IS THE "TEA PARTY" REALLY A POPULIST MOVEMENT?

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Or merely a resurgence of the very plutocracy that got us into this mess?

Why would a bunch of families whove lost their ability to earn a living and possibly their houses, worry about removing the tax burden from the rich? or toppling a health act that can disallows insurance companies from cancelling health policies?
Is the tea party a possible corporate front?

Im amazed at the numbers of out of work laborers are marching "for" what the tea party seems underwritten by.

HMMMMMMM.

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@farmerman,

until or if the economic situation improves, i think one term presidents could become the norm, your guy didn't do it in his four years, out he goes, repeat as necessary

as for the tea party, well people are stupid (and please conservatives i said, people, that includes everybody, libs and cons)

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yes, the tea party is a populist movement which, historically, means it's doomed to shoot itself in the foot and implode.

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I don't think Tea Party members are "stupid" - they are just very, very tired of large government and out of control spending, size of government and what they belive is the government's goal to be mother and father / and/or Big Brother to the citzenry. Obama seems to be their worst nightmare.

I am surprised about WHO is in this movement. Some people who I'd never expect. (early and mid-60's age group)

Of course, all the nut-case "fringers" have attached themselves to this - like all new movements. That phenomena is nothing new.

Are they diliberatly trying to mess up the two party system and the upcoming election? We'll see. A Grand Jury investigation has been requested in my county alleging that Tea Party candiates filed with invalid registrations - and that many of the signatures were notarized by a former Democratic Party employee!

I am NOT a Tea Party member, just an observer.

I hope this can be discussed here without using such words as "stupid.'to describe people.

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@farmerman,

Your question reminds me of Thomas Frank's book,
What's the Matter with Kansas?.

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@farmerman,

I think the tea party movement is not composed of people who are out of work. It seems to be mostly working, lower middle class, white people who are seeing their manufacturing jobs disappear and whose anger can be focused by selective mis-information. Tell them that the rich won't hire them if the tax rate is too high and they buy it. Tell them the government is wasteful and they won't complain when their local government has so little money it has to turn off street lamps at night and stop trash pickup at local parks. For those who organize this stuff, it works great. Reduced taxes mean reduced services means less respect for the role of government means more anger means louder calls for reduced taxes.

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@PUNKEY,

Quote:

I don't think Tea Party members are "stupid" - they are just very, very tired of large government and out of control spending, size of government and what they belive is the government's goal to be mother and father / and/or Big Brother to the citzenry.

Right.. that's why they carry signs for government to keep it's hands off their Medicare.

Quote:

Obama seems to be their worst nightmare.

I am surprised about WHO is in this movement. Some people who I'd never expect. (early and mid-60's age group)

You forgot to mention that Obama is "black".

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@PUNKEY,

well, of course their are some really stupid people in the tea party just at there are some really stupid people in the democrat and republican parties. my personal opinion is that the majority of people in all parties are stupid as well as being historically/politically ignorant. Such as it is, such as it always been.

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@farmerman,

I'd have to dig it up but there was numerous reports on who funds the Tea Party. This information came out early last year when they were trying to sell themselves as "grassroots."

Lots of corporate money.

A
R
T

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@failures art,

Ive not followed the TP much. Now that it seems to be the antithesis of the socialist revolution that swept the country in the 1930s , I am concerned that it too, has been sold on terms that are a bit fraudulent.

When I see the Glenn Beckas and Rush Limbaughs selling themselves as populists, and the companies with most to lose in the stense (read" pharma and insurance)--I , of course worry.

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I think that stupid describes the majority of the american populace. Look at the contriversy over building a church in Manhattan. With all the problems we have to this put this to the forefront is a stupid conserative attempt to hide the fact that they dont have an agenda except to cut taxes on the rich and say no to anything the dems put foreward.

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@farmerman,

See my answer in my post re the Koch brothers:

http://able2know.org/topic/160495-1

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A good question--i suspect that the squeaky wheel principle obtains with that crew, who are loud and strident, if not necessarily too bright. It's a politician's exploitation dream.

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Quote:

Is the tea party a possible corporate front?

Sure - the whole concept was ginned up by Dick Armey and FreedomWorks, his PAC. They get free advertising on Fox News for every event they do.

The Tea Party was brought about so that Republicans who were embarassed to refer to themselves that way could get huffy and yell at people, as if it weren't their party and their beliefs which ran this country into the ground for several straight years.

I think mostly it was a way for them to try and forget about Bush - and to move the conversation on from Bush.

Cycloptichorn

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@Cycloptichorn,

A populist movement, angry at how the entire evaporation of the middle class has occured for some 30 years is really what I expected of this movement. For years The peoples voices have been silenced in an orchestrated fashion that has killed any semblance of an AMerican Dream. Corporations have reaped profits by insisting on "less regulation is good for you" when the opposite is true. Industries have spent bazillions buying off and owning Congress and the media. Its also exported the remains of our manufactut=ring industries overseas and has supplanted it with nothing.
Id expect that the people involved in a real populist movement would demand that the playing fields be leveled for all , But I dont hear anything like "reform" coming out of the TP at all.
They just wanna repeat the same **** that led us into this rathole. No government controls over corporate shenanigans and manipulation, lets cut all the taxes on the wealthy and business (the argument is that thias is good for "small businesses")
They want cutbacks on social and health spending and education. They want lots more outsourcing and punititves on organized labor.
Does the word FAscisti come to mind? WHose writing the libretto of this , Benito Mussilini?

Im comfortable enough to witshtand an increase in my taxes and Id not argue about it should the residua be spent on the actual playing field leveling. However I dont hear anything even remotely like that coming from the Tea baggers. SO, with my attention fully gotten and my suspicion raised about this entire movement, Im glad that many herein feel similarly.

NOW whadda we do?

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@farmerman,

Quote:

Im comfortable enough to witshtand an increase in my taxes . . .

It is interesting, and not mentioned in the media, that opinion polls in the 2000 election showed that people didn't really care if they got a tax cut, because they had had eight years of prosperity under Slick Willy, and they were comfortable with the situation. It would be an offense against holy writ, though, to suggest that Cheney's administration screwed the prosperity that eight years of a Democratic President and a Congress bullied into being fiscally responsible had created. People also don't seem to remember that the later "Contract on America" Republican Congress was forced by Clinton to actually cut the pork, and balance their budgets. We had surpluses before the Shrub was installed as puppet in chief.

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@Setanta,

ANNNNNDD. The tax cuts by the shrub were to "distribute the surpluses".
WHA happened to the surpluses.

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

ANNNNNDD. The tax cuts by the shrub were to "distribute the surpluses".
WHA happened to the surpluses.

They were distributed to the rich.

Cycloptichorn

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Mostly Haliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater by now, n'est-ce pas?

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

A populist movement, angry at how the entire evaporation of the middle class has occured for some 30 years is really what I expected of this movement. For years The peoples voices have been silenced in an orchestrated fashion that has killed any semblance of an AMerican Dream. Corporations have reaped profits by insisting on "less regulation is good for you" when the opposite is true. Industries have spent bazillions buying off and owning Congress and the media. Its also exported the remains of our manufactut=ring industries overseas and has supplanted it with nothing.
Id expect that the people involved in a real populist movement would demand that the playing fields be leveled for all , But I dont hear anything like "reform" coming out of the TP at all.
They just wanna repeat the same **** that led us into this rathole. No government controls over corporate shenanigans and manipulation, lets cut all the taxes on the wealthy and business (the argument is that thias is good for "small businesses")
They want cutbacks on social and health spending and education. They want lots more outsourcing and punititves on organized labor.
Does the word FAscisti come to mind? WHose writing the libretto of this , Benito Mussilini?

Im comfortable enough to witshtand an increase in my taxes and Id not argue about it should the residua be spent on the actual playing field leveling. However I dont hear anything even remotely like that coming from the Tea baggers. SO, with my attention fully gotten and my suspicion raised about this entire movement, Im glad that many herein feel similarly.

NOW whadda we do?

I have been saying something similar to this for a long time.

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IS THE "TEA PARTY" REALLY A POPULIST MOVEMENT?

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