I've been defending them based on property rights but this article makes a lot of sense to me. "Keep your eyes on the BS while I shove this hot coal up your ass called more government" type magic act the GOP seems to have become so good at these past several years.
And Cato could be quite right on some level - the established leadership of the Republican Party is almost as much the problem as the Democrat leadership in creating the current fiscal and international mess facing America.
That is why the Tea Party Movement is such a fascinating and truly grassroots entity - a wide ranging but loosely affiliated movement of basic common themes regarding smaller less intrusive government and fiscal responsibility. These themes cut across party affiliation, showing up among many Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. It is forcing the Republican Party to reconnect with those themes not only in word, but deed. Some within the party are fighting this - they have become establishment figures, comfortable in the ways of Washington DC and all the perks contained therein.
BUT, the dismay/anger/outrage that many Americans feel in having a Muslim Mosque erected within the shadow of Ground Zero, in a building that was damaged by large debris from one of the planes, is very real - and like the Tea Party Movement, those feelings cut across party lines. The CATO article stops short of delving into the reality of these feelings and Obama's yet again clumsy and self-involved handling of a very sensitive subject. The Republicans are benefiting from this no doubt - aided greatly by Obama and his overt stupidity...
