPV vaccines caused mental retardation (Weiner 2011). The Tea Party movement supposedly advocates for less government involvement and the reduction of the national debt, but most tea party politicians have a not so hidden bigoted agenda.

Modern political movements in the United States recently have been mostly about protests against economic inequality, specifically the Occupy Wall Street movement. Many protests have been similar in other countries like Turkey, Venezuela, and Spain. However, these protests involved standing against tyranny, protesting their right to free speech and standing up for their basic human rights.’ Some protests involved standing up against religious dominated oppression like in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, and many other nations. The Arab Spring was a contributing force in ending civil war and authoritarianism in Middle Eastern nations. These protests have not ended to this day. In regards to Occupy Wall Street, after a while people in many states in America decided to follow suit and many citizens protested in their major cities. Some criticized the authenticity of the protests and if people knew what they were protesting about. Many young college students started protesting, but didn’t understand the consequences of their actions.

The New York City police brutality that took place during the Occupy Wall Street movement was not the only police department to have issues. Across the nation people were fed up with the one percent having control of the wealth and preventing money from being redistributed to them. The problem was the fact that many Congressmen and other influential politicians were part of the one percent. These politicians kept the one percent wealthy while the bottom 40% of Americans barely had any effect on where the money went. This resulted in policy being corrupted and the balance in government became corrupted and this made the public question the government’s validity which eventually resulted in political movements and in certain countries it called for regime change.

In Turkey, the President, Abdullah Gül has banned social media like YouTube and Twitter which has caused an immediate uproar. The internet censorship is the least of their concerns after Turkey’s involvement with the war in Syria and the police arresting thousands of protestors which involved excessive use of force and violence. These situations will result in negative consequences for the future of the country and it will inevitably fall. When political leaders use their power negatively, the people always want to protest in order to get resolve. In the most extreme cases like North Korea, the government has already taken over everything. The people in North Korea have been brainwashed over generations and most can never escape. There is no more humanity when it comes to that point. A political movement becomes difficult in a situation like this, but a possibility arises when other nations get involved. Although not ideal, a country can be overthrown through the use of force when the country is violating basic human rights. This conquer can only be accomplished through an ideological change or political movement.

Every regime which doesn’t help its people with the minimum of basic human rights has collapsed eventually. This collapse is due to political movements in the form of protests and war. In the article, “Occupy the World: The Emergence of an International Movement” it concludes, "Throughout history social movements have been the initiator of social change [whether good or bad]. What stemmed from a crisis, which started to make daily life unbearable [was] followed by a distrust against political institutions. The protestors of Tahrir, Barcelona or New York, went on 2011 to the streets to make their demands visible, to change the system or even change the ruler” (Akbaba 33).

During World War II, the United States had to go up against Adolf Hitler, but today we have to go up against Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Hamid Karzai, and many others. However, the political leaders aren’t the only ones with power. When political movements get out of hand we get the terrorist movements or activities like the Ku Klux Klan, Timothy McVeigh, and Eric Rudolf. When does freedom of speech become irrelevant in regards to political movements? The Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations all started as political movements. And due to these “political movements” innocent people have perished, but their goal was made at times. They took over countries and had control until they too fell because most of the people understood their human rights were being violated. The United States had to step in and get involved. Although, these terrorist groups are still around tainting ideologies around the world, there are always people who stand against them.

Islamism and dominionism and other forms of religious control over social, political, and personal life have taken new forms in our day in age. Today, it’s Islam and in the next fifty years it could be a new organized religion corrupting and subconsciously controlling human beings. However, some would argue religion used by political figures is only corrupt in third world nations and the developed world could never use religion to violate human rights. Sociologist Sara Diamond “defined dominion theology [dominionism] as a term “used informally by politically-minded born-again Christians of a variety of ‘eschatological’ positions to add a biblical veneer to their quest to Christianize social institutions in the areas of politics, education, law, media, and entertainment, business and the military” (McVicar 22). These philosophies are not new, but even today, political figures use them to gain power and control. In Saudi Arabia, Islam is not just a religion, but it is a part of everyday life. Every law or social aspect of life is governed through this religion.

Political ideologies derive from different aspects of life. Religion can be a scape goat in order to pursue a political goal. The difficulty to identify where these ideologies arise from lies with the definitions of the words ideology and religion. Economist Meghnad Desai understands the peculiarity between religion and ideology and indicates that, “Religion and ideology share many aspects, and, as each mutates, it takes on the characteristics of the other. One can say that they are both attempts to make sense of the world around us and to offer a program[me] for human action” (59). Desai may be correct in saying that religion and ideology “mutate,” but in some countries ideology is used to govern, in others religion is used to govern and in some it’s both. The problem arises when political organizations take over the country in the name of their ideology and hurt its people at the same time.

Extreme nationalism and American exceptionalism has been a contributing factor in the growth of political ideological movements. In the 19^th Century, Manifest Destiny was broadly believed in the United States. This belief was that Americans were destined by God to expand throughout North America. Although Manifest Destiny was not as sinister as Hitler’s Lebensraum, they had their similarities. Lebensraum meant that living space had to do with expansion of Nazi Germany for the sake of the German Aryan people because they were more superior to all the other races.

However, these xenophobic concepts can be dangerous. Republicans created a list of proposed legislative items which they called the Pledge to America. It included: a ban on federal funding for abortions, a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and a ban on trials for detainees currently held at Guantanamo bay. During the Bush Administration, the government enacted the Military Commissions Act (MCA) in 2006 in response to the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The Act has been described as an amnesty law because it gives CIA interrogators and U.S. soldiers the right to commit war crimes against detainees held at Guantanamo Bay legally. In 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that the MCA was unconstitutional because of violations on detainee’s rights.

Thanks to Habeas Corpus, the detainees had rights to federal courts. Federal Judge Randolph in regards to this case stated, “George Orwell was right. “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Randolph 96). Randolph continues, “It is easy to distort history. I agree with Judge Wilkinson that “w[hen] a constitutional question is so close, when conventional interpretive methods do not begin to resolve the issue decisively, the tie for many reasons should go to the side of deference to democratic processes” (Randolph 97). This returns to the main point that every governmental society involves democracy through political means; in this case the United States constitution was used as the basic ideology to restore balance in American government.

            Political protests and the influence of politicians can cause policy change. As well as the fact that the agendas created by the politicians can directly influence policy change. However, the Tea Party movement caused Democrats to retire, an increase in Republican votes, and more conservative beliefs. This was due to the power and influence of the movement due to major politician support (Madestam 39). In an Arizona bill titled, Arizona SB 1062, it allowed individuals to refuse service based on religion. The bill was allegedly targeted towards the LGBT community (McLaughlin 2014). This law was passed by a Republican dominated state legislature, but vetoed by Republican Jan Brewer, the Governor of Arizona. The bill would have been a travesty in regards to civil rights in the United States, but Republican advocates claimed they were merely exercising their First Amendment right for freedom of religion. The implication of this bill demonstrates the authority that political figures and people have in regards to changing policy and applying it to their legislation.

Applying specific ideologies or religion into law violates the United States Constitution. The Arizona bill was a response to New Mexico’s Supreme Court Ruling in Elane Photography v. Willock which was for not allowing same-sex weddings in businesses on religious grounds (Herrod 2014). Many civil rights activists opposed the bill and protests caused the influence to stop the bill from ultimately becoming law. Many other similar bills were proposed in states like Tennessee, Georgia, Utah, Kansas and Colorado. However, all those bills were unsuccessful.

Historian Marilyn B. Young argues in her book, “One Empire under God,” that the Iraq War amplified American nationalism and exceptionalism because America was advocating for a permanent supreme military rule and economic rule over every other country (Young 18). After 9/11 the United States used the fear of terrorism to enact policies within the country to limit the privacy and rights of American citizens without their knowledge. This view was amplified when Edward Snowden leaked National Security Agency (NSA) documents, which revealed that the government was indeed invading the privacy of American citizens through the PATRIOT Act, but this was much more volatile than one would assume. The PATRIOT Act allows the NSA to tap phone calls, but the NSA could also see anything from Facebook posts to text messages on a cell phone. The Snowden documents also revealed that the United States could not only invade the privacy of American citizens, but citizens from other countries as well (Murphy 2014). This was all in the name of safety and security from terrorist activity within the United States. The Iraq War was a response to 9/11, but the government took advantage of the situation over the years. The innocent human beings who lost their lives on 9/11 should be taken into consideration and always remembered in order for the evolution of society to take place and create a better and honest government.

According to a recent survey Tea Party supporters are more likely to have the opinion that “the Obama Administration favors blacks over whites” and also that “too much has been made of the problems facing black people” (Zernike 2014). This reveals the intent of the Tea Party movement which is not so subtle. However, even certain conservative individuals see the danger with the Tea Party movement and object to their views. The Tea Party ideology comes down to outright bigotry and not even an average conservative or any political ideology stands for this type of thought. This is when political figures become weak when likeminded American citizens come together putting their political views together or aside and conforming into one, to come against something whether it be a faulty policy or politician. A government will have order otherwise; it will experience protest and abandonment when its people do not support its values. There has been no society that lives eternally. The political views of every citizen in every government are the core values and ideologies and if these values are not upheld then protests will form in every way until the citizens or political figures bring stability to their governments.

Works cited

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Desai, Meghnad. Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology Of The New Terror, London; New York

Eichler, Steve. "About Us." Teaparty.org. N.p., 2014. Web. 31 Mar 2014. <http://www.teaparty.org/about-us/>.

Herrod, Cathi. "Religious Freedom Restoration Act: SB 1062." Center for Arizona Policy. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2014. <http://www.azpolicy.org/bill-tracker/religious-freedom-restoration-act-sb-1062>.

Randolph, A. Raymond. "Originalism And History: The Case Of Boumediene V. Bush." Harvard Journal Of Law & Public Policy 34.1 (2011): 89-97. Business Source Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

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Madestam, Andreas, et al. "Do Political Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement." Quarterly Journal Of Economics 128.4 (2013): 1633-1685. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.

McLaughlin, Eliott C. "Freedom or oppression? That's the question for Arizona's SB1062." CNN. N.p., 26 Feb 2014. Web. 12 Apr 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/25/us/arizona-brewer-sb1062/>.

McVicar, Michael J. "'Let Them Have Dominion': 'Dominion Theology' And The Construction Of Religious Extremism In The US Media." Journal of Religion & Popular Culture 25.1 (2013): 120-145. Humanities International Index. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.

Murphy, Dan. "More Snowden leaks - and this time Al Qaeda is the surveillance target." The Christian Science Monitor. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr 2014. <http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0130/More-Snowden-leaks-and-this-time-Al-Qaeda-is-the-surveillance-target-video>.

Weiner, Rachel. "Bachmann claims HPV vaccine might cause ‘mental retardation.’" Washington Post. N.p., 13 Sep 2011. Web. 9 Apr 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/michele-bachmann-continues-perry-attack-claims-hpv-vaccine-might-cause-mental-retardation/2011/09/13/gIQAbJBcPK_blog.html>.

Young, Marilyn B., "One Empire under God", European Contributions to American Studies, May 2004, Vol. 55, p8-18

Zernike , Kate. "Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated." NY Times. N.p. Web. 12 Apr 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html?_r=0>.