CPSIA – Am I a Tea Partier?

I have heard the comment that I am too harsh on the Democrats and risk marginalizing myself as some sort of Right Wing Nutjob, a Tea Party extremist.

Is this a fair criticism?

My POV is that this criticism fails to take into account my experiences in this business tragedy and does not consider that my views and my anger did not come from the sky – they were built, block by block, by Congressional Democrats and by the leadership at the CPSC.

I won’t defend my being perpetually angry at the agency or Congress for their defiant stance of indifference. [Some Dems cloak their indifference in words of sympathy, never matched by actions consistent with their purported tears. I follow actions, not words, and prefer to ignore insincere blubberings unless something concrete is offered. It never is.] I have been working on this project for three years now, and actively working to get the CPSIA fixed for almost two years. That’s a punishing death march, guys, particularly since almost everything I have written or pushed for has been disregarded or completely ignored. It seems improbable that I have been wrong about everything without exception for two long years – even a blind squirrel finds the occasional acorn. Hence the anger and the mounting frustration.

Of course, there are other sources of anger and frustration. The process of implementing this flawed law by the CPSC has destroyed so much good in the process. What we have left is much less protective of public health or well-being. The constant media pandering and the relentless positioning of businesses and business people as evil societal elements that must be controlled is, frankly, embittering. Under the pressure of this relentless drumbeat, it is hard to not feel unprotected and in great danger. We have no defenders and are on notice that we are prime suspects.

No defense, but please someone, tell me, what am I supposed to do now? Grin and bear it? Give in and pretend everything’s okay? If you think either option is realistic, you really don’t understand my situation or my motivation. These aren’t realistic options. I am fighting off doomsday – grin-and-bear-it doesn’t work when the Grim Reaper is coming your way. And there are no days off.

So if I can’t go along to get along and if the CPSC and Congress have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have made up their mind and have no interest in me or my problems, what options are left to me? The process of advocacy that I have been practicing and that I have been financing hasn’t produced enough results – we are still in the soup. If I can’t give up and if what I am doing just doesn’t work – logic suggests I need to do something else.

So what I have been doing is telling the truth – it’s the Dems who have done all this and it’s the Dems who refuse to fix it. It’s the Dems who won’t listen and it’s the Dems that refuse to acknowledge their errors. If everyone in Congress voted to save their job by supporting passage of the CPSIA in August 2008 rather than face reelection attack ads, that was then and this is now. The Dem leadership has chosen to ignore the OBVIOUS and continue to deny that anything can or should be done in this matter. There’s nothing wrong or politically-incorrect about speaking the truth – and that’s the truth. We are where we are because of the Dems. They own it.

If the politicians who are busily engaged in snuffing out our business enterprises won’t listen and cannot be influenced, then what’s left to me? I must enter the political arena to specifically target them for removal. And that’s what I am doing. It’s only fair – they act like they want my business dead. So we need to put different people in their place. And we need to do it right away.

If this makes me a Tea Partier or a Right Wing nutjob, so be it. My head is not bowed. My customers, my suppliers and my working associates and partners know where I stand. I am fighting for our business life and will not rest until the people responsible for this mess are brought to justice.

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CPSIA – Am I a Tea Partier?