The Spread of Tea Party Statism

And we've hooked another one. Here's Renee Ellmers, a Tea Party-endorsed, Palinite Conservative running for a seat in the federal Congress in North Carolina to replace incumbent Bob Etheridge (who, incidentally, is no favorite of mine since he pulled his bullying shenanigans on some Breitbartian shock-troop new media acolytes), declaring that, if elected, she will tell the "terrorists" (i.e. those behind the Park51 project near to ground zero: "No, there will never be a mosque at ground zero." Watch the authoritarianism (if not totalitarianism) at work:



Now, some might say: "Well, she didn't say explicitly that she would use the force of government to prevent these American citizens who happen to be Muslims from exercising their liberty to construct a house of worship wherever they want." To which I would reply: "Get serious." Here's a woman running for Congress, in a campaign ad, declaring that she will never allow the building of a mosque at ground zero in New York -- which isn't even the constituency she represents and which, by Tea Party conservative standards of federalism, she should have no business demagoguing in the first place! (At least Paladino, the Tea Party-backed GOP candidate for governor of New York, can make the argument that since the Park51 project is in New York, he would be within his Constitutionally protected right as the chief executive of the government of New York, to use state power to squash the liberty of American citizens to build their house of worship in his state. What constitutional claim, even by conservative "don't tread on me" Tea Party standards, does Ellmers have to defend her liberty-squashing position?)

Let's be honest and clear here: the ONLY purpose of this ad by Ellmers is to get elected to office on the promise that the power of holding this office (and voting to send her to this office) is precisely the thing that would ensure carrying out this liberty-squashing campaign promise. And to those who still aren't convinced about the implications of Ellmers campaign promise in this ad, I'd ask you to simply consider this: If someone followed up and asked Ellmers "Sounds good! Let's send those terrorists a strong message! So, how exactly, Ms. Ellmers, are you going to deliver on this promise?" What would she have to say? It would have to be something along the lines of "well, by electing me, you'll give me the power and the chance, as a government representative, to craft, sponsor, support, and/or vote for legislation (because that's what her job would be) that would prevent this from happening." In other words, state-sponsored authoritarianism.

The creep of real anti-liberty authoritarianism (or at least the disturbing roots of it) spreading out among the increasingly more emboldened of the Tea Party candidates. And it's like a domino effect: the more emboldened they get, the more this underlying agenda comes out, no only expressed as the personal opinion of a free citizen but also as the promise of an elected government official in the exercise of their official duties as they see it.