Tea Party Politics, the Investor Class, the Opportunity State and the Fight against Statism

With victory on health care in hand, the Obama administration begins to move toward other targets including cap and trade, union card checking, as well immigration reform. But there is theme that is starting to coming up; there is a war against the investor and the entrepreneur.

While visiting Washington, D.C. recently, I talked with National Review Ramesh Ponnuru, and he mentioned to me that we don’t talk about the investor class, as he quipped, “it is so 1990’s.” Yet, the latest health care debate showed the connection between the investor class and government health care theft where Larry Kudlow observed that there will be an additional 3.8% tax on dividends and capital gains tax; striking yet another dagger into the heart of the investor class. Lest we forget, the Bush tax cuts will expire in 2011, adding even more taxes upon the productive sector of our economy.

Health care will add to the cost of doing business and for entrepreneurs as they attempt to expand their own operation. Cap and Trade is another attempt to restructure America with combination of subsidies for selected energy sources at the expense of others, increasing the cost of energy to save the planet and change the way Americans live. The GM subsidy was part of the energy strategy as the Administration took over Chrysler and GM with the idea of forcing GM to build more “green cars” regardless if the public wants them or not.

The Tea Party movement arose due to the opposition of the government attempt to take over 16% of the American economy and the Obama spending spree that threatens to produce trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. The average American saw a government that ignored their own desire and insisted on pushing through a plan that essentially threatened their own health care, while increasing their tax loads. With the recent disclosure that much of the claim that global warming ending the world was based on falsified data and questionable sources, there is resistance to any further attempt to enact any version of cap and trade. The reality is that many of same advocates have promoted dubious claim about health care reform and its cost have also been found to promoting disputed data on global climate change in an effort to further increase government control over our life.

The heath care bill along with the stimulus bill that spent nearly a trillion dollars produced excessive spending and as Obama shed his moderate image to expose the real Obama; the grass root rebellion was on. The Tea Party movement is a short step from the investor class as many members of the Tea Party are part of the investor class and the realization that increased government spending, higher taxes and the government control of the health care industry will not only produced an America that is economically weaker but an America where the next generation will not see improvement in their lives. American decline is but inevitable under Obama economic plan.

For the Tea Party movement, they opposed a political Party that wanted America to resemble a Democratic European socialist state and they wanted no part of being another Sweden. The health care debate opens the door on what is at stake in the 2010 and the 2012 election. The Democratic Party is simply a leftist Party and the blue dog Democrat a mere illusion served to hide the fact that Democratic center died in the aftermath of the Iraq war.

The Republican Party now has an opportunity to be the Party of freedom and the creators of the Opportunity State. There is one thing to consider, this is not just about the 2010 elections, but about the 2012 elections. If the Republicans do manage to win the Congress in 2010, they will be incapable of reversing any of Obama changes instituted this year; but they will have the opportunity if they control the Congress to stop further government programs from being expanded. The Republicans must win the White House to reverse the worst of Obamanomics. Reversal of Obamanomics must be the governing principle of the Republican Party over the next decade and putting an Opportunity state in its place.

The Republicans must begin to rebuild their coalition of social conservatism, Tea Party members and the investor class around the theme of reducing the Giant Leviathan state that is consistently expanding. The most important social issue for the next three years may be the size of government and the idea that bigger government means less opportunity and less freedom. For Republicans, this is a three year war to slay the Leviathan dragon.