(no subject)

[oportet.livejournal.com]

I'm not a liberal, but if I was, I can't imagine what I would have against the Tea Party movement - so hopefully a liberal/democrat could help me out with this.

I understand the movement is made up mostly of conservatives, so wouldn't that either be a good, or at worst, neutral thing for you when elections come around?

Sure, the Tea Party isn't an official party with representatives, but when a big (or the big) election comes around, they'll most likely endorse someone (If they don't, that would fall under neutral). If the person/people they back are Republican, you saw it coming, and you'll pretty much have the same outcome there would have been if the TP never existed (again, neutral result). If the person/people they back aren't Republican, it wouldn't be taking many, if any, votes away from your side - nowhere near the number it would be taking away from Republicans (this would fall under good for you).

Or am I missing something?

Comments

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Wait, the proper response to being called racists is to threaten gun violence?

I don't see how you jumped to this from what I said.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

1. You're assuming they are talking points.
2. It isn't required to have a solution to merely highlight a problem.
3. Common societal problem, not specific to this group.
4. Incorrect, this is a liberal talking point.
5. Incorrect, this is a liberal talking point.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Yet you can't tell me how to solve the problem, only that there is one. That's useful!

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

And those aren't Tea Party issues.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

There was a guest commentator on the Joy Behar show the other day who said that he had gotten on a bus to go to a Tea Party event and that the only white guy on the bus was the driver (although this guy was Italian, so I guess he wasn't counting himself) and at the event he saw a couple oddball people and noticed that the cameras hung around them and didn't point at any of the non-white people there. And Joy's response was "but they're all so racist".

[thinkatory.livejournal.com]

1. When I hear Tea Party participants using the exact same words as Republican congressmen and media circuits such as talk radio, Drudge and Fox, I make the presumption that they're using talking points, yes. There's nothing wrong with talking points, but my problem with Tea Party discourse is that few of the participants seem to be able to move beyond catchphrases.
2. It certainly isn't. I was asked what I have against the Tea Party movement. As a progressive I believe in highlighting problems and then attempting to find a solution to them. Tea Party Patriots can protest in the manner that they see fit, but I can have a problem with it.
3. Again, I was asked what I have against the Tea Party movement, but I should think that if one is going to protest politically and hope to get news coverage, one might take a moment to consider what they're putting on a sign. Maybe it's a common societal problem, but putting Stalin, Hitler, Mao and the politician they dislike on a sign and expecting to be taken seriously is not. There are idiotic signmakers on the left, too, and I feel much the same way towards them. (I mean, "No Blood for Oil"? Iraq was not about oil.)
4. You're assuming it's a talking point. ... no, really, snark all around on this one. Still. Anecdata, but a lot of my time working at a federal office in early 2009 was spent informing rabidly angry conservative independents (who would later be protesting outside my office, teabags and all) of various political realities, such as "not all Democrats voted for the TARP bailout" and "omnibus spending bills happen all of the time, under both Democratic and Republican administrations."
5. I'll admit, this one was snark, but there weren't as many conservatives shouting about the erosion of civil liberties during the Bush administration, when there was in fact evidence for it.

I'm not trying to argue that my view is fact. I'm well aware that conservatives view this movement differently, on completely different criteria. I was asked what puts me off of the Tea Party movement, and this is it.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

All the anti democrat signs in the gatherings I've been to gave me a clue. Get a clue.

[thinkatory.livejournal.com]

Really? Who on the left has called the Tea Party movement traitors?

"TP" Fantastic! That's after the wipe, of course.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I love the way that Tea Partier Palin showed up at the McCain rally and stole the show. She seemed like more of a liability than an asset to McCain.

We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

You have confessed, "I raise my two boys to be God fearing." When this is translated into a coherent lingual system it comes out something like, "I indoctrinate my children in a regime of superstitious cowardice." Someday, your children will look back on their cult indoctrination and have nothing but pity for the people who led them down that path.

Repent! The end is near.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Seems to me the same people are involved.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not fond of hearing "America, we have a problem" without "...so let's put on our thinking caps. Here's one tentative solution." I do want to hear what is more likely to work, actually. I'm the kind of person who goes to school board meetings with ideas written down and more hatching as I hear other people speak.

These wars have been expensive, and in all the wrong ways; I've heard horror stories about underequipped troops. Also, remember how run down Walter Reed got? Yeah. That's where we should've been spending. I don't know where the money went, which scares me a little. No. A lot.

I know that some expenditures were sort of inevitable (cleanup after disasters, natural and man-made) and that inflation happens, so we do have to get creative about reining in spending. We have to think where the money really will do the most good. Did my town need another roundabout when it could've put the money into its schools instead? Things like that.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=10303032

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

joy speaks with authority. she's on tv after all.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

thanks. we have an anecdote from sealwhiskers.

i'm humbled by such proof-positive. i'll add it to my cluebag.

[thinkatory.livejournal.com]

False equivalency. The anti-war left was branded with the label of traitor to their country. Your argument discusses accusations of treason to one's race, which is lamentable, but irrelevant to this discussion on political views.

I also seem to have left a few important words out of my previous question, so I'll rephrase. What prominent figures on the left have accused the Tea Party movements of treason? That article doesn't seem to name any specific person, whereas the accusations of treason on the anti-war left came from many prominent figures on the right.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

wasn't my argument. readherring brought it up. my comment referred to the short memories people have about political demagoguery.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Just like the Liberals are embarrassed by Code Pink or World Can't Wait but NEVER voice their disgust/opposition, right?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

You mean like these people, at this protest:

Saturday, March 15, 2007 - The ANSWER Coalition sponsors a March and "Die-In" at the Capitol in D.C. 5,000 protesters and 200 arrests.
Meanwhile, what was the count from the Tea Party March on Washington? The Public Information Officer of the D.C. Fire Department unofficially estimated attendance "in excess of 75,000" people (the number quoted by most if not all news agencies) and there were ZERO arrests.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

So, you're in favor of censorship, and you're against people carrying legally obtained and permitted weapons of self defense.

Gotcha.

I like your brains.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

Hey, I just friended you. Feel free to add me back.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

You (and I) don't find don't find him (?) obnoxious because we agree with him :D

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Bingo!!! :D (I love it when I can agree with someone who is usually wrong ;P)

(I apologize if it wasn't you that (hopefully in fun) zinged me last week)

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that the employers full responsibility is nebulous, and varies to area. All I have to do is see proof, there is not yet (that I know of) the centralized place that enables small business owners to do a back ground check. I habe been told by an INS agent that I can't be held libel for accepting forged documents.

Frankly I'm all for more enforcement on the employer level. On the other hand when cities force "big box stores" to provide for shelter for "day laborers", and all the different civil rights groups get up in arms when some cities try to police areas where "day laborers" congregate, there are definite mixed signals being sent.


*That's So Cal code for illegal aliens