By Timothy V. Gatto

I’m watching the Tea-Partiers, Glenn Beck and Alex Jones with interest, you see me and people like me are exactly the ones they profess to hate, Liberal Progressives. It makes me chuckle when I hear their complaints. Allow me to bring up some of their major complaints so we are all on the same page here.

One of their chief complaints according to The New York Times article written by veteran investigative journalist David Barstow’s “Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right” is an all-powerful Federal Government that tramples on the people’s rights by spying on citizen’s, reading their e-mails and accessing their computers with no oversight. Well, gee folks, seems like this Liberal Progressive has been writing about this very same set of circumstances since the Patriot Acts were imposed by the Federal Government in their phony war on terrorism. It seems that the war is on us; the very citizen’s that the government is supposed to protect.

I hear the Republicans trying to co-opt the Tea Party movement by trying to ingratiate themselves at every opportunity. I just want to remind those in the Tea Party that these are the same people that brought you The Global War on Terrorism and have managed to obtain almost 800 military bases, a new Navy Fleet South America and have gotten us into two wars in the Mid-East and promulgating the largest Federal Jobs Program that was ever invented in the Free World, the defense budget of the United States of America.

The Tea Partiers and Glenn Beck decry Progressives and their concept of “communities”. WTF? Isn’t Glenn Beck a participating member of A.A.? This is probably the largest “community” of people in the United States. If he isn’t a participating member, than he is on a dry drunk like George Bush was and has a huge problem with narcissism. When Beck rants he constantly contradicts himself. Anyone that has been following this nation’s slide into fascism for any period of time can see what Beck is trying to explain, but the poor guy is over his head. Blaming Progressives, Socialists and Liberals is not going to render him any answers to explain what is happening to our representative form of government. The word Glenn is FASCISM. Once you get past all that right-wing clutter in your head you’ll probably see that true Progressives, Socialists and Liberals are all on the same page. We all want our liberty unimpeded by a security state that wants to control the people’s every movement.

When Beck and some Tea Partiers get on the “Hate Progressive’s” bandwagon, just take a moment and look at the people you are vilifying. We have no love for Barack Obama, he has turned his back on us since the day he was elected President. We want to scrap the Patriot Act, Get rid of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, get rid of these FEMA Camps that have been built. We want to get corporate influence out of Congress and hold the people who represent us accountable. We, like Ron Paul, want out of these illegal wars that aren’t being fought under Congressional approval. The President, under the War Powers Act is supposed to inform Congress of all developments every 90 days. So far the Executive Branch has not lived up to that obligation and that is a violation of the law.

Divide and conquer is the prime reason for the two corporate political parties that have existed far beyond their expiration date. The Republicans don’t represent the Tea Partiers as much as the Democrats don’t represent Progressives. It’s true, Conservatives and Progressives have their differences, but not on the all important issues of liberty, true representation in the Federal government, and end to these useless wars and the infringements of our rights under the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. We may disagree about entitlement programs, but then again I don’t see many Tea-Partiers giving back their military retirements, their Social Security checks (that they paid into) or their Medicare benefits. I know I won’t give any of my entitlements back; there is no doubt in my military mind.

The Tea-Partiers, as long as they are not co-opted by the far right will find common cause with Progressives if they only stop and read what we have been writing and speaking out about for the last 10 years. We all must stop listening to the Democrats and Republicans that stay up late at night to figure ways to divide us. We all want our government back in the hands of the people, not corporate sell-outs that take our hard earned tax money and give it to the parasites on Wall Street.

Any differences we have we can work out. Gun ownership is just as important to the Left as it is to the Right. It’s the Federal government that wants to take away our right to bear arms under the Constitution. When I listen to Ron Paul, I agree with much of what he says. The Fed should be abolished; I think we can all agree on that. Why pay them interest on our own money? True Progressives have been bitching about that for years. The Fed makes the bankers rich, some of the bankers aren’t even American citizens. What a travesty!

Yeah, I’m with you on getting our liberties back. I’m with Ron Paul when he says we should avoid these foreign entanglements. I’m with Alex Jones when he cautions us against a police state. I have my questions about 9/11. I have my fears about a security state. I don’t trust the two-party system. I fear hyper-inflation from printing fiat money. Hell, anyone with any sense fears these things! You Tea-Partiers didn’t invent these issues, we on the Left have been screaming for years. Maybe it’s time we started listening to each other.

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timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Book "Complicity to Contempt" and his Novel "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors From Oliver Arts and Open Press and available on Amazon and all other online bookstores.