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Simple: I haven't met a Tea Party supporter yet who hasn't demonstrated at least one of the following negative characteristics:
1) Belief that business can do no wrong and government can do no right: A complete fallacy, of course. The reality is that unchecked power and wealth - both in the private and public sector - is a bad idea. But to the far-right, everything the government does is wrong, and everything business does is right. These loons will go so far as to defend the huge banks that made fortunes during the Housing Bubble and Bailouts, often using phrases such as "well, the government made them sell bad loans" (false) and "what they did was technically legal" (possibly true, but since business writes the laws, are we surprised?")
The dark corollary to this is Tea Party extremists often want to get rid of government. Now, while I'm not in favor of ANY concentration of power - private or public sector - getting rid of government or vastly reducing it means the people lose a huge say in how things are run. One has to be insane to think that unchecked big business will somehow do a great job running things but unchecked big government will "make nothing but mistakes." This staggering blindness to the dangers of ALL unchecked concentrations of wealth and power is a painful example of Tea Party ignorance.
2) Bigotry: Oh, it may be small stuff - the person in question might "just" hate gays, or maybe just Muslims, but of the Tea Party supporters I've met - and I've met plenty - very few didn't have it in for some minority group. The worst offenders, however, are disgusting. I've actually been given a KKK recruitment speech by one Tea Party loon I worked with in the past year, and I've seen so many others who just can't get through a week without going off on a rant about "those people" - maybe it's blacks, maybe Mexicans, maybe gays, but it's always the same raw hatred and ignorance.
3) Obsession with violence: Again, most Tea Party lovers I've met have had a sick violence fetish. Maybe they just longingly talk about the day we can "turn the Middle East to glass" and "kill all those towel-heads." Maybe they can't shut up about the latest gun they bought and how they look forward to "that day" when they can finally use it to kill "the people who need killing" - which are always: "those people," NATO shock troops, "duh guberment," "communists," and the usual suspects. At best, they can *mostly* keep this violence fetish hidden, but not forever.
4) Assorted staggering ignorance: This isn't unique to the Tea Party, of course, but the ignorant sure find their home there. This is the land of 6,000 year old Earth's, women's bodies "aborting" fetus's if they've been raped, and other blinding examples of pure idiocy. The Tea Party isn't alone in this, but it seems to praise it, and I've only see this level of raw stupidity - usually mixed with total lack of awareness of current events - in the far-right wingers of today.
I don't like any sort of extremists, and the Tea Party is the only extremist group that currently holds any real power in modern day American. What many of them represent - even if they deny it - is despicable, and for no reason other than being an extremist party, they should be marginalized and consigned to the dust-bin of history before they do any more damage.
OK, then what is the point of the Tea Party? A group of individuals and organizations who speak for themselves? So, if I speak for myself and I want lower taxes, am I a Tea Party member?
This just isn't so. There are a number of Tea Party groups with defined leadership. They determine the organization's positions, they choose who speaks at rallies, they choose which candidates to endorse. And what theses groups are, essentially, are PACs endorsing Republican candidates.
Irrelevant. So, if one doesn't support this requirement, he can't be a part of the Tea Party? The Tea Party is simply too ill-defined and aimless to actually mean anything.
Where do they stand on immigration reform? Depends on who you ask.
What about the minimum wage? Depends on who you ask.
Repealing the 14th Amendment? Depends on who you ask.
Social issues? Depends on who you ask.
Do you see what I'm getting at here?
Marco Rubio calls himself a member of the Tea Party. Need I say more?
Belonging or not to a movement is largely dependent on whether or not one is moved to action.
Since we first spilled out into the public parks in 2009 to protest government spending and taxation, the mission from the ground up has been to take control of the Republican Party for the purpose of restoring accountability to Washington.
Accountability to whom??? You got just 14% approval rate so most of the country doesn't want the politicians to answer to you... You usurped the right to represent the entire nation. Who gave you that right???
Quote:
Originally Posted by momonkey
Belonging or not to a movement is largely dependent on whether or not one is moved to action.
Since we first spilled out into the public parks in 2009 to protest government spending and taxation, the mission from the ground up has been to take control of the Republican Party for the purpose of restoring accountability to Washington.
Belonging or not to a movement is largely dependent on whether or not one is moved to action.
Since we first spilled out into the public parks in 2009 to protest government spending and taxation, the mission from the ground up has been to take control of the Republican Party for the purpose of restoring accountability to Washington.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rapaport
Accountability to whom??? You got just 14% approval rate so most of the country doesn't want the politicians to answer to you... You usurped the right to represent the entire nation. Who gave you that right???
"The poll, conducted by Gallup, says 22 percent of participants identify as tea party supporters while 27 percent say they oppose the group, and the leftover 51 percent didn't express an opinion."
How so? You're talking about making politicians accountable... Who asked you to do that? You're just a little fragment of the population....
Quote:
Originally Posted by momonkey
"The poll, conducted by Gallup, says 22 percent of participants identify as tea party supporters while 27 percent say they oppose the group, and the leftover 51 percent didn't express an opinion."
I'm sure that even 20 years after the Know-Nothing Party lost what little credibility it ever had, there were still adherents to the ideals and plans they had in mind.
It will be the same with the 'Tea Party'. Fortunately, most Americans of whatever political stripe have already seen through their inability to create any workable solutions to their grievances. The fact that their mouthpieces tend to wind up in verbal morasses of their own making doesn't help.
But the core anti-intellectualism at the heart of both the TP and the N-K is something endemic to the American soul. I really don't know why.
Is this a serious challenge? If it is, it seems like an unfair one.
All you have to do here is ask a single question. However, in order for anyone to answer your single question, they would have to formulate an extensive list and compile multiple sources to reinforce their arguments. Given the fact most tea party supporters simply dismiss any evidence that proves them wrong as "biased," why would anyone bother?
Quote:
Originally Posted by FKD19124
Well I posted this a few weeks ago and as I anticipated, liberals cannot give a straight answer as to why they hate the tea party.
Please reference the post above - it came in very early on.
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