Thursday, June 24, 2010

Tempests Within Tea Pots

Today some leaders of some tea party groups decided that they would try to push a number of candidates to 'withdraw' from their respective races. As crazy as it sounds, tea party supporters are condemning grassroots candidates!

The condemnation comes as a result of these candidates wanting to run under the Florida TEA Party banner. Since the Florida Division of Elections recognized TEA a a political party, lots of folks have decided to run under this new third party.

But this has not sat well with some people. These tea party activists have engaged in a relentless campaign to smear and destroy this new political party.

Their reasons boil down to 1) it will split the vote and 2) it is being funded by Democrats. None of these two objections are proven, but there are bigger problems ahead.

When people start to intimidate candidates something has gone terribly wrong. If anyone wants to run for office, they have that free right. Debate the issues and make your choices.

Let's hope that we can return to the importance of platforms and qualifications.

Name calling and rumor-mongering do little except to stir the pot of hatred. Besides, most people prefer their tea with a bit of sweetener to take away the bitterness.

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