I kinda thought myself what this article indicates. Obviously it's not set in stone, but I wonder.[quote]Activists in the Tea Party movement tend to be ..."/>

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

9/11 Truth founded Tea Party, Palin loves 9/11 Truth

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Thursday, February 18, 2010 09:04
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:05 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


I kinda thought myself what this article indicates. Obviously it's not set in stone, but I wonder.
Quote:

Activists in the Tea Party movement tend to be male, rural, upscale, and overwhelmingly conservative, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that Tea Party activists would vote overwhelmingly Republican in a two-party race for Congress. The party's GOP leanings, the poll suggests, may pose a problem for the Tea Party movement if it tries to turn itself into a third party to compete with the two major parties in this year's general election.

"If the Tea Party runs its own candidates for U.S. House, virtually every vote the Tea Party candidate gets would be siphoned from the GOP candidate, potentially allowing the Democrats to win in districts that they might have otherwise lost," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "While the concept of an independent third party is extremely popular, most Americans, including most Tea Party supporters, don't favor a third party that would result in a winner who disagrees with them on most major issues."

According to the survey, roughly 11 percent of all Americans say they have actively supported the Tea Party movement, either by donating money, attending a rally, or taking some other active step to support the movement. Of this core group of Tea Party activists, 6 of 10 are male and half live in rural areas.

Nearly three quarters of Tea Party activists attended college, compared to 54 percent of all Americans, and more than three in four call themselves conservatives.


"Keep in mind that this is a pretty small sample of Tea Party activists," notes Holland. "But even taking that into account, the demographic gaps that the poll finds between those activists and the general public on gender, education, income, ideology, and voting behavior appear to be significant differences."

The poll indicates that about 24 percent of the public generally favors the Tea Party movement but has not taken any actions such as donating money or attending a rally. Adding in the 11 percent who say they are active, a total of 35 percent could be described as Tea Party supporters. That larger group is also predominantly male, higher-income, and conservative.

Some 45 percent of all Americans say they don't know enough about the Tea Party to have a view of the movement; one in five say they oppose the Tea Party.

According to the survey, most Tea Party activists describe themselves as Independents.

"But that's slightly misleading, because 87 percent say they would vote for the GOP candidate in their congressional district if there were no third-party candidate endorsed by the Tea Party," says Holland.

So what would happen if the Tea Party supported independent candidates for Congress?

The poll indicates that in a two-way race on the so-called "generic ballot" question, GOP candidates have a 47 percent to 45 percent edge. Throw a Tea Party candidate into the mix, and that two-point advantage becomes a 12-point deficit. That's because virtually everyone who would vote for a Tea Party candidate in a three-way contest would choose a Republican in a two-way race. The Democratic candidate gets 45 percent in both scenarios, but the GOP candidate's share of the vote drops from 47 percent in a two-way contest to just 33 percent with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot.

"Historically, that's the problem many political movements have faced if they try to become a full-fledged party. They often wind up ensuring the victory of the candidate they dislike the most," adds Holland.

Sixty-four percent of all Americans say they like the idea of a third party that would run against the Democrats and Republicans. But only 38 percent would support a third party if its presence on the ballot would mean that the winning candidate is one that disagrees with them on most major issues. According to the poll, Tea Party activists feel the same way: Only 4 in 10 favor a third party that would result in the election of candidates they don't like.

Actual poll can be found at http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/17/rel4b.pdf

Does this mean that, if the GOP can finegal itself into the Tea Party movement and incorporate it, they'll win, while if the Tea Partiers stand alone and insist on trying to oust what they consider CINOs, they'll give it to the Dems? Will be interesting to find out.

While the poll indicated most Tea Partiers are white (what, not all?) conservative, upsclae and rural, I was suprised to find out they were highly-educated. Just found this interesting.




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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:27 AM

JONGSSTRAW


The NY Times, which first ignored them, but is now demonizing them, says they will. Take from that source what you may. I don't think they're even close to being a major player in elections.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:55 AM

WULFENSTAR

http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg


Lets put it another way... every politician and party extreemist is hoping that they won't be a player.

Im hoping they fraking ruin every plan that the libs, conservatives, and career politicians have.

To become such an influential force (even if only to scare the status quo) truly is "having done the impossible".

It gives us (those who actually know and care about what it means to be a free American citizen) hope that we too

can be mighty.

Im sooooo looking forward to this years election results.




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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:02 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!



9/11 Truth and Ron Paul supporters founded the Tea Party movement

Quote:

We Are Change Ohio: “Do you support the family members and first responders who are calling for a new 9/11 investigation?”

Sarah Palin: “I do because I think that helps us get to the point of never again, and if anything that we could do could still complete that reminder out there.”

www.prisonplanet.com/sarah-palin-supports-new-911-investigation.html
www.infowars.com/sarah-palin-911-truther-controversy-makes-hypocrite-o
f-glenn-beck
/





Video: Sex Pistols, Smashing Pumpkins members discuss HAARP, GM Foods, Domestic Genocide, Illuminati, Grassroots Overthrow of Tyranny
http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20100217_corgan_jones.htm



Sarah Palin is a Jew (why she displays an Israeli flag in her office and on her lapel)
http://sarah-palin-2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/sarah-palin-has-jewish-an
cestry.html

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:06 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Quote:

those who actually know and care about what it means to be a free American citizen
Should we put him on "ignore" too, as a spouter of truly amusing bullshit? Nah, sometimes he even posts like a human being...but I'll just make fun of him when he comes out with this



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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:18 AM

JONGSSTRAW


Quote:

Originally posted by Wulfenstar:

It gives us (those who actually know and care about what it means to be a free American citizen) hope that we too can be mighty.



So Democrats don't want to be free American citizens?

And Republicans don't want to be free American citizens?

Independents don't want to be free American citizens either?

So I'm asking..."those who actually know and care"...who exactly is that? Just Tea Party people?

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:26 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Dream the impossible dream. Keep ignoring the MA massacre. It'll be November before you can bat an eye.





Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:48 AM

JONGSSTRAW


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Dream the impossible dream. Keep ignoring the MA massacre. It'll be November before you can bat an eye.


Sounds like you're putting your faith and trust in Michael Steele and the RNC. If they ever do one thing right under his leadership, it will be a first.

As for Scott Brown, be sure to post here the first time he crosses the aisle and votes in cooperation with Dems on some issues he agrees with them on. I promise it won't feel as good as it did on election night.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:57 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Dream the impossible dream. Keep ignoring the MA massacre. It'll be November before you can bat an eye.


Sounds like you're putting your faith and trust in Michael Steele and the RNC. If they ever do one thing right under his leadership, it will be a first.

As for Scott Brown, be sure to post here the first time he crosses the aisle and votes in cooperation with Dems on some issues he agrees with them on. I promise it won't feel as good as it did on election night.



I'm at a loss as to how you come to the conclusion that I place ANY faith in Mike Steele. I was talking about the Tea Party movement. Not the RNC. Bush and the " leadership " of the RNC have shown they were as tone deaf to what America was saying, and I've yet to see any evidence they've gotten a clue yet. There'll likely be a shift in power come November, but will the GOP have learned anything from it ?

I'm skeptical, at best.



Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:08 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Quote:

Originally posted by Wulfenstar:

It gives us (those who actually know and care about what it means to be a free American citizen) hope that we too can be mighty.



So Democrats don't want to be free American citizens?

And Republicans don't want to be free American citizens?

Independents don't want to be free American citizens either?

So I'm asking..."those who actually know and care"...who exactly is that? Just Tea Party people?




It seems like only yesterday when Wulfie was telling us all the we can't just lump people into groups, that it's all just shades of grey.

Oh. That WAS yesterday. :)

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:13 AM

JONGSSTRAW


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Dream the impossible dream. Keep ignoring the MA massacre. It'll be November before you can bat an eye.


Sounds like you're putting your faith and trust in Michael Steele and the RNC. If they ever do one thing right under his leadership, it will be a first.

As for Scott Brown, be sure to post here the first time he crosses the aisle and votes in cooperation with Dems on some issues he agrees with them on. I promise it won't feel as good as it did on election night.



I'm at a loss as to how you come to the conclusion that I place ANY faith in Mike Steele. I was talking about the Tea Party movement. Not the RNC. Bush and the " leadership " of the RNC have shown they were as tone deaf to what America was saying, and I've yet to see any evidence they've gotten a clue yet. There'll likely be a shift in power come November, but will the GOP have learned anything from it ?

I'm skeptical, at best.


I concluded that since Brown ran as a Republican, and you made reference to it, you were speaking of Republicans in November. I see the Tea Party mainly as a litmus test group to evaluate Republican candidates, but it's going to get ugly out there in some races, as in what happened in upstate NY. Republicans have a long history of nominating abysmal candidates. There will be power struggles along the way. And those unknown elements cannot yet be predicted with any accuracy in predicitng election results.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:21 AM

FREMDFIRMA



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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:28 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Quote:

Sounds like you're putting your faith and trust in Michael Steele and the RNC. If they ever do one thing right under his leadership, it will be a first.

As for Scott Brown, be sure to post here the first time he crosses the aisle and votes in cooperation with Dems on some issues he agrees with them on. I promise it won't feel as good as it did on election night.

JS, did you hear something I didn't?

I heard some whisper on the wind about a massacre or something, but it just made me to think of people in Massachussets massacring one another. Or oops, maybe you're not (yet) a member of the Ignore Club. You should join; it's lovely in here.

As for that hunka-hunka with a truck, I'll be interested to see if he does ANYTHING worthwhile...and he's their third (or fourth?) choice to run for Prez. THAT should be fun to watch!

Excellent point, Frem!



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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:02 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Frem....really? When the " GOP " is committing suicide ? SERIOUSLY ?

And what are the Dems doing? Are you completely blind to the reality of what is going on in politics today ?

A Republican just took over the Senate seat in Massachusetts. Held by a Kennedy. On the issue of Gov't Healthcare.

Wow.



Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:12 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Frem, did you hear something?

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:10 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Well, I didn't hear a thing. Looks like Frem didn't either. Do YOU need your ears checked, Mike...or do you have Coultergeist?



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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:22 PM

WULFENSTAR

http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg


Wow... no wonder this world is so fucked up...

if you guys are the adults we are to overcome.

"did you hear something"... God, can you guys grow up please?

Just a little bit?

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:30 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Activists in the Tea Party movement tend to be male, rural, upscale, and overwhelmingly conservative, according to a new national poll.


Not to mention white.


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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:32 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Originally posted by Wulfenstar:
Wow... no wonder this world is so fucked up...

if you guys are the adults we are to overcome.

"did you hear something"... God, can you guys grow up please?

Just a little bit?



Frankly, Wulfie, if you're the future of this country, our country has no future.

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:35 PM

GINOBIFFARONI


A Canadian view of tea party


http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/12/f-rfa-macdonald.html


Angry America
Neil Macdonald
Sarah Palin's tea party



Like most political reporters here, I fervently wish the Tea Party movement the very best in its efforts to stage a political uprising. And I would love to see Sarah Palin run against Barack Obama in 2012, as she says she might do.

I say that in all sincerity. Because no television news lineup editor can resist these characters. Meaning a busy season for me.

Palin is best, whether she's reading patriotic generalities from crib notes scribbled on her palm (after mocking Obama's use of a teleprompter), or standing before ecstatic Tea Partiers calling out: "Do you love your freedom?"
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin addresses the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville on Feb. 6, 2010. (Ed Reinke/Associated Press)Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin addresses the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville on Feb. 6, 2010. (Ed Reinke/Associated Press)

(What I love is a speech line like that. The implication, of course, being that (a) freedom is somehow endangered in America and (b) that liberals and the "elite" would rather not be free.)

But the Tea Partiers, that loose affiliation of angry right-wingers who coalesced last year around the Fox News Channel's crusade against Obama, also consistently provide news cameras with an embarrassment of video riches.

Some of them show up at rallies with guns, or signs depicting President Obama as Hitler, Stalin, a turbaned bomber or, as one enthusiastic participant put it, "a half-breed Muslin."

Presumably, the fellow didn't mean Obama is made of loosely woven cotton.
Tea Party world

The Tea Partiers' America is a richly imagined nation, one in which a suitably shrunken government, its general uselessness exposed to all, answers directly to ruggedly individualistic citizens who carve out decent livings solely by dint of hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, scorning government handouts, and who are free of crippling taxes and regulations.

Everybody speaks English in this America, preferably only English, and prays regularly. Their children don't need abortions because they practise abstinence until they enter into a heterosexual marriage, often after military service, during which they get to go into combat abroad against America's myriad enemies.

A Tea-Party America would already be whacking the Iranians, slapping North Korea around and straightening out the Pakistanis.

All of this would be financed by waves of tax cuts here at home because, as everybody knows, tax cuts provoke such wild economic growth that governments actually wind up richer.
Stay out of my pocket

OK, I won't go on. I'm sounding smart-alecky, I know, but the foregoing isn't as much of a caricature as it might sound.

America's Tea Partiers, for all their colourful ideas, are really only a spectacular crystallization of certain opinion currents in the broader citizenry.

Or, as Newsweek columnist Jacob Weisberg so tartly put it last week, "the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large."

What he meant is that the Tea Partiers aren't the only ones who cherish this rugged individualist fantasy.

Americans in general differ from Europeans and Canadians principally on their professed attitude toward government.

Like Europeans, Americans demand the security and services government provides, but at the same time they distrust it and loathe how it's always reaching into their pockets.

And they seldom bother to reflect on that contradiction.
Cut my ribbon

Polls suggest most Americans now oppose Obama's economic stimulus package, citing lack of fiscal probity.

At the same time, a majority supports the road-paving and bridge-fixing it provides.

(Politicians understand this perfectly. Republicans, who rail most harshly against stimulus, nonetheless show up, smiling and schmoozing, at ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings for stimulus projects in their districts.)

Americans might hate stimulus, but they also tend to approve of the extensions to unemployment benefits and food stamps it has provided. Not to mention the upkeep to schools and municipal services during these tough times.

I remember interviewing a politically active farmer in Missouri a few years back. This fellow wrote a column for a conservative think-tank publication, generally reinforcing every conceivable anti-government stereotype.

I asked him about the huge government subsidies he and his colleagues in agribusiness collect from Washington, subsidies that allow them to crush Third World competition.

He stared at me and said he really didn't have an answer. Clearly, he wasn't going to write a column denouncing that particular handout.
Don't break the China

Similarly, when Florida's active Tea Party movement denounces Obama for his "socialist," "big-government" agenda, it's not talking about Medicare and Social Security, the vast entitlement programs that provide free health care and modest pensions to so many of Florida's senior citizens.

In fact, with an almost clinical cognitive dissonance, the partiers routinely warn Democrats to keep their hands off Medicare.

Anyway, having so effectively channelled all this contradictory ambivalence, you would think that the Tea Partiers, with Palin leading the attack, are about to decisively upset Washington's order in this year's mid-term elections.

But take a closer look: A new ABC News/Washington Post survey suggests most Americans see Palin unfavourably. In fact, an overwhelming majority don't think she's fit for the White House.

That number includes most Democrats, a majority of independents and even a majority of, um, Republicans.

As for the Tea Partiers, even the politicians they support are being careful about returning the embrace.

Hardline conservative Marco Rubio has Tea Party endorsement in his struggle with Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist, for one of that state's two U.S. Senate seats.

Crist is generally regarded by Tea Partiers as a wishy-washy Republican at best, and one whose sexuality is questionable to boot.

But Rubio, while accepting Tea Party money, insistently distances himself from the movement in his interviews, clearly realizing that it could be a political drag somewhere down the road.

Count on this, too: Palin will remain the Tea Party queen only as long as she remains on Fox News's payroll as a "contributor."

If she gets serious about the White House, she'll also get serious about moderating her positions.

Because, deep down, below all that bluster about rugged individualism, Americans are really every bit as attached to their government as Europeans or Canadians

As Bill Davis, a pretty successful Ontario premier, once said, voters really want the same thing from the people they elect as they do from a housekeeper: Be on time, don't cost too much and, for God's sake, don't break anything.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/12/f-rfa-macdonald.html#ixzz0fq6
G8ZR2





Either you Are with the terrorists, or ... you Are with the terrorists

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers.
What you do today, might Burn Your Ass Tomorrow"

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:48 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

In fact, with an almost clinical cognitive dissonance, the partiers routinely warn Democrats to keep their hands off Medicare.
ALMOST clinical????

We're the nation of deep, deep denial. If we could get rid of that weird, whacky way in which opposing ideas bounce relentlessly around in our skulls without actually encountering each other... like superballs which never quite collide... we might be able to actually... er... solve some of our issues. But as long as we're stuck in a have-our-cake-and-eat-it-too fantasyland....

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:03 PM

GINOBIFFARONI


Quote:

Originally posted by SignyM:
Quote:

In fact, with an almost clinical cognitive dissonance, the partiers routinely warn Democrats to keep their hands off Medicare.
ALMOST clinical????

We're the nation of deep, deep denial. If we could get rid of that weird, whacky way in which opposing ideas bounce relentlessly around in our skulls without actually encountering each other... like superballs which never quite collide... we might be able to actually... er... solve some of our issues. But as long as we're stuck in a have-our-cake-and-eat-it-too fantasyland....



You don't want the balls to collide





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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:34 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


GAAAAAACKKK!!!!!!!
I'd say that was me spitting out a hairball, but... I'm not a teabagger!

But, hoooo boy! Have I driven this thread into a ditch, or what??

I can dig myself in even deeper, it you want!


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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:42 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Goddammit, Gino - I didn't read that link closely enough before I clicked on it!

You got me. It's almost like being Rick-rolled. But not quite.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:45 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!


"... opposing ideas bounce relentlessly around in our skulls without actually encountering each other ..."

But I'm thinking so MUCH when I do that !!! Doesn't THAT count for ANYthing ?

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 4:35 PM

GINOBIFFARONI


Quote:

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Goddammit, Gino - I didn't read that link closely enough before I clicked on it!

You got me. It's almost like being Rick-rolled. But not quite.



almost as funny as Hitler singing the Jeffersons theme...


you are still ahead this week




Either you Are with the terrorists, or ... you Are with the terrorists

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers.
What you do today, might Burn Your Ass Tomorrow"

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 4:57 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Back to tea-baggers and elections...

If there's a close election between a Republican and a Democrat, and there's a Tea Party candidate in the race, the Democrat is going to benefit; the tea-bagger will pull votes from the Republican.

HOWEVER, if it's a close race and there ISN'T a tea-bagger running, it will likely fall Republican.

This is going to cause some sleepless nights for tea-baggers and
Republicans, I think, more than for Democrats. If there are three people in the race, one of the two right-wing candidates is going to have to convince the other to drop out and throw support his way.

Frankly, I kinda hope we DO see some Tea Party candidates elected, because I think it would shake things up a bit.

I really don't see any circumstance that will have tea-baggers pulling votes from Democrats; they can have a "chilling" effect, though, in that demoralized Democrats just stay home, as they did in Massachusetts. It didn't help that Coakley was useless, and flaunted it. It *DID* help that Scott Brown was able to pull Tea Party support, and that Coakley showed such a who-gives-a-shit attitude to voters that large numbers of them became VERY motivated to get Brown into the office.

The biggest fear for Democrats this year isn't Republicans or the Tea Party; it's the Democrats. I tend to lean pretty far left, most of you would no doubt agree, and *I* am having a hard time imagining why I should go out and vote, given what we've gotten out of it the past several years. Once again, I find myself in a position to be disappointed, and in a position not to vote FOR somebody, but only to vote AGAINST someone else.

Now, if the Tea Party can motivate Democrats, good for them. And when I say "motivate", I mean get them off their ass and get them ACTIVE again. Make them react, make them be PRO-active, and make them actually address some of the Tea Party's issues. If they actually do some of that, I might get interested, and I might even go out and vote.

But if they're not careful, the Democrats will lose me to the Tea Party just out of spite. If they won't stand for something and actually fucking DO something, then I'll throw my lot in with someone else for a while, and see where THAT gets me.

So that's the view from way over here on the left, where my vote is up for grabs, but I ain't selling cheap. :)

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:15 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!


I think it doesn't help to get the worse one in to punish the slightly less worse one. You have to winnow out the worse ones at every step. The trick is to create a trend by doing it over time, which is slightly incompatible with the typical American attenti ... oh look ! A new TV show !


***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:34 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


It's a valid point, Rue, but on some level I have to wonder what's worse than getting nothing done at all. (And yes, I actually DO know the answer to that, after eight years of Bush!)

Still, I can see the temptation to vote in a few Tea Party people, just to see if THEY will actually do anything. We know from experience that the others definitely WON'T.

As has been noted before though (by Jongsstraw), 8 or 9 months is a political eternity, and an awful lot can happen. And ironically, sometimes it seems that nothing can happen at all in that time! (Witness healthcare reform...)

So we'll see. If the tea-baggers wake up some folks, and shake up some folks, then they'll have had an overall positive impact, I'll bet.

I don't take them terribly seriously, just like I didn't take Ron Paul's presidential bid very seriously; but I *DO* take seriously what change they can affect just by being in the mix. We can laugh at the message, and we can laugh at the signs, but we'd best not laugh off their anger or concern, or they might be laughing while we hang our heads the day after the mid-terms...

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:41 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!


"If the tea-baggers wake up some folks, and shake up some folks, then they'll have had an overall positive impact, I'll bet."

Well, the thing is - what lesson will be taken ? If the really-ultra-nutcase-right-wing gets rewarded in the next election cycle - what should progressives learn from that ? Or moderates ?

***************************************************************

Anyway, I need to get going. I realize my participation is spotty, and I tend to lose track of good discussions. So I HOPE we can pick this up tomorrow ...

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:49 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Quote:

Activists in the Tea Party movement tend to be male, rural, upscale, and overwhelmingly conservative, according to a new national poll.


Not to mention white.




Considering 93% of blacks voted for Obama, where does the blame really lay? Certainly not w/ the Tea Party crowd. There's no exclusion with anyone who cares for freedom. If folks are staying away, it's on their own accord, and maybe they need to educate themselves more.

Kinda like what y'all need to do here.



Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:58 PM

FREMDFIRMA



"I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, if I may be permitted to say so."
Walter Cronkite, 1986 DNC.

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Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:06 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

"I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, if I may be permitted to say so."
Walter Cronkite, 1986 DNC.



I'm guessing you meant the '68 convention, in Chicago.






Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:13 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Niki, the Tea Partiers will run as Rebubs in the primaries. It's anyone's guess as to what will happen after that...

Will Repubs accept them into the ranks, and back them in the primaries and beyond? If so, will the Tea Partiers tone down their colors as they progress thru the system? If not, will the Tea Partiers run as independents of some sort?

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Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:01 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Gino: EXCELLENTLY written article, and covers the entire situation quite concisely, in my opinion. Palin is already distancing herself, having said recently that, as they are not actually a “party”, the Tea Partiers should “pick a party”. The whole thing nails it to a “T”. And Brown, it was noted quickly, questioned how much the Tea Party had to do with his election, also distancing himself. I agree especially with his statement about the
Quote:

"the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large."
That pegs it; it used to amaze me how people would rail and vote against their own best interest; the Tea Party taught me a lot of the “why” and how they think, ergo, how Dumbya got elected, TWICE even!

Quote:

We're the nation of deep, deep denial. If we could get rid of that weird, whacky way in which opposing ideas bounce relentlessly around in our skulls without actually encountering each other... like superballs which never quite collide... we might be able to actually... er... solve some of our issues. But as long as we're stuck in a have-our-cake-and-eat-it-too fantasyland....
Bang on, well said!!

Gino, actually I think it would be a good idea if the balls DID collide...if they encountered each other, it might make the person wonder about the contradictions and, well maybe, possibly, actually THINK about them, rather than responding viscerally to the one they’re most used to and ignore the other.

But Rue,
Quote:

But I'm thinking so MUCH when I do that !!! Doesn't THAT count for ANYthing ?
that shows you ARE one of the thinking people in this nation, whose balls do collide (pardon the pun) and it makes you think and perhaps learn and grow.



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Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:04 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Hell, Mike, I’ve spent most of my adult life voting AGAINST someone; or put another way, FOR the least worst candidate. I long ago gave up hope of there being someone I wanted to vote FOR. Still waiting...even Obama wouldn't have been my first choice, tho' I'm not sure who would...I voted FOR Edwards in the primaries, and we all know how THAT would have turned out!. I was convinced after listening to them all and realizing that the things almost everyone is talking about NOW, Edwards was talking about THEN. But he turned out not to be worth my vote anyway, so...

I’m not sure the Dems are in as bad a position as you think; there are indications lately that they woke up and are going to do things by themselves; if things are actually DONE and shown to be good, it could turn around. Right now the anger is mostly because nothing is being done, as people see it. If Obama has finally gotten off his “bipartisan” kick and recognized NO concessions will bring the Republicans around, maybe things will start happening. If people have time to get good things out of what gets done, and see the Republicans are the ones getting in the way and trying to stop everything, it could make a big change. Only problem is, there isn’t much TIME.

Good one, Rue...my first giggle of the morning, thank you!

As to voting in Tea Partiers to see what they’ll do, there’s no way I look positively on that. I think the author cited above was absolutely on target with
Quote:

A Tea-Party America would already be whacking the Iranians, slapping North Korea around and straightening out the Pakistanis.

All of this would be financed by waves of tax cuts here at home because, as everybody knows, tax cuts provoke such wild economic growth that governments actually wind up richer.

His description of “their” world was right on, and if they were voted into office, their actions would be to vote with the Republicans, which, as we know, isn’t exactly getting anything done NOW...

Sig, I don't think they'll necessarily run as Republicans. Given time, they might, but I think they're so fired up now, and after Mass., that they think they're more powerful than they are. Taking on everyone they consider a RINO will split the vote where they do it, because many will be turned off by their ultra-conservative rhetoric and beliefs. More dangrous is the Republicans recognizing what power they have and cow-towing to them (as we're already seeing), winning by winning over the Tea Party voters who see some of what they want taking shape--or so they think, because I believe once voted into office, the Repubs will dump them faster than you can imagine.

If they became an independent party, they'd be nothing but spoilers; not enough people will ever be as ultra-conservative as they demand. If they got elected, I don't know whether they'd end up moving more to the center or not; only time will tell if any of them manage to get elected. JMHO



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