Rolling Stone: "The Truth About the Tea Party"

www.rollingstone.com...

Wow, Rolling Stone (published last year) a brutal article on the Tea Party base. Here are some of my favorite bits:

"The scooters are because of Medicare," he whispers helpfully. "They have these commercials down here: 'You won't even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!' Practically everyone in Kentucky has one."

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it.

"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"

"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people are living off the government."

"But," I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"

and this wonderful little zinger:

Of course, the fact that we're even sitting here two years after Bush talking about a GOP comeback is a profound testament to two things: One, the American voter's unmatched ability to forget what happened to him 10 seconds ago, and two, the Republican Party's incredible recuperative skill and bureaucratic ingenuity. This is a party that in 2008 was not just beaten but obliterated, with nearly every one of its recognizable leaders reduced to historical-footnote status and pinned with blame for some ghastly political catastrophe.

It's a long but eye opening read. Enjoy!

Why don't more people here sympathize with the Tea Party ideals and arguments? Yet so many here support Dr. Ron Paul, whose policies represent most of what the Tea Party represents. It totally baffles me.

reply to post by negativenihil


A left leaning rag prints a left leaning article. Whodathunk?

And people keep buying into the division. It is a whole lot easier to edit and spin the direction of communication in print, but it goes on with video media as well.

But there are others who are waking up to these divisive tactics. People are looking into other media sites.

Rolling Stone has jumped the shark in my opinion. I still read them from time to time, but more often than not, I am disappointed as I remember the original magazine. The comparison is tremendous.

I give Rolling Stone five years max before they go the way of NewsWeek and others. No more print and Web only content.

Originally posted by negativenihil
www.rollingstone.com...

Wow, Rolling Stone is set to public a brutal article on the Tea Party base.....

Actually, this article is almost a year old:

This article appears in the October 14, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available in the online archive.

Just thought I would point that out. Carry on.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by negativenihil

 

A left leaning rag prints a left leaning article. Whodathunk?

Silly me, I keep forgetting the liberal view isn't welcome here.

Don't worry - there has to be several fresh right wing threads you can go star and flag

reply to post by Lakotas


Thanks for the catch - still a great read a year on.

reply to post by negativenihil


Its not the liberal view thats unwelcome here, its the fake left - right paradigm thats frowned upon.

reply to post by negativenihil


And yet i bet you are FULLY behind the OWS movement going on right now.......

arent ya?

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask


As much as you are behind the Tea Party.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by negativenihil

 

A left leaning rag prints a left leaning article. Whodathunk?

And people keep buying into the division. It is a whole lot easier to edit and spin the direction of communication in print, but it goes on with video media as well.

Rollingstones is not too far off at all. Many of the tea partiers I've met are dependent on medicare, some have I know are regular users of food stamps, unemployment benefits. At the tea party rallies, the calls against Obama's healthcare bill were constantly followed by "leave my medicare" calls. This from a movement that specifically calls for limited government out of social welfare. It is hypocritical, but obviously tea partiers on this website will not see it that because because, well, it's not communism when their own depend on it.

I totally understand the argument that our social welfare system is broken... it is. It needs to be reformed, some of the leeches who don't need it need to be cut from it, but the calls to completely eleminate it from people who need it, to refer to folks who really depend on it as parasites, communists, and to make it worse, when the very people in that very movement depend on it, it is utter hypocrisy if you ask me.

I'm fairly certain that if you got a tea party filibuster proof majority in congress and in the whitehouse, you won't see these social programmes go anytime soon, I can assure you that. In the end it's just ideological gimmicky slogans of self reliance, in reality many tea partiers are the very leeches they refer others as. As for the free market, judging by the last few GOP debatings over privatizing medicare in the next 5 years or so, forget it, none of the GOP candidates have the balls. They know better.

Originally posted by negativenihil

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by negativenihil

 

A left leaning rag prints a left leaning article. Whodathunk?

Silly me, I keep forgetting the liberal view isn't welcome here.

Don't worry - there has to be several fresh right wing threads you can go star and flag

Not at all..post away. I'm cool with that. I like all points of view, keeps me learning ya know? Just because I have a liberally conservatatively independent viewpoint doesn't make me the boogeyman.

But once again, the humor was lost. Get it?

Originally posted by negativenihil
reply to post by ManBehindTheMask

 

As much as you are behind the Tea Party.

Im not sure that you know what im behind..........

Yet i do find it funny that the people behind OWS have no problem throwing out articles and slandering the TPM , yet scream like children about the coverage they are getting now.........

Funny, I dont remember any Tea Party rallies, having massive amounts of people rounded up and thrown in jail for breaking the law...........and THEY WERE EVEN ARMED!


But.......hey whatever you say.............its not like the hypocrisy isnt STEAMING off this whole thing

This thread was just a dig to try and balance the forums because people are getting POed about the coverage of OWS and the reasons behind it.........

Ill take TPM over Sorros and Union thugs any day............

reply to post by Southern Guardian


I happen to agree with you. Been to a couple of Tea Party rallies in the past and the message was muddled then as now.

The system is broke...the question is...How do we fix it? The politicians seem to be trying to fix it it without hurting anybodies feelings.

That ain't gonna happen. Now is the time to make the hard decisions and feeling will get hurt, on all sides.

Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask

Im not sure that you know what im behind..........

Then clearly you should understand my reply

NEVER assume.

reply to post by TDawgRex


I don't hold anything against the reasoning of some tea partiers who depend on medicare, medicaid, unemployment benefits, social security. I'm sure they have reasons just as other folks, and I certainly would not like to see even my worst ideological opposite suffer without assistance. We all need help sometime, and we all pay taxes when we work, we all contribute into these safety net programmes, they are there for a period of time when we need it, when we need assistance. I can never however forgive that fact that they participate in a movement labelling other folks just like them in need of assistance as all leeches and communists at what have you. If you wish to participate in a movement over self reliance, you should be consistent in that belief as should others, otherwise it's a false movement (which the tea parties are already in my view anyway).

reply to post by Southern Guardian


There are those who do depend upon these things, and I'm all for taking care of them.

But I know of a Soldier who is getting 70% disabilty. 50% for PTSD for having bad dreams of a incident she wasn't even at, though I was. And 20% for a injury she incurred before she even jioned. She told me these things herself.

I contacted the VA and told them that I thought she was frauding the government. I was told..."The disability that she is getting is what the reviewer recommended. They won't even do a review of the original claim."

I argued with the guy at the VA that I did not have PTSD or TBI and they still insisted on giving me tests. I told them, "I don't have PTSD, I issue it!" Old school Sergeant, ya get my drift? But they found that I didn't exhibit any of the symptoms. Been perforated, blown up, broke, bent, bruised, scraped and even had the occasional papercut. I'm getting 10% for 5 knee reconstructions. Which is what I went there for originally.

There needs to be a system where people who receive funds are visited occasionally to see they aren't scamming the system.

Old folk do it as well as Young folk.

Originally posted by Southern Guardian
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

I don't hold anything against the reasoning of some tea partiers who depend on medicare, medicaid, unemployment benefits, social security. I'm sure they have reasons just as other folks, and I certainly would not like to see even my worst ideological opposite suffer without assistance. We all need help sometime, and we all pay taxes when we work, we all contribute into these safety net programmes, they are there for a period of time when we need it, when we need assistance. I can never however forgive that fact that they participate in a movement labelling other folks just like them in need of assistance as all leeches and communists at what have you. If you wish to participate in a movement over self reliance, you should be consistent in that belief as should others, otherwise it's a false movement (which the tea parties are already in my view anyway).

Agreed.

I'm a young Tea Partier...And to be honest one of the things that pisses me off about the older counterparts is the double standard they set. It's really hard to stick to an anti-entitlement message when entitlements are what they live on.

Didn't plan for your retirement? No problem. Social Security will always be there right?(Even though SS wasn't designed to be a long term pension plan)

Didn't save any money and didn't buy health insurance? No problem, medicare will always be there right? (Even though government created the hyper inflation in the medical industry THROUGH Medicare/Medicaid and it is rapidly becoming insolvent).

Didn't save any money at all while times were good and now that you don't have a job you're totally screwed? No problem! I'll just drain the system for 99 weeks all the while lying to the unemployment representative about how many applications I put in and how many interviews I've been on(even though unemployment is one of the major causes of deficit spending in many states).

Yeah...You and I may have different views on how entitlements should be dealt with, but to hear hypocrisy coming from people who are supposed to be for the same things I am is irritating at best.

Originally posted by projectvxn

I'm a young Tea Partier...And to be honest one of the things that pisses me off about the older counterparts is the double standard they set. It's really hard to stick to an anti-entitlement message when entitlements are what they live on.

I applaud you for taking this stance

(no, really - you need to spread this message far and wide among your peers)

reply to post by negativenihil


Well I can't really help it. One can say whatever they wish about young idealism. But I'm not a hypocrite. At least I try not to be.

Many of the older folks in the Tea Party are unabashedly hypocritical and most of them don't even know it.
Until you talk about SS and Medicare cuts(or even just reforming it to suit the needs and realities of the day). It's frustrating how far the entitlement culture reaches in this country and it is sad.