Rand Paul: "The president has been co-opted by the Tea Party"

"Young America's Foundation stepped in to save President Reagan'sWestern White House [in santa Barbara] Rancho del Cielo (above), in the spring of 1998 to preserve it as a living monument to Ronald Reagan to pass on [his] ideas to future generations," explains the organization's mission statement. Now Sarah Palin has accepted their invitation to keynote "Reagan 100 celebration" next weekend commemorating the 100th anniversary of The Great Communicator's birth.

"The president has been co-opted by the Tea Party," exulted Rand Paul as he and fellow Republican Senators Jim DeMint and Mike Lee launched their Senate Tea Party Caucus Wednesday. With hats — crowns of laurel? — off to Ovid, "Those three form a multitude":

I went to the State of the Union … and guess who now is against earmarks?

Yes, you, Mr. President. Some of our fellow conservatives flew into a tizzy when Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio declined to join the caucus, but not to worry. Here's Rubio, and then our take:

If all of a sudden being in the Tea Party is not something that is happening in Main Street, but rather something that’s happening in Washington D.C., the "Tea Party" all of a sudden becomes some sort of movement run by politicians … I think that the real power of the Tea Party comes from its ability to drive the debate and the issues from the grassroots up, as opposed to from the politicians down.

Not a problem. As we twittered this morning:

Jim DeMnt, Rand Paul & Mike Lee launch Senate Tea Party Caucus, MarcoRubio declines to join. Room for both. Conservatives don't march in lockstep!

And that's the point that's been eluding some of our old-think fellow conservative opinionators who worried that Michele Bachmann's "unofficial" Tea-Party-Express-sponsored State of the Union response the other night would undermine Paul Ryan's party-sanctioned reply. Predictably, the usual suspects on the other side of the aisle — unmoved by the whole-cloth "new civility" — used Bachmann's presentation as an excuse to mount a same-old, same-old attack on a conservative woman, but in the light of day the next morning, leading conservative commentators acknowledged they'd weathered a tempest in a teapot. Erick Erickson said it best: 

I’m glad I was wrong. And it just goes to show that the narrative of concern, built up in the media in large part by nervous Republicans, was silly. It yet again shows the GOP is unwilling to seriously treat the tea party movement as a legitimate player.

We loved uber-seeker-of-wisdom-and-truth Andrew Breitbart's twitter reaction to the news that Sarah Palin would be keynote speaker (caption at top of post) at Young America Foundation's "Reagan 100 Celebration" (screenshot above). It represents the Fuddy-Duddies of Codevilla's Ruling Class's comeuppance as the Country Class finds its voice. Poking about YAF's web site, we felt as though we had come home. From John Heyward at Human Events:

Her presentation will include reflections on Reagan’s great “Time for Choosing” speech, in which he asked “whether we believe in our capacity for self-government, or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”

Speaking of that "little intellectual elite in a distant capitol," it's beyond irony — chutzpah comes to mind — that our Corporatist in Chief and his minions appear to believe that "We the people" have learned nothing during the first two years of his Administration and are dumb enough to fall for the "optics" of the shiny new Obama-as-Reagan narrative:

"I think Obama's reflecting Reagan's optimism" Joe Trippi told a skeptical Megyn Kelly this afternoon.

No. We knew Ronald Reagan's vision of the Shining City, and central planner that you are at heart, Mr. President, you are no Ronald Reagan.

Update: Ed Driscoll retweets with a comment:

Maybe that explains this.

Update II: Sarah nails it on Facebook:

Consider what his “big government greatness” really amounts to. It’s basically a corporatist agenda – it’s the collaboration between big government and the big businesses that have powerful friends in D.C. and can afford to hire big lobbyists. This collaboration works in a manner that distorts and corrupts true free market capitalism. This isn’t just old-fashioned big government liberalism; this is crony capitalism on steroids. In the interests of big business, we’re “investing” in technologies and industries that venture capitalists tell us are non-starters, but which will provide lucrative returns for some corporate interests who have major investments in these areas.

Update III: Woo hoo: Instalanche!

Update IV: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update V: Maggie's links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[goomp]

Freedom to think followed by freedom to speak and by freedom to act are the foundations of the Tea Party as well as what made the "Shining City".

[Teresa]

Obama-as-Reagan?

It will never fly. Reagan was a basically happy man. Obama is a basically angry man. Never the twain shall meet.

[Ritchie The Riveter]

Sarah gets it ... as I said the other night, expanding government expands the opportunities for the very crony capitalism the Regressives rail against.

And it should be noted that corporate "power" attains oppressive levels ONLY when it can leverage collusion with government to do so. Otherwise, corporate power is quite limited in what it can do to you ... that's why new businesses are able to, on a regular basis, rise up and take the business away from established corporations.

That is, unless the established get government to trade in its striped shirt for a coach's jacket ... then, you get results like ethanol subsidies, funded by (among others) taxing those who would otherwise have the funds to develop a better alternative, faster.

Yet the Progs insist on such expansion as the alternative to the alleged "abuses".

I leave it to the student to determine whether this is evidence of hypocrisy ... or stupidity.

[blast0idVisi0n]

She said "crony capitalism," she must be reading or listening to Mark Levin. =) Even more reason for me to like her. Love Rubio too, love how he put it so brilliantly.

[Doctordan56]

If Palin is correct, the U. S. basically will be rerunning Italy under Mussolini--but, my bad, I'm SURE that the seven-letter "F" word does NOT come close to meeting the "new civility" test.

[Ritchie The Riveter]

Doctordan, it's civil if it's Progressive, soft, cuddly fascism.

[Tennwriter]

Those three form a multitude....Love it.

[Gayle Miller]

This country must and will stand because it is filled with quiet people who are resolute in their dedication to the liberties treasured by citizens of this country.

As far as the so-called "civility" is concerned, I believe this sudden desire of the Dems to be "civil" is just another ploy of theirs to silence the right by accusing the middle and the right of being either uncivil or racist whenever we disagree with them.

You can probably imagine pretty clearly my opinion of that kind of politically correct horse pucky!

The longer I live, the more I realize that every day in every way, when you work in D.C. you are never very far from a flaming moron!

In the meantime, Buddy and Rusty send their love to Tiny and her suitor, Earl Grey!

[Bruce Lee]

Scott's new new Special Advisor on Energy Policy Mary Bane is hoping to find a solution to appease the warring factions that led to renewable energy bills dying in the last three legislative sessions, said Mary Anne Carter, Scott's policy chief.
EVE ISK:http://www.eveiskstores.com/