The Final Tea Party Frontier
A new Tea Party group in Florida is boldly going where no Tea Parties have gone before 鈥� space.
Tea Party in Space, an offshoot of the South Florida Tea Party, is, of all things, the government鈥檚 supposed monopoly on space exploration.
鈥淥ur goal is nothing less than the expansion of American civilization into the solar system,鈥� says the group鈥檚 . 鈥淲e must return to traditional American free-market principles to expand permanently into space.鈥�
Tea Party in Space is complaining that, as its founder Andrew Gasser said, 鈥淣ASA is being forced to fund programs that are behind schedule and ridiculously over budget.鈥� But that鈥檚 not all. Gasser sees a great ideological principle here: 鈥淚t is socialism when you have the government coming down and saying, 'this is what we want to build, and this is how we want you to build it.鈥欌��
According to Tea Party in Space logic, the Erie Canal, Hoover Dam, our national highway system, and Mount Rushmore are all just examples of unnecessary government socialism.
Of course, Tea Party in Space has a rock-solid standard bearer, proudly noted in its 鈥溾��: 鈥淚 am a child of Ronald Regan [sic], Ronaldus Magnus. 鈥�
Houston, we have a problem.
As NASA recounted in its in honor of Reagan鈥檚 death in 2004, 鈥淧resident Reagan spoke 鈥� about how the shuttles were the modern day equivalent of the Yankee Clipper ships that opened new horizons for our young nation.鈥� In his 1984 State of the Union Address, the statement continues, Reagan 鈥渁nnounced plans for a permanent human presence in space with the construction of a space station, and he tasked NASA to including the international community to be part of a project designed for the benefit of everyone on Earth.鈥�
It seems the Gipper 鈥� or President Magnus, if you prefer 鈥� wasn鈥檛 exactly opposed to a little government socialism now and again when it came to space exploration.
But Tea Party in Space does not consider itself wholly unreasonable. As Andrew Gasser continued, 鈥淭here has to be limited government. There has to be a partnership.鈥�
Unless Tea Party in Space hasn鈥檛 noticed, the U.S. government is no longer the only game in space town. On Tuesday, NASA that is partnering with seven private spaceflight companies to work on new technology for future spaceflights. All of the companies are also producing their own commercial spaceships. And just last week, Boeing plans to finalize its own spacecraft, to be launched by 2015.
Still, you can imagine the placards at the next Tea Party in Space rally: 鈥淜eep your government hands off my Solar System!鈥�
