The Tea Party has been insane since its inception.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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On a Wall Street trading floor courtesy of Rick Santelli, as I recall. One of many reasons why “sensible” business Republicans are just as much to blame for the Tea Party monster as the idiot base.
The current situation is a confluence of cultural and political circumstances that are easy to understand:
I haven’t seen any strategy or tactics on their part since 1994 that don’t fit that pattern.
Absolutely on the mark
And with Bircher sponsors like Koch bros, they have the funding to wage their relentless war plus a paid off media to enable them. We live in dangerous times.
Healthcare is the most intimate need on which individuals exercise rational self interest. If ordinary people are allowed to exercise that choice, then the entire feudal edifice of Corporate America crumbles.
So it is ground zero for the wealthy puppeteers to rile up their rubes now, before the law works. Frightening the extent to which they don’t want us exercising this FREEDOM to access healthcare
Helms-Gingrichism pure and simple.
This is quite simply an attempted coup. People joking about how they might as well demand that Obama self deport to Kenya aren’t being that funny. Because that’s pretty much the game.
I would be interested to know how the debt ceiling came to play such a role in their tactics. Maybe there is reporting on this I don’t know. Because what’s interesting is that rather than any sort of open insurrection, the extremists have been able to leverage obscure technicalities in governance for maximum effect. In effect, they are sabotaging government and basically acting as traitors. But rather than firing on fort sumpter, they’ve chosen methods that allow them to have at least, for most people who aren’t schooled in the details, the plausible cover of acting within the norms of democracy.
This isn’t a strategy that Louis Gohmert and Steve King cooked up. To me this smells of some very deep Koch type money. Now, maybe the debt ceiling got taken up because of the fad for the austerity gospel. But I suspect there’s some deeper plotting going on here, some deeper coordination around this strategy.
Gohmert and King couldn’t cook ramen noodles if their lives depended on it. But they are useful idiots for whatever corporate interests stand to profit from the economic and social chaos that the next few weeks might bring. Do these interests have enough clout to effect an overthrow? If impeachment is the endgame, it’s unclear if that will be effective – a good case could be made that it will fail miserably. If something considerably darker is planned, do they have the goods to install whatever regime they plan on installing? If not, will those interests still manage to profit sufficiently to succeed the next time a crisis can be manufactured? Idle speculation at this point. But man, do we live in interesting times, as that ancient curse goes.
Wouldn’t have gotten enough majorities outside the south without the fundamentalist, misogynist, anti-abortion religious contingent. That includes large numbers of folks dependent on government jobs and social/welfare programs.
Which Tea Party are you talking about. One was a bunch of self-organized crazies. One was astroturfed by Dick Armey. Another was astroturfed by another lobbying firm. It was rolled out with a big bus tour in 2009 that hit almost every State Fair in the country. It was promoted by Glenn Beck, and absorbed his own brand of crazy. And hyped by a variety of professionally crazy talk show hosts who make a living talking crazy.
But it isn’t the Tea Party in Congress, it is folks funded by various billionaires operating under that banner. They are not crazy; they know exactly what they are doing. Delivering on what they promised their donors. Quiddy pro quo.
The “crazy from its inception” was to sucker the media into covering the crazy. Worked like a charm.
Occupy Wall Street had to get its heads beaten and faces pepper sprayed to attract that sort of media attention.
Not sure this is true at all: “But it isn’t the Tea Party in Congress, it is folks funded by various billionaires operating under that banner. They are not crazy; they know exactly what they are doing. ” A large percentage of these clowns were raised on milk from Limbaugh’s teats. They read and listen to nothing outside of the right wing bubble, and probably have little capacity for independent thought.
A number of years ago Rachel Maddow had Mark McKinnon on and she asked him if the leaders on the right actually believed the crazy things they were saying or if they were just manipulating the base. He responded that many of them truly believed what they were saying. Her response was ‘wow, I don’t know which is worse.’
Well, I know which is worse. These are true believers, and there is no argument, no logic that can persuade them to think differently.
There’s now plenty of proof that those in Congress (as well as those who are not) are true believers and not just parroting the crazy.
I’d say that Ted Cruz knows better but he’s truly one ambitious and dangerous guy. He now runs the House GOP. If I were Boehner,I’d have a come to Jesus meeting with the guy. Maybe wouldn’t come out well, but anyone with a bit of spine would demand it.
Steve Kornacki on his show this a.m. played video from 1984 when Gingrich catapulted himself to fame by fake filibustering to a largely empty chamber on the floor of the House with the help of C-Span. Cruz is copying that with even greater immediate success, thanks to technology and social media.
My hope is that the people involved with the OWS movement will still be active and engaged if in needed 20-30 years from now.
For some strange reason, our country took seriously a bunch of middle-aged white people dressed up in tricorner hats, waving gadsen flags, and repeating the only part of American history that they could remember from Jr. High School, yelling and screaming about things that were simply not true.
Meanwhile, groups of the young and oppressed of all colors and backgrounds, coalesced to voice their frustration and fears and were widely treated as though they were aliens that were behaving oddly. Yet they were the ones who showed more persistence and perseverance.
“…were widely treated as though they were aliens that were behaving oddly.”
They (OWS) made the mistake of being correct in their diagnosis of what is wrong in the US economy and society.
Unforgivable, really.
The Big Serious People still treat them that way, two years on. Being right is not politically correct within the Beltway or in the executive boardrooms.
So let’s note a couple of things about the House’s current proposal which is going to a vote on the floor in a few minutes:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cnn-house-republicans-add-contraceptive-care-opt-out-provision
-to-funding-bill
Close down the government unless the He-Man Woman Haters Club grabs another big scalp. Un-fucking-believable.
I believe the media joked about how that’s all they had left to demand. They rose to the task!
They should have just demanded the return of 8-track tapes.
THAT, they might have gotten.
Because of the way that funds have been obligated, people will still be able to sign up for Obamacare beginning October 1 even if the Republicans shut down the government.
In going through that process they will discover their real situation with regard to actual premiums (for them), and expected deductibles and co-pays.
That experience will change the public opinion in the background even as the Kongressional Klown Kar keeps rolling.
Looks like the House is in a dive into a farm field in southwestern Pennsylvania.
You wish these guys had a better grasp of their metaphors.
John Boehner has more influence on them than he likes to think:
https://twitter.com/GingerGibson/statuses/384127970199470080
Not according to the current issue of Bloomberg Business Week: the guy who has the most influence on the tea bagger mob in congress is former congressman Jim DeMint– he left congress in January to become the president of the Heritage Foundation.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-26/jim-demint-congressional-republicans-shadow-speaker#
r=hpt-fs
It was a joke because a lot of these idiot baggers are taking after Boehner’d tradition of making drunk floor speeches.
And I thought this was all fake theater?
Really? since most (all?) of the teabaggers in congress are conservative Christian types– I doubt they are boozers like Boehner.
regardless, if you find the constant Kabuki entertaining/, we’ll see how it works out for us in the end.
Thus far, FAIL.
So, your point is that since teabaggers would have to be hypocrites to be boozers, therefore they aren’t boozers?
Not sure why you’d give he benefit of the doubt to Sen. “Diaper Boy” Vitter and his co-conspirators.
Dude, reporters are telling us that the entire floor reaks of booze. Second, I do not believe this is kabuki, unlike you. These fuckers are dead serious. And apparently since you cited that DeMint has so much control and influence — a man who is dumber than dirt — apparently you don’t believe it’s that much acting either.
Also also, my dad is an alcoholic and on Sundays he’s up there on the worship team strumming his guitar. I grew up with these Rwnj Christian types. Don’t tell me about their lifestyles.
I brought up DeMint in response to a post implying Boehner is in control of the teabagger caucus. That hasn’t been true since they got there, the Bloomberg article reinforces the point.
Do you bother to actually read what you write?
“Dude, reporters are telling us that the entire floor reeks of booze”… “These fuckers are dead serious”.
see the DISconnect there? If GOP lawmakers are drinking while “on duty”, how exactly am I or anyone else to take them, and their phony threat of a government shutdown seriously?
There’s nothing new here– these guys are doing what they normally do on a Saturday. they aren’t about to let “the nation’s business” get in the way of their having a good time at the taxpayer’s expense.
As far as the “serious damage” the baggers are “going to do”, sorry, I’m not buying into the hype. Mainly because our nation is still suffering from the meltdown in 2007-2008, and the “democrats” in congress don’t have a serious long term plan to get us out of the ditch.
What’s your “long-term plan”?
And there is zero disconnect there. If Boehner has no control, who does? You think DeMint cares what business thinks?
Interesting and odd that I have to come up with a long term plan– not the doofuses in congress that we the sappy taxpayers pay a damn good salary to.
IF I have to do the work, why are we paying congress?
For starters this:
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
It’s totally obvious what needs to be done here.. except unfortunately in coke-bottle-thick partisan glasses/progressive bloggo world.
In “progressive” bloggo world it’s wayyyy more about schoolyard partisanship than it is actually getting anything done.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/five-ways-capitalist-greed-ripping-american-people
Great, I can link to stuff, too. A few Jacobin articles of what I think the heart of the problem is, a link to Ian Welsh for solutions; maybe a wonk or too from Sterling Newberry. Great. Now how do you get it through Congress?
Plenty of blogs are concerned about that; the blogosphere that you’re trashing is concerned about electoral politics and exercising power once we win. The destruction of the GOP is at the heart of that.
In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re “out of the ditch” of the Great Recession. And the single biggest factor was the Recovery Act passed almost solely by Democrats. (See Michael Grunwald’s “The New New Deal” for details.)
True, the vehicle is still banged up, and it’s moving down the road far too slowly, but let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Oh?
so there aren’t multiple millions of people still looking for work and multiple millions of people working 2-3-4 jobs to keep food on the table?
Gimme a break, please.
Sorry, I’m not interested in dumbed down definitions of economic recovery.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/27/recovery-hype-capitalism-weapon
http://www.alternet.org/economy/five-ways-capitalist-greed-ripping-american-people
At the moment the President and Congress worked out stimulus package, the U.S. was losing 750,000+ jobs a month; we continued to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs every month into the summer of ’09. We have now had years of job growth in each and every month. Tepid, yes, but there’s plenty of evidence that the stimulus, imperfect as it was, was effective in preventing a fuller disaster.
You’re acting like this was just another recession from which we were trying to recover; it was by far the worst crisis since the Great Depression. You’re acting like the President has had a Congress which executed his policy preferences; he doesn’t.
No need to repeat the “how bad the recession was” talking points– I’m well aware of the stats.
The problem is, again, Obama and congress have no long term plan. No long term plan in spite of the fact the President has said he is “focused like a laser on the economy/jobs”. The President has said many times there is more work to do.
OK.. what is the PLAN?? where’s the President’s focus on a plan? It’s not there. Instead he recently wasted our time and money on threatening to attack Syria, an action he’s not authorized to do.
The potential plan is staring Obama and congress right in the face, yet they refuse to do what needs to be done.
This is unacceptable, especially given the fact the private sector is not going to pull us out of the ditch.
The President has offered a number of job and investment plans, this year and in past years, inside and outside of his proposed budgets. The House is now controlled by the Republican Party. They hate the President and want people to be out of work so they can blame it on Obama.
I think it would be counterproductive for Barack to do press events every week about the jobs plans he proposed earlier in the year. He does talk about his offers from time to time, and perhaps he could talk about them more, but to have those plans be the major topic over and over gain would lead to the media writing stories that Obama is a lame duck President who can’t move his agenda, and the public becoming convinced of the President’s powerlessness.
Not even close. They may strut some “family values” but they’re not walk-the-walk folks.
OK, but if they are truly hard partying drunks, I think we would know by now, since partisan bloggo world is all about pointing out the shortcomings of the GOP, while mostly ignoring the obvious shortcomings of the democratic party.
Off-topic, Boo, and I realize all the action is in DC this weekend, but does anyone have any input on Seymour Hersh’s latest? Was Osama’s exit just a fake story? And is Obama lying to us or the CIA? There’s been a lot of silence about this. I have had a lot of problems with Hersh over the years, like Woodward, but Hersh has a better batting average.
Anyway, whenever you get around to it…
You’re going to have to wait for his book, I suppose.
But my guess is there is going to be information about how Pakistan was not totally ignorant of bin Laden’s presence and possibly contrary information about the raid and the fate of bin Laden. The burial at sea was just too tidy for a bunch of analysts–even if that’s how it went down.
Hersh is as reliable as his sources. Back in 2007-2008-2009, he was predicting an attack on Iran as an inevitability. Apparently the faction in the intelligence community that his sources were reporting didn’t influence policy quite as much as those sources assumed they would.
I wonder how many Tea Party members “shorted” stocks of all Wall Street’s Big Banks, JP Morgan, Chase, etc..last week. So they could make a few bucks, while the US Gov’t defaults.
These evil assclowns are also nucking futs!
Good take at the NYTimes:
Yes, this is partly a snark, but partly true. thus proving the GOP bullcrap about “privatizing” SS was theater— pandering to the “we’re spending too much money on ‘entitlements'” wingnuts. this seriously blew up in their faces.. so now they are focused on the ACA.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/opinion/collins-congress-cracks-up.html?smid=tw-share
Last night’s vote:
Two Democrats defected from party line: Jim Matheson (UT-04) and Mike McIntyre (NC-07).
Can we now say that these two cases are no longer Democrats and stop coddling them by wasting DCCC money.
Hm… I wonder if at some point soon the upcoming failure of the tea party will hit the local level. Seems to me that at some point Republican moderates will engage to wrest control from Republican tea party activists, as public opinion moves in their direction. Then the tea party threat to run against someone from the far right loses it’s teeth and dissolves. A rapid change caused by something like that couldn’t come too soon.
Politically, I don’t see the value of getting rid of the Tea Party – especially when they are doing more damage to the Republicans than Dems ever could. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and although we all may despise the Tea Party & RWNJs, the reality is that the Democrats’ primary enemy is the GOP.
Best case scenarios include a GOP/Tea Party split that results in the formation of a 3rd party for the conservative nut jobs (which is at least 20% of the GOP). That could be just enough to have sweeping election wins for Dems in republican-leaning districts and regain control of the House.
The other scenario that works best for Dems is a Tea Party controlled GOP that causes moderate Republicans and Independents to join ranks with the Dems.
The worse case scenario, politically, is if the GOP gets the Tea Partiers to fall back in line and vote in lock-step again, or if they disappear completely.
Long-term, we need to give Obama full control of House and Senate in 2014. His last 2 years can have the transformative effect that we have all hoped for. Not only can he pass much needed legislation for illegal aliens, but he can also use those last two years to pack the courts – hopefully even at the Supreme Court level.
I agree that this is helping the Dems nicely in the near short term. Here’s fervently hoping Dems get hefty control of Congress and White House long enough to put in some strong reforms and safeguards to social programs and to banking rules. Also undo the gerrymandering problem, here’s hoping.
After that Republicans may become stronger, but it won’t be the same Republicans. Damn, both sides sure need to get rid of the awful corruption gripping all of Washington. The new Republicans should be more friendly to science, and we all need to address climate change with all our might.
I used to go through the entertaining exercise of trying to recognize by looks, the face of stupid and/or evil. Bush bore an uncanny resemblance to Ted Bundy. Cheney reminded me of the Unibomber sketch.
And now there’s Cruz with his puppy dog love me droopy eyes. Maybe Richard Romerez…maybe Dahmler? I wonder if Dahmler squinted his eyes just before he took a bite of his fellow mankind. Certainly he smiled.