The Tea Party...Why are they so Dangerous?

The Tea Party are not a danger to anyone but themselves. They only hurt the Republicans and extremist conservatives. They are a dying breed, incapable of facing reality. (something that ironically, liberals are guilty of as well). But dangerous they are not. In a generation or two, they will likely be extinct.

The Tea Party seems like the last death gasps of religious conservatives still living in the 1950s la-la land.

For the record, I'm not a liberal either. Or a conservative. In fact, I hate liberals. Which is one reason I hold the Tea Party in contempt. They have done more to ensure we get another 4 years of liberal BS running the country, because they can't pull their head's out of their minister's butt long enough to actually use intellect, reason, and pragmatism in their voting choices, and keep picking these raving lunatics or idiots to represent them. And as long as they continue to do so, Democrats will be a shoe-in for damned near every major election in the future. A prospect I find disturbing, to say the least.

Their platform on their website is the same empty platitudes and promises given by a major party. Vague, fuzzy crap that looks great on paper, until you realize what their interpretation of a "constitutional" government and society is. Then its eye roll and LOL time.

reply to post by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf


The Tea Party is not a dying breed, they were murdered by the IRS and lord knows who else. Personally I am impressed by how patriotic the group is. We got the hope from Obama but certainly not the particular change that we anticipated. Maybe one term or two from a tea bagger would whip things back to shape for a bit. You know get the news reporting the truth vs. the propaganda spoon fed to it. And also get rid of the NSA. And maybe even get the third party recognized by the MSM. Does anyone here realize how unjust this is? Gosh I can think of a whole list.

But there is also the possibility that we could be getting the bait and switch again like we did with Obama. Unfortunately he has made me very untrusting of any campaign promises. I certainly thought we finally had the real deal. Ok so I was duped...

I think Obama has let me down more than any president in US history. He promised to fix a whole gamet of issues that I and other Americans felt very strongly about. But instead of fixing the issues, or leaving the promises unfulfilled like most presidents, he did the exact opposite of what he promised. And honestly, I can say that I liked Nixon more than Obama. I have supported every president in US history through thick or thin except for Obama. In fact I even felt that Clinton got a bum deal. He got caught with his pants down like how many other men or woman in the US. I say they should be able to own up to their mistakes and move on a bigger man. "Should be able to" is the key phrase. The president isn't Jesus Christ and will make mistakes.

So what it all comes down to is that we should be electing the person we feel will be most honest with us. And will be our advocate no matter the party affiliation. And will honor and protect our constitution.

Don't look at the party, look at the person.

Every time there's a group of people who want the Constitution respected and their rights unchallenged by the government the establishment republicans and democrats crawl out of the woodwork to shut them down.

They call them terrorists, extremists, nut cases and dangerous..

The only thing the Tea Party is dangerous to is the establishment political class.

They say the same things about libertarians and constitutionalists.

BenReclused
reply to post by buster2010

 

Sorry but when it comes to Queen of the nutcases Bachmann takes the cake.

There's no need to apologize. Your defense, though unfounded, of Mrs. Pelosi was quite predictable.

See ya,
Milt

It was no defense. Pelosi has never said any close to the crazy things Bachmann has said. Like when she said "Our founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery".

buster2010
It was no defense. Pelosi has never said any close to the crazy things Bachmann has said. Like when she said "Our founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery".

Pelosi has a functioning brain. Bachmann appears to be totally insane. Why the hell was she elected?

reply to post by elouina


I don't consider them patriotic. Nor do I consider them to be any serious threat to the establishment. The Tea Party IS the establishment. They only wish to replace the current establishment with the old establishment. Or something similar. The Tea Party might promote itself as grass roots, but the number of big names and big money in the movement make me think otherwise.

The more I look into it, the more I think the Tea Party movement is basically the tantrum response of conservatives pissy because Obama won the election, and that they are losing ground all over. And then when you add the complete nutjobs and tools that they support, I often have a difficult time distinguishing between them and Muslim extremists.

If the tea party was non-partisan and didn't have some sketchy or questionable supporters, I'd think that a wide scale revolution of American politics would have been a great thing. However, this is not the case, and the TP is as much a disappointment as the whole Obama administration has been.

Everytime a TP member opens their mouths, a Democrat or obnoxious leftist somewhere gains another vote. The sad thing is, my closest friends, who are Libertarian or secular conservative, voted for Obama and other Democrats in this last election, even though they oppose damned near everything the left has been pushing. Why? Because the Conservatives seem incapable of producing a candidate that:

1. Isn't a sworn enemy to science and reason
2. Isn't basing their policy on a Bronze Age religious text
3. Understands the constitution.
4. Does not pander to fear mongering and knee jerk reaction
5. Is realistic and in touch with reality today

What it boils down to is that conservatives who are not religious, moralist wing nuts, but are instead rational, secular, and pragmatic, are being driven to the left because the right keeps supporting candidates that sane people can't in good faith vote for.

When the right has gone so far off the deep end that even Libertarians are finding the left to make sense, you know conservatism is in serious trouble.

reply to post by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf


Sworn enemy of science?

Oh Really?

Yeah...Probably what you weren't expecting huh?

reply to post by buster2010

It was no defense.

I agree. As I said previously, it was UNFOUNDED.

Pelosi has never said any close to the crazy things Bachmann has said.

I don't know... I feel that spouting crap like "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it", and expecting me to believe it, is pretty damn crazy. Your problem is that you believe that kind of garbage.

Like when she said "Our founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery".

Though they weren't "founding fathers", my ancestors DID, INDEED, work "tirelessly to end slavery". Those that forget, or intentionally deny, that there were a great many Whites that fought to end slavery, are a far greater danger to our society than the "TEA Party" could ever be. I'll bet you're one of them.

See ya,
Milt

I have an aunt and uncle who are tea party supporters. They are in their 70's and like the "Old South" from "Gone With The Wind", they are just afraid of change. They still think they can control change, instead of working with it. That way of thinking will die with them, so change will slowly come. I just don't know how much the fight will cost the younger taxpayers in the meantime.

reply to post by AngryCymraeg

Pelosi has a functioning brain.

I haven't seen any evidence of that. Kindly provide some.

Bachmann appears to be totally insane.

That's a bit subjective, but I won't disagree with it.

Why the hell was she elected?

That was because of voter stupidity. That's the same reason Mr. Oblamer was elected as President the first time. The second time, he was elected because of voter insanity.

See ya,
Milt

reply to post by AngryCymraeg


Wasserman

reply to post by AlienScience


I highly recommend you read Freedom to Choose my Milton Freedman, probably the greatest economist ever. You are absolutely wrong on almost all the talking points you espoused.

Cypress

This is where the current Tea Party has replaced the Neo-Cons. They use targeted language like "principles" to gain support from their activist base, which is the driving force in primary's in "safe" districts. They use that to retain their seat and don't do their job, which is to actually sit down and try to solve problems and compromise, because who wants a politician to compromise on their "principles"

And really its not the lack of term limits, career politicians or the 2 party system we have in place that is causing congress to fail, rather it is this new generation of politicians and political pandering for the cameras (of which the current tea party is serving as the poster boy)

Most Tea Party members of Congress have only faced one re election campaign, if that even. You should be directing your anger at the ones abusing the Political system.....namely Incumbents and Special Interest Groups.

And it IS the Lack of Term Limits, Career Politician and the Two Party system that is causing Congress to fail. Congress was dysfunctional WAAAAY before the TP starting taking a seat at the table. To think it wasn't is totally missing the point.

If you have Congressman beholden to PACs rather than the people that is where the problem lies.
Congress has the power and since special interests want to control that power for their own benefit, they support those members of Congress who give them that power. Crony Capitalism is at the core of what is wrong with our politics. Hardly any member of Congress who stays around long enough is immune from the reach of those PACs. If they want to get re elected, they need money, which the PAC's provide, with strings attached. If you honestly think these groups give money to Politicians out of the goodness of their hearts, then we have an even bigger problem.

Look at who the big donors are:
Donors Organizations
Even more telling, look at the individuals who donate the most:
Individual Donors

It is because we don't have term limits that Congressman gain even more power and influence which begats even more Special Interest Donors to give even more money to their Campaigns. With enough money, you can basically insure your re election. You don't honestly think that when Congress has such dismal ratings on both sides of the aisle that there is still a re election rate well north of 90% almost every election because "your" Congressman are the exceptional ones, do you?

Re election Rates for Congress

To paraphrase Bill Clinton "It's the money stupid". Money gained from Special Interest groups allow the re election of their own chosen "pets". When Congress has a current approval rating of 11% and historically has one in the 30% range, wouldn't you think we would have at least a 50% turnover rate in Congress??? It's money pure and simple that keeps these Incumbents in power.

I'm not saying the Tea Party are somehow inoculated from the stench of Special Interest Groups, but I would say on average, they stink a whole lot less than any Career Democratic or Republican Congressman. Your anger should be at those Congressman and the leeches that supply money and suck blood from them.

You have just become used to the smell that you can't detect it and it doesn't bother you anymore.

Till you break the Congress Power/Special Interest Donating cycle, nothing will change. Why do you see both Parties and most Special Interest Groups trying to sideline the TP??? They (TP) can mess up the rigged game. Can't have that happen.

Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
They are a dying breed, incapable of facing reality. (something that ironically, liberals are guilty of as well). But dangerous they are not. In a generation or two, they will likely be extinct.

I would contend that only the TP seems to really grasp the reality that our National Debt is unsustainable. Paying Interst on the National Debt is ALREADY the fourth largest line item in our budget after Defense, Medicare, Medicaid. Social Security is supposedly self funding so that is left out.

Currently we take in about 3 Trillion in Revenue and pay out 220 Billion in Interest. That 220 number is artificially low due to the massive pumping of money into the system with QE. Qualitative Easing has maintained interest rates at near nothing. Once QE ends, interest rate will only have one direction to go....UP.

Erskin Bowles, Former Clinton Chief of Staff and Current co-chair of President Obama's deficit reduction committee has this to say:

"We'll be spending over $1 trillion a year on interest by 2020. That's $1 trillion we can't spend to educate our kids or to replace our badly worn-out infrastructure," said Bowles at a recent forum hosted by IHS Global Insight. "What makes it doubly bad is that trillion will be spent principally in Asia, because that's where our debt is."

No one from the Democratic or Republican Party has the balls to face this problem. They are ALL kicking the can down the road, insuring that it gets even worse by doing that.

People will not like it when 1/3 of our Budget goes to service the INTEREST on our Debt, let alone the Debt itself.

As soon as interest rates reach real levels, then people will start seeing the pain. We will have to either trim the budget in other areas or raise even more taxes. Neither is a great re-election platform to run on. Congress will just keep kicking the can down the road to an even worse outcome.

AlienScience

8. Believe in the People: People are stupid and need to be governed...enough said.

And THIS my friends, is the cornerstone of liberal thinking - that 'People are stupid and need to be governed'.

Of course you completely disagree with the Tea Party platform, as I'm sure you disagree with the Libertarian Platform, Republican Platform, and any other political viewpoint that actually espouses personal responsibility, personal freedom, and independent thinking! Because you believe that 'People are stupid and need to be governed'.

This statement is so key, and I thank you for sharing this humble statement with all of us. Because now I totally understand the liberal viewpoint of more government, more taxation, more regulation, more intervention. It's because, at the core of that belief system is the cornerstone of big government liberals - the belief that 'People are stupid and need to be governed'.

I guess you and I are just going to have to agree to disagree, because me personally, well I hold the belief that 'People are NOT stupid and need to be FREE'.

But that's just me...

Subsonic

reply to post by marg6043


That is true to some extent . Beware of Wolves in Sheeps Clothing . Even the Tea Party has it's Enemies amoung them .

BenReclused
reply to post by buster2010

 

The reason why some people think they are dangerous is because of the nutcases they vote into office.

A lot of us feel that Democrats "are dangerous" for the same reason.

See ya,
Milt

You must have meant that Democrats are so dangerous because they are unnconstitutional tyrants who spend us into impossible debt.

Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
reply to post by elouina

 

I don't consider them patriotic. Nor do I consider them to be any serious threat to the establishment. The Tea Party IS the establishment. They only wish to replace the current establishment with the old establishment. Or something similar. The Tea Party might promote itself as grass roots, but the number of big names and big money in the movement make me think otherwise.

The more I look into it, the more I think the Tea Party movement is basically the tantrum response of conservatives pissy because Obama won the election, and that they are losing ground all over. And then when you add the complete nutjobs and tools that they support, I often have a difficult time distinguishing between them and Muslim extremists.

If the tea party was non-partisan and didn't have some sketchy or questionable supporters, I'd think that a wide scale revolution of American politics would have been a great thing. However, this is not the case, and the TP is as much a disappointment as the whole Obama administration has been.

Everytime a TP member opens their mouths, a Democrat or obnoxious leftist somewhere gains another vote. The sad thing is, my closest friends, who are Libertarian or secular conservative, voted for Obama and other Democrats in this last election, even though they oppose damned near everything the left has been pushing. Why? Because the Conservatives seem incapable of producing a candidate that:

1. Isn't a sworn enemy to science and reason
2. Isn't basing their policy on a Bronze Age religious text
3. Understands the constitution.
4. Does not pander to fear mongering and knee jerk reaction
5. Is realistic and in touch with reality today

What it boils down to is that conservatives who are not religious, moralist wing nuts, but are instead rational, secular, and pragmatic, are being driven to the left because the right keeps supporting candidates that sane people can't in good faith vote for.

When the right has gone so far off the deep end that even Libertarians are finding the left to make sense, you know conservatism is in serious trouble.

Tea Party definitely isn't establishment as the recent rino traitors showed.

reply to post by FreeMason

You must have meant that Democrats are so dangerous because they are unnconstitutional tyrants who spend us into impossible debt.

Nope. That's not what I meant, but that certainly DOES fit.

See ya,
Milt