If the Tea Party is fighting for the soul of the country, then the Tea Party must lose.

Sinclair Lewis the great American writer once said, "if fascism ever comes to America it will come wrapped in the American flag".

Welcome to the Tea Party.

Leaders of the Tea Party movement have said that they are fighting for the soul of the country and that is what they see the November elections as being all about. If that's true, then that's enough of a reason for disgruntled and disheartened Democrats and independents to go to the polls in November -- to make sure the Tea Party candidates lose. Because as Sinclair Lewis pointed out in another time, the Tea Party is not what they pretend to be.

They claim to be against big government but big government is fine with tea party conservatives as long as it's in the service of the things they want the government to enforce. More times than not that means using the government to force their own ideas and values down other people's throats, values that are closer to fascism than democracy and values most people reject as did the Founders of the country.

Social conservatives, many who claim to be against government interference, have always hypocritically supported government interference as long as the government was interfering in the things they believe in, things that people refuse to embrace willingly and so they want to use the power of government to force people into compliance.

As their swastikas and socialism signs showed, they are totally against the government having anything to do with whether a person can get healthcare whether they can afford it or not, but firmly believe the government should pass and enforce laws forcing a woman to complete an unwanted pregnancy, taking the decision out of her hands and placing it in the government's.

In the thirties, social conservatives had no problem having big government interfere by preventing someone being able to buy a drink or a beer, something that spawned organized crime, or preventing women from voting, or interfering with where certain people could live, go to school, vote, eat lunch, watch a movie, or what kind of jobs they could hold, and in Griswold vs. Connecticut, a Supreme Court case social conservatives lost, whether people should be able to use contraceptives in the privacy of their own homes.

Most of these conservatives today, as evidenced from extremist conservative blogs, watching Tea Party members on TV and looking at poll results, are, to put it bluntly, either brainwashed or dumb. Virtually nothing they have to say are supported by facts. They give every indication that they are people who either cant or wont think for themselves, but think and believe what they are told to think, disregarding every shred of common sense. Because what they are told to think fits their view that their values are right and everyone else is wrong. And there are no shortages of "leaders" willing to exploit them.

Some religions operate on this premise and the religious fervor and in many cases fanaticism of conservatives easily translate into their politics, the reason Jefferson and the Founders insisted on erecting a constitutional wall between religion and the function of the government.

Most of these people as a recent poll showed, are people who, if confronted with facts that refute their beliefs, will dig in their heels even more, reject the facts and redouble their beliefs. This explains why in so many polls, conservatives express opinions that fly completely in the face of history and facts. They claim to support certain principles but when these principles were violated wholesale by Bush and the Republicans, they ignored it.

Many of these people are angry and bitter, people feeling screwed by life and who think they are on the short end of everything, and most of what they are about politically, a point of view which Republicans are all too happy to accommodate, is all about what they don't want other people to have. Whether its health care for all, gays having legally sanctioned partnerships, gays serving in the military, or extending unemployment, they are against it even when these issues have nothing to do with their own lives.

They support Republicans blindly and most are in denial that it was Clinton who eliminated the deficit and Bush who exploded it, that it was Clinton and Democrats who passed policies that resulted in the greatest economic expansion in history and Republicans who brought about the greatest economic crisis since the depression. That it was Bush's gross negligence with regards to national security that allowed 911 to happen even though it was easily preventable, resulting in the worst attack on American soil in history.

Conservatives in general claim to the "real" Americans, the real "patriots" but ignored that it was Bush who was accountable for the worst attack on America in history. To Tea Party conservativs none of this matters. That it was a conservative president and congress that wrecked havoc on the country doesnt matter. They have showed in polls that they even want more.

Most of what conservative think and believe from economics to morality to concepts of individual freedom has never worked. Because their ideas are not about freedom, but only about the freedom to force their ideas on other people. What to this day, most conservatives resent most, is the cultural and political revolutions that took place in the Sixties that overturned all those beliefs, eliminated their power, and proved so much of what they believed was false. That the results of that revolution are in place today and are part of every day life galls them even more, whether its issues of race, gender equality or the environment.

Hypocrisy is a hallmark of the Tea Party Conservatives, who are now complaining about deficits.These same Tea Party activists kept their mouths shut from 2000 to 2008 while George W. Bush and a Republican congress did more damage to the country in 8 years than any foreign enemy has been able to do in more than 200 years.

Bush and the Republican congress destroyed the balanced budget inherited from a liberal president, sent the country into the biggest deficits in history, blew a $5 1/2 trillion budget surplus, ignored warnings that we were going to be hit with a massive terrorists attack, dismissed terrorism as a threat, pushed the country into a pre-emptive war to protect us against WMD that hadn't existed for 10 years, ignored intelligence that said so, mismanaged the war, and brought the country to the biggest economic crisis since the Depression. And conservatives refuse to admit any of it. Which is why when a recent conservative blog asked who were the worst Americans in history, the majority answered FDR.

Which shows Tea Party activists to be not just hypocrites, but walking caldrons of resentment, anger, products of brainwashing and people who are estranged from facts and reality. Angry people who are always about what they dont want other people to have.

That they can influence outcomes of Republican primaries and have any sway at all with Republican voters is just more proof of what motivates the people who elected and then re-elected George W. Bush. And given their druthers they would want more of the same. Which is reason enough for people to go to the polls in November and make sure they lose.