American Extremists: "Uninterested parties"
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Submitted by vastleft on Thu, 04/08/2010 - 12:08am
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So true, it hurts.
"We're the smart ones."
Bwahahaha.
Ouch
How do you keep these so consistently amazing?
I think the Tea Party
really has both Dem & Lib powers running scared. It's the only thing I can think of that can explain the MSM hatred of them. It is also what makes me doubt that the GOP has as much control of them as the Dem PTB are saying (or should I say sneering). If they really are the peasantry in revolt I feel almost obligated to join, do you know what I mean? Like who cares if they are wrong headed -- as long as the power dynamic changes, it would be a start? Aux barricades!
Great talking heads, btw, VL. You are really good at this.
I don't think the MSM hates the TEA Party
I think they love it. That's why they give it legitimacy.
I'm wondering why you think differently?
That's a good point
that by focusing attention on the TP they are legitimizing it. As with Sarah Palin. I think it is partly the MSM infighting - specifically Murdoch/Fox vs GE/NBC/ABC/etc and Murdoch/Fox is initiating the attention and the others are basically reacting.
But my larger point is that the TP really is made up of disaffected commoners for the most part and the anger there is real. They are the right's obots in the short term but I don't know if they will be as easy to fool as the obots once they elect the ones they think represent them into power. Working class people learn harder lessons quicker. They already learned something it took me a year under BO to realize -- you can't trust the govt. Some of them already don't trust big corp either. So the right/GOP is using them but I don't think the GOPs hold on them is as secure as they think.
Given that the tea-partiers are pushing
back against the current GOP leadership and the direction of the Republican Party in an attempt to “take back” the issues they care about, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that the tea-partiers support a Republican Party that doesn’t give a damn about their interests; they don’t support that, which is why the movement allegedly came into being.
“Allegedly” because the people who are really behind this are more or less using the anger and frustration of many Republicans in order to return to power within the party – I don’t doubt that if they are successful, the tea-partiers will be dismissed as quickly as possible without making it too obvious their usefulness has passed.
I think I would have to say that, given that disaffected liberals/Democrats have so far failed to organize in any meaningful and visible way, Democrats have the edge on appearing to be blindly continuing to stand with a party that has betrayed them, ignored them and sold them out.
The Tea Party may be a complete Astroturf operation, but it has energized and organized unhappy Republicans in a way that Democrats have not been able to do for themselves; liberals are wringing their hands, but are essentially just standing around waiting for I-don’t-know-what. A miracle? Waking up to find it was all a nightmare? Still wishing and hoping?
So, we may actually be winning the war of the not-so-bright, which is a sad and dubious thing to be winning.
[hate the whole "tea-bagger" labeling; yes, I suppose "tea-partier" accords some legitimacy, but I just hate to take the low road on discourse]
The NV woman, prez of local Tea Party, was very much a Repub--
Pam Stout, nice little old lady, fiercely conservative. Appeared on Letterman.
And one of her favorite Repubs is Sen Jim DeMint. She doesn't see 3rd party as viable and wants an even more conservative Repub Party. (You've probably seen some of the video, right?)
The Dems have missed an incredible opportunity to at least try to gain the trust of people terribly disturbed by the turn the economy has taken and why, but this particular iteration of Dems seems to be unable to look beyond its corporate supporters and funders. Bad juju.
Of course, they also missed an incredible opportunity to implement Medicare for All (Improved!) during a time when people were eager, even desperate for change. As Lambert posts above, check the lobbying clout.
Now, back to sun and 85 degree warmth in northern NJ on April freakin' 8th!
Two things
1. I think it's a fair bet that Tea Partiers vote for Republicans in large numbers
2. I regularly decry the use of "teabagger." But it is in the vocabulary of the "progressive" character.
Yup, yup, yup.
Another wonderful cartoon. I love how you capture the elitist "progressive" viewpoint so perfectly.
I do think we are going to see more Tea Party candidates, running on a "Tea Party" platform. However, if you examine the beliefs of the Tea Party as a movement, they fall solidly into the right-wing Republican viewpoint.
Here is the latest on their "Contract from America." (By the way, look at this website. Some serious $$$ went into that!)
http://www.contractfromamerica.com/Idea....
That's a fascinating site, madamab
Please remind me to post on it:
1. The design is an Obama knockoff (so much that my first thought is that it was a parody).
2. There's obvious funding. And we should remember that the elites who are creaming off the energy of the tea partiers are no more and no less corrupt than the elites who creamed off the energy of the left. In fact, it's the same elite, although perhaps different as to faction.
3. Just look at how it's structured: Like corporate sponsorship, with logos from the locals!
4. The rot -- at least from the perspective of the grass roots -- sure set in fast, didn't it?
Yes, there seems to be a template now
for all political sites, based on the Obama/Hillary sites from 2008.
I think I agree with Anne. We "2L40s" are staying out of the AstroTurfed movements and doing our own thing.
Part of me wants to lament the dearth of left-wing billionaires willing to invest in real grassroots change, but...then I remember what happened with Moveon.org in the primaries, and I see what happened with the Tea Party movement, and I think, "Good on us!"
Fair enough on both points.
I realized, after I posted my comment, that the character's use of "tea-bagger" was entirely appropriate for what he/she was saying - I just have a visceral reaction to it.
As for the voting habits of the TP's, I think they are where Democrats have been for some time - when push comes to shove, they will vote (R) because the only thing worse than electing Republicans they say they oppose would be electing Democrats - by default - if they don't. They are not yet at the point where they can see that it's six of one- half a dozen of the other: both parties just really, really suck at representing their human constituents (but they are doing a bang-up job representing the corporate sector!).
I think what this means for November is that Dems fed up with getting nothing for their votes will outnumber Republicans still able to be guilted into voting (R), and that will mean losses for Democrats. Oh, well...
Well, I think the national Dems
Must take huge losses in November. Paradoxically, it's the only way to get them to be responsive to their base again.
I am liking the "NOTA" strategy even more lately. I may end up putting in a "NOTA" vote instead of staying home.
To the best of my knowledge,
To the best of my knowledge, the "teabagger" moniker was kicked off by Yasha Levine writing for eXiledonline. Right after he and Mark Ames broke the astroturfing angle, and at the very beginning of the media spectacle portion of the Tea Party movement (as distinct from a few early varieties of the idea coming mostly from Ron Paul supporters).
He went to one of the first rallies in SoCal and wrote the sort of piece that could only find a home in the eXile media empire. He made snide cracks about how the few demonstrators were too afraid to break the law for the sake of their protest, so they dunked tea bags into cups of water to symbolize the Boston Tea Party.
Riffing on that, he said that the astroturfers "teabagged the media and the media loved it". Of course, the silliness of the teabag stunt made carrying Levine's crude, sexual joke into common discourse easy and fun. Levine's original use, however, isn't really pointed at the protesters but rather the media...probably because he co-wrote a stinging piece of important investigative journalism that was completely blown off by major media...until some of them started plagiarizing the work.