The Tea Party Thread

I think they'll ultimately hurt their cause. Although maybe that's just me being optimistic.

I really wish the Teabaggers and Fundies would split off into their own insane fringe party so that the Republicans would bounce back a little more centrist and give some of the Dem fringes the balls to creep out from under that tent.

But I realize that's just a pipe dream.

One of the most frustrating things about Tea Party types: how they keep making their stance as people who have HAD ENOUGH after YEARS of big government screwing the common man, like we're halfway through Obama's second term or something (not that that is what is happening, but y'know, going with their premise...) Granted, the response to that is usually "oh, we're not affiliated with the republicans, either", but come on, you didn't see these guys coming out when Bush was in charge. It's this absurd positioning that allows them to pretend that they're outside the system, speaking truth to power no matter who it hurts, etc.

They dont have to make sense. Thats one huge advantage of the entire right wing loony way of thought, its a conviction, a religion, rather than an argumentative disposition.
Which is why there is an inherent uphill battle for democrats in these days and years: They lose a lot more of their voters if they get nasty, they have to actually make sense and do stuff. Republicans just have to be, well, republicans, and get a guaranteed vote from enough of the electorate to be a threat.

And the GOP knows it, which is where, IMO, the Tea Party Movement comes into play. Its basically a bunch of mad men running loose, but the GOP knows its not going to cost them a lot to keep it running. On the other hand, it creates insane amounts of media coverage, and a constant worry for democrats who havent yet realized that taking a stance against this movement, and defending yourself against it all the time, is just giving them power and acknowledgement.

History tells us that in times of struggle, or just change, there is room for emotionally-driven forces that do not need to be reasonable, logical or even sensible in their demands, to grow and possibly take over.
Its often a straw fire, burning out quickly, though sometimes stuff like nazi germany has happened.

The Tea Party plays by different rules, and you, me, and a lot of others, keep trying to beat them on the court of reason and logic, when they arent even playing there. They succeed by appealing to emotions of rage, distrust, frustration and insecurity, and no amount of discussion and arguments can change these feelings.

I believe the real danger of the Tea Party Movement is yet to come: Screwing up an election to the point where a real madman becomes the GOPs best chance to win (a Palin, for example), subsequently doing a lot of damage to the country before the storm blows over. It has happened here in Austria, where a right-wing nutjob populist douche managed to grab one legislation period, did enormous damage to the country, was subsequently dropped by his supporters like a hot potato... but the repercussions were felt a decade more.

I sincerely hope the Tea Party splits up along its many ideological lines before it becomes powerful enough to dictate the next candidate of the GOP in 2012. Because if I know one thing about Republicans, they may grumble and whine, but they rather win with a Palin, than lose with a moderate Rep.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...conservatives/

EDIT: Amanda Marcotte, via Pandagon:
I can buy this, especially considering one teabagger-esque dude I board with elsewhere just posted a link to a news article about Obama's plan to increase the child care tax credit and an increase in federal funding for childcare programs with the winning line "Just what we need, more incentives for people to have countless bastard children!"

...Far TOO rational...

Needs to be your next avatar, Dickson.

He's in the mix for the year. Only problem is, his name is kind of long to fit in the sig line.

Use the one in the block of concrete and 'Shop his name on the front of it.

His name is mostly sound effects though.

I had to stop trolling the #tcot hashtag on twitter. I think it gave me heart palpitations. I'm not sure if there's anyone thinking anything. It's just so much bile, so much repetition. It's really ugly, like satanic ugly.

It's not the Tea Party. I don't know a single person who still supports Obama, the general attitude is they made a huge mistake electing an inexperienced blowhard and they should have voted for Hillary in the primary. These are the people that bought the Obama lighters, volunteered for him, went out and tried to talk people into voting for him, etc..

Admittingly, I'm not even that hard on the guy, mostly because I knew better and didn't have any 'hope' attached to his Presidency.

Snaike, go to twitter and punch in #tcot in the search window. Those aren't any kind of thinking people who have "become" disillusioned with Obama. It's like they're possessed by demons--I'm not kidding. Check it out. One guy just typed "marxist marxist marxist" over and over again. It's a cult.

I hope there's a more rational tea party group on twitter because I'm interested in what they have to say but reading their tweets was like listening to the voices in an insane asylum.

Did you know a single person who EVER supported Obama?

I don't tweet, I barely facebook and that's mostly to play bejewel blitz (sp?).

Honestly though, what makes more sense? To have a small group of people posting over and over again all over the internet (go see any comments of any article on any news site, RCT or politico etc... ) or that those people who were so emotionally invested in the Obama Presidency feel so betrayed that emotionally they're lashing out? This doesn't mean they wont vote Democrat again.. it just means they're expressing anger and frustration over the fact Obama hasn't delivered on his many lofty promises. You remember his first piece of legislation? Stimulus. Voters were told it wouldn't kick in right away, it wouldn't happen until next year and things would get better. Here we are next year and things aren't better and what did the Administration say about it? the effects peaked last year!

After having the Democrats run for years on lofty promises "if you vote for us, we'll impeach Bush!" ... that never happened. "Vote for us and we'll get out of Iraq!" ... that never happened. "Vote for us stop runaway health care costs" .. that hasn't happened and what they've been throwing around in congress doesn't even come close to stoping that ... and the list goes on and on (stimulus, see above) You can only lie to people for so long before they get dissuaded.

Dude, really, what? This is a thread about the Tea Party folks. yt posts about the top conservatives on twitter group, you quote him and go "its not the Tea Party"; yt replies that you should check it out, and you go "I don't tweet".

I mean, it's fine if you want to talk about your idea that no one supports Obama anymore (which is pretty WTF to me as well, at least in the hilariously hyperbolic terms you put it), but if you quote someone's post people are gonna assume that you're, y'know, talking about what they've just written.

I know, this is the new racist meme.

Anyone who is against Obama who is conservative or independant must be a tea party member.. it makes sense right? I mean, it couldn't be that sane people are against "The One"

No, but sane people aren't chanting "Marxist!" either.

For the last six years I lived in CT while working in NY, prior to that I lived in NM and NV.. so in a word, yes.

They did this exact thing in 1980. They called it the "Republican Party." Really, every vestige of what the Republican Party was before Reagan poisoned it is long dead. The "grassroots," the party leadership, the elected officials--even fucking John McCain--are all either batshit insane fundamentalists or people who have completely capitulated their wills to the truly batshit insane and are just walking shells of their former selves. That Zombie Reagan skit from the Onion is barely satire and that's just sad.

What the GOP needs, I think, is for the racist, Neo-Confederate wing of the party that currently runs it to actually get their way, purge the party of everyone who is left of Demint, and fail miserably in elections for a few years. That way, even the "movement conservative" morons who think a drug addict, racist, misogynist, sex tourist, draft dodger, pig of a man with a high school education like Limbaugh has a deep understanding politics would eventually give sane people like Colin Powell an actual shot at the brass ring.

Whenever Snaieke thinks he smells a little Democratic blood in the water, he starts thrashing his fins about and starts posting frequently again hoping for a conservative feeding frenzy. It didn't happen in 2006, it didn't happen in 2008, and it ain't happening now.

It's funny how when Democrats get elected, it's just a fluke, or some evil underground treachery, or that millions of over-emotional poor needy souls got fooled by some uppity theatrical election manipulation shenanigans, or that evil rich elitist Northener city-slickers* figured out how to steal the election from the God-fearing Red States, but whenever Republicans get elected it shows a MANIFEST WILL OF THE PEOPLE and a STEADFAST RESOLVE TO RIGHT THE SHIP and that people have finally seen through the haze and COME TO THEIR SENSES.

Sheesh.


*Unless of course you're a Republican, then of course your rich elitist status is well-earned and worthy of praise and tax cuts.

What is that picture?

It's the Silly Party candidate from the Monty Python "Election Night Special" sketch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU

That makes complete sense.

Anyway, the Teabaggers are going nowhere. The GOP establishment used the fundies to get into power and they'll use these ignorant mouth-breathers to get back in, unfortunately.

Isn't there supposed to be a Tea Party convention this week or has everyone except for Sarah Palin drop out?

I mean how bad is it when Michelle Bachman backs out of a crazy right wing gig?

This makes my stomach turn.

The tea partiers now have a new American flag that they say is a signal of a "second American revolution" (You know, cause electing a black guy ruined the first one...?)

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/tea-part...splaying-flag/

Came across this after reading about Tancredo's remarkably racist comments at the Tea Party convention. I saw the clips, it was like he was doing a George Wallace impression

That shit is scary and evil

That shit is stupid that's what it is, plus the flag looks ugly as hell.

American Revolution II: Revolution Harder

yt - Follow jnsmall on Twitter. She's a reporter for Time who's covering the convention. I think that will balance you out karmically.

My favorite thing I've seen about the Tea Party convention all week? On Shakesville, an increasingly hit-or-miss feminist blog, they've taken to referring to Michelle Bachmann as "Michelle Bachmann (R-o_O)." Makes me giggle every time.

I love the fact they put 13 stars on their retarded flag, but none of the 13 states those stars represent would ever have anything to do with their racist movement

The Washington Post has a great write up of the convention. The gist of it is that the people are united in hatred of Obama and nothing else. This quote sums it up nicely....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?nav=hcmodule

There's alot wrong with the Republican Party (not the least of which is flirting with this movement and legitimizing it) but at least they are somewhat united in what they want to do besides hate on the president and Democrats.

If by "people" they mean "Fox news", then yes.

Seriously though, I'm prepared to accept that the movement has evolved beyond astroturf, and if there are people who aren't just doggedly lining up behind the Republicans (or knee-jerkingly reacting to their fear of a black president), then that could be progress. But I fear this is just what we've been getting from the right for a long time: lip service to the idea of criticizing the Republicans, while uniformly serving their ends.

Thanks MissZooey, I will. What I hope is that the tea party people who are more dialed into the real things to be organizing about (i.e. foreign wars, corporate takeover etc) will find a way to separate themselves from the Obama haters and racists. If you think about it, Ron Paul had a pretty active movement going on before it got usurped by Dick Armey, Fox News and the "Morans" crowd.

I'd argue that the guys with the "Morans" signs were always the Ron Paul crowd. The libertarian wing of the Republican Party, including Ron Paul, is just as batshit insane as the Christian fundamentalist wing. Market anarchism is really as batshit insane as thinking people can get while having a coherent political philosophy.

While I agree with you about the libertarian philosophy being bat$#*% insane, I would argue that Ron Paul gained his huge following not through the bones of the actual philosophy but by his willingness to speak truth in high profile forums (i.e. on the idiotic corporate news shows and Republican debates) about Bush's maxed out credit cards, the insanity/corruption of the Fed and our foreign interventionism. He remains the only major politician to ever speak realistically about why al Qaida is after the US. In spite of the fantasy at the heart of libertarianism, I can see why somebody would be drawn to Ron Paul as a politician (that is, for people who don't delve too deeply into his core beliefs).

I think the "Moran" crowd is more of a result of uninformed people being brainwashed by the constant word-terrorism of Glenn Beck and his ilk, along with the persistent undercurrent of racism that still simmers pretty thickly in this country.

Yet this movement is entirely made up of McCain voters, right? I still think their hardline crazy will turn the moderates away in droves when it counts most.

Please don't associate real Libertarianism with people like Ron Paul. It's a term that's been hijacked to peddle this mutual masturbation society between our consumer driven lifestyle/economy and big business. We really need to fucking take that name back while we burn the fucking Cato Institute to the ground with torches made from the bones of Milton Friedman.

Do you think someone like Proudhon or Lysander Spooner would be palling around with Sarah Palin at a "Tea Party"?

/angry derail with a whole lotta "fuckings" in it.

You picked a real winner, tea partiers.

That's your 2012 candidate for president right there.

Good god.

Gah. She´s a maverick you see. No need for one of those fancy teleprompter thingies those elitists use.

Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps giving.

I hope she's nominated. It would be Goldwater 2.0

Michele Bachman thought they are to crazy. That should tell you something

Agreed.Or maybe she'll be stupid enough to run as a 3rd party candidate when she get destroyed in the primaries.

Never count out stupid and mean people in the Republican Party. This is the ultimate lesson of the rise of Ronald Reagan.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that Palin will get through the primaries by playing the same victim-of-the-media and sexism cards that she played during the early days of the 2008 general election and then picks someone who doesn't scare the living fuck out of people who spend a portion of their time thinking and reading as the VP, much like Reagan did.

Her only serious competitors are Jindal, Romney, Brown, and Huckabee. The establishment of the party hates the fuck out of Huckabee because he actually has sane economic policy ideas, which negates the good will he has with the religious fundamentalists on social issues. Brown will probably run for Governor and build up more of a record to run on and further distance himself from his nude modeling days. Romney is a Mormon and there is no getting around the fact that the Michele Bachmans of the world hate Mormons just a tad bit more than they hate atheists. Jindal is brown. Palin is totally the frontrunner in the GOP 2010 primaries.

You know what's hilarious? What she actually wrote on her hand. Hard to remember stats? Dates?

No, apparently THIS is the kind of stuff she can't remember unless it's written on her hand

God, that would be wonderful. That would absolutely destroy and marginalize the crazy hardcore right-wing portion of the Republican party for years. It'd be even better if the Democrats used the opportunity to run liberal candidates so they could actually get shit done in the meantime, but I'm not holding my breath for that one.