Your Tea Party Flamebait of the Day

by Smitty

Mostly worthy of ignoring, though you have to laugh at this:

Where Ayn Rand and Curtis LeMay meet, there is the Tea Party. Where in that orgy of morally-sanctioned greed and jackboot diplomacy is there room for Sunday afternoon dinner? The Tea Party would be right wing, but not conservative.

Curtis LeMay? Bwahahahaha. Refusing to bow to thuggery is "morally-sanctioned greed and jackboot diplomacy". The Tea Parties have been focused almost exclusively on the domestic larcenypolicy of the current Congress/Administration. Remember the good old days when those two branches of government actually checked each other? Got what we deserved at the ballot box, though.

Realizing that the Tea Party would strip the GOP of some of its worst elements, I badly want it to exist. And not just to exist, but to thrive. Of course, lacking a clear religious component, Christianists would by and large remain where they are, further strenghtening the forces of theoconservatism within the Republican fold.

Christianists? Speak that word in an infinite loop and tell me how many repetitions it takes to mean something, Philip.

You can’t win, can you?

Win? You think your game somehow more than a comedy routine?

Finally, a scenario, and questions:
Against all odds, the Tea Party explodes onto the stage of American politics. While largely rejected in areas like New England and the Pacific Northwest, it manages to establish significant national presence.

Finally? It did.

In the 2010 midterms, it grabs a few dozen seats in the House and even two or three in the Senate. A number of Republicans defect. A few Democrats also join. Poised to make further gains in the next election, who does run for POTUS in 2012 under the banner of the Tea Party?

At what point will you realize that it's anything but a cult of personality? Do read the Constitution, Philip: what the country needs less of is

• egotistical swine in office,
• centralization, and
• velvet handcuffs (entitlements) that claim to help, while doing the opposite in the long run.

How does that candidate change the election? How does the Tea Party alter our socio-political discourse? Is it ultimately a force for good or for bad?

The candidate does it by serving up the ideas and refusing the personality cult status afforded some in the current day. The Tea Party does not, itself, seek to "alter our socio-political discourse" in some ideology-driven manner. Rather, it returns the overflowing river of government to its Constitutional banks, so that we are not flooded by authoritarian creeps.

"Show your work."

Oh, like you're some kind of judge? The proposition "The Tea Party has done sufficient work" is non-falsifiable: there will always be a clown (or worse) who will raise this or that objection. It's too faith-driven; its demographic points to "racism"; it's driven by corporate puppetmasters. When you've got a truly ideologically-driven media, these accusations will be thrown out repeatedly, without support, and left to attempt a run at "truthiness".
Stay beautiful, Philip.