The Genie Is Out Of The Bottle
The real problem we are facing today is not that the Tea Party is part of the Republican Party, it’s that the Republican Party has been absorbed by the Tea Party. When the GOP lost the middle all it was left with was its fringe. And like all fringe groups Tea Partiers aren’t willing to compromise – on anything. (Hence, the term fringe)
The Tea Party has many problems. One of the biggest is that there is no clear leader. Many are vying for that title – Palin, Beck, Rush, Bachman, Perry, Freedomworks, militia groups, patriot organizations, etc. – but none have been crowned. What we’ve ended up with essentially is a mob. And mobs are dangerous since they’re fueled by rage rather than reason. The trajectory of a mob depends on the moment. Words count because what is said to a mob can alter its path.
Oh yeah, words matter.
It was supposed to be a routine campaign stop. In a poor section of Indianapolis, 40 years ago Friday, a largely black crowd had waited an hour to hear the presidential candidate speak. The candidate, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, had been warned not to go by the city’s police chief.
As his car entered the neighborhood, his police escort left him. Once there, he stood in the back of a flatbed truck. He turned to an aide and asked, “Do they know about Martin Luther King?”
They didn’t, and it was left to Kennedy to tell them that King had been shot and killed that night in Memphis, Tenn. The crowd gasped in horror.
Kennedy spoke of King’s dedication to “love and to justice between fellow human beings,” adding that “he died in the cause of that effort.”
And Kennedy sought to heal the racial wounds that were certain to follow by referring to the death of his own brother, President John F. Kennedy.
“For those of you who are black and are tempted to … be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling,” he said. “I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.”
Many other American cities burned after King was killed. But there was no fire in Indianapolis, which heard the words of Robert Kennedy.
Bobby Kennedy’s words changed the trajectory of Indianapolis that night.
Sadly, the Republican Leadership has chosen a different course.
The most amazing thing about that video is not what’s being said, but who is saying it. Elected officials are firing up a mob they have no control over and unleashing them on society – in the hope it will pay off in the voting booth. Russian Roulette style politics. They are fanning the flames and then feigning shock when their encouragement turns into action. They are no Bobby Kennedy. Actually, they have become the kids in the hallway egging on a “Fight!” while doing nothing to break it up. There is no leadership here – only followers of a mob which will turn on anyone (including Republicans) with the slightest provocation. Dr. Frankenstein, meet your monster.
Tags: Republicans, Tea Party
I just hope that we can fire up enough sane people to overwhelm the insane ones at the polls. We all know the crazies are ready to vote. We need to make sure that people who seek to gain from firing up the crazies don’t get rewarded for it.
I find it interesting that you folks give more benefit of the doubt and consideration to Muslims regarding terrorists than you do to conservatives regarding the out-of-line rhetoric and minor property damage committed (allegedly) by a few individual(assumed to be) conservatives.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/when_will_liberals_give_the_te.html
Regardless of the acts of mayhem and violence, white guys are by definition patriots – not terrorists. What is so tough to understand about that? I don;t find that interesting, I find it boring and predictable.
BTW – this big teabag guy, all fired up about socialism, is on government paid disability. Classic!!
There are a lot more conservatives than Muslims threatening our way of life.
ANM: I checked out the link. I suggest all readers check out the comments below the article to see the kind of unbridled prejudice — expressed by dozens of commenters — at the 1.2 billion practitioners of the world’s most populous religion.
No, the Tea Partiers aren’t a bunch of racist scum. Sure they aren’t.
I think that by passing HCR the Dems and like minded Independents are well on the way to being fired up as well.As for mobs the Tea Party fills the bill, but try and keep one together over a period of time. And on the completely bright side the more America sees and hears the less thier going to like it.
Republican leadership is now putting on its Pontius Pilate act.
I don’t really see a scenario where either the teabaggers or the Republican elected leadership can walk down from their rhetoric. Unfortunately I think they are boil on the ass of American politics, which must come to a head before it can be lanced. I am aware this is an ugly and forbidden thought, but what if it is true?
The “good” scenario is if teabaggers along with Republican elected leadership becomes the target of more and more ridicule, and their antics become broadly seen as some kind of Looney Toons Yosemite Sam show, instead of real politics. I don’t think the press will let this happen though.
With the fractured, mob-like nature of the GOP right now I see Ron Paul and Sarah Palin doing well in the early primaries. Paul on organization and having built a grassroots team of activists, and Palin based on name rec and the fact that Iowa Republican primary voters are a bunch of horny dumbasses.
Flip Flop wil try to say – “I’m just as crazy as them, but electable!” and Huckleberry will hang around for a while, but the real fireworks will be between the Paul and Palin camps until the real GOP decision makers pull a rabbit out of the hat. It should be hilarious.
With the fractured, mob-like nature of the GOP right now I see Ron Paul and Sarah Palin doing well in the early primaries.
You are probably right. This means the media will give them and their teabag supporters even more credibility, offering Republicans even less chance to walk away from the cliff. Journalists will continue to seek “balance” and will find it in Democrats vs. teabaggers/Paulites etc.
The best defense against the teabag platform, as always, is a broadly shared economic recovery and a flood of new jobs. Of course it didn’t help us much in ’94 or 2000, so who knows.
Palin yes, Paul no. Paul supporters are not the irrational clowns spitting on people. You have to have some smarts to understand Paul’s arguments on issues. Palin’s, not so much.
Anon: I agree with Bamboozer — the more America sees of these pitiful wretches with a revenge streak, the less it will like them.
You have to have some smarts to understand Paul’s arguments on issues.
The evidence is against your viewpoint. All you have to do is read a chain email that explains how the Fed is not a real government agency, and how it was created by evil businessmen on “Jekyll Island,” and the gullible are sucked in immediately, without benefit of knowing any other economic facts or history.
I think you’re correct, anon. How do you walk back Armageddon? Death Panels? Socialist? Communist? Fascist? Baby Killer? The End of America? The only way to do this is for GOP Leadership to admit they were wrong – and I don’t see that happening.
I also agree that this will probably have to come to a head in order for it to stop. The calls for revolution – in a lot of cases, an armed revolution – have resonated with a group who’s been looking for a reason to bear their arms.
Anon: I agree with Bamboozer — the more America sees of these pitiful wretches with a revenge streak, the less it will like them.
Unfortunately, the way America will see these wretches is on Fox News which is outright supporting them, and on other outlets which will be legitimizing them with the he said/she said treatment.
True. But folks like that aren’t going to stick with a guy who has the charisma of a bowl of oatmeal and sometimes uses big words when he talks. I believe a majority will switch over to Palin by the time they vote — not just because she’s easier on the eyes, but because she’s more fun to listen to.
Of course, all this presumes she has any interest in elective politics now that she’s rich. The part she likes is the adoration of the crowd. You get much more of that as a TV personality than a politician, with none of the hard work.
Oops, I forgot… a lot of Republicans also consider Obama the anti-christ. Not sure how you walk that back.
Palin definitely speaks their language, Geezer.
Those Fox News followers won’t matter that much if the movement becomes a laughingstock, which could be the next step once the disgust wears off. They’re about two more dumb moves from becoming a late-night comedy punchline.
Unfortunately, the way America will see these wretches is on Fox News which is outright supporting them, and on other outlets which will be legitimizing them with the he said/she said treatment.
This is the case for Democrats to stop negotiating and get governing. Being the grownup while those around you nurture their resentments and grievances needs to be part of the equation.
The Paulites fancy themselves as being smarter than their Palin counterparts, but since they wrap themselves around a fair amount of conspiracy theory and silly historical narratives, they are still wearing the clownshoes. Both sets of blind followers have in common a willingness to be bamboozled by skilled grifters.
The Paulites trace back to European fringe theories of the Illuminati and Jewish banking conspiracies.
The teabaggers trace back to American racism and the Klan.
I’m not saying today’s Paulites and teabaggers are aware of the connections; they are too stupid for that.
The Paulites include Stormfronters, neo-Nazis and white supremacy groups whose DNA is definitely rooted in American racism and the Klan.
Ethnocentric fear and loathing doesn’t change much except in how its adherents dress it up and rationalize it to themselves.
It is a big tent.
They might be in the movement, but I think a far greater proportion is Randian libertarians. The jolly gangs you mention would have tarred and feathered Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum.
I think a far greater proportion is Randian libertarians
That is just a fig leaf they put over the dark stuff. The hatreds come from the subconscious, but the propagandists are consciously manipulating them.
Lol @anon11:21 – “Our movement is accepting of divergent views; the whole spectrum from Barry Goldwater all the way to David Duke.”
Jason,
There are no Republican primay voters in Iowa.
There are, however, caucusgoers.
I stand corrected. Merci.
Randism is nothing more than it’s ever been — a pseudo-intellectual way of justifying and cleaning up the hatred and disgust that some people have for those who are, or who they perceive to be, beneath them.
This has and always will sum it up pretty well:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith
On the other hand, the modern conservative is engaged in another one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for taking the property of others to use for their own purposes — in other words, theft.
We’ll go through another cycle of Democrats then Republicans then Democrats…both just as corrupt as the other.
So true Moose, so true….lol
One can only hope that you are right and the Republican party has transformed back to its populist founding.
Who edited my comment, changing “liberal” to “conservative”? That is truly unethical./
Gee….I wonder who.
BTW…..O’Keefe….reduced to misdemeanor….S.O.T. Jballs.
are you under the impression that a perp cannot get jail time for a misdemeanor?
anyways, that skinny fuck is done for as a “journalist” or whatever he called himself. A walking joke who will probably get wingnut welfare at some regress tank.
That’s the best ya got, VC?
What ever happened to…. 10 years!!! It’s a felony!!! Wiretapping!!!
You hopeless, hapless, liberal tampon.
Shove an acorn up your pooter.