We, the Tea Partiers
· We protest against a heavy-fisted form of government that seeks to further regulate private enterprise and hinder future profits (i.e., banking and energy industries…).
The writer goes on to protest cap and trade, which I also think is a bad idea, but not for the same reasons, obviously. But that other line — that is why the Tea Party “movement” is not a movement but a top-down manipulation, a misdirection.
These are people who’ve been gouged for years by the deregulated banking, mortgage lending, and commodities trading business, and when Obama sends down very weak, watered-down regulations to deal with those problems, they howl that he’s against “private enterprise” because that’s what they’ve been told to think by the Glenn Becks of the world.
Did you know that insider trading isn’t even illegal in the commodities trading business? Do you honestly think gas prices were high in 2008 because we weren’t drilling enough in the Gulf of Mexico?
You idiots are being used. Think for yourselves. If the Fox Network believes it so wholeheartedly, how could it possibly be in your interest? They’ll take your ratings, sure, so they can sell you Charmin and $5 footlongs. I mean, Jesus, how can you not see that? If you had real allies that powerful, don’t you think someone would have taken care of you by now?
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Matt and Olbermann are right! We see the light! We need more gallant statesmen like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank to unshackle us from the chains of the Wall Street vampirers. Obama too, knows who the financial enslavers are, and has struck fear in them all! All hail BHO, our financial emancipator! I for one, am flat out not gonna pay my stinkin’ school loans no mo! Free at last, free at last! Thank Barack almighty, free at last! Mo guvment >> mo corporatism >> mo freedom, baby!!
So, wait, you’re going to bash a writer who has had nothing nice to say about Obama, Reid, et al. for months on the grounds he pointed out the known fact that corporatist boosters have organized tea-party populists in support of de-regulating corporate America?
Oh, sweet exponential irony.
In response to another comment. See in context »Matt, you save me uncountable hours by channeling my very thoughts.
Matt,
What’s your opinion on the national debt?
One of the ways revolution is prevented in America is the illusion that anyone can make it. This does happen enough to keep the dream alive, and the lottery winners are broadcast by a complicit media.
As worn out as our assholes are, we’re still a world away from most countries where the top positions are held by relatives, and intrinsic nepotism is a fact of life.
Yeah, what he said!
Little Brother Jeb
In response to another comment. See in context »Me too!!!!1!!
- Chelsea Clinton, Professional Hedge Fund Manager
In response to another comment. See in context »Hey wait a minute; slow down!
Goldman Sach’s Sperm Bank Entry Level Internship Program (GSSBELIP)
In response to another comment. See in context »Matt,
Not sure if you picked that up off my comment on your Government Cheese post; but during my back and forth with them over the weekend, the other insane thought that occurred to me; they are spouting the Republican line in a county that votes almost exclusively Republican. I think it is just another example of the GOP being eaten alive from within, and the teabaggers being used as the termites.
One word, lazy. Rather than think through everything, people rely on others for synopsis and if it happens to reaffirm their previous point of view, they go with it, facts and reality be damned.
There is little energy in anyone’s day to do the work you have taken on. So, you will always be frustrated looking for enlightenment in the common man. The best you can do is advocate another opinion and see if anyone listens.
Fighting Rupert Murdoch is tough, though. He is one crusty old pirate and he clearly does not give a damn about truth or progress. Good luck to you.
mikec.. Good point. I have noticed, throughout life, that whenever I find a group of people that disagrees with me, there are usually very lazy. They are the kinda people that eschew work and are always looking for handouts. You know the type: They sit at home eating 5 dollar foot longs, watching Glenn Beck on the teevee take advantage of their addled brains. Slothful bums they are.
In response to another comment. See in context »You know, i’d like to point out that most people that watch Fox News are in fact NOT lazy, actually quite the opposite. I think most of these people are hard working Americans.
Take my family for example, they work their ass off day in and day out for quite literally scraps and second hand clothes. They maybe intellectually lazy, but hand outs are definitely not in their vocabulary. This to me is the paradox. Mention or even hint about how the government should work better for them and youre automatically pinned for pushing your socialist agenda…lol…my uncle actually makes it a priority to point that out my socialist ways every time the family gets together.
Are they sheep? Herd mentality? Absolutely! Fox News does a really good job of manipulating ignorance.
I just read George Orwell’s 1984 again after a few years and though I’m not saying there are direct similarities, but the book does make you think about the power of propaganda:
War is Peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is Strength
LOL you push this enough over time, people will believe it without hesitation. Scary, yes! The power of propaganda my friends, FOX knows this
In response to another comment. See in context »Actually, a good chunk of the Fox News audience are senior citizens. People who do nothing but watch TV and wait for gub’mint checks. It takes a LOT of bad TV to so fully indoctrinate someone as to make them believe the GOP world view. I will bet there are very few people reading this who can claim to be hardline Republicans who came by that ideology by education and research as opposed to family or broadcast corporate propaganda.
Which is not to say that the Democratic party isn’t becoming just as bad. People who still LOOOOOVE Obama are kinda creepy…
In response to another comment. See in context »I’m not sure it’s laziness but rather a failure of their schools to teach them analytical thinking. I know that when I try to discuss these things with the occasional wingnut who is willing to engage civilly, their responses are more often than not non sequiturs. You can lead them right through a logical analysis and they still don’t get it. Very frustrating.
In response to another comment. See in context »Leftists, for some reason, don’t have that type of cognitive difficulty.
In response to another comment. See in context »That’s because left-handed people are in their right minds
!
In response to another comment. See in context »(this is a reply to someone, hopefully it gets put in the correct place)
Actually, studies have shown that people who score highly as authoritarian followers have genuine difficulty understanding basic logical arguments.
Most people are able to read something like this…
1. All cars have a steering wheel
2. Motorcycles have no steering wheel, they have handlebars instead
3. Therefore, motorcycles are not cars
.. And intuitively grasp the progression of logic. If the logic is bad, most people will read the initial premises, then the conclusion, and reason that the conclusion does not follow from the premises.
Obviously I am talking about stuff that’s a bit more sophisticated than my example but most people still grasp this intuitively.
But, authoritarian followers seem to do it differently. They may read the premises or not, but when they read the conclusion, they simply check to see if they personally agree with it. If they do, then the premises are never examined for consistency, they just assume everything is OK. Conversely, if they disagree with the conclusion, then they just assume the logic is bad.
This is why, when you listen to average GOPers being interviewed on the street, it’s quite common for them to just spout a load of disconnected talking points and then Eureka! – they come up with a final opinion that has nothing to do with anything they said.
Note that I’m talking about followers, here, not leaders. The authoritarian leaders have no such problems and in fact are usually pretty good with argument. But remember the leaders are not Bush or Palin, the leaders are the invisible puppet-masters working the machine behind the curtain.
Palin specifically is stricken with the inability to follow rational argument, which is obvious if you ever listen to her speak on any subject at all.
Anyway, I recommend reading Bob Altermeyer’s free online book ‘The authoritarians’ – it really helps understanding what’s wrong with the GOP these days (And the DNC as well, just in a different way).
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
As always, read and reach your own conclusions, don’t get carried away with it… but it’s a great read.
In response to another comment. See in context »I think it goes beyond just inability to follow logical argument. There seems to be a particularly stubborn resistance to learning from consequences, as well. I think at a subconscious level they know they have some cognitive deficits, so the attachment to an authoritarian political ideology that tells them in clear black and white phrases what to think provides them with a sense of security and makes it okay that they don’t truly have a clue what they’re talking about. The stubborn refusal to accept fact and evidence or to learn from consequences may simply be a panic reaction to that sense of security being stripped away. If they were simply being manipulated by right wing interests that would be sad. The fact that they are being manipulated by a particularly ugly and vile right wing movement aimed at destabilizing the government and abetted by particularly imbecilic elements of Fox News makes them dangerous.
In response to another comment. See in context »The end result of a generation being told that all opinions are valid, and opinion is more important than fact. Liberals have themselves partially to blame, though the GOP took post-modernism to a whole new terrifying level by gutting the educational system and cornering the market on loudmouthed broadcast opinion.
In response to another comment. See in context »David Brooks in the Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/opinion/02brooks.html?th&emc=th
“…over the past couple of years we’ve seen the power of spontaneous social movements: first the movement that formed behind Barack Obama, and now, equally large, the Tea Party movement.”
“The young lack the political power. Only the old can lead a generativity revolution …”
“The elderly. They are our future.”
Apparently he has dementia. Matt, please skewer him (again).
Amazing — Brooks belongs no where near a computer or a newspaper. To say that teabaggers are equally as large as the movement which coalesced behind Obama, utter BS. Whether its current strength among whites is larger than Obama’s current strength among whites — that is another issue. But perhaps in Brooks’s mind, that group is all that matters.
In response to another comment. See in context »Consider though that most tea-partiers / conservative thinkers don’t want anyone to take care of them. Hence this BS about letting companies make as much as they want – some (perhaps many) of them see it as a badge of honor that they are own their own with nobody to look out for them. They don’t believe it societal support.
How do you square that stupid idea with the fact that conservatives are generous givers to charity. Believe what you want to believe, I reckon.
In response to another comment. See in context »This, of course, depends on what you mean by ‘charity.’ Those data you’re (not really but should be) citing counts Church tithings for Christ’s sake. Literally, I suppose!
In response to another comment. See in context »Most billionaires are Republican, because Republicanism is all about wealth concentration. Charitable giving is tax deductible. Many GOP-oriented ‘charities’ have nothing to do with helping poor people, and everything to do with spreading anti-Christian ideology by way of the American “Christian” religion.
In response to another comment. See in context »I always thought this type of financial thinking was the lowest type of common denominator…. What I mean is taking pride in being able to decide whether or not one receives help is a privilege… Just like the privilege of being able to access credit prior to the sixties or the ability to own land; historically if you are white and male having this “no one needs to take care me attitude” fits with their cultural privilege. I do not hear the argument enough about how wealth is transferred from one generation to the next; I especially do not hear how poverty is transmitted as well; Its just so nice that people have the luxury to decide if they help; don’t you think?
Roosevelt was here
In response to another comment. See in context »We sit here and feed on the crap the media tells us because we’re far too busy to search out the truths ourselves. After reading a book titled; “Why Are We So Stupid?” I firmly believe we as a people are morons. And it seems the people that are smart enough to know better are as quite as a self-righteous church mouse nowadays. Why aren’t sensible citizens, ones that know that Conservatism means Terrorism marching on Washington and protesting like those damn Teabaggers? Why does it seem like on the roller coaster of life we’re heading down and there’s no stopping or slowing the trajectory of the cars, we’re going to smack head first, and we’re not even as smart as crash test dummies to even strap ourselves in because we still believe in this idea that either party cares about the people that elected them while the reality is they only care about staying a career politician and that means money.
A. Things aren’t bad enough yet. As much as we complain about how bad things are compared to America’s glory years, by human standards, we are still fat, soft and happy. High unemployment is a good start in generating pissed off Americans with nothing to lose and no job to keep them off the streets, so expect more protesting if unemployment stays high.
B. The left has just gone through 40 years of vilification. Most pissed off Americans don’t identify themselves with the stinky hippies who were the vanguard of the last mass unrest. Every modern left-wing protest is either ignored or poo-pooed by the media, so few people remember the power of large throngs of angry Americans.
C. Mass media is an historically unprecedented development. We are seeing firsthand the results of cheap food and 6-8 hours per day in front of the television. People talk to other people less, left-wing folks in particular rarely even have a church to go attend to meet like-minded people and gain a perspective on events other than those blown-up into cartoonish simplicity by the idiot boxes they stare at all night.
We are a nation in need of de-programming. In order to effect political change, we will need to figure out a way to get people out from in front of their TV sets.
In response to another comment. See in context »If the Fox Network believes it so wholeheartedly, how could it possibly be in your interest? They’ll take your ratings, sure, so they can sell you Charmin and $5 footlongs.
It’s honest-to-fuck more insidious than that, Matt. With the National Guard and Blackwater out of the country, who to protect the sociopathic elite from an uprising other than other uprisers? There’s a terrifying fascist stench to this, boy-o. I mean, LBJ had a plan in case of revolution, right?
Matt,
Oftentimes, I wish half the shit they accused Obama of doing were true. We’d actually have a political struggle going on, and it’d be actual punditry fodder. But instead, liberals are in the position of defending themselves from fake outrage over watered-down-pseudo reform.
Its hard to really get all psyched up about something like that, because I frankly don’t give a shit about whether or not we have some dumbass facilitated insurance exchange market exclusively or a public option within that market, or whatever the fuck people are saying now.
The Democrats proposals get so watered down that they become homeopathic and innocuous. And teabaggers are the uncompromising vocal minority that causes the spineless Dems to coil in fear of midterm reprisal.
The teabaggers are only channeled by Fox because Democrats respond to them as anything less than irrational.
Just think we should give credit where credit is due.
I meant to say “anythng more than irrational.” That’ll teach me to comment on things during Labor Law.
In response to another comment. See in context »Hasn’t Matt taught you anything?? Obama is a whore. Goldman Sachs owns his ass.
In response to another comment. See in context »Matt,
You really need to get more specific with people and discuss where you differ on issues and stop attacking people just because certain of their views happen to align with parties who are very influential in the public arena. Fox News, for example, has been around for three decades and most of what conservatives object to started with the progressives a century ago and got a big boost from FDR.
I agree that big oil, banks, and insurance companies are a big part of what is wrong (not to mention pols), but Fox News is a minor player.
Isn’t the Tea Party a minor player, too? Propelled by Fox publicity?
The Tea Party isn’t doing much damage to Republicans, but is taking its toll on timid Democrats (i.e., nearly all of them.)
In response to another comment. See in context »I hardly think that controlling the opinions of 2.25 million voters and claiming the top 10 cable news programs in 3Q 2009 constitutes a small player. Especially not if said player seems to have an agenda.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/fox-news-dominates-3q-200_n_304260.html
In response to another comment. See in context »Fox News: Launched in 1996.
2010 CE – 1996 CE = 14 years
Age of Fox News = 14 years
Decade = 10 years
Therefore: Age of Fox News < 3 decades
In response to another comment. See in context »Nice catch of that pop-fly. I knew those numbers were bullshit.
In response to another comment. See in context »Taibbi should un-call-out that comment. I smell a fucking shill. Fox is no minor player at all. Without Beck/Hannity and all the other fucking Orcs we wouldn’t even have Teabags to talk about.
If you think Fox is a minor player, your not paying enough attention. They are a major factor in more ways than one.
In response to another comment. See in context »Fox News has been around 3 decades? I think you might want to double check that. So that you look like you know what you’re talking about.
In response to another comment. See in context »Fox News was a “local” news station in the Bay Area in the 80’s before it went big time. They were the “Oakland” station up against the established San Fran. stations. They were pretty cool, a little to the “left” I would guess, of the mainstream affiliates. I’m not sure when Murdoch bought them. He’s really the diabolical arch-conservative behind all that crap.
In response to another comment. See in context »Glenn Greenwald (as it should come as no surprise) has written with great insight on the Tea Party movement: describing a commonality between the populism of the teabaggers with the populism of the progressive movement as ultimately a revolt against collusion of the private and public sector. The obvious difference being where progressives see a corporate takeover of government, teabaggers see a government takeover of private business. It doesn’t excuse their woeful and willful ignorance on policy issues (I mean, Christ, government is HINDERING bank profits?), but it helps you wrap your head around how so many people could allow themselves to be manipulated by some one as deranged as Glenn Beck.
So… Let’s get this right from the get-go. Sex between government and business is good if it is missionary style(progressive), but it is bad if it is doggy-style (tea party)? Should we try abstinence (libertarian)? I don’t know why you Matt and all you namby-pamby leftists think the tea party has a franchise on stupid thinking. It’s a non-discriminatory ailment. Just read all these posts.
In response to another comment. See in context »What exactly are you protesting against? Obama has not done SHIT and yet you seem to have a problem.
In response to another comment. See in context »I am not a tea party person. I am not protesting anything other than corporatism. Obama is a corporatist. Goldman Sachs owns his ass. GE also has stock in him. Bernie Sanders is his own man. Rally around him!
In response to another comment. See in context »Sounds like someone needs to get laid.
In response to another comment. See in context »Think for yourselves.
I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Clearly that is not something the teabaggers have done in a long long time…if ever. They want a strong authoritarian figure to follow so they can be told what to do WITHOUT thinking for themselves.
The Tea Party movement may be a top-down manipulation, a misdirection, but the Democrats had better come up with a better strategy for victory in November than simply spending all their time knocking the Tea Party and Birther movements, although a certain amount of time spent knocking them is certainly warranted.
Rather than continuing to push weak banking reform measures, including Vocker’s recent proposal, the Democrats need to start listening to people like MIT Professor Simon Johnson. In his 1/22/2010 article on Bloomberg.Com titled “Obama’s Plan to be Judged by a Goldman Breakup,” Simon says: The goal should be to flush both the big bankers and their Republican–and Democratic–backers into the open. He then goes on to basically indicate that those who run on a “too big to fail platform” will pay the consequences on election day.
In my opinion, Mr. Johnson’s strategy will help the Democrats if they change their ways. Sadly, I think that too many of them are too addicted to Wall Street money to change their ways. But they sure better change their ways or we are going to see a lot more “protest” type votes like the one we just saw in Massachusetts, and all the Tea Party bashing in the world won’t save them come election day.
I can’t seem to figure out if the teabaggers are a) naive or b) just plain stupid.
I am inclined to believe the latter because Obama has not even done 1/4th the shit he said he would during his campaign and yet these guys come out to protest. Protest what exactly?
Obama has not shut down Gitmo. He is continuing a lot of Bush era civil liberties policies. There has been NO regulation of financial institutions. The health care bill has not passed. Why don’t these guys protest the fact that the govt. spends more on defense than all the other countries put together? I’m sure that they will object to.
Obama is owned by Wall Street. Don’t you read Taibbi? Didn’t you see him making out with Tim Geithner before the SOTUA? Read some Niall Ferguson and you’ll understand where power is concentrated. Taibbi is a mental midget compared to Ferguson.
In response to another comment. See in context »disorder,
you’re exactly right. these teabaggers were drawing hitler mustaches on pictures of obama before he was even in office for 3 months.
there’s plenty of reasons to criticize the president’s performance so far. but the teabaggers have not come up with a single, legitimate, reality-based reason why they don’t like him.
in fact that’s the only entertaining thing to come from obama letting down progressives for his first year: watching republicans and theses hysterical glenn becks having to constantly change their story with further hairsplitting in defense of their own logic.
i have a friend i grew up with who last year was released from the army after doing 2 tours of iraq.
he’s a teabagger now.
and i have given up on tearing my hair out watching his eyes gloss over anytime i try to explain the graham-leach-bliley act of 1999 to him.
teabaggers are very selective in what they want to protest. angry white resentment at it’s ugliest in the multicultural age.
In response to another comment. See in context »Above all else today’s “Tea Party,” whether a manipulation or a movement, seems to be nothing more than a thinly veiled effort to reprosecute the American Civil War.
That our modern-day Lincoln happens to be black is enough to make their little confederate heads implode.
It’s the predictable outcome of 40 years of G.O.P. race-baiting, 40 years of failed G.O.P. fiscal policies, and 40 years of feckless Democratic response.
Driven by their hatred of civil rights, affirmative action, and especially Barack Obama, the Tea Party derives its energy, its fervor, its very existence almost entirely from racism.
Well, why not?
This has been a winning ticket for the right, from Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” to Ronald Reagan’s “States’ Rights.”
Nowadays Willie Horton, a secret Muslim born in Kenya, has been furloughed to the White House.
Throw in 911, and you can expand the confederacy to include xenophobes, the paranoid, and conspiracy theorists of all stripes.
Don’t be fooled when Tea Party leaders and their hired guns at Fox News invoke Communists, Socialists, and Nazis. They may mix their metaphors, but their message is as clear as black and white.
And their point is as pronounced as the tops of their tall white hats and the folds of their shameful white robes.
I’d thought this too, at the beginning. Black president hated by whites. Pretty simple.
But try to stick with the notion of corporatists perpetually trying to stick it to progressives and all is pretty clear. If we had President Jindal, the dingfucks in Texas would be all about peace and love and have a bowl of curry, because hey man, at least there’s no one in the White House who (place bullshit Beck/Limbaugh accusation here).
In response to another comment. See in context »Fox News is owned by News Corporation (Murdoch) which is a $30 billion dollar international conglomerate. Their clients are the biggest corporations in the world that advertise on their vast number of media outlets.
They have a huge stake in making sure that the anger of the Tea partiers is misdirected, aimed at the “government” that is really the only thing that COULD assist them. I’d say they are quite successful with that strategy.
Republicans and Fox and all their think-tanks learned long ago that’s it’s easier and more effective to nurse peoples resentments than to argue over policies. And their brilliant at it. Even after getting their asses handed to them in ‘08 they’re making a comeback already. They’re remarkable… which is not to be confused with moral or conscientious or patriotic. They don’t give a rats ass if the country implodes as long as they get to do the imploding.
Of course, they’ve gotten a huge assist from an equally corrupt “opposition” party that can’t even effectively shoot itself in the foot…
In response to another comment. See in context »As a few of you have pointed out, there is a disconnect that is totally linked to not thinking/not thinking things through. Steve Allen alluded to this in his 1990’s book “Dumbth.” I do hope that Obama’s push to overhaul NCLB does something to eliminate testing, because at the moment so much of our education system is designed to create information bags. People can regurgitate information fed to them, and that’s shown in the Palin/Beck/Limbaugh supporters of this country. Yup; they sure can spout off those talking points – whether or not there’s any validity to the words spoken.
My new favorite maxim: Most people would rather die than think. Most people do.
The Tea Party should be most of us. Who’s happy with the banks, insurance companies, and legislatures in their thrall? Instead, we blame liberals and progressives, who aren’t actually getting much done, hard as some of us try.
That’ what I consider it. Of course powerful interests will try to co-op it, history is full of examples like this. Of course most American aren’t smart enough to realize it is happening to them, but it doesn’t change the original intent of the movement. Which was against the corporate takeover of the government.
In response to another comment. See in context »If “the original intent of the movement… was against the corporate takeover of the government,” where were they prior to Jan. 20, 2009? The Paulites/libertarians may have been, but they seem a subset of the Teabaggers.
In response to another comment. See in context »And the advertisers likely fall all over themselves and pay top dollar to get a spot on the Fox News Channel, where they know that the idiot demographic will buy and believe anything seen or said inside of a television frame… especially if it’s on the FNC.
An interesting point is brought up in this article; the phenomena of people voting and fervently rooting for legislation and politicians that are detrimental to their own well being. This seems to run counter to that whole idea of self preservation. It’s another problem of the two party system found in our American politics, it creates a sports team like atmosphere in politics where people line up with one team, root for that team, and root against the other – no matter what. I find it incredibly frustrating to talk to these masochists.
I suppose it goes both ways though; the defense of a political candidate after an election victory as if he is perpetually in a state of electoral competition is a thought process which allows leaders to make decisions that are detrimental to supporters while still garnering their support and separating the majority class in futile partisan debate while skirting the issues much as they were skirted during the campaign.
when I first seen the Tea Party movement poke it’s head up I just saw the strain of conservative populism, like a chimera it can mask itself into Ross Perot Populism or John Birch looniness…these are people who are older in years who have seen their country drastically change not just the good cheerleading stuff of you can’t yell N!&&er in public anymore (good thing for most of us) but a drastic curtailing of their lifestyles with the deindustrilizing of the Heartland…the unreported collapse of rural America lead to the Militia movement and the Timothy McVeighs that popped up during Clinton’s reign…well the problems have worsen…those people not attracted by the Right-wing militia movement found an outlet for populist rage of Deficit Hawks and limited government (and dispite what several posters say Big Government is only bad for these folks when it is geared towards Social Spending) the Bush years exsaperated this fact and created an even more amusing mix of lonnies the 9/11 truth movement, the old talking points of a great unknown conspiracy involving Rockerfeller/Roathchilds popped back up into the american mind this always is good for a few chuckles if you doubt me listen to Alex Jones for a couple of hours and tell me you ain’t rolling on the floor laughing
these tea party folks are just a incoherant blind rage against “powers that be” the forces of social modernization and wealth concentration…which they have no true understanding of,and can only express themeselves in a narrative that they have been indoctrinated into for the past 46 years…it is a mish mash of pro-corporatism and grade school historism…yes I smell the Right Wing Think Tanks underlying some of this as Joe Bageant has said but the rage there is real….it is a lost of social and economic status they have once enjoyed, their lifestyles and ego have taken a thumping in the last 30 years so up pops the feelings of entitlement and self rightousnes
for the Lefties amougst us we should take comfort the shills are already out, the quick buck hucksters have latched onto this so it will be just as meaningless as a Che shirt is…and the Rebulician machine once it gets the energy from them will kick em to the curb
This is an important conversation to have, that is, trying to locate the common ground between Progs and Baggers.
It’s the real work we need to do in order to throw off the big chains of oppression. It’s about the massive majority of people in this country (anyone who is not both obscenely wealthy AND so damn greedy about it) getting together and demanding some real representation in our government. I’m talking about totally crazy shit like public servants doing public policy, putting people before profits. I mean, can we please stop worshiping at the alter of money for a fucking second and maybe get some rational, humane perspective on life?
I’d like to know if any Baggers can relate to what Ralph Nader is puttin’ out there…
sorry to double post so quickly…but your question caught my eye…yes there is a lot of common ground that could be found…Ron Paul and Dennis Kasinich disagree about fundemental economics…but ignoring this arguement for later there is a lot of immediate commonalities from America’s role in the world to spending priorities…one can find common ground from both sides on any issue…enviromentalist and hunters/fushermen have a basic need to stave off abuse and sprawl…the problems come out from social dislikes and inbred prejudices…another example pro-life/ pro choice…both concern themselves with the life of the mother and born children so inroads can be made on health care issues for mothers and young children…Matt wrote once that terms like Libreal/conservatives are more worn to show their social alliegence more so than any set of ideas and beliefs…I agree with this up to a point…there is potential for allainces but a lot of personal baggage and pet projects have to be set aside and old animosity has to be left at the door
In response to another comment. See in context »you point out a good idea, trying to find common ground with these fellow-fucked-over-americans.
but most of them don’t want anything to hear about the repeal of glass-steagall, commodities inflation, off-shore tax cuts.
the reason is that they are mostly dropouts from the neocon revolution.
i’ve tried to explain and find middle ground with these people. they are completely unyielding. christ, they were drawing hitler mustaches on pictures of obama before he was even in office for 3 months.
they know they fucked up flagging bush into office for 8 years. and now they want to cry “woe is me” for having a broken economy and losing the election in 2008.
In response to another comment. See in context »The tea-party movement arose mainly as a reaction to big-govt with massive $$$ bailouts of financial institutions as the catalyst. Along with bankers the Federal Reserve Bank was one of the main victims.
The mouthpieces of The Left worked hard to defer the message away from bailout ire and created this perception that is was somehow about racism, abortion, and religion- conveniently three pet issues The Left (and Right) use to divide the electorate. This was not just Olbermann, Maddow, etc. but the mainstream mass media: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6xWGvdRQ9Q
A memo was recently leaked from an Obama advisor advocating party operatives/loyalists to masquerade as Libertarians in the blogosphere to drag the views to The Left. I believe there is also a movement to pose as fanatic religious right Conservatives so as to discredit the Tea Party movement.
I am not accusing The Left of doing something The Right doesn’t also do. In the case of the Tea Party I think that the establishment whose interest is to preserve the status quo (especially as it relates to financial institutions and The Fed) and uses partisans on both sides to coopt the argument.
Matt, as someone who seems to be truly disturbed by the looting that is taking place, I think you need to stop bastardizing the spirit of the tea party movement for the benefit of the entrenched interests on both the right and left.
If the “Tea Party Movement” on the whole was so interested in the deficit, where was the movement when there was a conservative in the Executive Office? Your argument that deficits are bad and that people are sick of the bailouts doesn’t hold any water; it was perfectly okay for the government to blow our money on war and tax cuts for the rich (the Tea Party movement was suspiciously absent from those debates) but not okay for the government to rescue the populace from what amounts to a complete financial collapse?
In response to another comment. See in context »The Libertarian Conservative (economic) who usually sides with Republicans and the Reagan Democrat were both disgusted by the 8yrs of GWB and thus enabled Obama to be swept into office by either voting for him or refraining from voting Repub. I am one of those people who voted for him (mistakenly) because I thought (1)The Republican party needed to be disciplined and realize that cronyism and corporate welfare is even worse than social welfare and (2)I thought Obama really would be different than the typical party hacks we get from the Left and Right.
As far as the bailouts being necessary to prevent auto companies from reorganizing and a “complete financial collapse,” I don’t think a financial collapse was inevitable although some very rich people would have found themselves in a much more uncomfortable financial position than they are used to. Tell me, why is every single senior creditor of every single bailed out bank whole on their investment? Treasuries are a risk free investment but apparently bank bonds are too. I guess there really is no need for creditors to monitor these institutions risk since their investment is just like a risk-free treasury with a higher return.
Govt policy together with captured regulators and the banking lobby brought about this crisis and they have continued to commit a massive heist with the free money they “need” to keep the financial system going.
In response to another comment. See in context »Why are all those signs they carry at the rallies are about Pres. Obama as a monkey, witch doctor, socialist, Hitler, etc.? Why aren’t they intelligible as policy critiques. Why are they using veiled and not so very veiled threats of assassination etc. to intimidate their opponents?
In response to another comment. See in context »Why are they funded and organized by lobbying firms tied to Health Insurance Cos. etc.
ALL the signs and slogans or all of the signs and slogans shown on the Olbermann and Maddow show? Please- you have no horse to stand on after 8 years of protests full of Bush as Hitler signs and slogans.
In response to another comment. See in context »The best the right can do is to try to out-hysteria the left and “give them a dose of their own medicine”.
In response to another comment. See in context »Unfortunately the Cheney/Bush admin. had the entire country and the world on their side and blew it by initiating a religious “crusade” against the oil-rich Arab countries, and allowing Wall Street to speculate the price of oil into the stratosphere, etc.
Now the Obama admin. has to clean up their mess with the right digging in their heels and providing as much friction as possible.
The Obama admin. will just have to drag them, kicking and screaming,over the goal line?
O.K.
It’s kind of nice having all the smart people on one side, and all the idiots on the other side. I’m not talking right or left. Just smart and stupid.
You just can’t blame the “mouthpieces of the left” for the Hitler signs and ignorant, incoherent language of the tea-partiers (“Fascist, Socialist, Communist… they’re pretty much all the same.”) Not to mention the outright incivility that I witnessed personally last summer during the Healthcare town halls.
Whether their anger is righteous or not, the target of their anger (especially when it’s health insurance and banking regulation) runs counter to their own self interest and is due completely to manipulation by “the mouthpieces with the $$$”
This “Tea Party Express” rift is the first time anyone in the movement “woke up and smelled the coffee’. You’re getting warm Tea Partiers!
In response to another comment. See in context »The We Party
In response to another comment. See in context »A progressive response to the tea party.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=339608504744
But but…I *like* $5 footlongs!
Goes good with NASCAR, WWE, and cage fighting. Not the kinda thing Eastern liberals care for. They like to wear costumes and make-up and go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
In response to another comment. See in context »…in the end, it should be noted that all the conservatives and the christian right have done is stir the pot of emotion, yet have failed to come up with one logical idea on how to fix things….anything
…true story
if you ever find yourself debating an issue with a conservative, do as I do, cut them off at even the slightest insinuation of preserving the status quo…
bring it out of them, help them to admit that they really dont have a clue and watch their heads spin…its quite funny actually
conservative: “and what about climate change, this has been the coldest year on rec….”
intellectual: “…preserving the status quo”
conservative: “but you liber…”
intellectuals: “…preserving the status quo”
from here, you start to notice that the conversation with denigrate into name calling and fear mongering…its really the only weapon they have.
“Preserving the status quo” – if you cant beat ‘em at their own game, show them how much game they really DONT have
“You idiots are being used. Think for yourselves.”
I know a number of retired folks that participate in the tea party stuff. Your perception is not accurate as far as I can see. They are not being led by the nose at all. They know the tea party thing is not perfect. What they want more than anything else it so make a difference and the movement has given them an effective way to do that (Scott Brown).
Opposite of Fox you have the liberal media outlets like MSNBC and liberal blogs – they are every bit as junkie as Fox are they not?
When it comes to being led, let’s consider “mann-made” Global Warming as a case in point. The percentage of democrats that followed Al Gore off the Global Warming cliff is frightening – http://people-press.org/report/556/global-warming see 2006, second chart! For those of you that are left-party bound and can only think straight when the mirror reflects your beliefs, that Global Warming-Dem affiliation is probably a lot like WMD-GOP affiliation for the Iraq war. Think about it.
My point is, people on both sides of the spectrum are being used. But think carefully about who is mindless. Whose wagons are actually getting traction and moving down the path? I enjoy your flippant writing style, but there is no margin in flippant charges and conclusions.
Well said megun.
In response to another comment. See in context »“Global Warming-Dem affiliation is probably a lot like WMD-GOP affiliation for the Iraq war. Think about it.”
In response to another comment. See in context »Just. Plain. Nuts.
OMG, dude (or dudette), are you actually saying that global warming is a hoax? a political stunt? Whoa, I gotta catch my breath on this one…
I gotta tell you, you sound just like some dumb-ass frog sitting in a kettle of water, under a fire. “Look, the survey says: 78% of all frogs think the water in this pot is fine. Water Warming is a hoax, perpetrated by the evil Froggy Liberation Front (FLF).”
Sweet Jesus! Talk about low-hanging fruit…no wonder Fox/Limbaugh have such as easy time of it. If this is truly representative of the mental wattage we’re dealing with out there, I don’t think we have much longer on this planet.
In response to another comment. See in context »yeah, don’t ya love that? You can show those folks incontrovertible, empirical evidence, trend global CO2 levels, and they somehow rationalize it as so much liberal elitist propaganda. Sometimes wish i could peak into what’s going on in those minds but i fear permanent psychological scarring…
Megunticook does have a point though, that her bandwagon is getting traction, but sadly s/he thinks it has to do with the power of ‘the movement’ when in reality it’s due to multinational conglomerates nudging her ilk along by installing Pied-Pipers like Sarah Palin and Glenn Blech spouting non-reality based doublespeak crafted by the likes of Frank Luntz.
…and yes, when you consider the scope of the millions of years that life has been evolving on this planet (ok, the several thousand since God clapped his hands), the time humanity has left is truly microscopic.
In response to another comment. See in context »@andygeiger
Are you aware that Phil Jones and Michael Mann the leading UK and US proponents of AGW are both under investigation? What part of subverting peer-review, relying on “tricks” and destroying data that under lies trillion dollar global policy do you support?
If the science is settled, then please join me and request that all the data and the code is released into the public domain. Or do you think data and techniques supposedly critical to the survival of the planet should remain in the sole possession of a select few? Maybe you trust the government. But I worked on Capitol Hill. I know better.
In response to another comment. See in context »You mean this data and code?
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/data-sources/
I look forward to your reading your analysis in Nature.
In response to another comment. See in context »Amusing. Far from being the troglodyte you imagine I have an ivy-league education and worked on Capitol Hill for a still-sitting democratic senator. I voted for Obama. I do not watch Fox or listen to Limbaugh, I don’t even have a TV.
Now let me say something that probably will not benefit you but may resonate with some of the folks that read through these comments: Your reply – loaded with assumption and arrogance – is the type of thing that fuels the tea-party people specifically and opposition to liberals in general.
For your benefit, here is some interesting commentary about the Coakley-Brown election. http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/in_the_right/2010/01/why-martha-coakley-lost.html Read the part about Good Will Hunting. For the sake of everyone else please spend less time being the guy from Harvard.
In response to another comment. See in context »And you think global warming is a hoax? and all the CO2 we’ve been spewing into the atmosphere has no effect?
Is that not what you were saying?
In response to another comment. See in context »@mike, you keep inquiring about what I was saying, so let me try to clarify. . .
In the post, Taibbi charges that the Tea Party folks are being used and not thinking for themselves. Specifically, that “when Obama sends down very weak, watered-down regulations to deal with those [bankster] problems” the Fox/Beck/Tea Party element lead them to vote against their own self-interest. I suggest there is a more generous view of the issue. Many of the tea party folks are against the legislation because they know that it is weak and watered-down. That is part of the larger point, they are tired of politicians proposing pretend solutions to real problems. Many on the left seem to get some comfort from dismissing the tea party folks as mindless, I don’t think that is the best reaction or proper strategy.
Rather than Taibbi getting angry at the tea party voters, I’d prefer that he directed his anger toward the people trying to feed us a pretend solution rather than a real one. Whose the real enemy?
-
Regarding global warming. The better scientists that contribute to the IPCC struggle with whether or not their conclusions correct. But judging from comments received (or were those attacks?) you guys seem to be certain and without doubt. How can you believe in the models more deeply than the people that actually produce them? Maybe there are occasions in life where a lack of healthy skepticism is a good thing, but I doubt it is the optimal approach to the question global warming. The fact is, I didn’t even express a specific opinion on global warming, I simply cited it as an example of how political bias interferes with a person’s ability to see the issue (what was it, 97% of dems believed in 2006 and clear party bias persist into the most current sample). For that I was called, “Just. Plain. Nuts.”, “dumb-ass frog” and “low-hanging fruit.” Geiger also seems to think I am part of the tea party movement. I most certainly am not. It is not my ‘bandwagon’. But I think my posting here brings to light another reason the tea party movement is getting increased traction. A lot of folks on the left denigrate the tea party people. IMO, calling them stupid is only going to unify them against you. What will go through their minds if they read through this material?
There is one other thing I would point out. I have disagreed with folks in the tea party directly. Not one of them responded by calling me names, questioning my intelligence, and trying to stuff me into some caricature of an idiot.
In response to another comment. See in context »oh ‘megun’ the presumption and arrogance is all yours, rest assured… that (1) that having an ivy league education makes you something special (Dubya went to Yale after all) and (2) that democratic senators know what’s best for their constituents or even have a clue beyond their own greedy, self interests.
and yes teabaggers hate liberals b/c they call the ‘baggers out on their idiocy which in turn fuels their own sense of victimhood… and since they have no real solid idealogical, fact based foundation to stand on, that victimhood is the only fuel to their fire.
Pretty sad.
In response to another comment. See in context »Dear Megun, I’ll happily take back “dumb-ass” — that wasn’t necessary.
But here’s the thing, on Global Warming: scientists overwhelmingly conclude that CO2 emissions are a clear and present danger to our survival on this planet. Yes, there will always be some scientific disagreement on the details, but the main point is extremely clear. The scientific conclusion is in, the train has left the station.
Greedy business interests (ExxonMobil, etc.) decided that the only way to fight the real science was to interject false “doubts” about it. To confuse, to delay — to essentially buy more time for their self-interested profit-taking. This is disingenuous, dangerous, irresponsible, reprehensible behavior, and you were echoing that. We should not stand by and let this happen. There are major consequences coming down the line. This is no time for clever dissembling.
I’m sorry about your hurt feelings, but this issue is frankly a lot bigger and more important than your feelings. If you spout dangerous ideas in public, you need to be prepared for some oushback, some repercussions. It’s kind of like shouting “fire” in a theater, and then whining about the fact that some people got worked up about it.
P.S. That article you referenced, about the Massachusetts Senate election, was basically a rather shallow celebration of how politicians pandering to voters’ base prejudices still works. Sad but true. I’d rather see politicians and people making decisions based on facts and ideas of substance, rather than which candidate a voter would most like to have a beer with.
In response to another comment. See in context »Iraq and global warming are good examples. In both cases one side prefers to look at the facts and the other side prefers to have their resentments nursed.
In response to another comment. See in context »OR there’s this (http://www.desmogblog.com/blog/peter-sinclair)
or NSF (http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115558)
or live science (http://www.livescience.com/environment/050915_more_hurricanes.html)
grist for the mill
In response to another comment. See in context »“Opposite of Fox you have the liberal media outlets like MSNBC and liberal blogs – they are every bit as junkie as Fox are they not?”
No. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you just haven’t watched Fox at all. They skew, distort, and lie in ways that MSNBC can’t even get close to.
Beck has his soapbox every day and he spews loony conspiracy theories that have no equal in respected media, easily on a par with Alex Jones of prisonplanet/infowars.
Their hosts do things like describe a fist-bump as a ‘terrorst fist-jab’ when Obama/Michelle did it… think about that for a while, why on earth would the word ‘terrorist’ belong in there? Do terrorists bump knuckles? I doubt anyone has ever seen such a thing. Seriously, think about how that word could be part of her description of the President’s little personal celebration. It’s evil.
They constantly lie even during actual news broadcasts – in 2009 on a half-dozen occasions they covered a republican senator doing something really embarassing and *somehow* the caption on the screen described them as a democrat. It’s no accident, it *only* happens when the republicans are embarassing themselves, and it’s never happened in reverse.
Or how about Sean Hannity using footage of the inauguration crowd in DC while he was talking about the Tea-Party protests that where less than 1/10th the size? The footage was the wrong season and the wrong time of day for Christ’s sake, but they ran it and didn’t apologise until John Stewart called them out.
There is an endless list of these incidents, I could literally write for several hours just catgaloguing the obvious lies and misrepresentations. And it’s all used to drive their narrative that is completely without any basis in fact.
Olberman and Maddow are partisan, sure. If you don’t agree with their viewpoint I’m sure watching their stuff is frustrating. But bias is in no way the equal of complete fabrication and propaganda.
Unfortunately by being so obviously unaware of the truth on this issue, it leaves the rest of your assertions looking very shaky indeed.
In response to another comment. See in context »We protest against a heavy-fisted form of government that seeks to further regulate private enterprise and hinder future profits (i.e., banking and energy industries…).
This sounds a lot like those poor women that put up with untold abuse from their husbands and when someone on the outside points out the fact that they are being abused and they don’t have to put up with it they defend the abuser.
Of course Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity are going to fight for their right to make even more money by using the peons/morons to spread their propaganda. They may not be physically abusing their listeners, but they are abusing them nonetheless.
Make me a sandwich!
In response to another comment. See in context »When challenged about why Fox cut away from the televised conference between Obama and the Republicans last week, president Roger Ailes said it was “because we’re the most trusted name in news.” This leaves America with a worst-case scenario: its most powerful media outlet exhibiting bias, and (ab)using the trust it has built up with the clueless masses to justify its position.
German #1: Do you think it’s right for the Nazi Party to publish such propaganda?
German #2: Of course. The people can trust der Fuhrer.
Matt,
You’ve mentioned energy price manipulation a couple of times over the past few weeks. Paul Krugman, who called manipulation on the Enron California electricity prices well before anyone that I know of (but didn’t mention Enron AFAIK), said he saw no signs of speculation causing the late gas price hikes.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/speculative-nonsense-once-again/
I have nothing against the concept of Tea Parties; but when one voice/party hijacks the show and claims to be the leading tenor, well, it’s becoming slanted & castrated for political profit.
And what’s wrong with Charmin? Other than being overly soft & decadent? Hell, we could paint a flag on it, and call it US!
Hell, insider trading isn’t even illegal in CONGRESS (at least the house).
They can place trades, and then pass legislation to benefit themselves. No blind trust for our representatives, no way!
Let them eat cock.
Anyone who thinks such movements are not created by instigators well-connected to money and power does not know history very well. Yes, the followers are by definition not the leaders and bankrollers, creating a degree of perceived size. I suspect that some posters know this and are feigning naivete. And BTW, why so many ad hominem attacks on Taibbi???
People have been manipulated like this since the beginning of civilization, and probably before that.
The two-tiered society that developed in the wake of the Republican money grab just makes it worse. The more two-tiered we became, the more they have to work with, since all of those angry disappointed people are all too eager to be told who the scapegoat is.
The more money the top-tier has, the more they have to work with to pour the message right into people’s brains via FOX and other venues.
It’s always gone on, we’ve just never seen anything like what mass media can accomplish these days with FOX and so on, multi-billionaires just creating their own propaganda outlets, entirely unregulated, for all intents and purposes.
I’m not a party(joiner) to any of these political movements. Can’t even call myself a libertarian, because there are too many versions and significant portions of most with which I cannot agree.
I do admire the US Constitution and those who created it (and those who served the colonies in the conflict that produced that document and our beginnings as a ’sovereign’ entity), and I believe those efforts and products are yet worthy of honor.
There is a huge gap between the left and the right in our current political environment. I could make a long list of specifics but I think it not necessary. Obviously, the left would like to continue moving in the same direction as we have for the last century and the right has always been busy trying to slow down those changes and keep what they have felt was working.
In the first part of the 20th century, the left paid some heed to constitutional issues and acknowledged that certain initiatives they favored might, in fact, require changes to the Constitution. By the mid-thirties, constitutional issues were commonly ignored and that has continued. Today, it seems to me, there is no political issue of enough import for the left to move for a constitutional amendment. That is a difference from the original progressive movement.
Many liberals and conservatives today will agree that corporate power is running amok and is in need of some constraints. I favor market approaches to economic activity but abhor the influence corporate business has over legislators. I was not around in the late 1800’s but it seems like we might today have some of the same problems.
Frankly, I believe in ‘We, the people’ and that Congress needs to pay attention to the people. And this is not partisan. For example, if the people want something on the order of universal healthcare from the federal government, then a constitutional amendment will do the trick. If that is not achievable because of the super majorities required, then those who favor such an approach can drop back to the state level, as has already happened in Massachusetts and to some degree in other states.
If we have no limits on what the federal government can do with a simple majority in Washington, then the Constitution has been rendered meaningless.
“don’t you think someone would have taken care of you by now”
Really? Is that what it’s all about?
They *have* to co-opt the “Tea Party” movement, because if they don’t, they are doomed.
It’s genuinely confusing to me, why far righties Don’t get it. Apparently, they swallow all that noxious pablum from the likes of Beck, et al, Whole. Well, if You believed Beck, wouldn’t You think he was on Your side, too? Is it a question of intelligence? I tend to think that’s Got to be part of it. It’s easier to just not Think (or at least Try to think) on complex subjects like immigration, health care reform, etc. The thing is to Not trust the government but to Trust corporations. Matt, your very own book, the Great Derangement, laid it all out on the line. These people Are being lied to, by big business and by their top religious leaders. It’s a damn shame they are so credible. I feel sorry for them – but I also hate how they judge people. If you are religious and you see Jesus in those immigrants who come over here, you’d be less likely to go all Teabagger on this issue. You’d understand that desperate people do desperate things like come into this country illegally – and that given the same circumstances for yourself, you’d do the Same. That’s what those Teabaggers and far righties Can Not/Will Not comprehend. It’s less about intelligence and more about having a good heart for All people. Even those w/dark skins (perish the thought)!
I completely identify with the energy of the teabaggers (“mad as hell, not going to take it anymore”), but am so saddened by how deeply manipulated and deluded they are. How can attacking the government alone solve their (our) problems, when the government is significantly owned and driven by big money (banking, insurance, health care, you name it). Free enterprise indeed — free for the corporations to shape and pillage.
I only wish their energy (teabaggers) and commitment could be applied to reforming the big money factions that are draining the lifeblood of the people (in addition to our government).
“The greatest feat of the modern conservative movement was convincing average middle Americans that when Dems say Rich or Wealthy that includes them.
This created the ridiculous situation you have today where people without any health insurance denounce health reform and people living pay check to pay check denouncing banking regulation and taxes on profits and bonuses.
250k per year is not middle class by any stretch. Less than 2% of Americans make that. That’s almost the league minimum for the NFL.”
Free Markets don’t work. Bush’s free market was a disaster.
So one of your main policy goals is a complete myth. Just like tax cuts for the rich work.
Seems to me they need new policies.
The old one’s were a complete disaster.
I’ve been looking for a good overview of the causes of the financial crisis. Any suggestions?
Best,
Sean
google ‘The Ascent Of Money’ by Niall Ferguson. It’s a two-hour doco that was on PBS that pretty much covers everything.
It shies away from outright blame, but it certainly fills in all the background.
In response to another comment. See in context »Dick Armey is one of the manipulators of these dim-wits paid through his organization by the corporate plutocracy to have dumb guys make noise to disguise the ripping off of the country and the planet by these grasping self-absorbed corpora-plutocrats.
I saw Armey a couple years ago when he picked up a few day-laborers next to Home Depot in Denton,TX and drove in to pick up fence lumber. I expect we’ll see him drumming up a “grass roots” movement against immigration reform next.
In response to another comment. See in context »I won’t say the Tea Partiers are stupid, but the problem is that they so closely resemble angry dumbasses in that the GOP pandering to their issues is so transparent, yet they don’t seem to notice. The fact is that Obama ran for the Senate with a strong sense of empathy for the needs of working class people, and the knowledge that the “Wall Street” economy had left middle America behind.They ought to see a champion for their needs in him. People forget that he is only half-black, and his grandfather whom he loved resembled in so many ways many of those codgers risking a stroke at the Town Halls.
The fact is that the Tea Partiers are a coalition of Racists, Gun Worshippers, and the Religious Right, which jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon bigtime after the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor. The fundamental “hater” quality at its core is a congenital defect which will ultimately kill it. The frustration and hopelessness of the people which it co-opts will live on.
Can’t wait to get your opinion on this, Matt:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/4/833802/-Republicans-To-Wall-Street:-Come-Home-To-Mommy
How are Democrats going to primp and preen for their Wall Street masters if Republicans are already strutting for the blue ribbons?
Matt – A little late to comment on this one. Yesterday I gave some thought about the Teabaggers on my drive home and thought that how many of them actually, if more informed, would be much more aligned with your opinions relative to proper government oversight of financial markets. Many of them would appreciate your efforts in exposing the collusion and corruption between Wallstreet and their operatives in Washington. The thought that will never leave me is the $1.1 billion Goldman paid the govt for the outstanding warrants instead of the $500 million they were going to pay, predominantly due to the light YOU shed on these cockroaches. The Teabaggers should be carrying Taibbi posters around for effective journalism instead of a sycophant like Beck. I have an older brother, who is a doctor, intelligent and somewhat a teabagger. I know with evidence and logic he is swayed somewhat. Propaganda is quite heavy in the media right now. Apparrently, the good side (if there is one) needs to win the hearts and minds of fickle masses. It would help if people would do their homework more and think for themselves rather than to regurgitate what they have been spoon fed from the manipulative media.
It all comes down to uniformed voters. I hate to admit but the basic intellectual curiosity of the average voter is a joke. People vote for what they understand. The idea of the general public taking time out of their lives to educate themselves on what is really going on is never going to happen. Hey here in Illinois they just voted in a pawnbroker. Nuff said. They heard job fairs and then went ahead and voted for him. Look George Bush got reelected after 9/11. When what passes for entertainment is some of these reality shows you know there is a problem. Tea baggers are just a bunch of pissed off people sceaming about the only they can understand. Which is usually a narrative that fits whatever goofy bias they already believe in.
The We Party:
A progressive response to the tea party
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=339608504744
I saw some of the “speech” at the “Tea Party”.
Unabashedly Racist. This is a self-marginalizing Hate Group.
Forget all the other stuff about fiscal restraint.
I noticed that the John Birchers are sponsoring the CPAC convention this year.
It won’t be long til these people get around to the anti-semitic portion of their “grind”.
Then even the neocons will stop pandering to them.
“The mouthpieces of The Left worked hard to defer the message away from bailout ire and created this perception that is was somehow about racism, abortion, and religion- conveniently three pet issues The Left (and Right) use to divide the electorate.”
This is hysterical. The only mouths (I think those were mouths) that are convicting the tea partiers of racism, religious bigotry and gun worship are those of the speakers at the convention. These folks are not worthy of any respect. I think we can go back to calling them teabaggers again.