Sarah Palin is a twit: There’s little doubt about that. A rich twit, yes, and a pantyhose populist to the uneducated, uninformed and ignorant masses that make up so much of the rabid right in this county.
To some, she’s Ron Paul with tits. To others, a “shot in the arm” to the tired old concepts of the sham called the Republican Party.
Mostly, however, she is a symbol of how little substance is left in politics and a monument to the stupidity of those who foolishly believe that Palin — and the phony “grassroots” Tea Party that embraces her — is real or worth the time and attention that is wasted on both.
Yes, I know, Palin was elected governor of Alaska but the 49th state has a long and shameful tradition of putting flakes in office.
The sad fact that Palin is a phenom is a sad testament to a shallow, celebrity-driven culture. Polls show more Americans interested in the fate of contestants on American Idol than issues that affect the future of this nation.
In many ways, Palin’s emergence as the face of the Tea Party “movement” is perfect: A phony organization like the Tea Party needs a phony as its superstar. The Tea Party is not the “grassroots” campaign that it claims but a front for right-wing millionaires who want to push their agenda. The Tea Party grew out of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a fake grassroots operation set up in 1984 by David and Charles Koch, right-wing petroleum and energy magnates. It began life in a consulting firm in Washington, not from “grassroots” activists.
Now, as Politico reports, the Tea Party is run not by activists but by a slick, California-based Republican consulting firm who admitted in a memo that the party was a way to get rich.
Just days after the first widespread tea party demonstrators hit the streets a year ago Thursday, Joe Wierzbicki, a Republican political consultant with the Sacramento firm Russo Marsh + Rogers, made a proposal to his colleagues that he said could “give a boost to our PAC and position us as a growing force/leading force as the 2010 elections come into focus.”
The proposal, obtained by POLITICO, was for a nationwide tea party bus tour, to be called the Tea Party Express, which over the past seven months has become among the most identifiable brands of the tea party movement. Buses emblazoned with the Tea Party Express logo have brought speakers and entertainers to rallies in dozens of small towns and big cities, including one in Boston on Wednesday that will feature former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Aided by campaign-style advance work and event planning, slick ads cut by Russo Marsh, impressive crowds and a savvy media operation, the political action committee run by Wierzbicki, Russo Marsh founder Sal Russo and a handful of other Republican operatives has also emerged as among the prolific fundraising vehicles under the tea party banner. Known as Our Country Deserves Better when it was founded during the 2008 election as a vehicle to oppose Barack Obama’s campaign for president, the PAC saw its fundraising more than quadruple after it took the Tea Party Express public in July, raising nearly $2.7 million in roughly the following six months, compared with less than $600,000 in the preceding six months, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
This kind of activity is “business as usual” for political consultants and fake grassroots operations like the Tea Party. During my foray into the dark side of politics inWashington, I worked for a while for The Eddie Mahe Company, a top GOP consulting firm. The firm helped business and industry groups create a number of fake grassroots groups, including Citizens for a Sound Economy — which later spawned the Tea Party.
Some say Tea Party is a “real movement.”
It’s not. The only real movement I’ve seen in modern-day America is the one that empties your bowels.
Related articles by Zemanta
- The Tea Party is a Sham and a Bad Joke, Document Revealed Proving Republican Ploy (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
- Tea Party: The audacity of nope (thestar.com)
- Tea Party Express: Boston Stop Includes Sarah Palin, No Scott Brown (huffingtonpost.com)
- Moronic Convergence Accelerates – Palin Endorses Rand Paul (trueslant.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?w=840&ssl=1)
115 thoughts on “Sarah Palin: A phony populist for a phony movement”
What I find interesting in all this is how many times I’ve seen Doug himself suggest that nothing short of a revolution will change any thing in this country. How many times we’ve lamented the collective American Apathy and couch-potato laziness of the masses. We excoriate the superficial, celebrity-driven culture while we formulate our political reality based on personalities and punditry, propaganda and pablum. We choose our representatives like we pick out our breakfast cereal.
New and Improved! Political campaigns are nothing more than glitzy brand promotions. Call in the next ten minutes and get free shipping on that shiny new bureaucracy. Yours for life. Never needs batteries, just feed it new taxes every year and watch it grow! Like magic!
But wait – there’s more! For a limited time only, you can have your livelihood shipped overseas at no extra cost! That’s right – call now and you too can become a beneficiary of government welfare! But act now – supplies are limited.*
* length of offer based on an inversely proportional ratio of working stiifs to formerly working stiffs. When supplies run out, you’re on your own.
We find every reason to find the smallest fault in any thing that doesn’t quite fit into the tight confines of partisan politics, all the while complaining that nothing ever changes. And of course, we believe every thing we see on television.
We proclaim we want better but always settle for the lesser of two evils. We wish for a third party (even though plenty exist right now) but find every reason not to support them when the rubber hits the road. And when you boil it down, it’s the so-called independent voters that keep us here; independent only in that they vote for one or the other major party as the winds change.
People are taking to the streets to protest an out of control government, and frankly I’m damned glad to finally see it. There are plenty of angles and certainly a share of bad actors, provocateurs and posuers, but John Q Public is tired of getting screwed. If a few politicians wet themselves in the process, so be it.
For me, this has been one of the most enjoyable threads that I’ve read on this site, especially one without me adding my two cents worth.
The most enjoyable aspect was that our site host jumped in and for a change pitched out his political erudition concerning D.C. based orgs, their origins and links to the present.
On this one, I’d rule in the gunfighter’s favor; ie., Doug Thompson armed with his Colt 45 and the rest with water pistols and no water to fill them… : ))
Carl Nemo **==
Well Carl, for my part it wasn’t worth going back to the original (RP) quotes, recreating context and intent, discussing the semantic analysesdone that suggest multiple authors, etc., that had already been brought to bear years ago. It’s a new time with a more suave approach to casting arguments against the govt leviathan.
On the other hand, I think political erudition is a term you’ve chosen well, because the rule of thumb for any good politician is that when the squeeze of reality sets in the best way to persevere is to change the subject. :-!
Got some real indignation goinst on round here Doug, Yee, Dee, Hay Haw.
Ron Paul with tits?
This is a good example of extraordinary ignorance re: Ron Paul
or deliberate spreading of disinformation.
Show me anyone, “right” or “left”, who does a more
consistent job of supporting Constitutional limits
on the government -both verbally and with his vote-
than Ron Paul.
(I only wish you could. With more than one real American
in office, our chances of regaining control of our
country would be significantly increases.)
Or is there something else you’re looking for in
your elected officials?
Of course, anyone drinking the democrat OR the republican
koolaid isn’t going to admit that limiting the government
is the answer. They all want to think that THEIR party
is the one that can be trusted…in spite of massive
direct evidence to the contrary…
Is Ron Paul perfect?
Nope.
But he’s orders of magnitude better than anyone else
we’ve seen when it comes to supporting the Constitution.
His voting record -over a LONG run in office- proves it.
And that’s what we desperately need.
Almandine writes:
Class act? Let’s see. Quotes from Ron Paul’s newsletters from 1978-95:
Oh yeah, a real “class act.” Oops. I forgot. Paul later claimed that all these comments were written by aides without his knowledge (apparently, we are to believe he didn’t read his own newsletter for 17 years). Maybe it was just the cowboy actions of Lew Rockwell or another Paul ghostwriter who was actually black (I love that justification).
Good. You put your “crowd” up against mine “and understanding any day.” The fact that you consider the Tea Party an actual grassroots organization tells me all I need to know. I want no part of them or anyone foolish enough to fall for their act.
It seems the difference between you and Ron is that he gave up talkin trash about 15 years ago.
Doug,
I will not argue your facts. However, in 2007, Ron Paul and his supporters did host events or rallies with the name Tea Party.
Yet, the Ron Paul inspired Tea Parties also included withdrawing forces from both Iraq and Afghanistan; establsihing some control over the Federal Reserve and U.S. currency as well as lower taxes and smaller government.
I agree with Paul’s many positions on foreign policy, marijuana legalization and the Fed. However, I find many of his economic position to be too simplistic, especially regarding regulation and market libertarianism, as those ideas have been implemented in some form by Reagan, Clinton and Bush and we are seeing the effects of an unrestrained corporate oligopoly.
The current Tea Party is the creation of professional PR consultants, as you said: CSE, FreedomWorks, AFP, Russo Marsh Rogers; led by Republicans.
People criticize Obama for being fiscally reckless. Here is Sarah Palin’s fiscal record:
As mayor, she left Wasilla in debt as well as litigation and compensation costs because the Menard Arena was built on land she did NOT legally own:
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065537792905483.html
The land compensation cost: $836,378: Interest: $336,000
Legal Cost: $250,000
Total and Extra Cost: $1.3 million
The debt she left Wasilla was $25 million or $3,000 per resident.
She left the state with a higher Debt/GDP ratio than California.
https://washingtonindependent.com/80942/palin-left-alaska-with-debts-equal-to-70-percent-of-its-gdp
And, once again, Palin has been caught in a distortion. She claimed Obama, in a speech recently claimed he does not like American exceptionalism. She selectively quoted his speech, without adding in the full text or bothering to understand the details.
Here is Palin’s warped version:
Mr. President, is a strong America a problem?
Asked this week about his faltering efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama did something remarkable. In front of some 47 foreign leaders and hundreds of reporters from all over the world, President Obama said that “whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.”
Whether we like it or not? Most Americans do like it.
Here is what he ACTUALLY said:
“But what we can make sure of is, is that we are constantly present, constantly engaged, and setting out very clearly to both sides our belief that not only is it in the interests of each party to resolve these conflicts but it’s also in the interest of the United States. It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure. ”
In actual FACT and CONTEXT, he was speaking about U.S. National Security and how important it is to remain aware and engaged so that the U.S. is NOT engulfed in a conflict, which leads to both loss of lives and resources.
Yet, Palin, in her tea addled brain, cannot get beyond snark and actually engage the merits of an issue. Why some people devour her every move and word eludes reason. She is a charlatan, who reduces discourse to talking points and buzzwords and offers simple soundbite solutions to complex problems, much like:
-Adolf Hitler
-Joseph Stalin
-Mao Tse-tung (Zedong)
-Fidel Castro
-Benito Mussolini
All of those men, like Palin, stirred hatred against some “other” (Jews; Gypsies; Boyars; “elites,” foreigners, minorities, homosexuals, or anyone who questioned their motives. They offered simple solutions to their nations’ complex issues. Here are the results of such comic book thinking:
-Hitler: Holocaust; 15-20 million total dead; WWII
-Stalin: 40-50 million dead; many starved or froze to death in SIberia
-Mussolini: Caused bombing of Italy and subsequent occupation by both Germans and Allies
-Castro: See ongoing Cuban exodus; decimation of Cuban middle class
-Mao: Reportedly murdered between 50 and 100 million Chinese
Palin constantly spouts hatred towards the media, “elites,” (code for people with an education who see her for what she is), “socialism” (AK is the biggest socialist state in U.S.; takes from oil companies and gives checks to residents; receives narly $2 for every $1 in taxes paid; more tax $ per capita than any other state in U.S.).
Palin is is either a sociopath and pathological liar, deliberately lying for her own gain or is a person who actually believes her own babble and has some kind of disconnect with reality. I would say she is a hybrid; a low information sociopath: on one hand, an ideologue drinking her own Kool-Aid; don’t bother her with facts, she already has her mind made up. On the other hand, she is cynical enough to know where the cash and adoration is.
Evil can only prevail when good people sit by and say or do nothing.
This discourse about Palin would be almost laughable if it wasn’t so incredibly sad. Palin is a nobody. Palin is an aberrant figure head for a very minor voice that will have a social impact that could be compared to a humming bird pissing in the pacific ocean.
The more Palin talks…well, personally, I love it because her ignorance becomes more and more apparent.
Those in the Republican Party who were McCain – Palin supporters surely have already seen the “real” Palin and won’t be there for her during any future elections.
Ralph Nader would stand a better chance in future elections and IMHO his chances are zero to none.
As far as Ron Paul’s connection to the Tea Party. Well, he serves the district I reside in. Ron Paul is not a “teabagger” by any stretch of the word. People can say how much they think of Paul presidential qualities until they see his political visions for America in their entirety. Check out his site…see if his genuine Libertarian views are yours. Believe me, there is a drastic difference in “true Libertarians” when comparing them with Republican and Democrat platforms and philosophies.
If everybody is pissed, then all should exercise the rights given to the 4th Branch of Government, which serves as the most powerful part of the check and balance system of goverment.
We, the people, are the problem in our political system…period. These parties an fringe wanna be’s have the American people right where they want us all to be…divided and distracted with BS that will not further the needs or the general welfare of the citizens of our wayward country. The political game isn’t played for the people. It”s played to advance the agendas of those who are far above the power chain of the average citizens. In other words, they are protecting the property and treasures of the modern day American Aristocrates.
Take you’re eyes off of the bouncing B.S. and keep it on those who are disseminating it.
“The origins of the Tea Party go back to the creation of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a sham grassroots operation, in 1984. That has been documented by more than just this web site.”
I’d like to see those refs Doug – replete with specificity. A 23 year gestation period for something like this is almost unfathomable, especially given all the hoopla over the Ron Paul December 2007 spin up of TeaParty07. Kinda like saying the origins of the United States can be found in the Magna Carta.
Clearly, it is true that the published ideals of CSE and the TP are quite consonant, and just as clearly, the people in CSE today would cleave to the TP as a way to advance their goals. The TP Express does seem to be a money-grubbing carbuncle on the TP backside.
Whatever the reality, though, getting citizens involvd in their governing process is a positive.
From the US Tea Party’s own web site; (https://www.usteaparty.com):
From Sourcewatch (https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity):
From National Journal (https://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20100204_7827.php):
I’ve listed these references (and others) in past articles about the Tea Party. This web site has a search function. You might want to try using it.
Any more references or do you want to keep questioning my veracity for printing what I know about this sham operation because I was there at the beginning?
The Tea Party hasn’t gotten anyone “involved” in grassroots political activity. All it has done is played them for fools.
There you go again, Doug. Fighting emotions with facts. How DARE you?
Ruin a good tantrum like that again and someone will start saying nasty things about you. Oh, my bad. They already did.
Like Griff, I was there in 2007 when the Tea Party movement began with Ron Paul and his Meet-up groups. I guess you’d be technically correct in the assewrtion that the Tea Party did not create political activity at the start, since it was the popular movement that engendered the (first) TeaParty07. You are incorrect in claiming “the The Tea Party hasn’t gotten anyone ‘involved’ in grassroots political activity.”
I’m not speaking of the CSE-bastardized U.S.TeaParty… but the actual grassroots attempt to seize govt back from both parties via support for RP.
Have it any way you need to, but to turn your phrase – “I was there.”
Yeah, I remember all the Ron Paulites telling me that I would eat my words when he was elected President. I remember all the predictions about all the states he would win and how he would be raising more money than the Democratic and Presidential candidates combined.
Yeah, you were there and where did it get you? Ron Paul ain’t President. Never will be. Too many fringes involved in his campaign, just like the Tea Party. Fringes don’t win elections. Consultants will get rich but nothing that matters will be changed by shams like the Tea Party or the lemmings who follow these shysters.
You want real change? Learn the system and stop hanging out with losers. Ron Paul has run for President as a libertarian and tallied only one-half of one percent of the popular vote and one electoral college vote. He ran in the GOP primary in 2008 and won 22 delegates out of 2,308: Less than one percent. He raised a lot more money than people expected but very little of it actually went into his campaign. What happened to that money? Maybe that’s the story that needs to be told and I probably will dig into it and report it some day.
I voted for Ron Paul when he ran as a libertarian because I couldn’t vote for either of the mainstream candidates. I knew it was a wasted vote. Fringe candidates, even flash-in-the-pan populists, never stand a chance.
You assume that I don’t know the system and hang out with losers… I’ll put my crowd and understanding up against yours any day.
And while RP may not win the Presidency, I’ve never heard him declare that anyone, supporting whichever other candidate they choose, is a sham, a loser, a phony, a sucker, a fool, etc. Nor does he smear with specious innuendo should his talking points wane.The man has too much class.
Sorry you had to go there and denigrate yourself. Must be low on bullets.
This is vaguely reminding me of a movie, was it Cool Hand Luke? “I wuz there”, “No, I wuz there!”, “Yo Buddy, I WUZ THERE!!”
Well, I got news for you all, I was somewhere when something started, I’m pretty sure of it…
But on the subject of this article, the many comments seem to have clearly demonstrated that there is no real, cohesive Tea Party movement. Just what it is depends upon who is speaking and what they want to believe. But whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be focused on issues and associated well-considered political solutions. It does seem to be best known for ideological stridency supported and fueled in its fame by shallow slogans and propagandists, serving primarily disruptive and destructive purposes. I can imagine how frustrating that must be for those who identify with whatever more substantive value lies entangled within the noise.
But WOW, is this thread a CHB record?
Record? Not even close. The record is 391 comments to a column debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories.
No issues? How about reduced govt spending, reduced taxes, and reduced govt interference, just for starters?
And please don’t go back to that proaganda thing…
I think the actual quote is:
“What we have here is failure to communicate.”
Al,
In the interest of failing to communicate one more time, your “issues” sound like ideological drum beating to me. And, once again, some TEA (taxed enough already) party members that I know locally (my frame of reference) actually have not paid any taxes for many years, and don’t plan to pay any in the future, despite using tax-payer funded services extensively.
Another prominent local TEA party couple that I know quite well happen to be multiple homeowning, German race car driving, Limbaugh listening, cadillac health insured, functional socialists. All their income is derived from not-working and from multiple pensions supported by the rest of us red blooded ‘Mericuns (note sarcasm please).
The take home message here is that the issues of government are not at all simple or clear-cut, yet the TEA party issues and slogans seem to me to be all simplistic and propaganda generated.
If I have yet again succeeded in failing to communicate, please excuse my opinions as a matter of resulting from my own experience and observation. Consider yourself excused in advance, as well.
griff writes:
Let me see if I have this straight. Rachel Maddow mutters something on her MSNBC talkfest and suddenly it’s fact? Maddow’s show is 99 percent opinion, just like Olbermann. She’s welcome to her opinion but claiming the Tea Party had any real grassroots origins (in the Ron Paul campaign or anywhere else) is just more propaganda. Opinion, whether it be from the right or the left, is just that: Opinion. Saying it don’t make it so.
The origins of the Tea Party go back to the creation of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a sham grassroots operation, in 1984. That has been documented by more than just this web site.
I was in that conference room in Washington when CSE was created.
I don’t remember seeing Rachel Maddow there (in 1984, she was 11 years old).
I don’t recall you being there either. 😉
Tea Party ’07
So you say the tea parties were started in 1984? Well they’ve been pretty quiet until now. Did they coin the term at that meeting? What you witnessed at that meeting was the creation of the CSE, by your own admission.
I campaigned for Ron Paul in ’07 and ’08. I took part in and donated my hard-earned money during the first tea party in 2007. So don’t tell me that the idea and the name didn’t start with the Ron Paul campaign, because it did.
Is the CSE involved now? Apparently so, but I’m not arguing that reality. There are many special interests and PACs currently misleading the tea parties, much to my dismay.
These Republicans and their minions have stolen the name and much of the rhetoric because they saw how powerful it was. They saw how much money we raised on a single day and during the remainder of the campaign, and they wanted a piece of it, but only after the Republican nomination was safely in McCain’s hands. Before then we were ridiculed by the Republican establishment. We were unwelcome.
You may have been at that meeting in 1984, but I was on the ground in 2007 and 2008 and saw first-hand, on a daily basis, the intensity of the battles between Paul supporters and the Republicans; coincidentally while you were ridiculing Paul and his supporters yourself on these very pages.
You can claim all you’d like that the tea parties were a sham all along, but the CSE and the others are just opportunist carpetbaggers that took a true populist movement and utterly ruined it.
Jesus Christ, have you lost the ability to comprehend what you read? I didn’t say the tea parties were started in 1984. I said their roots go back to the creation of CSE in 1984. Read the god damned article and try comprehending it before misstating what I said. God almighty, it’s little wonder these sham outfits find so many suckers willing to buy into their scams.
All right. Tirade over. This whole thing is really starting to piss me off. It doesn’t seem to matter how many facts I throw at some of you, you still believe the Tea Party is real. It’s not. Never has been, never will be. We need a real grassroots movement in this nation but this one is not it. We need a new party, but this one is not it. We need something to effect change but this ain’t it. I wish it was.
I fully understand what you’re saying, Doug, but obviously you don’t get what I’m saying. I think my history here reveals that I’m no sucker, so that mischaracterization is entirely inappropriate. And for the record, I have been highly critical of the establishment interlopers – of which there are many – and the reluctance of the tea parties to cut those ties.
At one point not long ago, the tea parties were indeed real. They are no longer, as long as they’re used as vote-getters for the Republicans. I harbor no illusions as to what the tea parties have become, which is why I always have and always will support Campaign for Liberty and no others.
From NewsBusters:
When our government is nothing but a dog and pony show, it doesn’t matter who gets elected. If you conrol the economy, you control everythin. If you don:t control the economy, you control nothing. The economy is not under the control of the people or our elected officials, it is controlled by the Federal Reserve, a private corporation. JFK caught onto this and eliminated the Federal Reserve with Executive Order 1110. Then someone eliminated JFK and Johnson reinstated the Federal Reserve. So, you tell me, who is really in power?
ENOUGH! It was not XO 1110, it was XO 11110, and it did not eliminate the Federal Reserve. All it did was authorize the SecTreas to issue silver certificates without the President’s having to make a formal approval of each issuance. The authority to issue those certificates was already there, just not in the direct hands of the SecTreas.
Stop spouting this stupid crap without having had the common sense and decency to look at reality for a second or two instead of doing the far-right knee jerk dance. Take your f***ing conspiracy s*** somewhere else.
Tea Party in Seattle 04-15-10 (people they don’t show on TV)
My favorite sign, the Boy Scout with the sign that says, “I’m 11 years old and $38,000 in debt.”
Also, according to one Fed study, Whites constituted 72 percent of sub-prime mortgage holders; African-Americans roughly 16 percent and Hispanics only a
tad over 6 percent.
Many of the arguments that pointed to the CRA as the main culprit are from right wing pundits who did not wish to go deeper and look at de-regulation i.e Gramm/Leach; opening up the markets for derivatives
and swaps and not putting the Street on a leash; fearing that such regulations would hamper lending activities.
At the end of 2004, according to the now defunct New Century, a slight majority of sub-prime borrowers were white, under 50 and an average income of $72,000. Note, this is just one firm’s customers.
Yet, Sarah Palin, with her team of speechwriters, research assistants, etc, could not be bothered to find out about issues she would be speaking on in front of bankers, brokers, dealers and investors from around the world. She instead went for paltitudes, which, from feedback, put off several of the attendees in Hong Kong.
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6846041.ece
As Doug Thompson says, she is a phony populist for a phony movement.
I’m having a T-shirt made today, with a big arrow pointing to the left and saying, “I’m With Handsome!”
How far left?
But I agree with you, Handsome. The problem is that you are trying to fight fear and other emotions with facts. These people here don’t really want facts, they want everyone to buy in with their odd views just because they shout them longer and louder.
I saw a tea party “rally” on the front lawn of our courthouse the other day. The crowd was debating to himself. And losing.
Well logtroll, failing the opportunity to reply directly, I’ll post it down here.
My request for details regarding your invocation of jingoism and propaganda regarding the Tea Partiers has to do with the definition of both. First, jingoism relates to one’s aggressive foreign policy stance, of which I have not heard much from Tea Partiers. Propaganda, being any communication designed to sway others can be said of all of them – the independent Tea Party types, the Repub Tea Party types, the Dem Tea Party types… plain Dems, Repubs, Libertarians, pols of any type, advertising and PR folks, you name it. We all try to influence others.
What is true about propaganda is that it can be – and is – both true and false – depending on both the truthfulness of the message and the degree to which facts are included, manipulated, omitted, spun, etc., in any communication.
The Propaganda Techniques you’ve linked to are the usual set of methods taught in the psychology of persuasion courses in most colleges. The utility of having such a list is the attendant ability to know when one is having the smoke blown his way and the best countermeasures for use against the particular technique being employed. You’ve used several in your post above, including assertion, projected bandwagon, glittering generalities, name calling, simplification, and transfer, in order to mount a broad brush attack against the Tea Partiers without presenting one verifiable fact. Even the 538 article you cite is basically a sham poll which purports to have sampled the 18% of Americans who are Tea Partiers, yet was clearly not inclusive of 18% (54 million) Americans.
Hey Al,
Guess we all might as well go shoot arselves, cuz you ain’t left no room fer nobody ta twitch!
At’s sum game ya’ll play, where the onliest way ta win is ta smoke everbuddy! Sorry ah’m sich a lame ass, but leastways you won this one!
May I suggest the application of a bit of perspective?
Now, Sarah Palin herself is an accident of history. Anyone who actually knows the history of the 2008 election knows that McCain was seeking to achieve several goals:
-Capitalize on frustrations borne of 2008 Democratic primaries between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. McCain sought to tap into the so-called PUMA movement; frustrated Clinton supporters, primarily white, working and middle class women voters
-Shore up his own right flank by picking someone who was more of an evangelical social conservative (should have picked Huckabee; at least that man, while an evangelical social conservative, is intelligent and served out both of his terms and the remainder of Jim Guy Tucker’s term)
-Try and get a big media bang by getting people buzzing. Steve Schmidt and others involved in campaign knew McCain had to pick a virtual stranger in order to get any heat after Dem convention. Rick Davis, a key campaign advisor, reportedly happened upon Palin while searching Google and YouTube and viewing a clip of an interview she did with Charlie Rose after being elected governor.
https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/07/60minutes/main6067628.shtml
In herelf, Sarah Palin is a JOKE. However, once upon a time, many felt the same way about the Austrian art school reject, Adolf Hitler. Yet, the world was witness to that travesty of history called the Third Reich and the Holocaust. It is the duty of any civic minded American to never forget the lessons of history and to always call out con artists and charlatans when they raise their heads.
Several statements by her or her fawning admirers have been disproven and discredited several times yet she keeps spouting same worn distortions:
Her claim that Alaska makes 20% of gross domestic energy has been debunked several times. Recent estimates by Energy Information Administration show that AK’s energy output was less than 2.9 percent of total U.S. energy. Oil production was highest energy output; 14.3% in 2007, most recent year EIA has information on.
https://factcheck.org/2010/02/tea-party-fact-checking/
Her Death Panels claim was PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year.
Her claim that ethics charges cost AK millions: Lie. According to the Anchorage Daily News, the ethics complaints did not cost AK millions but rather $296,000; $187,797 being attributed to Palin’s “complaint against herself” in Troopergate probe.
Source: https://www.adn.com/2009/07/01/850854/ethics-investigations-cost-state.html
Nobody was paid overtime or more than routine salaries that would have been paid whether Palin was being probed or not.
Her claim that Obama palled with terrorists was proven a lie:
https://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/he_lied_about_bill_ayers.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
She had a tantrum about Letterman’s poor taste joke. In her book, she claimed in 2007, there were gang rape threats against both Bristol and Willow Palin. Yet, no police or school report ; nor did she alert her security team. So, either she is a poor mother or the threats never happened; yet, shakes down Letterman for a bad joke. Since that fiasco was right before her quitting, I imagine it was grasping at straws, creating a diversion from her falling ratings in AK, as oil prices dipped and she spent more time away from AK cultivating her national profile; her last gasp of political power before quitting.
In Hong King, Palin repeated lie that 1977 Community Reinvestment Act caused financial and hosuing crisis. This is a fave point among Tea Party crowd yet has no basis in reality. Below is industry and empirical evidence about sub-prime loans:
According to a Fed study, 84% of sub-prime loans were issued by non-regulated mortgage lenders and 83% of debts were held by private, non-CRA regulated entities.
Source: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53802.html
60% of high priced subprime loans went to middle and upper income borrowers. Source:
https://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2009/02/fed_report_cra_not_cause_of_ho.php
Federal Reserve
A report by Lending Pattens, published in Real Estate Magazine on July 24, 2008 showed that in 2006, 71% of sub-prime loans were issued to non-Hispanic Whites; 40% were to middle and upper income borrowers.
At the end of 2004, according to the now defunct New Century, a slight majority of sub-prime borrowers were white, under 50
and an average income of $72,000.
Former Fed Reserve governor Randall Kroszner also disproved this partisan talking point. What gives his POV some weight is he is a Chicago School disciple (Friedman) and was appointed by George W. Bush. In Decmber 2008, he stated that no EMPIRICAL evidence has been presented that would support this assertion.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/kroszner20081203a.htm
Here is link to U.S. News and a statement by FDIC Chairman Sheila Blair (a Republican, btw) who dispelled the myth of the CRA causing the crisis.
https://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-home-front/2008/12/17/sheila-bair-stop-blaming-the-community-reinvestment-act
I love the tag “teabaggers’.
If you pay close attention to the verb?
You’ll see the nouns-the left wing ‘teabagees’ trying to talk with their mouths full.
The TPM is kinda boring, There’s no anti-war scuffles, not rioting or jailed protestors. NO hooded, faceless anarchists breaking windows, taunting police or putting up anti governement graffitti.
Why thos bees turds even clean up after themselves.
And the worst part?
There no central Tea Bag/Pot Central to blame for this burr under the saddle.
LOLOLOLOLOL, Sarah Palin would disappear if it wasn’t for the people who can’t get over the fact that people are putting together a “cult” that seems to be on track to change the “Idiocracy” running the country now.
The last idiot in the white house was replaced by a bigger idiot. from Illinois.
Check out BO’s plan for when the Soviets were going to invade Illinois.
Much press attention has been given the Tea Party movement, a movement that defines itself as opposed to high deficit spending, increased national debt and tax increases.
What is the Tea Party? Where did it come from? Contrary to many popular accounts, it is not a true wellspring of populist frustration. Many think CNBC commentator Rick Santelli was the father of the Tea Party, based on his on-air rant last year. He was simply one piece of a greater astroturf puzzle.
Source: Source: https://www.dailyfinance.com/story/was-santellis-tea-party-rant-planned-in-advance/1475937/
It is at its core an astroturf movement, funded by special interests and appeals to prejudices and racism. After all, where was the big Tea Party when Bush ran up huge deficits, got soldiers killed over false intelligence as well as faulty wiring done by Halliburton subsidiary KBR and was asleep at the wheel when Wall Street was making risky bets in the subprime market? And, does anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty believe if John McCain got elected, we would see the Tea Parties out in force?
The tea parties have been well oiled lobby funded machines. Rick Santelli’s rant was actually a PR stunt to leverage upcoming contract negotiations. However, the Tea Party concept was already in place in August 2008, when Zack Christensen, a Twitter Republican a producer for Chicago right wing radio host Milt Rosnberg registered the first tea party domain. After Santelli’s rant, the site activated. The same day, another site was registered by Eric Odom, a GOP PR man, who heads dontGO, an organization with ties to oil and gas industries.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/04/the-tea-party-movement-whos-in-charge/13041/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Odom
This means that there already were contingency plans by certain GOP operatives to form a “grass roots” protest movement in the event of an Obama election victory.
It also turns out the Tea Party’s backers from the start have included Koch Industries, a major player in gas and oil. Odom led campaign for projects Koch would profit from in 2008, including trying to heckel DNC in 2008.
Source
https://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/06/in_glitzy_shadows_a_health_reform_foe_lurks/
Of course, the other major players in this sham is Freedom Works, headed up by Dick Armey; which receives funding from the health insurance companies; Fox News, which sponsored the 9-12 event (is grounds enough to be considered a partisan outfit and be denied WH press access) and Sal Russo, a GOP campaign consultant in Sacramento, who previously helped coordinate Pentagon funded Iraq War supporters’ “counter-protests” against Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Texas in 2005.
https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/12/tea.party.express/index.html
https://celebrifi.com/gossip/Sal-Russo-Republican-Operative-Transforms-Into-Tea-Party-Strategist-1954884.html
https://thedemocraticdaily.com/2008/11/25/moving-america-bass-ackwards/
The whole anti-Washington mood and how each Tea Party group is independent is classic guerilla politics/guerilla warfare. Simply put, Freedom Works and Americans For Prosperity offered training and logistical backing yet delegate the day to day operations to “local Tea Parties” who organize via the Internet. However, if anyone believes that the hands of Koch Industries and Dick Armey are not behind each move a local Tea Party makes, I have some beachfront property I want to sell.
A Quinnipac University poll shows that nearly 3/4 of Tea Partiers are either registered Republicans or independents who tend to vote Republican. Only 16 percent are registered Democrats or independents who generally vote Democratic.
Plus, the maor Tea Party political figures at this moment are Republicans:
Sarah Palin: former Republican governor of Alaska (Dec 4, 2006-July 26, 2009); vice presidential candidate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain (2008)
Michele Bachmann: Republican congresswoman: Minnesota; 6th district: January 2007-present
Steve King: Republican congressman: Iowa; 5th district: 2003-present
The one true Tea Party was hosted by Texas libertarian Republican Ron Paul and his supporters in 2007, which included as part of its key issues withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan and reducing the U.S. military presence and intervention around the world. There has been no mention of reducing the military industrial complex or withdrawing from Iraq or Afghanistan from the neo-Tea Partiers.
The current Tea Party movement is just the latest incarnation of special interest funded fake outrage.
This is a ‘real’ Palin quote and she has variances depending on where she visits.
“I want to tell ’em, ‘Nah, we’ll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion—and you can keep the change,” Palin said, later adding, “Yeah, let’s drill, baby, drill; not stall, baby, stall—you betcha.”
Cling to your religion and guns? If that is not ass-backwards then I don’t know what is.
Form another site that stuck a note in me:
Cornyn, McConnell and the Republican Party continues to serve Wall St. breakfast in bed.
Anyone who does not get the fact that the Republican Party works 24/7/365 on behalf of fat cat especially the greed infested oinkers on Wall St., is delusional or lives in some kind of alternative universe.
Where delusion and alternative realities are concerned Teabaggers come to mind. Now that we know the teabagger movement is fueled by a bunch of rich older white guys like Dick Armey and Turd Blossom Rove well, hell. What else is new about teabaggers and right wing Republicans? So much for ginned up fake grassroots movements.
I posted this on the other Tea Party thread, it should go here too:
Tea Party Hijack By GOP and AFP in Progress in Lincoln Nebraska
This site really makes me think those ‘anti-Palin’ folks in Boston must have been the real grassroots from the area. Can’t imagine most liberals bothering to go to a Tea Party just to yell down Palin.
Another interesting thing to note, Tea Party protests are not confined to “Free Speech Zones” like when Junior was President. Wonder why that is…?
Because they’re Establishment-sponsored now. These past few months have all been staged for the cameras.
Odd that the first Tea Party protest was on February 27, 2009 but FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity and the infamous bus didn’t show up until at least the summer of 2009. In fact, the first “Tea Party Express” bus tour started August 28, 2009.
I’ve a few friends that would be surprised to find out they are a phony ‘astroturf’ movement since they took days off work and drove themselves and their families to D.C. to protest the government as is their God given right.
I’m interested to find out just what is the “anti-Palin” crowd that William Rivers Pitt spoke of. Perhaps these are the real grassroots Tea Party supporters and not the cult of personality Tea Party Express dead heads?
Con or Grassroots…whatever the Tea Party’s origin….it’s now turned into more of a cult than a movement or party….with Palin now playing the role of its authoritarian, charismatic leader.
Let’s all bow our heads in silence and pity all who have fallen for Palin’s non-sense. Oh, while we’re doing that…we might do the same for those who have fallen for the nonsense of Obama, the Republican Party, the Democrat Party, and all who occupy seats in both chambers of congress.
Mr. Thompson,
It is with quite a broad brush that you apply your insults. Let’s make a quick account of who you manage to disparage in your short article: 1) everyone with any relation to the tea party movement, 2) everyone not skeptical of the tea party movement, 3) the entire Republican party and all its members, 4) the entire state of Alaska, its entire populace, and anyone who ever held office there, 5) anyone with a conservative view, or identifies themselves as right of center, 6) American culture, 7) Americans….
I think we can stop there. It begs the question: If you are so wholly dissatisfied with this country and its people, why suffer another day to live amongst it?
Why not ascend to your throne on high in some distant, far-way land where you can look down on your new populace with magnanimity instead of disdain? After all, since you obviously come from such superior genius stock that the entiretly of America can be marked as inferiors for their views, beliefs, and culture, there has to be some place where you can be recognized for your singular discernment other than your own mind.
Politics in the United States are a two-sided but one-party joke, and always have been.
I meet many people who hold strong political views. I meet many who can recite “facts” and “figures” spoken to them by politicians and pundits on TV, or on the Internet. Sometimes I even meet a person who can correctly name their Governor and/or Capitol Hill representatives.
Yet I meet very few American citizens who actually attempt to read the legal documentation they hold opinions over; who know the history behind the laws and regulations which are currently in place. And I meet even fewer who can even correctly describe how our government is set up, or how it’s run.
Our nation lives in a political world of slogans, sound bites, and a Football-ish “Us VS Them” mentality. And it has since the second presidential election in 1788. Our two-party system, if you even call it a “Democracy” anymore, is akin to a two-flavor Baskin Robbins, offering the same old “Rocky Road” vs “Chunky Monkey”, with no room for “Mint Chocolate Chip”. And remember that up until the early 1900’s, the Dems and Reps held just the opposite stance that they do now. The Elephant now wears hooves, and the Donkey sports a long trunk. We live in a nation governed by two parties of “Donkephants”.
Also, our supposedly “fair and impartial” so-called “journalism” is laughably one-dimensional and simplistic. News programs have spiraled from the generally non-biased and well respected Walter Cronkite, to the angry Kieth Olbermann and Bill O’Rilley, who fire insults at each other like two pompous ships at battle. Never mind the lack of actual “news” or “information” they bring. It’s all about getting people angry over…what? Red vs Blue?
The real problem is that people actually take these soapbox grand-standers for political Gospel. What happened to not aligning yourself with a “Party”, or a party’s ideology, but with American citizens from everywhere? With being truly impartial and honest in your reporting, without worrying about ratings and sponsor’s dollars?
I challenge anyone reading this article or its comments to tell me whether they’ve actually read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or our 22 Amendments. Whether they’ve done their patriotic and American duty to actually become educated as to our government: its history, its workings, and its people; rather than just spouting off on impassioned but meaningless jingo and third-hand information given to them to keep them aligned.
I have. And it’s more complicated and incredible than you’ll ever hear about on TV.
You know what’s so interesting about the tea party? Yesterday they demonstrated against government and taxes in Washington DC and around the country at Nasa Space Center to stop Obama from cutting the manned space exploration. Who pays for these space projects – Our Tax dollars so if we are against paying taxes how can we manned the space exploration?
This guy and many of you responding here are just part of the problem. You see, you can’t get past the name calling divisive politics of Dems vs. Repubs. which is exactly what the elected officials all want. Us fighting amongst ourselves and calling each other names, to busy to keep an eye on what they are up to. Ignorance isn’t the personal property of the Right wingers, it obviously is a disease that affects both sides of the aisle.
However I do sleep better knowing that with our current administration and his minions taking charge, that although I may not be able to pay my bills because I have no job, that when I catch my flight to DC for a tea party rally that I won’t have to worry about having to pay extra for my carryon baggage, thanks to the far seeing and intelligent work being done by Mr. Shumer and team. Yeah, you progressives have it all figured out. Don;t your people have better things to work on, or has the Obamanation already solved all the real problems and they have nothing else to do but decide what private business decisions need review?
Grow up………… we as a People are all in this together, its us vs them alright, but its not Dems vs. Repubs because they are both corrupt from top to bottom. Its government growth and redistribution that you all better watch out for or you will not long be sitting comfortably in your offices throwing stones. Once this beast of equality finishes killing off all sense of self responsibility, turns and begins to eat its own children you will all rail to get on a teaparty like bandwagon, but it will be to late, the army of the people will be stomped into the ground.
We the people does not mean We the government. We all better pray for a 3rd party to emerge with the strength to bring balance back to the system and overcome the bi-partisanship that BOTH parties wield like a sword.
Tea parties of 09 are not about freedom and liberty, or taxes. They are about wining that their candidate was not elected. All of a sudden the Gadsden Flag is on Fox News, and other media alike (ie, all the rest). Humans never fail to prove their ignorance more than when they feel (by manufacture)that they are the victims of others(the opposing party). I sit here having screamed the message of freedom and liberty for the last two years along with other supporters of Ron Paul, Mike Gravel, Denise Kucinich, Independents, Constitutionalists, and Libertarians. And only now after the election of our new president do we hear sounds, or a faint glimmer of hope that people are waking up to reality.
Sadly, the reality is that people still believe that government has a two party system. And that their differences are so great between them, people will fight with religious fervor and rivalry, not understanding that their politicians are the same people being pulled by (Corporatocracy) the same strings for the same reasons (slavery) to perpetuate and engineer (through fear) the peoples ignorance of the truth.
These tea parties, talking of government spending, and the unfair taxation of the people of the country sound great on the surface because its true. But the reasons behind peoples causes have never been more false.
When people like me live under a republican administration, we are seen and are said to be left wing conspiracy theorists, libertarians, Constitutionalists, radicals, and threats to national security. When people like me live under a democratic administration, we are called right wing conspiracy theorists, libertarians, Constitutionalists, militia men, and threats to national security.
These tea parties are nothing more than special interest groups, who are interested with nothing more than their own (manufactured by consent of the weak mind) agenda. These are the same people who were silent when G.W. Bush spent his way into history on his war on terrorism (freedom?), ie, you. These are the same people who believe that torture works, like in the movies or on T.V. These are same people who say we are turning into a socialist state, not understanding the state of our nation as it already is.
Where were you all, during the last 96 years? Why now? Where were you during the bailout of wall street and AIG among others during the last administration? Where were you?
Silent in apathy.
I won’t make the mistake of thinking that because you say the words freedom, taxes and liberty, that it forgives your ignorance. When in truth, it only proves it.
tim gallien
Concur.
This article is laughable. A conservative tea party movement is a sham, but any liberal movement has merit. It’s OK to be partisan, but don’t feed me this crap. Obama’s “tea party movement” during his election wasn’t exactly attracting the brightest either. But it was important in the ideas that were being discussed. The same holds true for the “tea party crowd”.
Why not attack them on their ideas and we can have a real discussion.
Griff, Doug Thompson, Logtrol, Kent Shaw
I am sorry you all got beaten as children. Thats probably the reason for all of your hate, or if you have a better reason for it, please explain.
Very helpful commentary.
Suppose you point out examples of my hate.
I’ll confess to hating war, and therefore hating the actions of George Bush and Barack Obama who started and continue those illegal and unconstitutional activities. I confess to hating the actions of the big bankers that were allowed by the Bush Administration to nearly destroy the world economy, and I hate the actions of Barack Obama in continuing same. Do you perhaps think that anyone who isn’t with you is against you, and therefore hates you by your own definition?
she is a corporatist, big money, big government puppet of the international banks.
she is only kept in the spotlight by her sponsorship so she can hijack and guide the real threat to the big money and government away from the real message. To fight against tyranny and stand up for liberty. She is religious right, which always leads back towards an oppressive state. One party oppresses like hitler, the other oppresses like the church, when are you sheeple going to wake up. There are not two parties, it is all a show, it is not real. It is tyranny packaged in a 21st century marketing. your “representatives” are put into their positions because they are good sales people. And what they are selling are themselves and all of us. wake up
semper fi
war is a racket
Spot on analysis. Thank you.
say what you want about palin, BUT the tea party goers are american civillians. Whether You Believe in their beliefs or not, you have NO RIGHT to mock people that are using their right to protest.
You’re an idiot Doug. Just like all the left wing liberal nut jobs in this country.
I agree with Doug! This nation is a celebrity-driven culture and is uneducated. Polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don’t know what’s in Roe v. Wade. Over 50% of Americans don’t believe in evolution! Doug, we’re surround by morons. We need to pull them by the hair as they kick and scream and take them into the 21st century. This group is nothing more than another black-eye for this country. The ignorant leading the ignorant! Tea Party? Please! More like Douche Party!! Hey Doug, have a good day, and thank you for great article!!!
Fox News as opposed to what – MSNBC, CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and the myriad of other bastions of “truth and virtue” LOL! Rush Limbaugh as opposed to who – Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman – those “voices of reason and sound thinking”! ROFL . They all pimp their particular viewpoints, whether left or right, so try being fair and balanced yourselves once, my lib/progressive comrades! And about those Tea Parties – If they promote individual liberty, less government interference, economic opportunity for all, I don’t care who is “leading” them. Heck, if President Obama was for that stuff, I would be an ardent supporter.
So, if all you can do is deride, impune, and call people names because they want a better country, without giving any reasons, maybe you should go try to find a paying job and figure out how to take advantage of endless opportunities in the great land of ours to prosper instead of whine and complain! Heck, you may even develop a better self-image!
There is clear misconception of what the Tea Party movement is, but strangely both sides of the argument is right. The only tea party I went to was tax day in 09 and I heard about it on the radio right after work. Half hour later I showed up and there was just a man holding a sign. He had more signs and so I borrowed one. Eventually more ppl showed up and we had a crowd.
The point is that there is innocence behind the movement, but obviously there are people who will turn it into a full blown show and make money. I clearly agree about the Sarah Palin thing, some people will believe in someone without taking the time to think, instead they let others think for them. Like the saying goes, the road to ruin is paved with good intentions. Usually never are promises kept by a politician unless their past an present lives prove their word.
Tea party, my ass… Talk about the stupid leading the T.V. minds. I love the term ‘toothless masses’ and ‘racists’ (the so called respected folks that permeate these events). Check out some of the Youtube videos. It all boils down to cold hard cash and all you need to do is follow the money. Maybe there is one or two people at the these ‘parties’, but they are dimwits, gullible retards, and shallow Palin supporters (she sure looks purty in her Red leather motorcycle jacket). Here is novel idea…How about divide and conquer. We implement it all the time in war zones and we have successfully implemented this here in the U.S. and by god it is working like a charm (people still are stupid and get even more stupid en mass).
Uneducated, ignorant, uninformed, tea-bagger, wing-nuts, and all the other derogatory names for those of us who happen to not agree with this administrations policies or views. I have to wonder when and why it became such a bad, incorrect thing for Americans to have minds of their own or to think for themselves. Personally, I flip back and forth between msnbc and fox to hear both sides and then try to find the truth somewhere in between.
Mr. Thompson
I want to thank you and the other dumb ass LIBS for going off the deep end constantly about Palin and the tea party.
I cannot wait until November when the REAL AMERICANS take back the house and hopefylly the Senate, at that point your Messiah Obama will be a LAME DUCK.
Keep calling us racists, un-American, etc. We will not lower our morals or standars to yours.
Have a nice day,
KJ
I surprised you notice she is female. I guess that goes to show who intuitive liberal journalists are, at leat this one. Jealous I guess that she is the woman you wish you want to be?
“Buses emblazoned with the Tea Party Express logo have brought speakers and entertainers to rallies in dozens of small towns and big cities, including one in Boston on Wednesday that will feature former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.”
According to an article by William Rivers Pitt there was a much larger “anti tea party” crowd around the outside of the tea party event. Of course the televised media would not show that, choosing to focus on the tea party itself. I can’t help wondering if this is true in other locations they have visited.
“During my foray into the dark side of politics inWashington, I worked for a while for The Eddie Mahe Company, a top GOP consulting firm. The firm helped business and industry groups create a number of fake grassroots groups, including Citizens for a Sound Economy — which later spawned the Tea Party.”
So, Doug, we have YOU to blame for the tea party fiasco, eh? KIDDING!!!! Thank you for this article which I have printed for distribution among friends and deluded acquaintences. You have done a fine public service with this article.
Kent
It also makes you wonder how many times when political rallies of a more “Progressive” Nature are held that the opposing parties representatives are treated as if they weren’t there.
Wow, Doug, whoever you are.
You’re quite the asshole, aren’t you?
Ron Paul with Tits? You f-ing retard! Don’t insult Ron Paul like that. We’re all aware the “Tea Party” movement is a scam. Who pays these intellectual lilliputions to sloganeer these yokel locutions? “Folks do you love your freedom”, “How’s the hopey-changey” – how the hell can you take these people serious. One thing about Paul supporters, we don’t discriminate our distaste for stupidity, Palin is as much a dolt as Obama, just one has a polished Hawwwvard elocutionary style and one is a cacophonous pseudo-bumpkin biddy.
I agree!
It IS sad that the focus is on back bench political maneuvering and not the genuine ideas and feelings of the Tea Partiers, who are there to speak out against govt malfeasance at the level they see it and work openly and forthrightly to put our nation back on track. Anybody can attempt to – and many political operatives often do – hijack such well-intentioned individuals, but to continually berate them as “phony” not only misses the point, it smears them in a way they don’t deserve. That type of discourse only serves to perpetuate the bad govt we have come to know too well.
There seems to be a wide range of perception as to what the “real” tea partiers are. My experience, with people I know well and have spoken with on their tea beliefs, are fundamentally responding to Fox “News” jingoism and propaganda. Hardly what I would call a fact based and functional revolution. Perhaps we need to acknowledge that there are dramatically different levels of phoniness?
which jingoism and propaganda is that?
Come on! Beck and Limbaugh? Jeez, no wonder we’re so screwed up.
Details, please.
As frequently shouted by local teabaggers during a local senator’s town hall, “Communist! Facist! Nazi! One ‘bagger had a big sign with some gibberish all over it, and was sitting in the front blocking other folks’ views. He was asked to move to the back or off to the side, but offered a chance to express his views before getting out of the way. He was actually unable to give any context to his message, which was focused on the facist theme and lifted from Limbaugh talking points.
Current catch phrase, “We have to take back our country!” From whom? From Me? Doug? Obama? The mayor of my town? My sister? The majority of people in this country? Just exactly what does that mean? Is it just jingoism?
“Obama is a Socialist!” Ask a Socialist if Obama is one of them.
As for propaganda, take a look at;
https://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/proptech.htm
If you have any trouble mapping out any of the Beck, Limbaugh, of Fox broadcasts as textbook examples of propaganda, then we must be from different planets.
Loved your link: Propaganda Techniques Great reference.
Delusional and yes, phony balony teabag nags! Where WERE you when Bush was running this nation to the ground? Where WERE you when these a**holes were gearing up misled soldiers to fight a corrupt war? Where WERE you when New Orleans was left to drown? No, teabag phonies kept quiet and suddenly when we’ve got a president who is a strong black man with a backbone, you emerge out of your holes to slither around the truth and perpetuate racism, negativism and partisan. We finally found those WMD, and their thriving in your little minds.
Do you know if the teabaggers want to cut military spending, or do they just want to cut their own throats by cutting Social Security and Medicare? They are against socialism, so surely they must be willing to cut or terminate these social programs in order to help balance the budget. I wonder if unemployed teabaggers are in favor of unemployment insurance extensions. I’m pretty sure the employed ones would be against it. More socialism, you know. Unemployment insurance should probably be completely terminated. One of the largest social programs in existence is the WAR ON DRUGS to the tune of some $40 billion a year. What else could you call it? The government owns or leases all the capital involved – buildings, vehicles, weapons, etc., otherwise known as the means of production and all the employees work for the government. Now that I think of it, the War on Drugs is more representative of a communist organization than a socialist one. Whatever. I just wonder if the teabaggers are thinking everything through before they act. Well, at any rate, I hope the government keeps its damn hands off their medicare!
I’m going to attend a teabagger event if one is scheduled nearby where I live. I am going to pose one question to random teabaggers. “What book did you last read?”
The Count of Monte Cristo
Judge me oh wise Kent Shaw.
I just want to know what they’ve been reading. I want to know where their ideas originate. Right now I’m reading “Blowback” by Chalmers Johnson and “Stingray Shuffle” by Tim Dorsey. One is political/historical and one is pure cotton candy farcical “mystery” sort of. I wonder how many Ayn Randers are out there with their teabags for example. How many have read anything Ron Paul has written? How many have read Ms. Palin’s recent book?
In the days since Al Gore invented the internet, many people no longer “read books”. As if that is some sign of good sense anyway.
Oh I agree. There should never be a need to dig into a subject in any depth. A couple paragraphs on the internet should suffice. A simple summary is always preferable to in depth knowledge, no matter what the subject.
Oh, I’m so much better than you! I sit at home and read books.. Well, I work Kent. So you can read up on how I tea-bagged your mother.
That was helpful.
I think you may not get what you are bargaining for :-). Ask a random Obama Robot at one of his rallys what book they last read.
Oh I totally agree.
A conspiracy, Doug? Do tell.
Let’s not forget how Obama was elected, or have we already forgotten the Beatles-esque mania that swept the nation two years ago? The mindless adulation, the messianic fervor, the fainting worshippers…There wasn’t much substance there – all glitz and glamor, but it worked. Is it any surprise the Republicans sought out their own “rock stars?”
This is a carbon copy of the Obama phenomenom – capitalize on the president’s growing unpopularity by telling the adoring masses every thing they want to hear. False populism indeed, for we know what the Republicans are offering. More of the same.
But there are some silver linings to be found in this movement, provided the People are smart enough to follow through, but I have my doubts about that. Obama showed no aversion to endlessly reciting our long list of problems, yet people mistook this for his having the desire and ability to actually make things right.
Exposing our problems is one thing, coaxing our Political Class to act in our best interest is wholly another. Hang on to those “vote them out” signs, we’ll be needing them again in a couple of years, as the cycle continues.
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” – Thomas Paine, “The Crisis No. 1”
As you say, the boys with the bus came AFTER the first tea party. The astroturf elements are, tautologically, more organized and homogeneous than the grass roots beginnings and continuing force of the tea parties. However, both exist, not necessarily seeing eye to eye.
As a Ron Paul supporter, I’d like to suggest you lay off Palin on a personal level. She isn’t ‘my’ candidate, but even I feel protective of her when she gets personal attacks. You speak of the level of political discourse and the false left / right paradigm. You can’t move past it with ad hominum attacks.
I’d like to move past it.
You think that was an attack? You haven’t been around here long. When I attack someone there’s body parts on the floor 🙂
To paraphrase John Paul Jones, I have not yet begun to attack.
The Tea Party never was a grassroots movement. It was a con game from the beginning, created by consultants for a petroleum magnate.
“The Tea Party never was a grassroots movement.”
That’s where you’re wrong, Doug. All of the people I know who meet at Tea Party ralies are entirely genuine in their beliefs and behaviors regarding that movement, no matter how it came to be… which really doesn’t matter. It isn’t about who started what, it is about what it is now.
Their genuine political awakening can either be nurtured in the best interests of ourselves and our country, or it can be trashed as “nothing more than a bunch of con artists.” We can either begin to reclaim govt of, by, and for, or if we never really had it maybe we get to initiate govt of, by, and for… but if we take your tack, we only get more of the same old “nobody’s life, liberty, or property is safe…”
So which is it… part of the problem or the solution?
This is what I don’t get about the Tea Party’s mandate. “Less government”? What does that mean? You want more power to the people, yet you want less government. The government IS the people. None of you seem to be aware of this basic paradox. You rail against Obama’s healthcare reform that just gave 30 + million people health coverage. What’s your alternative to that? Leave all those folks to uninsured? Someone will be in control of your lives, whether you like it or not. You must choose either the government or the corporations. At least the former you can vote on. Think it through.
Unfortunately it’s hard to decipher just what it is these days. What I do know is that the Republicans have turned it into a circus sideshow. It seems to me that it’s all Anti-Obama instead of being anti-establishment, which keeps every one in an easily managed partisan mindset.
I’m reminded of a quote by Colonel Joseph Reed, in a note to Mr. Pettit, September, 1775…
“I have no notion of being hanged for half treason. When a subject draws his sword against his prince, he must cut his way through, if he means afterward to sit down in safety.”
The Republicans represent the prince in this case, and the tea partiers have yet to cut their way through. It looks like they never will.
Those petroleum magnets don’t like RP. They track him, being psuedolibertarian, and were positioned to capitalize early on what was happening. That doesn’t make a core genuine, nor those tuning in followers. In fact there are two different astroturf groups, as well (at least). But so long as so many are fighting to lead the direction, progress can be made in a general, helpful direction.
To both Spinnikerca and Almandine, a quick comment. Fighting each other goes nowhere and we all just put up our defenses. Check out the site http://www.bigjournalism.com to see real hate coming from the right.
As long as that is the case, we never get past the name calling.
Those petroleum magnets don’t like RP. They track him, being psuedolibertarian, and were positioned to capitalize early on what was happening. That doesn’t make a core ungenuine, nor those tuning in followers. In fact there are two different astroturf groups, as well (at least). But so long as so many are fighting to lead the direction, progress can be made in a general, helpful direction.
And, Doug, though you are too gracious to mention it yourself, you have gotten as much as you have handed out. So, Spinnikerca, hang around awhile and undoubtedly you’ll see some fireworks. 😉
ooo, what a tough guy. You sound like a typical liberal sheep. You liberals really are scared of the Tea Party aren’t you? Good. Real conservatives know that Palin will never run for president. Ron Paul would be an excellent choice. Now more than ever we need someone to come in and wipe out this massive government that the liberals have constructed.
Is nobody else worried that the government now controls over 50% of our economy thanks to AIG, automotive bailouts, and now this gigantic health bill which we’ll never be able to pay for? Glad to know all those payments I made to social security will go to a bunch of losers who take handouts instead of my retirement.
I my mind you are the one who is mentally impeded (In case you didn’t notice, I am being kind to you). For one, there was just a story in the news media of your ilk yesterday about the tea party people being more educated than the general population of the United States.
I am very new to this website, but it seems to me that no matter who comes into the forefront in politics, they are always going to be lambasted by somebody on the left or the right. Are we not sick and tired of this s@#$! Is anybody awake out there. This left side is right the right side is wrong, and the right side is right, and the left side is wrong BS has to stop. It isn’t even about the people anymore, it’s about who’s right, and who’s wrong. Ok, so the ‘Grassroots’ thing is a sham, who gives flying F@#$! WE know it is. Anyone who can read through the lines, knows that any movement is going to make somebody rich.
We need real people running for office, not some spend o’ crat, running on a centrist platform only to go REALLY left once elected, signing executive orders, and side-stepping our very constitution, in order to pass laws, that by my account, WE THE PEOPLE, did not agree on, even by a close margin!!!!!! Everything you are writing about Doug, does not matter. You are just playing the game along with them.
If we want to have change in our government, we need people that care do not take money from lawyers, bankers, corporations, oil companies etc. I do like Ron Paul in that aspect. He won’t take the money, and he is the only proponent of the constitution, in a congress that has thrown it to the wayside, because they think they know whats best for us. There are some good grassroots organizations out there not looking to profit, but to me, they are not the voice. The people that come to those rallies are the voice, whether they are bamboozled or not, and those are the people that are going to speak even more come judgement day, Nov 4, 2010, and Nov 4, 2012. We need a NEW crop!!!! WE THE PEOPLE NEED HELP, not more taxes!!!!! Not more government!!!! Not more of the same from somebody preaching “Change” After Obama and his lambs, I won’t have any change left to even buy groceries.
So even if the ‘Tea Party’ movement is a sham, at least the people are getting a chance to speak up, cause nobody else is speaking up for us. We have been fooled for waaaayyyyy to long in this country and it is time for a revolution. No more lobbyists, no more big government telling us what they think is good for us, no more taxes, now they are talking about a VAT? Do you really want to pay the government more Doug, do you really???? Why don’t you write about that. The quicker you come to the grip that your democratically run government is not helping you, and that it does not matter who is getting rich off of the lemmings who go to these rallies, the sooner you can write about something that matters. Because all of this fluff that goes on around the political sphere is just a way to divert your attention from what our great leaders in Washington are really doing. And that is bending us over, and jamming it right up our keysters.
Bravo! Bravo! You my friend are exactly right!
Lay off the personal attacks? All she does is personal attacks and populist attacks on policy….so she’s only getting what she gives.
The fact is ther gap between who she is and who she says she is gets wider by the day.
I’ll shut up if she comes out with one meaningful policy! Just one! She’s had two years and her contribution to solving America’s problems is exactly zero to this point.
Griff:
This isn’t a conspiracy, just a con game that preys on the gullible who actually buy into faux grassroots movements like the Tea Party.
Check out this recent poll to see the truth in Doug’s comments:
https://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/04/tea-party-bears-becks-imprint.html
As for spinnikerca’s plea for mercy for Palin, there is no reasonable cause to “lay off” until she goes away. Politics is a contact sport. Would you also suggest “laying off” of Obama in the interest of fair play?
Obama is in office, and no one attacks his kids, nor passes sexual innuendo around about him.
You will do as you will, but you defeat your stated purpose and divide people, rather than persuading people.
You are right, no one attacks his kids, just compares him to Hitler, call him a commie, etc. To WHAT GAIN? Simply spreads hate.
Or faux grassroots movements like “Change we can believe in”. Or doesn’t that one count?
You mean a bunch of guys getting together in a meeting room and hatching a plot to take over a grassroots movement doesn’t qualify? OK.
From dictionary.com…
1. The act of conspiring.
2. an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.
And I’m not necessarily saying you’re wrong, but just that these folks are gullible in the sense that many believe that the Republicans will actually represent them once they regain power.
As almandine suggests, many of these folks are indeed genuine. I just hope they remember what they stand for once the Republicans betray them. The People are real, their self-appointed leaders are not.
What grassroots movement was there to take over? The Tea Party didn’t exist. It wasn’t there to be taken over. It was created as a con, pure and simple and a bunch of fools fell for it.
So you’re saying that citizens, for whatever reason, who come together to exercise their rights and duties in a republican system of government are nothing but a bunch of fools?
Gee Doug, even Rachel Maddow acknowledged that the tea parties sprung from the Ron Paul campaign back in 2007. It only gained the media’s attention when it was co-opted by the Republicans.
Funny how no one in the Republican establishment wanted any thing to do with any of them or their cause until they were out of power and it became politically beneficial. When they were protesting a Republican administration they were persona non grata in the party.
Do you read? Or is it that you just got in the game late? Or maybe you just read the sites that agree with you so you don’t have to think. Ron Paul started the movenment when he and his blimp went to Boston for a Tea Party in 2007. Then Rick Santelli on CNBC mentioned having a Tea Party and it grew. Then later the Republicans came in to hyjack the movement. Most true Tea Partiers would like to get rid of some of those spend, spend, spend Republicans as well as Democrates too.
Yes a tyrant. Elected by the majority acting within the confides of the law. Definitely a tyrant.
Doug Thompson is a complete idiot. He must be looking for a handout from the people that actually have a work ethic.
Comments are closed.