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Tea Party- please explain
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Anonymous
? This has the same flavor as medieval rumors about certain groups of people eating babies. OP--this is a ridiculous string of comments. If you want to know about the Tea Party go to the next demonstration and ask (not one, but some) people there about their views. Isn't that the most direct, respectful way to information-gather, rather than inquiring among hate-mongerers? |
Anonymous
Are you calling the previous posters hate mongers for the way they have portrayed the Tea Party? Are you kidding me? Have you seen the signs held up at the Tea Party rallies and heard interviews with the participants? Those are the hate mongers. Likening Obama to Hitler, Stalin, etc.. is hate mongering. Holding up racist placards is hate mongering. On a separate note, besides the racism it's also the complete hypocrisy of the Tea Party movement that I find repulsive. All of the sudden these people are against government spending and deficits. Where were they during the Bush administration when he turned record surpluses into record debt? |
Anonymous
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OP, here's an article about the Tea Party movement I found useful in understanding it as a social phenomenon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28teaparty.html I think a lot of people have been experiencing economic upheaval and uncertainty about their future. A lot of people are unemployed -- and they are angry -- a lot of them are white men. They are angry about being in the position they are in -- no jobs to be found, can't support themselves -- and they don't want to be lumped in with the people they have despised for getting government assistance (blacks on welfare, illegal immigrants). They are angry and need to direct their anger towards someone -- with a black man elected president, that is where their anger is going. "Take back our country" means get it back in the hands of church-going white people. They are feeling poor and they don't want to know that handouts are going to people who aren't deserving of help, like them. THEY have worked all along -- this is just a temporary set-back. THey aren't like the other unempluted people who never wanted to work. They oppose government getting involved in things -- unless it is after the fact -- it's OK for government to go in and fix the big oil spill after it happens, because that's what the federal government is for -- but it shouldn't regulate businesses to much ahead of time because that wouldn't be good for business. These people don't want government to be involved in health care at all, they want their old jobs back so they can have health insurance the old-fashioned way. Poor people who don't work shouldn't have health care or health insurance. |
Anonymous
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re tea party racism:
http://www.groundreport.com/Opinion/Tea-Party-Racism/2921697 |
Anonymous
Yes, hate mongerers. That's what you are. You focus on the fringe--where you can find extremism in any group. Do I label all liberals by the violent actions of the protesters at the G-20 summit? Of course not. The Tea Party is a vibrant response --more libertarian as far as I can tell than anything-- to a bereft 2-party system. The OP is asking for the meat of their position, not the fringe. You choose to dish hate. As for branding tea-partiers "tea-baggers" -- that would be hate if not so juvenile. It speaks to the intellectual bereftness of those who oppose their views, to employ such asinine word-games. |
Anonymous
You do seem, however, to label all of the liberals on this list hate mongers based on postings by a few. Just as there are many different views represented among tea party adherents, we liberal/progressive/left-wingers have many different view-points on many different issues. Hate-mongering is non-partisan; you can perhaps find examples on the left, but if you can't find blatant examples on the right, your eyes are not open. |
jsteele
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The Tea Party was launched when CNBC's Rick Santelli ranted online about the stimulus bill and the budget. He main point was that Americans were being taxed so that their money could be redistributed to other (apparently less-deserving) individuals. As a result, the idea that Americans are being taxed too much has always been a central theme of the movement. Never mind that taxes are lower than ever these days.
While much of the Tea Party is authentically grassroots, an important role has been played by FreedomWorks, run by former Republican Congressman Dick Armey. In addition, Fox News has played an important role helping to organize and publicize the Tea Party. As a result, the Tea Party has money and resources that most grassroots movements do not. Polls have shown that the majority of Tea Party members are conservatives who have traditionally voted Republican. A large contingent is made up of followers of Ron Paul, a libertarian who is a Republican member of Congress. Paul fared poorly in the Republican Presidential primary, but he showed strong organizational strength and his followers tend to dominate the Tea Party. In addition, fringe groups such as Lyndon Larouche's followers and the John Birch Society participate in the movement. I agree with the poster above who cited the New York Times article. The Tea Party really is the personification of the fear of loss of many white men. These guys have seen a government that bailed out big banks while ignoring their own economic upheaval. They have been told over and over again that only lazy minorities get government aid and they believe that they are being taxed too much to pay for that assistance. They have witnessed not only a black man -- but a black man alleged to be a Muslim -- be elected president. Gay people are getting married, more and more people are speaking Spanish, and so on. These individuals' entire world is being turned upside down. Their gripes are -- too an extent -- legitimate. Unfortunately, they are being manipulated by opportunistic Republicans, a cynical half-term governor who is making millions from their anger, and a news network that serves primarily as the propaganda arm of the GOP. Ironically, their primary political contribution at the moment seems to be giving Democrats a lifeline for the midterm election. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thank you all! Jeff, that was very useful to helping me to the understanding! |
Anonymous
I'm obviously targeting the overwhelming barrage of derogatory language and thinking; the facile responses. The bigotry (against Tea Partiers). If you have not so engaged, I am not addressing you of course. |
Anonymous
Typical liberal condescending view that the 'masses' of whites (why just men? there are plenty of women at tea parties--or are they 'mindlessly following their men' in your view?) are open to fear-based manipulation. Um, perhaps they have minds, engage vigorously in the ideas of the tea party and agree with them. No doubt you are intelligent. Intelligent people can actually come to different conclusions than your own, based on reasoning and not emotion. |
Anonymous
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The problem with the whole tea party mindset is that it's predicated upon the notion that a bulk of public assistance goes to minorities, which isn't the case. Republicans pandered to fear mongering by giving us the image of welfare queens and black mothers popping out numerous babies to get more public assistance when none of this was reality. It's why a lot of poor, white conservatives often vote against their own economic interests... because they've been led to believe that Republican policies are FOR them and against the poor blacks they despise, when in reality, they are equally left out in the cold.
If Tea Partiers want lower taxes, why do they oppose Obama, who wants to lower taxes for a majority of Americans? |
Anonymous
| This is such old rhetoric--the welfare queen etc. Are your reading from your 80's class warfare primer? I seriously doubt this is much on Tea Party minds--more the looming deficit and a different take on issues like healthcare reform and how to re-start the economy (lowering taxes versus spending to recovery). It is a totally different mindset--that does not make it evil, racist or pernicious. It is simply a different fiscal philosophy. The hate-smear so many have expressed above says more about the close-mindedness of non-Tea Party members than anything about tea Party policy. |
Anonymous
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SO when they say they want "their" country back... what exactly do they mean?
Why do they hold up racist images/signs of Obama? Why do they routinely vote against/oppose candidates who ultimately support what they want? |
Anonymous
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I am not an expert in tea-party issues beyond knowing enough to identify them as generally libertarian; I can recognize sweeping a group of people with a wide paint brush though when I see it. Some of your questions are interesting--what does it mean to 'want one's country back' (my guess would be a different view of the operating principles of the country) . Asking why 'they hold up racist signs of Obama' is painting with that same wide paint brush--naming the whole for the extremely small part. You know, there are black members of the Tea Party. Here's one whose point of view you can read all about, since you are posing the question. They even ask her if she thinks the TP is racist. Her point of view is interesting. As is the fact that she states that for standing as a member of the Tea Party she is called an 'oreo' and 'Uncle Tom'.... Who is closeminded and intolerant here?
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/04/15/black-tea-party-member/ |
Anonymous
| I'm not talking about the tea party movement as a whole, but this particular element of it. I recognize that it doesn't represent the core of the movement, but it is more than an "extreme" or "fringe" element of it and the tea party has welcomed these people into the group. |