The Modern Day "Tea Party" movement. What is it?

[Theory5]

I heard from my sociology teacher that this Thursday (April 15th) there is going to be one of those "tea party" protests held in providence RI at the town hall which is aprox. a 5 minute walk from where I live and go to school. I have heard a bunch about them, and to me they are just more of those right-wing nut cases.

what I am asking is who exactly are these people (I already browsed their website, now i want another perspective), and why are they so noisy?

[Buffy]

The political hacks and Fox News who are trying to exploit them are desperately trying to portray them as "independents" who are "fed up" with a whole bunch of things but mostly just really hate the fact that the Democrats won the last election. While a few years ago conservatives were crowing that "elections have consequences" so the Democrats should show their "bipartisanship" by agreeing with all Republican initiatives and that "deficits don't matter," we now have a major uptick in militia group activity and phyisical threats against Democrats because of the Eliminationist rhetoric calling the Democrats "traitors" "America haters" and of course it's all proven because Obama is a Muslim who wasn't even born in the US, and Pelosi is a Communist....sheesh.

 

So who are they? Well, finally we're seeing some interesting polls:

Yep, 66% Always or Usually vote Republican. One wag was quoted as saying the 5% sliice in that graph are probably either crazy or liars or both.

If they're a demographically diverse group, what are they worried about with immigration? 90% are white folk. 76% make over $50,000 per year while the median income in the US is just $46,000. Virtually all of them think their taxes went up since Obama was elected, when even accounting for the skewed selection, significantly more than 90% of Tea Partiers will pay less in taxes this year.

 

And while even among Tea Partiers it's politically incorrect to be racist, it clearly shows up in what they say:

the racial character of the tea party got some scholarly backing from a multi-state survey released this week by Christopher Parker at the University of Washington....In Parker's survey of 1,015 residents in seven states, he found that "those who are racially resentful, who believe the U.S. government has

done too much to support blacks, are 36 percent more likely to support

the tea party than those who are not."

 

And they are convinced that while they get no benefit whatsoever from the Government, that "people who don't deserve it" do:

[The health care bill is] going to tax the system way beyond what we have. For some reason, liberals seem to think people deserve paychecks who don't work and that's silly considering I don't want my hard earned money, my parents money, my siblings money to go to people who don't deserve it.

Nope. Only unemployed black, lesbian, eskimos will benefit from stopping insurance companies from cutting off coverage not only to those with pre-existing conditions, but anyone who simply costs them too much money after the fact.

 

While they should not be underestimated, they're also a lot less popular than the media coverage--and boy is the mainstream media enchanted with them, to the point that even their craziest, unsupported statements (in fact simple outright untruths) need to be given equal standing with the conservative Democrats Obama Administration fascist libtards in Congress led by that lesbian, atheist, anti-American harpy, Nancy Pelosi.

 

A new Fox News Poll also says that more people (49%) like the Internal Revenue Service than they like the Tea Party Movement (36%). :)

 

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them, :hihi: (and he's probably rolling in his grave now....)

Buffy

[Turtle]

beat me to the poll Buffy! here's some icing for your cake. :)

 

Crash The Tea Party!

Who We Are: A nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are all sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement which calls itself "TYhe Tea Party". ...

 

i would give a fuller quote, but can't copy & paste from the page. :rant: i hope the punctuation gets better; that semicolon is misplaced/misuded. :lol: i may have seen some of these tea-bag-basher folks with racist signs already at the Boston gathering, or at least someone had them. :hihi: no one there was objecting the signs that i saw though. :doh:

[Theory5]

Thanks for all that info, both of you. haha, Buffy you always manage to add humor in your posts. I wish I found out about that "crash the tea party" movement earlier rather than today when the tea party rally is tomorrow. I guess I can still bring rotten tomatoes, its not like the cops will stop me with that real/fake threat about more radical party members planning to attack cops (word of mouth, no solid source sorry) hehe. I plan on wearing one of my Favorite T-shirts.

[Buffy]

The only problem with the Crash the Party idea is that some of these people are so crazy, nothing you can do rises to the level of parody. They're *already* parody.

 

Of course there's the dark side of this too:

 

YouTube - The Tea Party's Racist Roots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5aS8k4f3k8

(h/t

Crooks & Liars)

 

You may be the stupidest cheerleaders ever and that's saying something, I once coached a young Sarah Palin, :hihi:

Buffy

[Moontanman]

I heard one of them said one of their main concerns is dishonesty in the news broadcast media, they are tired of the lies and misrepresentation, they want all the media to tell the absolute truth, "just like Fox News".

[Rade]

If anyone reads the daily Rush Limbaugh feeds, or listen to his radio show, it is very likely this Tea Party movement is the brain child of Limbaugh, began many years ago when it became obvious to even someone that uses only 1/2 brain to think (the other half tied behind his back he informs us) that the Republican Party under GW Bush was in for a big hurt of trouble in the 2008 presidential elections--which of course is exactly what happened. Hence, the birth of the Tea Party movement. Also, if you know anything about the Republican Party there are for the Tea Party members what they call the RINOs---Republicans In Name Only. Tea Party members are outgrowth as much in opposition to RINOs as they are against Democratic Party. True, some Tea Party members are conservative Democrats and even more Independents. The economic recession that began in 2007 and will continue for many years has done serious damage--many people lost jobs, money in stocks, and they are just fed up.

 

Not included in the polls by Buffy is a simple question--do you listen to Rush Limbaugh ? I predict the "average American" response would be 8% of people randomly polled across the county, for Tea Party members more like 80%. Most likely same response for Fox News. And, given the fact that Limbaugh just outright finds nothing good to say about president Obama, it is easy to see why the Tea Party members also take this view. Plus, it is very likely Tea Party members are undergoing a type of mental brainwashing, since so many of them I know ONLY get information about news from Rush Limbaugh (radio waves) and Fox News (photon waves). Limbaugh gave this a cute name--drinking Kool-Aid, and he is the #1 maker of Tea Party Kool-Aid. Of course, Limbaugh thinks those that watch MSNBC drink wacky Kool-Aid.

 

Tea Party wants lower taxes--OK, sounds great, but I do not hear Tea Party members tell what government programs they want to eliminate--in fact--Tea Party members do not want to eliminate military spending, social security, or medicare. Well, those three make up ~ 60% of the federal budget. If anything Tea Party wants to remove minor government programs that do not amount to a hill of beans in terms of lowering deficit. Maybe they have some good ideas, but so far we have no idea. It will become more clear as Tea Party members run for congress and then you can read what views they hold, they will inform the public exactly what government programs they want to eliminate. Then citizens can agree or not and vote.

 

Many in Tea Party are very religious. They believe that their religion is the morally correct one for all humanity (the God told us view of what is moral for humans). Ironically some Tea Party members cite Ayn Rand as a capitalist defender and philosophic basis of Tea Party economic views, and that she is--but--she is also a radical atheist and holds that those Tea Party members that derive morally from religion are not only wrong, they are by her definition immoral. I suspect many Tea Party members do not realize they may be economically correct and at the same time religiously immoral. I suggest Tea Party members never bring up name of Ayn Rand, unless they are atheist.

[Buffy]

In their own words...

 

YouTube - TAX DAY TEA PARTY 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyFeFhUTmI

 

Yes, yes. But you would have to be half mad to dream me up,

Buffy

[prometheuspan]

objectively speaking, the tea party is an astro turf (not grass roots) movement with the looniest batch of absurd and crankpotted ideas all gathered in one spot, including 75 percent of them who are so ignorant about political science that they believe the pundit idea that obamas a socialist.

 

In short, they are the clueless and duped branch of the republican sheeple movement.

 

The 10 Funniest Teabonics Signs - Seattle News - The Daily Weekly

[Buffy]

This is Sue Lowden. She's not running for some local office in some highly conservative township, she's running for Senator for Nevada, one of the 100 people who have the most influence of all laws passed in the US. Here she is doubling down on her proposal for people who cannot afford health care to simply use barter...with chickens:

 

YouTube - Republican Sue Lowden Won't Back Down From Health Care Bartering Scheme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9o8lVWWDac

 

Needless to say, this has produced a little bit of a, um, reaction....

 

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,

Buffy