Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm tired of all these Tea Party threads that ignore essential truths. Help me break down the phenomenon into exactly what it is and how the debate that many of you are so engaged in reflects on Americans in 2010. This shouldn't be a thread for tit-for-tat zinging. I'm hoping to spark an intelligent discussion.
Here's what I see:
Large numbers of "conservatives" with completely justifiable anger at governmental encroachment, fiscal mismanagement and unsecure borders have formed a new group. Unfortunately, most of them can't get over the hump to also speak out against ridiculous wars against non-existent enemies or to recognize that the mega-disfunction didn't start with Obama. To me, these glaring omissions mean that the movement might just be a method to co-opt and siphon off legitimate, righteous dissatisfaction. Regardless of these shortcomings, they named their group after the historic Boston Tea Party in which American colonists fought taxation without representation. The name makes sense.
Large numbers of "liberals" have become eager to defend the status quo now that a Democratic president is in power again. The fact that progressivism was supposed to be all about positive change and that Obama continues a longtime push toward a terrible fusion of fascism and socialism is utterly lost on them.
In assailing the Tea Party, "liberals" call them "teabaggers" at every opportunity. Teabagging is contemporary slang for dangling one's testicles into someone's mouth. It's a somewhat disgusting and decidedly sexual term that has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, even "respectable" media types who are "liberal" use this foul epithet with zeal.
In my opinion, that really says a lot about what "liberalism" has become and what we're willing to accept in our political discourse. A significant portion of the national debate has degenerated into the most petty and distasteful kind of namecalling imaginable. When they're not calling them teabaggers, they're often calling them racists, which is also off-point and not representative of the Tea Party's goals. Meanwhile, the ship (our nation) is taking on water. Even mainstream prognosticators now acknowledge this. It's a bad time to be divided by misrepresentations and baloney.
Is there anyone else on the City-Data forum who's ready to transcend all of this pointless nastiness and who understands that the idiotic divisions are ripped from the playbook of a treacherous, homicidal plutocracy? Are there any "liberals" in this "online community" who are ready to acknowledge that in 2010 the government is not your friend? Are there any "conservatives" on C-D who realize that it should be shameful to be part of the Republican Party nowadays and that identifying with the GOP even stains sensible patriots such as Ron Paul?
The powers-that-be thrive and rely on people making false choices. Pork barrel and stimulus projects are bad, but a $700 billion military budget is good. That's a frequent Tea Party error that I see. Bush was a tool for large corporations, but Obama is looking out for common people. That's a frequent "liberal" error that one encounters.
I'm tired of all these Tea Party threads that ignore essential truths.
Is there anyone else on the City-Data forum who's ready to transcend all of this pointless nastiness and who understands that the idiotic divisions are ripped from the playbook of a treacherous, homicidal plutocracy?
The aim of transcendence was blown away with the "treacherous, homicidal plutocracy" line. (I didn't know the Saudis would be central to your discussion).
The aim of transcendence was blown away with the "treacherous, homicidal plutocracy" line. (I didn't know the Saudis would be central to your discussion).
Which of those three words do you feel does not fit, and why?
Perhaps it better describes the Saudis, but that doesn't make it totally hyperbolic in relation to what we've become.
Unfortunately, most of them can't get over the hump to also speak out against ridiculous wars against non-existent enemies
This is my major grip with some of the hawk Tea Partiers. I don't understand how they cant support our military occupation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AimfulDrifter
or to recognize that the mega-disfunction didn't start with Obama.
I think you are off on this point as I don't hear it from Tea Partiers. What I do hear is, Obama is in charge so he gets the blame or the praise. Granted I don't agree with this since I blame the Congress.
I'm tired of all these Tea Party threads that ignore essential truths. Help me break down the phenomenon into exactly what it is and how the debate that many of you are so engaged in reflects on Americans in 2010. This shouldn't be a thread for tit-for-tat zinging. I'm hoping to spark an intelligent discussion.
Here's what I see:
Large numbers of "conservatives" with completely justifiable anger at governmental encroachment, fiscal mismanagement and unsecure borders have formed a new group. Unfortunately, most of them can't get over the hump to also speak out against ridiculous wars against non-existent enemies or to recognize that the mega-disfunction didn't start with Obama. To me, these glaring omissions mean that the movement might just be a method to co-opt and siphon off legitimate, righteous dissatisfaction. Regardless of these shortcomings, they named their group after the historic Boston Tea Party in which American colonists fought taxation without representation. The name makes sense.
Large numbers of "liberals" have become eager to defend the status quo now that a Democratic president is in power again. The fact that progressivism was supposed to be all about positive change and that Obama continues a longtime push toward a terrible fusion of fascism and socialism is utterly lost on them.
In assailing the Tea Party, "liberals" call them "teabaggers" at every opportunity. Teabagging is contemporary slang for dangling one's testicles into someone's mouth. It's a somewhat disgusting and decidedly sexual term that has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, even "respectable" media types who are "liberal" use this foul epithet with zeal.
In my opinion, that really says a lot about what "liberalism" has become and what we're willing to accept in our political discourse. A significant portion of the national debate has degenerated into the most petty and distasteful kind of namecalling imaginable. When they're not calling them teabaggers, they're often calling them racists, which is also off-point and not representative of the Tea Party's goals. Meanwhile, the ship (our nation) is taking on water. Even mainstream prognosticators now acknowledge this. It's a bad time to be divided by misrepresentations and baloney.
Is there anyone else on the City-Data forum who's ready to transcend all of this pointless nastiness and who understands that the idiotic divisions are ripped from the playbook of a treacherous, homicidal plutocracy? Are there any "liberals" in this "online community" who are ready to acknowledge that in 2010 the government is not your friend? Are there any "conservatives" on C-D who realize that it should be shameful to be part of the Republican Party nowadays and that identifying with the GOP even stains sensible patriots such as Ron Paul?
The powers-that-be thrive and rely on people making false choices. Pork barrel and stimulus projects are bad, but a $700 billion military budget is good. That's a frequent Tea Party error that I see. Bush was a tool for large corporations, but Obama is looking out for common people. That's a frequent "liberal" error that one encounters.
Thoughts?
America actually has two open borders. The first is the Southern border with Mexico and the other is the one at our airports. The second one, like the first, has been breached but in this case it is by Islamic terrorists and all who share their values and, like our Southern border, it remains unguarded by choice. For the left, to exclude in all cases is racist, anti-Islamic,...anti-fill in the blank. This inclusion extends to our enemies, and as long as our enemies are called friends we will have to invent enemies elsewhere to sustain the ruse.
Both current wars are ongoing campaigns against common sense invented to build a logical context for our irrational political correctness. Since we have willingly allowed the people who desire to kill us and overthrow our constitutional republic to freely enter and live in our society in the name of equality and inclusion, and since we have determined in advance that Islam itself is an innocent party in our current conflict with "Islamic extremists" we now have to run half way around the globe to hunt down convenient and politically acceptable enemies so as to avoid confronting the fact that our enemies are our neighbors today just as they were on 9/10. For PC America, the Patriot Act is racist and anti-Islamic, GITMO is a concentration camp, and the war on Islamic terrorism needs to be fought anywhere except the streets of America. It is our determined tolerance of all things anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-American that has caused us to bring the viper into the nursery and disregard the danger.
Occupying and attempting to reform nations that are stuck in the dark ages by their own choosing is a waste of time, money and, most importantly, American lives, but the alternative is for America to face the fact that not everyone who comes to our shores seeks to breathe freely. Some are simply colonists for ideologies that are wholly inconsistent with our system of representative self-governance. At some point we will withdraw from the Middle East and go back to pretending all is well since we have made our enemies feel welcome in our society. No need to worry they will once again attack our innocent civilians because we will have acknowledged that in all cases America is the enemy of freedom around the world.
The left needs desperately to oppose something (anything) to stay relevant since all they have championed over the years has failed in some critical way. Welfare for black families has destroyed the institution of marriage within the black community and resulted in massive absentee fatherism and non-support of black children. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, while certainly beneficial to society, are routinely abused and financially unsustainable. Labor unions, high corporate tax rates and massive regulation of industry has resulted in our decades long deindustrialization and economic stagnation with the privilege of bypassing the regulations for sale to the highest campaign contributor creating a third world system of bribery and nepotism. Blind opposition to school voucher programs in support of the NEA has robbed children in the worst school districts in the nation of a chance to escape the failed state education monopoly.
By any objective standard, liberal policies and programs have a long track record of doing far more harm than good and the greatest victims are often the intended beneficiaries.
Enter the Tea Party...
They opposed the bailouts, pork-laden and ineffectual stimulus, record spending and record deficits. They spilled out into the streets and public parks to express their outrage at the quantum leaps being made by the federal government to overstep their Constitutional boundaries, and what's worse of all is they are mostly conservatives. With the wind at their backs they took the spotlight away from the liberals whose anointed one was receiving a free ride by the fawning LSM.
So how do leftists defend failed policies and unconstitutional power grabs opposed by ordinary Americans?
They don't.
They attack everything and everyone else. It's all that is left for them to do. They continue to blame Republicans for wars they voted to authorize and they refuse to end though they have been in control of Congress since 2007 and all of the federal government for nearly two years. They fault Republicans for the deregulation that led to the financial collapse of 2008, but all of the relevant deregulation that brought us here was singed into law by Clinton with bipartisan support. The expansion of the housing bubble might have been restrained had S.190 not met with a threatened Democrat filibuster courtesy of the GSE's personal ******* Chairman Dodd and Sen. Obama. Bush saw the danger of the the GSE's greed and the cozy relationship with Congress and lobbied Congress for a new regulator to replace ineffective OFHEO in 2003, but TS Snow was shown the door.
So what is the Democrat's solution? A new financial regulations bill that does not do the single most important thing needed to prevent a future collapse of financial entities deemed "too large to fail" by reinstating Glass-Steigall. Previously unregulated CDOs that became the toxic assets at the heart of the systemic collapse will now be controlled by some 2,300 pages of gobbledygook created by...wait for it....Chairman Dodd! Yes, the same Chairman Dodd who was the number two recipient of GSE campaign contributions is going to set everything right. Well, that and retire now because he has dragged his own name through the sleazy mud of DC insiderism so much that he would lose a reelection bid. Anyone doubt Dodd will be richly rewarded for his years of loyal and dedicated service to his corporate task masters with a cushy multi-million dollar payoff job?
Nothing has changed with the power shift in DC and nothing seems on the horizon except for the small glimmer of hope provided by a genuine grassroots movement to restore the federal government to its constitutional roots. Of course no one cares about all that because the racist teabaggers have misspelled signs.
Large numbers of "conservatives" with completely justifiable anger at governmental encroachment, fiscal mismanagement and unsecure borders have formed a new group. Unfortunately, most of them can't get over the hump to also speak out against ridiculous wars against non-existent enemies or to recognize that the mega-disfunction didn't start with Obama. To me, these glaring omissions mean that the movement might just be a method to co-opt and siphon off legitimate, righteous dissatisfaction. Regardless of these shortcomings, they named their group after the historic Boston Tea Party in which American colonists fought taxation without representation. The name makes sense.
And then proceeded to completely jump the shark:
Quote:
Obama continues a longtime push toward a terrible fusion of fascism and socialism is utterly lost on them.
It is precisely this kind of hyperbolic.... well at this point it defies description... why the the tea party and the right have absolutely no credibility.
I'm tired of all these Tea Party threads that ignore essential truths. Help me break down the phenomenon into exactly what it is and how the debate that many of you are so engaged in reflects on Americans in 2010. This shouldn't be a thread for tit-for-tat zinging. I'm hoping to spark an intelligent discussion.
Here's what I see:
Large numbers of "conservatives" with completely justifiable anger at governmental encroachment, fiscal mismanagement and unsecure borders have formed a new group. Unfortunately, most of them can't get over the hump to also speak out against ridiculous wars against non-existent enemies or to recognize that the mega-disfunction didn't start with Obama. To me, these glaring omissions mean that the movement might just be a method to co-opt and siphon off legitimate, righteous dissatisfaction. Regardless of these shortcomings, they named their group after the historic Boston Tea Party in which American colonists fought taxation without representation. The name makes sense.
Large numbers of "liberals" have become eager to defend the status quo now that a Democratic president is in power again. The fact that progressivism was supposed to be all about positive change and that Obama continues a longtime push toward a terrible fusion of fascism and socialism is utterly lost on them.
In assailing the Tea Party, "liberals" call them "teabaggers" at every opportunity. Teabagging is contemporary slang for dangling one's testicles into someone's mouth. It's a somewhat disgusting and decidedly sexual term that has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, even "respectable" media types who are "liberal" use this foul epithet with zeal.
In my opinion, that really says a lot about what "liberalism" has become and what we're willing to accept in our political discourse. A significant portion of the national debate has degenerated into the most petty and distasteful kind of namecalling imaginable. When they're not calling them teabaggers, they're often calling them racists, which is also off-point and not representative of the Tea Party's goals. Meanwhile, the ship (our nation) is taking on water. Even mainstream prognosticators now acknowledge this. It's a bad time to be divided by misrepresentations and baloney.
Is there anyone else on the City-Data forum who's ready to transcend all of this pointless nastiness and who understands that the idiotic divisions are ripped from the playbook of a treacherous, homicidal plutocracy? Are there any "liberals" in this "online community" who are ready to acknowledge that in 2010 the government is not your friend? Are there any "conservatives" on C-D who realize that it should be shameful to be part of the Republican Party nowadays and that identifying with the GOP even stains sensible patriots such as Ron Paul?
The powers-that-be thrive and rely on people making false choices. Pork barrel and stimulus projects are bad, but a $700 billion military budget is good. That's a frequent Tea Party error that I see. Bush was a tool for large corporations, but Obama is looking out for common people. That's a frequent "liberal" error that one encounters.
Thoughts?
The tea party has people who have completely justifiable anger at governmental encroachment, fiscal mismanagement and unsecure borders and the original group of tea party people were ron paul supporters who were against the republican neo cons in the first place and GWB polices.
The ones who told everyone in the election of the issues in 2008 fiscal and the empire of war. The tea party has expanded to those who are just against democrats and or Obama and the remaining people just are democrats, independents and others who just are sick of government.
In other words it is most of America with no leader and no direction but with one message we hate government. Period.
Anyone against the tea party movement have goals to discredit it and label it so its easier to discredit.
Who those people are who look to discredit see a political organized wave against democrats which actually is also against many republicans as well.
In other words they are scared to death of a movement interested in limited government power.
They resort to name calling ranging from racists, kooks, angry people.
Does the tea part have a few people with those lables.. SURE.
They ususally hate government and they need a voice.
But since the tea party has no definded leader who embraces something other then anger the tea party will continue to be misunderstood but the votes WONT!
Last edited by LibertyandJusticeforAll; 08-04-2010 at 09:43 AM..
This collection of birthers, racists, and other mixed nuts has zero credibility outside the far fringe of the GOP. As Bush was driving the deficits to record levels, none of these "concerned citizens" uttered a peep. As Bush deregulated Wall St and drove the country towards the worst recession in generations, they sat mute.
But once Obama took office, then they suddenly saw all kinds of problems.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Teabagging tea partiers...
