Editor, Times-Union: This letter is to help my readers understand how or why I perceived the Tea Party as terrorist.
As I watched the debt-ceiling debacle, I remembered a book I once read by renowned author Barbara Mackinnon titled “Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues.” One theory Mackinnon stressed in her book was a principle called “The Social Harm Principle.” According to the harm principle, the law may rightly restrict a person from doing what he wants in order to prevent him from harming others. People can be harmed, or injured by the creation of a certain climate or social setting.
For example, if a society is a democracy, then anything that seriously erodes public participation in political decision making is a “threat” to that society. If a society is a theocracy, then anything that will seriously erode the role of religious leaders is a “threat” (causes injury) to that kind of society. In other words, in any society anything that seriously threatens its ability to function is an injury to its continued existence.
It seems the debt-ceiling crisis was a manufactured crisis by the Tea Party which negatively affected (fiscal policy) the spending, taxing and borrowing policies of our government in a free market (demand) economy.
According to Keynesian view, fluctuations in consumer spending (aggregate demand) are the major source of economic disturbances. Wise use of fiscal policy (government) can help stabilize and maintain demand.
According to James Gwartney, in his book titled “Macroeconomics: Private and Public Choice,” when an economy is operating below its potential capacity (we are still in a recession), an expansionary fiscal policy is needed (an increase in government spending). According to the Keynesian prescription, government spending is the main vehicle to lift an economy from a recession.
The Tea Party wants to dismantle, or cause injury to the very vehicle that has the potential to lift us out of a recession.
To summarize, violence is generally thought of as the use of physical force to cause injury to another or others. However, according to Mackinnon, most scholars agree that violence also applies infringement of another in some way. It also has the sense of something intense or extreme. Consequently, taking hostage of the debt ceiling by the Tea Party seems to have caused injury to our government and society as a whole.
Now I want to clarify want I mean by terrorism. There are many different definitions of terrorism. According to Mackinnon, the terms first known use was during the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Defense defines terrorism as “the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”
Terrorism is a particular kind of violence. I believe that all three of these: politics, religion and ideologies are a part of the Tea Party agenda, which they are trying to impose on all society.
