The Tea Partiers Are Anti-Reaganists

[purejuice]

Why are the Democratic party and MoveOn not all over this? How stupid are they? Shouldn't they be at Tea Party rallies, speaking, leafletting, rushing the people -- mostly laid-off boomers, apparently, who are losing their houses and their jobs, without any real chance ever of working again? These are the ice floe candidates. If you've ever been to a Medicaid old folks home, or stood behind an old person in the grocery store buying a can of cat food, a can opener, an onion and a fork, you will comprehend their fear. They are rightfully distressed.

[Jeff McQueen, 50, laid-off auto parts salesman] blames the government for his unemployment. “Government is absolutely responsible, not because of what they did recently with the car companies, but what they’ve done since the 1980s,” he said. “The government has allowed free trade and never set up any rules.”

He and others do not see any contradictions in their arguments for smaller government even as they argue that it should do more to prevent job loss or cuts to Medicare. After a year of angry debate, emotion outweighs fact.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28teaparty.html?scp=1&sq=jeff%20mcqueen&st=cse

It's always driven me crazy that the poor people should have been swept away by the anti-health care bill arguments which are, bottom line, the tool of the man. I think also there's a significant degree of racism operating here as a black president seems to be machinating these changes. The nigs have raised our taxes, as one of my former neighbors put it before leaving D.C. for more salubrious venues (in his case, I think it was North Carolina).

This piece in the NYT suggests, quite rightly, that the Tea Partiers are not the monolithic flash mob whiteys the Gotcha freaks in the blogosphere would have you believe. They are a flash mob, they are white, but their politics are by no means a foregone conclusion. The Dems are wasting a huge opportunrity by not proselytizing at these gatherings. There should be truth squads, caseworkers from the Dems' offices offering assistance with the mortgages, etc..

God, they're stupid. I can't get over it.

Comments

[fengi.livejournal.com]

Your experience is relevant, but consider how pro-choicers have members who gun down people in church, harass their opposition in every venue, and engage in frequent lying and shifting goalposts, while the other side occasionally loses patience after constant provocation. Pretending the latter is being unreasonable or must work even harder is dubious.

I think it's human to have an angry mean side, but that does not mean one has to accomodate or respect those flaws, or let it be used to control the frame. Zealots play upon a common decency to avoid direct discussion of their goals and tactics as offensive.

One can't point out an alternate political path without some idea the current path is wrong. If one takes extreme offense at all dissent, accomodation is impossible. It's like an angry drunk saying any reaction validates their fight. One should refrain from swinging and be willing to engage if they sober up, but until one doesn't have to be nice about kicking them out.

Pro-lifers can make polite conversation to pass the time and in hopes of conversions, but they're goal is still to bully people into leaving. Momentary civility helps them pretend they are merely decent people despite deliberate intimidation, invective and tacit or open support of the more violent among them.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

i think you're making enemies of people who need to be co-opted -- or led, if you will -- and who are confused and frightened. i don't think they're bad people pretending to be good, and i think that that is a dangerously polarizing mistake.
and, i believe i have already conceded that my pro-choice colleagues were just as loathsome, if not more so -- because they took an oath of non-violence -- than the pro-lifers, many of whom have sincere spiritual positions the diversity of which, in a democracy, is sacrosanct.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

indeed, the suicidal squabbling among my colleagues about the politically correct procedures to keep bullies off girls and women already in big trouble -- that is to say the strategy bullshit among the prochoice people -- was the most loathsome part of the experience. the pro-life people understood strategy far better and always thoughtfully said thank you to me, and i to them, after a respectful dialogue. often it was me, saying very gently, you can represent your views better elsewhere. here, it looks to me like you're intimidating and harassing women and girls, which no person of good conscience would wish to do. i know you are a person of good conscience etc ect.
i think there's a lot of class war arrogance in the demonization of the tea baggers, and that is yet another suicidal liberal attitude.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

"i think there's a lot of class war arrogance in the demonization of the tea baggers" Spare me the bogus meme liberals are all wealthy elites and bigots and theocrats are authentic salt of the earth. The teabaggers include a lot of clearly comfortable people and there are a lot of poor lefties. The minorities calling out teabagger bigotry - are they all uppper class?

I again question this idea people didn't try to engage the teabaggers with civility when Obama and every person who held a town hall meeting did until the made such things impossible by escalating their behavior. At some point you must acknowldege the screamers have an unshakable agenda an protect yourself.

Recognize those pro-lifers were polite out of self-preservation, as they were more at risk of being arrested if they weren't. If they really were such people of good conscience, there would be no need for clinic defense. It's easier to harass people with a facade of civility.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

there was no facade of civility, trust me. it resulted only from my efforts to look them in the eye. you should try it.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

You don't co-opt people by exempting opinions and actions from criticism, they co-opt you by deeming your ability to criticize them "polarizing".

"many of whom have sincere spiritual positions the diversity of which, in a democracy, is sacrosanct." In a Democracy, you have to keep your religion to yourself. Using violence and threats to force others to follow your beliefs is loathsome.

"i don't think they're bad people pretending to be good" It's not about judging bad/good people, but actions. Screaming "babykiller" in an attempt to force your religion on someone else is a bad act.

Lying about death panels is a bad act. Embracing violent rhetoric and bigotry, sympathizing with the urge to crash plane into the IRS is invalidates yourself.


"i have already conceded that my pro-choice colleagues were just as loathsome" They weren't loathsome. They weren't going to operation rescue's headquarters screaming invectives and trying to stop people from entering, posting anti-choicer's home addresses, using demonizing rhetoric which encourages the fringe to consider them fair game. They were human in a passing moment of weakness in response to people who use constant harassment as policy. It's hardly even violating non-violence.

Refusing to call injustice for what it is in hopes of winning the actors over makes no sense. To quote someone else: "Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

who said i'm not calling it injustice? i'm talking about hands-down dealing with motherfuckers. which i have enormous experience with.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

and, finally, you are beginning to do the same thing as the assholes who were my colleagues at the clinic defense. and, indeed, joe mccarthy, who threw everybody out of the state department who spoke chinese because that signified that they were communists.
because i talk to people as if they were human, you're now accusing me of multiple crimes.
it is the only way to keep them from pulling your house down, little man.