Shortly, very shortly as a matter of fact, after President Obama was inaugurated, the Tea Party sprang into being as a national movement. It dominated Fox News, was heralded by Glenn Beck and others, and emphasized fiscal responsibility. Perhaps its moment in time can be punctuated by the 2010 mid term elections when conservative candidates supported by tea party type groups swept the House of Representatives.
Many of us who were sitting on the sidelines watching predicted that this group was a flash in the pan. We recognized some of the names from other previous conservative political thrusts. Some of us felt that many of the core leadership were simply the values contingency of the Republican party in sheeps clothing. In Vriginia, looking at the work accomplished in the General Assembly during this session’s first half, it appears that little else was done other than legislation dealing with social issues.
Four major abortion bills are still at various stages of passage, drug testing welfare recipients barely got tabled until next year, immigration and citizenship are still being batted around, length of teachers’ contracts are at issue and whether gay couples can adopt have all dominated the political scene. Not much has been done with jobs debt, or employment. Actually more time has been spent on who cannot work than who can work. While the above legislation isn’t the only legislation discussed, it has dominated the floor and the news. The only tax issues seem to be geared at amazon.com.
