Nightmare Act

I voted for Governor Jerry Brown in California's last gubernatorial election. In fact, recently, I have voted for more democratic candidates than republican, including President Obama, because I believe they have shown a desire to do what is best for all Americans more than their opposition. However, this could change if I see more actions like Brown signing off on the Dream Act which now makes a college education available to illegal citizens.

I understand the anger and frustration of the Tea Party who have grown tired of seeing tax payer money being spent on citizens disinterested in improving their lives (lifetime welfare recipients) or who do not live here legally. Our country has enough struggling citizens of its own to deal with that it does not need to require tax payers to flip the bill for the education of an illegal immigrant.

I have three children in college and I do not expect their tuition to be paid for by the citizens of Mexico, Honduras, Nigeria or any other nation. I resent seeing the tuition expenses I pay increase by as much as 20 percent a year while the services my kids receive decrease. There is no argument anyone can make that says we should provide for non citizens before we provide for our own. None! And it is especially irksome to people like my wife and I who hold steady jobs, pay our taxes, and began setting aside money for our children's college before we began having kids.

However, I do not see myself jumping on the Tea Party band wagon. While I understand their anger and frustration, all too often it is aimed at the wrong people. I do not understand the level of hatred they blindly express and their desire to see more of a police state in which law enforcement can blindly ask to check our identification if they suspect we look illegal (think of Nazi Germany and the targeting of Jews).

As long as there are an over abundance of lazy Americans who prefer collecting a welfare check over an honest day's pay and who impart that philosophy in their children's minds then we will have a need to hire illegals who are willing to do the work that our own citizens will not do. Still, that does not mean these illegals, or their children, are entitled to attend our colleges, especially at the expense of honest tax payers who struggle to send their own children to school.

Tea Party Victory Will Hurt Republicans

Much has been made about how the Tea Party can claim a huge victory over the recently completed debt ceiling agreement. Much has also been made about how President Obama gave away too much to the upstart wing of the Republican party and how he turned his back on the democrats. I disagree with both.

It is entirely possible, by allowing the Tea Party to taste victory today, Obama has assured himself and his party of a big victory next fall. And in doing so, he and his followers will get to enjoy watching the Republican party implode in the process.

Most democrats will never vote for a Republican presidential candidate. Don't ask me why but they just don't. "But what about a moderate Republican," you ask? Forget it. Republicans do not want a moderate candidate because he or she might end up caving in to democrats the way Obama just gave in to republicans.

Democrats know who their man is already and Obama has over a year to shape the presidential debate to his liking. Meanwhile, the Republican Party may well have a mutiny on their hands.

The Tea Party will not be going away in the next year. They will insist they have a larger voice when it comes to formulating the party platform and will argue their time has justly arrived based on Sunday night's agreement.

However, with the stock market showing little faith in the debt ceiling plan, if the economy continues to falter guess who will now be blamed? The onus is now on the Tea Party who will in turn argue we didn't go far enough with the cuts if the economy does not turn around.

Republican presidential candidates will also be pressured to identify themselves as either representative of the Tea Party wing or traditional wing of the party. Sitting on the fence and trying to placate both will no longer meet the needs of either group. Both will want to get behind their own candidate and fight it out through the primary process. By the time the primaries are done, the Republican Party should be pretty well split into one of two camps and this split should make for a fractured convention. It is even quite conceivable to see the Tea Party break away and run their own third party candidate if they feel the Republican Party is working to silence their movement.

All of this plays into the hands of President Obama and the democrats. While the Republican Party fights their own civil war, democrats will have had plenty of time to mount an efficient raid on retaking the house which would hand Obama all any president could ever hope for in a reelection; both houses of Congress and a splintered opponent.

So while the Tea Party may have won the battle over the debt ceiling debate, they may well have started a civil war within the Republican Party assuring democrats another four years as the majority power broker which would only make Sunday's short term victory a long term defeat.