The TEA Party has it all wrong

The folks that started the whole TEA Party movement seem to think that they are following in the patriotic footsteps of early Americans who dumped a shipload of British tea overboard from a ship in Boston Harbor back in 1773. Their complaint seems to be that taxes are too high and that Americans are paying too many taxes. They think that this was what our forebears were protesting on that night in 1773 when they dumped the tea in Boston Harbor. The trouble is, they're way off base from what they think they are trying to emulate. Had they bothered to read the Declaration of Independence that they so revere, they would find that the original tea partiers were not revolting against taxes, per se, but instead were revolting against the idea that popular consent of the people was not being recognized by an unelected Crown, and this complaint doesn't even come up until the 17th item in the Declaration of Independence. These people seem to think that the current administration is somehow an unelected monarchy and that they are being oppressed by our President, which is nonsense because Obama was elected by a landslide and with the most votes ever cast in a Presidential election. So their complaint that they are not being represented rings very hollow. Another problem with the TEA Party is their misreading of the Constitution. If you know anything about our founding documents, and if you've at all bothered to read them, you will recall that the preamble to the Constitution reads: We The People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Now, lots of these folks are also states-rights-ers who think that the federal government is somehow oppressing them and that the states have sovereignty. Governor Rick Perry of Texas said recently, “The federal government was created by the states to be an agent for the states, not the other way around.” Um, sorry, Governor, you are wrong about that. Read your Constitution, especially those opening words, "We the People". See anything there that says, "We the States"? Nope. Our founders were concerned with establishing a common good for our country, not protecting a wealthy few aristocrats. Remember, these folks were trying to break away from a system where there were peasants and aristocrats and unelected Royalty and they had a vision where, regardless of your station in life, you could get ahead. They also believed that if they were going to be taxed - and they did not object to paying them - that they wanted taxation with elected representation. They weren't anti-government zealots like today's TEA Partiers. They were in favor of consent of the governed. Now, that doesn't always mean that you are going to agree with the people you elect, but that's part and parcel of what our democracy is all about. The people who founded this nation had a very unique vision of a nation were everyone had rights, not just the aristocracy or the royalty. This would be a nation that elected its own leaders and governed itself accordingly. Unfortunately, since history and civics are no longer taught in schools, more and more people are becoming sadly ignorant of this country's history and founding. For those folks, may I suggest a very good book, "Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need To Know About American History but Never Learned" by Kenneth C. Davis. Otherwise, continued ignorance will lead us down a very dangerous path to a future we may not like or want.