THE TEA PARTY ROOTS ARE ABOUT REJUVENATION OF AMERICA BEYOND CONTROLLING DEBT AND SPENDING
In his book The Liberal Betrayal of America and the Tea Party Firestorm, Dr. William Davis Eaton, relates how it all began on December 3, 1964 on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, when war was declared against all aspects of American society.
Following Berkeley’s lead, campus protests, sit-ins, and riots were instigated in hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, all propagating an insurgent hatred of America. As the rioting students of the 60’s graduated into society they began their “long march through the institutions” of America, generating what has come to be known as the culture war. Some stayed on to secure campus radicalism as tenured professors. This is not conjecture on Eaton’s part – it is based on what he himself learned as a former professor who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in political science.
Eaton’s book maintains that “the culture war was, in fact, a muted Civil War with the purpose of destroying that which exists and replacing it with something else. This new Civil War directly affects, among others, universities and schools, the media, churches, sexual behavior, the family, courts, the rule of law – and has, in one way or another, captured, corrupted or destroyed the main ideals and institutions of our nation.”
However, Eaton believes “this Civil War lacked a coherent goal – a leader to form and guide its deceptive power to a specific end – to create a vision of what was to replace what was being destroyed.” In the presidential election of 2008 that leader appeared, and to a restless nation, his cries of Hope and Change rang true. The meaning of ‘transformative’ change that was hinted at in campaign rhetoric became abundantly clear after January 20, 2009 when Americans were informed that their country is no longer a Christian nation, or an exceptional nation. “That,” Eaton says, “is when the Sleeping Giant of the true America was awakened and the Tea Party was born.” The Liberal Betrayal of America and the Tea Party Firestorm describes “transformative” change as the instrument of an insurgent intent to destroy and replace. “But if the institutions and hopes of a free society are to be discarded and society transformed, both logic and history tell us that the society to come will be un-free and without hope.”
Eaton points to the description made by the first president of the Czech Republic after the breakup of the Soviet Union when he said “totalitarian tyranny is layer upon layer of impenetrable bureaucracies,” with each bureau designed to monitor and regulate some aspect of the lives of those under its boot until the lives and hopes of every citizen is subject to the long tentacles of government regulation. Eaton believes this is exactly what awoke the sleeping American giant in the form of the Tea Party that saw the enactment of healthcare, financial regulation and government control of the auto, banking, and other industries as leading to a complete transformation of their system of free enterprise and constitutional government.
Dr. Eaton believes his book gives answers to why Americans were so ready to receive the Tea Party; fearful that their nation was starting to look more like the mayhem in Europe, created by entitlement and dependence on government, than one that was founded on private enterprise and individual freedoms.
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TIP SHEET:
Blogcritics Review: “…Liberal Betrayal of America and the Tea Party Firestorm is a fascinating book for people of all persuasions. The Right is going to love it, and the Left should read it to find out what the Tea Party and their ilk really think. In the end my opinion is that William Davis Eaton is a kind of a cranky old fellow, but definitely a compelling one.”
Night Owl Review: “…vivid account of 60’s campus turmoil by Berkeley prof…
National Review of Conservative Books: “Forceful prose…should be a hit with Republicans.”
The Nation in Review: “Should be a hit with Republicans.”
Jack Of Alltrades Amazon Book Review: “Not every day a Berkeley professor attacks the liberal elite, but Eaton has pulled it off here – and with gusto. Tea Party believers will want to read this!
