The Tea Party and the New Right is driven by a utopian worldview

[ck4829]

"Useful idiot!"
"Liberals want to sing kumbaya all day!"
"Marxism/socialism/communism/liberalism/progressivism/whatever is WRONG because it underestimates the human condition!"

How often have you heard something like that from a conservative?

Yeah, I'm starting to think it's projection on their part.

"We need to deregulate the corporations, but don't worry, they will police themselves."
No they won't.

"If the wealthy just had some more tax cuts, then they would use it to create jobs."
Or they can do as they always do when they get tax cuts, stick it all in the Cayman Islands.

"We need to get rid of social programs, but don't worry, private charities will replace them."
If people with billions of dollars and corporations that have benefited from the tax cuts mentioned above aren't creating charities now, then why would they do it just because social programs are no longer around?

It'd be nice if the tea party's world actually existed; a world where the wealthy always look out for those less fortunate, where the corporations view themselves as being accountable to everyone they affect, and where people who get tax cuts just because they're in a certain bracket don't use the tax cut to make their mountain of wealth bigger.

It's too bad, though, that this world doesn't exist.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. It is based on the idea that

those who are selected by God are wealthy, and those who are not...

And it is partly utopian, but goes back a long way back... it is VERY CALVINIST in nature.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I agree...much more Calvinist than Utopian in the usual sense of Utopian.

Wikipedia:
Utopia (pronounced /juːˈtoʊpiə/) is a name for an ideal community or society, which is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system.<1> The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

The word comes from the Greek: οὐ, "not", and τόπος, "place", indicating that More was utilizing the concept as allegory and did not consider such an ideal place to be realistically possible. The English homophone Eutopia, derived from the Greek εὖ, "good" or "well", and τόπος, "place", signifies a double meaning.

VERSUS

The Christian doctrines taught preeminently by John Calvin. Emphasis is placed on the sovereignty of God, and one distinctive of the system is its doctrine of predestination, which teaches that a special few are predetermined for salvation by God.

Five points of Calvinism
<snip>

* Total depravity: The doctrine of total depravity (also called "total inability") asserts that, as a consequence of the fall of man into sin, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin. People are not by nature inclined to love God with their whole heart, mind, or strength, but rather all are inclined to serve their own interests over those of their neighbour and to reject the rule of God. Thus, all people by their own faculties are morally unable to choose to follow God and be saved because they are unwilling to do so out of the necessity of their own natures. (The term "total" in this context refers to sin affecting every part of a person, not that every person is as evil as possible.)<6>

Main article: Total depravity

* Unconditional election: The doctrine of unconditional election asserts that God's choice from eternity of those whom he will bring to himself is not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people. Rather, it is unconditionally grounded in God's mercy alone.<7>

Main article: Unconditional election

* Limited atonement: Also called "particular redemption" or "definite atonement", the doctrine of limited atonement asserts that Jesus' substitutionary atonement was definite and certain in its design and accomplishment. This implies that only the sins of the elect were atoned for by Jesus' death. Calvinists do not believe, however, that the atonement is limited in its value or power (in other words, God could have elected everyone and used it to atone for them all), but rather that the atonement is limited in the sense that it is designed for some and not all. Hence, Calvinists hold that the atonement is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect.<8> The doctrine is driven by the Calvinistic concept of the sovereignty of God in salvation and their understanding of the nature of the atonement.

Main article: Limited atonement

* Irresistible grace: The doctrine of irresistible grace (also called "efficacious grace") asserts that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (that is, the elect) and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith. This means that when God sovereignly purposes to save someone, that individual certainly will be saved. The doctrine holds that every influence of God's Holy Spirit cannot be resisted, but that the Holy Spirit, "graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ."<9>

Main article: Irresistible grace

* Perseverance of the saints: Perseverance (or preservation) of the saints. The doctrine asserts that, since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated by humans or anything else, those whom God has called into communion with himself will continue in faith until the end. Those who apparently fall away either never had true faith to begin with or will return.<10> The word saints is used in the Biblical sense to refer to all who are set apart by God, not in the technical sense of one who is exceptionally holy, canonized, or in heaven (see Saint).

[Ron Green]

2. Their Utopia leads directly to Dystopia,

and that's the problem and the Lie about their precious Free Market.

[Robb]

3. Fringe movements usually concern themselves with utopian goals.

No matter the political leaning. It's part of their charm.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. This sums it all up for me...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SqhhJb_P3Kk/TCJgH4WvoJI/AAAAAAAAMYE/Vo8IuIuBa5M/s400/Libertarian+lifeguard.jpg

[damntexdem]

6. Well, I think of it as a dystopian world view.

But it is definitely highly-ideological and reality-challenged.