What you amount to. (the tea party)

I was going to just make this a comment in a thread of Beezzer's but changed my mind and decided to actually reach out to tea partiers because I think some of them have their hearts in the right place.

I feel your pain. I know a lot of the tea party members that have stuck with it don't want to let go. They are attached to something that seems new and alive but the fact is it isn't anymore. The first thing you need to understand is you started out right, but the groups second step was it's misstep. The first thing a subversive ( to the mainstream unfortunately) group should expect if they are doing it right is to be infiltrated immediately by groups trying to steal the energy. You trusted too much and let the people you should have been denying from the start align themselves with you.

I'm afraid now the tea party amounts to a much needed facelift to the republican party. THIS IS THE LAST THING YOU WANTED. The tea party was more eager to gain ground and publicity by letting Palin's and McDonald's and Becks attach themselves when they should have been very wary of whom they let speak under their banner. You were naive and traded ideals one at a time for speakers with big names.

You should have defected almost immediately. You guys have to be aware that all tea party candidates are simultaneously mainstream GOP candidates. If you were going to support anyone it should have been pretty much solely Ron Paul. You started a movement and then rather than fill it with new faces or people with real convictions you just let the same people who would have been running anyway sign up to steal your votes. Do you think Bachmann or Palin would be doing anything differently had you not existed?

I suggest that anyone that is in the Tea Party and truly awake to this situation abandon the party that has been completely hijacked. If you really have the brass then speak up. Trail blaze rather than allow your fellow TP members to be fooled by this GOP facade. Start fresh, reorganize, re-brand yourselves and don't just allow these go betweens running between GOP and Tea Party. Going the route you are going you can never expect to see a real TEA PARTY candidate. A candidate whose sole affiliation is the Tea Party. You can't rely on the small conservative, religious base you currently do, continue this path and you will never gain the support of aware voters like myself and most communities like this one. We need a real alternative, the Tea Party just doesn't amount to that.

You give me a group of politicians that are as truthful as Ron Paul. Candidates that are constitutionally respectful, guarantee equal rights to ALL Americans regardless of sexuality or race and you will have a real movement in America. You are thinking way too small. No one is asking for a compromise, but compassion. When you stop ignoring the differences of people and realize the fundamental sames of wanting legitimate change in the U.S. not on hot button issues that were invented to grab votes (gay marriage, abortion, etc) those are a ruse to divide people and elect politicians that don't have real platforms.

Tea Party you are just the GOP's new beard. Try again with us new thinking Americans.

For now I remain unaffiliated at heart (but technically dem, turned republican solely so I can vote in my states closed primaries for Ron Paul) free, but New American.

Thanks for reading.
GoGo

I agree. That movement has been cartoonized. It is a caricature of itself. They did a good job. Palin, Bachman, Romney, and even Perry are not people I could ever see running the WH effectively. You want to talk about over-politicization?

I'm conservative when it comes to a lot of things, I consider myself a libertarian (I suppose), these guys are just jokes. RP is the only one who doesn't come across as an actor and he's going to be shut out, quickly. Sad state of affairs.

Nicely rendered.
Second line.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Nice thread.
Cheers.
My take on it?

You can call it Tea Party, you can call it Cheese Sandwich. Names are unimportant. What the core philosophy is, IS important. Why I feel/think that the Tea Party is still viable and not just a mouth-piece for the GOP, is because there is such a wide variety of people involved. The "membership" includes everyone of every stripe. I'll admit that the GOP is a problem. in 2010 my group ousted a GOP incumbent.

Another poster wrote that "you know you're on target when you get flak". We're making an impact. To quit now would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There will be mistakes. Mis-steps. But we HAVE to stay on message.

An it's people like yourself (and others) that will keep us honest.
*Tips the hat*

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


as i like and respect all your posts, i have to take issue with this one.


"hijacking" is another bs word like racist.

the thing about the TP lol! not toilet paper, is that there is no leader, high profile people can join in and get more attention than you or me. no prob there.

they have also dumped people that say they are a high mucky muck in it.

also the label of GOP on them is also a distraction coz the left can't explain it and it's the easiest boogeyman explanation.

maybe the political situation in the US is changing and the established parties are running scared.

look at the black caucus, even the GOP doesn't want the TP.


the devil is in the details, TP members have a wide range of demands/beliefs?

basically they want less taxes and gov in their life and oh yeah, the other thing, don't spend more than what you got!!

abortion and other bs spouted by the opposition is a moot point.

lot's of people can't believe this is just a bunch of people trying to make a diff.

ya, all kinds of nuts will jump on the wagon but none (parties) are immune to this.

so all the hype is just that, demonizing and finger pointing.

the new boogeyman in the US.

"WE THE PEOPLE"

or did i miss the whole point?



lol!! just ignore if i did!

reply to post by beezzer


Thanks.
I only mention you with respect as a fellow ATSer and since we've talked/argued over tea party before.
So again, no disrespect .

reply to post by beezzer


BUt if that flak is just the same flak the GOP would be getting?
I can't deny that the Tea Party is not the same party as the GOP.
Here: politics.blogs.foxnews.com...
From the news station that helped make the tea party.
So they just tricked and made the tea party irrelevant..

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Look at what has happened since the inception of the Tea Party. It has gone from a grass-root movement, a GOP shell, a defiled (racist) organization, a platform for frnge GOP candidates, to . . . . . . . . .?

Whatever you call it, (I believe) is moot. The genie is out of the bottle.

Regular people, average people (Lib, GOP, indy, libertarian) all have picked up the mantle of "The Tea Party". Any attempt by the GOP to hi-jack will end in failure.
Any attempt by progressives to demonize, will end in failure.

This is the movement that most in power have feared. It's not some organization with rules or a set standard. It's a wake-up to the people that they have the power, they have a voice, they have the ability to make a change.
Look at Apartheid. A minority controlled the majority for decades/centuries. Then one day, the majority said, "Wait-a-minute!" WE outnumber them!

We outnumber them.

And they (TPTB) are nervous.

Platforms come and go. Issues change as the weather. But what will remain, is the ability to enact change. And that single point is why the Tea Party is so dangerous, so powerful (in potential).

I was all set to jump in and set things straight about the Tea Party but beezer beat me to it.

Just from my point of view, It makes no difference that there's a Tea Party Caucus or that the GOP is using the name to try and sway voters. Tea Partiers come from all parties, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and all walks of life yet the one thing we all agree on is that there is a problem with the way politicians are handling our country's affairs.

Just because Herman Cain or Rick Perry want to jump on the Tea Party bandwagon and try to get a free ride to the finish line doesn't mean that we vote for them just because they say they're one of us.

I live in Texas and can tell you that Perry may be alright as a governor but I wont vote for him for a president. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing only concerned about his next election. He has done some conservative things in Texas but for the most part, he's right there in bed with the big businesses and banks. Judging by some of the feedback I see online about him, I think many people see through him as well.

The one thing the Tea Party did is put an idea in people's heads that we need to look more at the candidate and their ideals rather than at just party affiliation. I think the days of voting party line has reached its conclusion and hopefully, so has voter apathy.

Tea Party are just Republicans

I agree with the op that some tea partiers had good intentions but this article shows them for what they are.

reply to post by beezzer


It has already been hijacked. What candidate do you have that wouldn't have already been a GOP candidate? The mountain and green party are legitimate grass roots with legitimate candidates. You should have never trusted the likes of Beck and Palin to hoist your flag.

When you say this is the movement TPTB fear I believe you believe that, but I'm afraid it isn't true. And you may think you are equally represented (the mantle of tea party picked up by all types), but that isnt really true either any non republicans in the tea party are a minority.

The movement you describe is not the movement you have and tea party members need to wake up to that fact so they can try again.

Tell me who is the Tea Party candidate for President?
Who do you have on deck that TPTB are so afraid of?

reply to post by survivalstation



Again you aren't seeing the forest for the trees.
I know what the tea party thinks it is. I'm pointing out what it actually is. You may believe what you are saying, but the mass majority of Tea Partiers have long run off and Lib or Indie supporters from their ranks. It is the GOP's new face and they will vote in the GOP candidate that aligns with them.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

 

so powerful (in potential).

In potential, but not in reality. Like I said, not a bad idea, but miserably executed. You let people hat already were loved and hated join up to make a buck. So people had reason to be biased from the start and a lot of people never got a chance to consider the concept because it was hated from the start. Had they they would have jumped ship when they saw the pictures of ignorant and racist tea party members (that you can't deny exist in troves and proudly have displayed it at rallies). There needs to be a new movement that cuts that garbage out because all that is intention to keep people divided.

You welcomed the things that are planted in our culture to keep people divided in like it was the Tea Party's secret handshake when you should have been going around saying "hey if you are going to be like that you aren't welcome here, that's not who we are." But you didn't you just let them make you all look like fools to the rest of America and no one wants to hang out with fools.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow
I'm not ignoring you. Just formulating an appropriate answer.

Originally posted by damwel
Tea Party are just Republicans

I agree with the op that some tea partiers had good intentions but this article shows them for what they are.

Way to minimize the half of the country that is not satisfied with socialism and Marxist redistribution of wealth. It is because the Democrat Party has become the defacto communist party usa and a breeding ground for more of the same. The Democrats do not stand for American values(unless confiscating paychecks from the working class Americans and giving to illegal aliens is your idea of values), and that is why it seems as though Tea Partiers are all Republican. There are ton of Independents, Libertarians, Indycons, and even some rogue Democrats milling about our rallies. Some who don't even identify with any party, lots of college kids fresh faced and already aware of the battle lines.


So if you are a radical leftist who yearns for that Socialist Utopia and it bothers you that Republicans finally figured out how to organize(you can just thank Obama and his community organizer troupe for that) then so be it
AMEN!

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


It's not a matter of "letting" people join. If you come to a rally, does that mean you joined? Tea Party does now send out mailings to people who have "joined' a local group or the Tea Party Express, but as far as I know, "joining' means you went to the local facebook page or ning group and asked to be on the list and they tell you when an upcoming meeting is. As far as I know there is no screening process and an application form where they approve your membership. So "letting" people join is really a misnomer. There is no process which says you must be Republican to join either. That is so silly. I get emails from MediaMatters, but does that mean I joined them? I let them send me emails and they think I am listening to them. Hahaha let them waste their own broadband space.
Tea Partiers are tired of business as usual too. This is why it's shaking up the GOP status quo. It's a good thing. But leftists are worried about that because they have been getting the GOP to come too much their way on things, and now the Tea Party is causing a shift back to real conservative values.
Face it. The Democrats are tooooo left. They are the radicals in this country. And they KNOW it.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


I came into this thread with guns ready to blaze, but alas, you are mostly correct.

It is only a matter of semantics, but perhaps the Tea Party brand is thoroughly murdered by the GOP, Fox News, the Tea Party Express, and the Tea Party Caucus. All of which had nothing to do with the original Tea Party, and still don't.

I'd love to see a viable 3rd party of combined Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Real Tea Partiers, and even the Blue Dog Dems.

There is an underlying group cause that is gaining a lot of steam, and the Tea Party seemed to be the perfect outlet, and the Tea Party proved they could impact an election. Now we have to see how to maintain individuality and stop all the hijacking of the movement.

Vic, the racist thing is ridiculous. Tea Partiers are typical moms and their kids, dads who work hard for their families, college kids who have observed their country change overnight when BO was elected, people who run booths for Fair Tax, retirees, Korean and Viet Nam veterans, senior citizens, and all this is why Janet Napolitano and Nancy Pelosi were running so scared, because the "ten thousand scrubwomen" were rising up to oppose the Totalitarian nightmare.
I would say there is still a learning curve. People are still learning about the Federal Reserve, and those who do are the ones that really frighten ms Pelosi, as she is totally signed on to that even in her Socialist Utopia. Ms Pelosi is a wealthy woman and I bet she hides her money like Warren Buffett does.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

 

I came into this thread with guns ready to blaze, but alas, you are mostly correct.

It is only a matter of semantics, but perhaps the Tea Party brand is thoroughly murdered by the GOP, Fox News, the Tea Party Express, and the Tea Party Caucus. All of which had nothing to do with the original Tea Party, and still don't.

I'd love to see a viable 3rd party of combined Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Real Tea Partiers, and even the Blue Dog Dems.

There is an underlying group cause that is gaining a lot of steam, and the Tea Party seemed to be the perfect outlet, and the Tea Party proved they could impact an election. Now we have to see how to maintain individuality and stop all the hijacking of the movement.

Are you saying that middle class Republican Tea Partiers aren't real? Where were the big rallies when it was just Ron Paul supporters? Where were the DC millions? When middle class die hard Republicans are mad, you know something's up.

And now the liberal left is trying to cast the entire Tea Party as a bunch of rich fat cats sponsored by billionaires. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was no Koch brothers standing around making out signs for us. It's just people who said enough is enough.