tea party a movement or nuts

[Cheaper2buyit]

The tea party facts people facts. What say you. please no teabag jokes unless they are really funny. Like the little old lady old with the tea bags on her hat.

[lacrew_2000]

A movement of people who have genuinely hit the 'Ive had it' point....which threatens to fracture the Republican party if it branches off. For that reason, many of its members don't want leadership, structure, etc....so I don't see it as a long term movement.

...as for those who characterize them as nuts, the members of the media and ex-president who equated them to Tim McVeigh yesterday, the politicians who call them racists...they are insulting average Americans.

The Tea Party is going to result in a big swing in the mid-term elections. The media will tell us this always happens, its no big deal, etc...but some big names and 'safe' seats are in peril. Boxer is in trouble, Reid is in trouble, McCain is in trouble. Seems like a dozen congressmen have decided to retire, rather than suffer a loss. If they are mainstream enough to affect the ballot box, they can't be characterized as 'just nuts'...apparently in many congressional districts, they are the majority.

[fjensen]

There have been numerous stories written about the "tea party", and quite frankly, the name is appropriately used, albeit erroneously from a historical perspective in today's usage. The bottom line, it is a loose coalition of some other groups, almostl exclusively from the right of center. They have drawn in moral majority members, no doubt a few John Birch members, but the big appeal is for all those conservatives, of either party (are there conservative dems?) who have had enough of the spend our way to prosperity. They WILL have an impact in November, and perhaps an even BIGGER impact in 2012.

[Bubba]

With Sara Palin involved.....they scare me. I am more afraid of her being elected as President or VP then I am Hillary....and that is very scary.

The good news about Palin is that if something went wrong and she was elected she would probably quit when things got tough....like she did as Gov of Alaska!

I am all for change if it is going to help BUT, I think we need to give Obama more time. One year simply isn't enough time to fix problems that have been building for years!

[Cheaper2buyit]

palin makes to much to run for pres. somebody give me facts on this how much has she made since she walk out on her people & what has the tea party paid her to show up & reload.

[john_galt]

Has anyone seen (I know you have so do you remember) the scene from the first Star Wars movie where Obi WanKenobi tells Vader that if you strike me down I will become more powerful than even you can imagine?
Only a partisan idiot would deny that since leaving office Sarah Palin has become more powerful than if she had stayed a sitting governor in Alaska. She seems to have made the right choice but acknowledging that she may be smarter than the common wisdom is too scary to comptemplate.
The TEA party is made up of many people who have never before been involved in politics and that is scary to the establishment. They have no track record to use as judge of their abilities. There will be an electoral slaughter this November and probably in the August primaries as well.

[Enchanterlingum]

The streets should run red with blood for all the thievery and corruption that goes down in Washington on a daily basis. I'm completely serious when I say 7 of 10 elected representitives should be put against a wall for crimes against the American people. This arrogance on the part of the left has the potential to get out of control and people will die because of it.

But they won't so long as there's football, nascar, and American Idol to keep the sheep satiated.

Doomed, motherfucking doomed.

[lacrew_2000]

I think Palin resigned to make some money (leftist enemies in her own state kept dragging her to court to bankrupt her), and get down to the lower 48 states. She was isolated in Alaska, politically and fund-raising speaking.

I also think she resigned so she wouldn't have to make a choice between her principles and ARRA money. Would she hold out and not take the money...as Virginia's governor tried to do? Or would she sell out and take the ARRA money? We'll never know, because she quit right before that decision had to be made. So color me disappointed that she shirked her responsibility.

I like Palin...but I am fearful that a presidential run by her would result in Obama's re-election.

I do think she can be a 'king maker', and her endorsement will be pure gold in the GOP primaries.

But even though I'm not a big Palin fan, I would like to point out that much of what we 'know' about Palin is not true. The media went on a frenzied dirt hunt, and believed anything they were told...and reported it.

She didn't burn books (incidentally, somebody burnt her church to the ground).

She didn't say she could see Russia from her house.

The list goes on...so my lukewarm support of her is really because she has been damaged by lies...not because I really think she is as stupid as the media makes her out to be.

[N2SEX46]

I honestly believe the Tea Party folks are disenchanted center-right Dems and disgusted and frustrated Republicans. They are trying to bring our country's ills to the publics' attention. I agree with Bubba, the current administration isn't going to fix in a year and a half what it took Bush & Company eight years to get us in this mess. Look how long it took FDR to really get things going. Unfortunately, Obama is no FDR. Oprah and George Soros' money put him in and an Illinois senator and a one term U.S. Senator is not enough experience to be president. We weren't really given much of a choice in 2008: either we put in a slick talking snake oil salesman or another four years of Bush/Cheney with a total ditz for a vice president who was a heart beat away from what would have been our oldest elected president. Now if Nevada and California will wake up and kick out Reid and Pelosi, things might take a turn for the better. 2010? The Tea Party folks will come to the aid of the GOP when it comes down to it. That's my take.

[Fred Garvin]

I think that most Tea Partiers are sincere when they say they want reform in Washington. But when I hear them say they want change and big government to stay out of their business/lives as long as they dont' touch their medicaid, medicare, and unemployment it makes me wonder how informed they really are.

[lacrew_2000]

I can't blame somebody for saying 'don't touch my medicare'. I know somebody who is about to retire (and he happened to go to the tea party in Topeka). He remembers the very first time medicare was taken out of his check, in 1965. For the past 45 years, every check has had medicare taken out.

Can you understand why he might be a little upset that the healthcare bill will take $500 billion from medicare...right when he is becoming eligible for benefits?

I don't like big government, but seeing as I am being forced to contribute to Social Security and medicare, I think it is reasonable to say don't touch my medicare or SSN, without being hypocritical at all.

Now, if I were allowed to opt out of social security, I would do it in a heartbeat...but that's the rub, I'm not allowed to opt out.

[Cheaper2buyit]

crew were is your link to support that

[Philhelm]

I've been to a Tea Party, on April 15, 2009, have followed legislation (well, as best as I can), and am even writing a paper on the Tea Party. Here are my thoughts:

First, the Tea Party really began in 2007, and was a fund-raising event for Congressman Ron Paul. The Tax Day Tea Party of 2008 had focused on ending the Federal Reserve, which is one of Ron Paul's major issues. The Tea Party as we know it, had exploded on April 15, 2010.

While the Tea Party seems to aim toward non-partisanship, it's generally a conservative, libertarian, or fiscally-conservative movement. There are certainly Democrats and self-identified independents, but they are in the minority.

While it's generally a movement focusing on economic issues, there are a lot of reasons that people have participated in the Tea Party, and this had been reflected by their signs. Here are many of the issues displayed by the Tea Party movement:

-MIAC Report and the DHS Report on Rightwing Extremism, which in conjunction with the implications of the USA PATRIOT Act, resulted in conservative outrage.
-Anti-taxation.
-"End the Fed" signs.
-Anti-government/anti-congress.
-Outrage over the bailouts.
-Anti-Obama rhetoric.
-More recently, healthcare bill.

The "Where were you when Bush was president?" crowd fail to consider a few things. First, the Tea Parties started in 2007. People were outraged by *both* bailouts. Obama's election instilled more fears about taxation, due to what Obama had stated.

While the federal income tax lowered marginally during the Obama administration, the fact that he claims to have lowered taxes is merely equivocation. The taxes placed on cigarettes, inflation, the economic results of the healthcare bill which have yet to be seen, Cap and Trade which Obama had admitted would raise prices, and now consideration of a value added tax, all prove that Obama's opponents were justified in their pre-emptive concern of his economic policies.

I'd write more, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

[lacrew_2000]

Cheaper, I think you're kidding. But if I get to pick, I pick this one. Its some reporter from evil Fox News asking some idiot politicain about it.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/03/18/lo...the-double-cou

Its clear the politician has no idea how the healthcare system works.

[dirty dog]

Not trying to start shit here, but how come when someone with a conservative view point states something we are asked/force to provide supportive documentation, yet there have been many liberal viewpoints stated and when supportive documentation is asked for it causes a load of shit.