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Since I'm a life long conservative and Tea Party supporter since early 2007 I feel that I'm better qualified to speak about both than the liberals who love to attack us here on CD. In this thread I will list myths or just fabricated lies that are commonly used to attack Tea Party supporters or conservatives like myself. I'm speaking only for myself and this is based on my own extensive experience, other individuals may feel or act differently than I do so don't take this as some blanket statement covering everyone who claims to be conservative or a member of the Tea Party.
Myth #1 - "The modern day Tea Party started because a black man was elected POTUS".
This is a myth, the modern day Tea Party started as group of Ron Paul supporters in early 2007 during his Presidential bid. Over the last couple years many people have jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon, many people have attempted to and in some ways succeeded in hijacking large groups of Tea Party supporters. Many people who claim to be in the Tea Party joined long after the group was formed in 2007 and those people may very well have joined out of opposition to the outcome of the 2008 election but the overwhelming majority of the people I know and deal with regularly did not.
Myth #2 - "The people who are in the Tea Party today are the same people who supported Bush in 2004"
This is also a myth, as a hardcore conservative I never once supported or liked George W. Bush. I didn't support the war with Iraq, I think we've hit the point of diminishing returns in Afghanistan and I don't think we should be involved in Libya. The people who I work with locally in the Tea Party all joined due to their disgust with how things were going in this country under GWB, many of us hate him just as much as the average liberal democrat does.
Myth #3 - "The Tea Party wants no government"
This is just flat out false, it's a completely fabricated lie. Conservatives in the Tea Party want limited government, especially at the federal level. We want a federal government that more closely follows the guidelines laid out in the United States Constitution. We want less control over state issues by the federal government and we want to eliminate a lot of federal programs and agencies that do nothing but waste money and remove power from states. When people make claims like "The Tea Party wants to abolish the EPA or the Dept. of Education" they say it as if none of those responsibilities would be handled anymore when in reality we just want those roles to come back to the states where they belong. We want the federal government to do things it's supposed to do like handle security and border control and get out of the business of collecting taxes and redistributing them to other states in ways it was never supposed to.
Myth #4 - People regularly talk about signs that read "Keep the federal government away from my medicare/social security" as if it were a contradiction.
In the proper context is makes perfect sense. The people who were seen carrying these types of signs are usually older Americans who have been forced to pay into these programs all of their working lives with the promise of a guaranteed return and during the health care debate many times there were discussions about making changes to or eliminating those medicare or SS benefits. Those people have seen the federal gov. stick their hands in the Medicare and SS cookie jars for years and they're fed up with it. Younger Americans like myself who are in their 20s and 30s have also been forced to pay into these programs while knowing that there's a pretty good chance we'll never see that guaranteed return.
More to come... and Liberals, before you get excited and jump in here to attack me just chill out and read what I have to say. I'm being honest and blunt, if you don't agree that's fine but keep it civil and try to leave the personal attacks out of this thread.
Myth #5 - "If you hate Medicare and Social Security that much why don't you refuse your checks out of principle"
I've seen tons of people on the left make these statements basically asking people to no accept federal social security payments because they don't agree with how the government is being run. Just because we dislike how the programs are run doesn't mean any of us should refuse to get back a portion of the money we were forced to pay in the first place. Afterall, being forced to pay in and not getting anything in return is exactly what we're fighting against in the first place. Many conservatives like myself would gladly take a payout today of what we've paid in and we'd love to opt out of social security. I would have no problem not relying on social security but I've been forced to pay thousands of dollars into the program and I fully expect to get my money back since I had no choice in the matter in the first place.
Myth #6 - "Go back to listening to Rush, Beck, Fox News, Hannity, etc etc etc"
I'm a conservative Tea Party supporter, I don't watch or listen to any of those programs nor do I have any desire to start. I don't listen to Rush to find out how to think, I've never listened to his radio show in my life. I don't watch Fox News, I never have. I actually watch CNN pretty often when I do watch cable news. I haven't been brainwashed by the right wing media to think like I do, I was raised in a conservative household and grew up with these values. My wife was raised the same way, neither of us pay any attention to the right wing personalities that the left claims we do.
Your Myth #1 is completely bogus. The original TEA Party movement began in 1974 in Minnesota, started by a handful of people from the newly formed Libertarian Party. It went national with their first major protest on April 15, 1977 in Washington DC, and again on April 15, 1993. The TEA Party, whose sole purpose was to protest massive tax increases by Congress, was highjacked by Ron Paul fanatics, and because they are completely irrational, they have absolutely no concept of reality, or history, unless it somehow involves Ron Paul.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Backspace
Myth #5 - "If you hate Medicare and Social Security that much why don't you refuse your checks out of principle"
I've seen tons of people on the left make these statements basically asking people to no accept federal social security payments because they don't agree with how the government is being run. Just because we dislike how the programs are run doesn't mean any of us should refuse to get back a portion of the money we were forced to pay in the first place. Afterall, being forced to pay in and not getting anything in return is exactly what we're fighting against in the first place. Many conservatives like myself would gladly take a payout today of what we've paid in and we'd love to opt out of social security. I would have no problem not relying on social security but I've been forced to pay thousands of dollars into the program and I fully expect to get my money back since I had no choice in the matter in the first place.
A snake eating its own tail. If you gladly take the payout today that you put in, you would actually be taking the cash you put in for the people that came before you. Which would affect all of those seniors who worked so hard and put in so much money before you, for the ones before them.
Screw the seniors who paid in, gimme my money. At least that is how I'm reading it. Incidently this is completely opposite of the myth above it.
Myth #7 - I see this one here a lot "The Tea Party leader/darling Sarah Palin or Michelle Backman did/said/screwed up _____________"
Sarah Palin doesn't lead the Tea Party, many of us can't stand her political stance and never supported her or John McCain's choice in picking her. Many of us know very little about and care very little about Michelle Bachman. Her alleged gay husband means nothing whatsoever to me or my family. The left has tried their best to attach the worst of the fringe right candidates to the Tea Party supporters in an attempt to smear us all and it hasn't worked very well.
Your Myth #1 is completely bogus. The original TEA Party movement began in 1974 in Minnesota, started by a handful of people from the newly formed Libertarian Party. It went national with their first major protest on April 15, 1977 in Washington DC, and again on April 15, 1993. The TEA Party, whose sole purpose was to protest massive tax increases by Congress, was highjacked by Ron Paul fanatics, and because they are completely irrational, they have absolutely no concept of reality, or history, unless it somehow involves Ron Paul.
I'm talking about the modern Tea Party of today, many of us support libertarian candidates and ideologies, I know I sure do. I'm aware of the origins of the Tea Party movement.
A snake eating its own tail. If you gladly take the payout today that you put in, you would actually be taking the cash you put in for the people that came before you. Which would affect all of those seniors who worked so hard and put in so much money before you, for the ones before them.
Screw the seniors who paid in, gimme my money. At least that is how I'm reading it. Incidently this is completely opposite of the myth above it.
Are you trying to prove that Social Security is a ponzi scheme or was that an accident?
I'm talking about the modern Tea Party of today, many of us support libertarian candidates and ideologies, I know I sure do. I'm aware of the origins of the Tea Party movement.
No, you are talking about the theft of the TEA Party movement by Ron Paul lunatics. If you want to start your own movement, do so. You do not have the right to highjack a movement started by others and change it to suit your purposes, then call it your own. Not only is that theft, it is also a deliberate lie.
Social Security is popular but unsustainable. Its commitments over the next 75 years exceed its expected revenue by $5.3 trillion. Politicians know this, but pander anyway.
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