Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Associated Press
This March 8, 2010, photo shows Tea Party member Greg Hernandez of Quicksburg, Va., wearing a tricorn hat and a teabag as he listens to speakers during a rally sponsored by Americans for Prosperity at the Capitol in Richmond, Va.
Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Sun coverage
The Tea Party may have been built by the grass roots, but to survive, it’s going to have to rely on the Beltway political machines and big-money groups it once disparaged.
Tea Party activists always worked alongside like-minded conservative organizations, but they failed to capitalize on the anti-Obama momentum in 2009 and 2010 to build their own infrastructure and war chests. That means national groups like American Majority, the Club for Growth and the Koch brothers-linked Americans for Prosperity essentially are in the position to determine if GOP incumbents face serious primary challenges.
Potential prime Tea Party targets include GOP senators up for re-election in 2014: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Conservative activists also would love to hit back at the 33 Republican senators and 85 representatives who voted to raise taxes on the wealthy as part of a deal to avert the “fiscal cliff.”
The Tea Party “is in disarray,” said Erick Erickson, editor of RedState, a blog that helped crystallize the fiscally conservative ethos of the populist movement. Going forward, Tea Partyers will “either be within the conservative movement as part of that movement or they won’t be effective.”
Polls have shown Americans turning away from the Tea Party: 24 percent of likely voters considered themselves Tea Party members in April 2010, according to a Rasmussen survey. Now, only 8 percent say they’re Tea Party members.
Many activists have moved on while others have turned their focus to local and state fights, or become absorbed into the Republican Party. Those who remain are as divided as ever about candidates and strategies. And they mostly lack the cash and the organization to mount serious primary challenges on their own.
“There’s not enough money, and I think the movement is a little split right now,” said Billy Simons, a member of the board of the Charleston (S.C.) Tea Party.
“The grass roots are a lot more cynical than they were in 2010,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, a Georgia-based nonprofit that fashioned itself as an umbrella coalition of local Tea Party groups. “They only want to take actions that are going to have real impact, and not just something that is going to make noise for the sake of making noise.”
Tea Party activists may have “missed the moment” to build a more enduring structure that could help boost primary challenges to Republican congressional incumbents deemed insufficiently conservative on fiscal issues, said Ned Ryun, president of the grass-roots organizing outfit American Majority, which trained local activists and offered them grants and assistance in setting up their own groups.
The goal was to build a farm team of viable up-and-coming Tea Party candidates and a structure to support them, but many activists bristled because they believed their strength emanated from their organic and leaderless nature, and they distrusted anything that smacked of the Washington establishment.
“In some ways, one of the greatest strengths of the movement also became one of its greatest weaknesses because it kept them from doing the kinds of things that are necessary to build the infrastructure. It’s really a shame,” Ryun said.
“I don’t think we need some national group telling us what to do,” Simons said, citing the Tea Party Patriots as one example. “I think the Tea Party is much more effective when individuals are taking their own action. I question the motives of some of those groups; sometimes I think they’re more interested in themselves than in making a difference.”
At the same time, Simons and other activists admit that winning takes money.
“If an incumbent who’s not fiscally conservative is going to spend a million dollars, (a challenger has to) raise some reasonable percentage of those same numbers,” said Mark West, president of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Tea Party. “If it’s going to come in from FreedomWorks, then so be it if they share our ideology.”
We are still here, but we are busy working and tending to our businesses. The failed liberal republican party must go, they are like a branch of the dems. The list of republicans up for re-election, would be great if they all lost,even to their own dem. rival. They are one in the same. We need a real conservative party. We may only achieve until after the country crashes.
What POLITICAL fails to recognize is that the issues are still the issues many people are concerned about
75% of the people in recent polls agree that SPENDING AND DEBT IS A PROBLEM
That is a huge shift in the people.
The Tea Party experience is an example of what happens when a populist movement attracts too many people with loud voices and unpopular ideas.
Let's not forget about the democrats own version of the TEA party, the Occupy movement. The Occupy group(OWS) was made up of mostly radical teachers/students, socialists, union workers and anarchists. Everyone knows OWS was developed to counter the TEA party but the idea failed badly and left the front pages of the main stream media very quickly. The OWS group exposed how radical the far left is causing democratic lawmakers to distance themselves from these radicals. A majority of cities had to chase the OWS groups out of their cities due to lawlessness, safety and sanitary reasons.
The Occupy group could have easily protest cities/counties with pension funding issues caused by gold-plated union pensions and pension abuse. Below is a link to an article describing how union government workers claim a disability a year before their retirement to increase their yearly pension. 90% of Long Island Rail Road workers retired with a disability--even those who worked desk jobs--adding about $36,000 to their annual pensions. 82% of senior California state troopers are "disabled" in their last year before retirement. The Occupy protesters should have protested the outrageous greed of these union government workers but didn't and it spoke volumes of what the Occupy movement thought about the tax payer. Nothing.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11...
I was apart of the Occupy movement here and in NO way was anyone that I observed was like RE FREEMAN wrote about. I can sat the "Tea Party Movement" had a hero in there eyes called John Wilkes Booth of Baltimore Maryland.
We can always count on Re to change the subject if he does not like the topic. Must be one of Saul Alinsky's tactics.
As Jim weber notes, the Tea Party suffered/suffers from the typical excesses of any populist political movement....the dedication needed to overthrow entrenched interests. Obama won twice by putting hundreds of thousands low level volunteers in door-to-door, phone banks, house parties, etc. to conduct one-on-one politicking. The Tea Party generated lots of smoke but little sustained fire. Members gave up way too easily when confronted with the elephant.
We are not a formal group. We are people that believe in personal freedom, an adherence to the precepts of the Constitution, and a belief that a small and limited federal government is best. We prefer to make our views known through our votes. Do not make the mistake that our lack of formal meetings, or demonstrations, means that we do not exist. We most certainly exercise our views by our votes. Unfortunately, the current administration in Washington D.C. is rather adept at lies and misdirection from both parties, as evidenced by the raising of taxes on all of the working people, hiding new taxes levied in a number of new ways, and not being forthright about explaining the effect of quantitative easing and its effects on consumer prices. These are just a few of the deceits foisted on our citizenry. We most certainly are not racist ( I was born outside of the United States), and we are not fanatical malitia (I don't even own a gun). We hold differing views on social agendas, but view that individual states should hold most of the power. It wasn't until the federal income tax was created, that the federal government began to expand. Up to that point, most major decisions (such as war) had to be approved by our representatives in Congress, because each state had to contribute its share to the effort and to the budget. Bureaucracies were small, because the federal government had very limited budgets (they basically could only raise revenue through excise taxes and tarriffs). The Army patrolled our borders, and the Coast Guard patrolled our waterways. Our citizens were proud and protective of their citizenship, and would never buckle to the concept of global control, from ourselves or from outside nations and organizations. We understand that there are global influences, but we believe that our first responsibility is to OUR form of governance, OUR way of business, AND the ultimate preservation of the vision of our founding fathers. It behooves us all to be familiar with the writings of the totality of our drafters of our Constitution, in order to fully understand their intent. We must all be scholars of these precepts, because their interpretation is tantamount to our SELF GOVERNANCE. We were originally to govern from the citizenry up, instead of from Washington D.C. down. The Amendments to our Constitution are on EQUAL footing, and one does not outweigh the other.
I'm glad the influence of this group of people is waning... I'm sooo tired of them! I'm all for varying and opposing viewpoints in the discussion, but at some point compromises have to be made in order to govern.
The Teabaggers and their absolute "my way or the highway" attitude have completely screwed up EVERYTHING!
Sorry to burst your bubble, but I merely stated what myself and quite a few others believe. I made no mention of my stance on social issues, or most other issues. I do have a very clear view of how I interpret our Constitution, and what myself, my city, couny, state, and my representatives should be doing. Do I expect others to be in lock step with myself? No!!! I do not adhere to any party line, and do not consider myself a Lemming. I would suggest that we have the Constitution so that the emphasis is on personal freedom versus majority rule. It is understood that our representatives pass laws to provide social structure based on an interpretation of the Constitution, but any laws passed should be the lowest common denominator of control, not the quashing of personal freedom.
More Teabags hanging off your heads and more cowbell is what the Tea Republicans need to do, the Democrats just HATE that, seriously, you betcha..
William Clarke wrote "I was apart of the Occupy movement here and in NO way was anyone that I observed was like RE FREEMAN wrote about".
William, what do you mean by "was"? You post to the Occupy Las Vegas Facebook page a few times a week? Are you confused Mark?
The Tea Party has a conservative and independent following while the Occupy group(OWS) was made up of mostly radical teachers/students, socialists, union workers and anarchists before the movement started to fizzle out. Below is a link to an LVS letter with some comments about the Occupy movement on Nov 23rd @3:02am. I noted an Occupy Las Vegas member who worked on a project called "The Post-Capitalist Project"
The objective of the project is stated as follows:
"The Post-Capitalist Project is a cooperative, nonsectarian venture of left journals, popular education centers, and electronic media. Our goal is to make easily available the wide range of new programs, experiments, and theories analyzing the transition beyond capitalism toward a socialist future, recognizing that "socialism" is a protean concept encompassing many different historical experiences and future possibilities."
There are many OWS organizers just like Gina Sully who espouse socialism. The OWS organizers should have been more truthful with the American people about their core beliefs but were not and it's a big reason why the OWS fizzled and flopped.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/nov...
http://www.facebook.com/groups/occupylas...
Anyone who thought the tea party would be a major political movement in the long term probably never ventures outside the conservative media entertainment bubble.
These are same low informationclowns who believed pre-election lies that claimed polls favoring President Obama were "skewed" and therefore needed to be "unskewed" until 2+2=5 and Romney was the easy winner in an Electoral College landslide. Right-wing luminaries such as Karl Rove, Dick Morris and George Will predicted as much.
Tea partiers are the Neanderthals of voters, doomed to extinction from the start. Their facade of credibiity collasped when pitted against an opponent with superior intelligence and organizational skills.
To MotorSports,
I am sorry that you seem to have extrapolated my comments to mean that I am completely intolerant. I can tell you that when I came to this country, My family was told that we could not live where we had settled. It was strongly suggested that we move. We did just that, and it still took several moves until my family found a place that would tolerate us and I could make a few friends. Those friends are lifelong friends and cover a spectrum you would probably be suprised at. When my family came to the US, my mother was one of the few women that had a college education in her native country, she could only take in laundry, until she could re-educate herself. My father came from a poor family and was the first in his family to graduate from college. This while holding down a full time job, painting and paperhanging on weekends, while going to college in the evenings, and we still had to rely on some of his friends to help with the occasional bag of groceries. My sexual orientation is none of your business, but I never exclude who I associate with and who I don't. I do appreciate those who want to help themselves, and strive to raise a family, but I have always appreciated and remember when I needed help. I can remember when I asked a black girl out. She was very nice and I could have easily seen myself being quite happy with her. Her father refused to let me see her. He was an FBI agent, and I thought better of crossing him, especially since I was doing a little experimentation with illegal substances at the time. I know nothing of your life, but suffice it to say that I may have given you a little insight as to my background, but I think that I can honestly say that you are arrogant and judgemental.
The Tea Baggers are the worst of America. They want the government to control our personal lives. A bunch of low rent trash with a narrow agenda. Good riddance. I would pay higher taxes to get rid of them.
Quacks, and the Quackery They Espouse...
Sarah Palin. Rand Paul. Michelle Bachman. Jim Demint. Sharron Angle. Herman Cain. Christine O'Donnell. Todd Akin. Et.al...
QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-kur...
BAWK! BAWK! BAWK!
http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party...
THANKS FOR THE LAUGHS; THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!!!
https://www.google.com/search?q=crazy+te...
It's been a REAL HOOT!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3654/3446...
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/5713/...
" the "Tea Party Movement" had a hero in there eyes called John Wilkes Booth of Baltimore Maryland."
Did you seriously write that? I'm sure the scorch and burn tea party is glad you are speaking for all of them. May I suggest spell check?
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
The tea party may be in disarray and has lost its voice, but you can't deny that they have had a profound impact on national politics, particularly with government control and spending. While their solutions and tact may not be popular with everyone, you have to admit, they have identified a major problem that may take ultimately destroy our country. Hopefully some of their viable solutions will bring about fiscal responsibility by our politicians...
It was never a real grass roots group. It was funded by the Koch brothers and other special interests from the start and promoted HEAVILY by Fox news. The "profound impact" that they have had on national politics is to get Democrats elected (Obama, Reid, etc, etc.)since middle-of-the-road Republicans see them as radicals and decided to take a look at what the Dems had to offer.
Sure Politico, the Tea Party Movement is over.
Sure Politico, the politics in our Country are all fixed now.
Sure Politico, averting the latest "fiscal cliff" has solved the spending & taxing issue once and for all.
Sure Politico, our economy is once again the envy of the world.
Sure Politico, the education system is in place to ensure brighter and brighter citizens to solve our problems.
Sure Politico, we are all on a path to more freedoms in our lives rather than less freedoms.
Sure Politico, you are correct, since all the problems that caused the rise of the Tea Party are now better, the Tea Party will now implode as you suggest.
Sure Politico, you left-wing yellow journalistic fish wrap, saying it over and over ad nauseum will make it so.
The Greedy OLD Party TeaBAGS have caused great economic damage to our country for years to come. These hypocrites would fail at running a lemonade stand. TeaBAGS show NO fiscal responsibility. They take, take and take more. Weak, cowards, that think all solutions are simple, and easy. Good, balanced solutions to difficult problems are solved by hard work using intelligent people (leaves the TeaBAGS out).
Anyone even remember the Tea Party's/Republican Party's candidate Sharron Angle, consistently voted Nevada's most ineffective legislator and her campaign against Sen. Harry Reid?
The demise of the Tea Party ought to be welcomed like the demise of polio, diptheria, bubonic plague, and someday, hopefully, AIDS.
profound impact on national politics
i would say that the profound impact of the Tea movement within the Republican Party has been to the detriment of the Republican Party. i don't think they accomplished anything as a stand alone movement. their candidates failed. it is the broader spectrum of population and government officials who have steered current policy directions.
Enjoyed the article, but it's geared towards the national Tea Party.
Perhaps they are being rejected now, but in Nevada, the Tea Party was emphatically rejected quite awhile ago.
It all started when whiny screechy Sarah Palin stood on a stage outside Searchlight, Nevada along with a bunch of people in their RVs sitting on lawn chairs with ridiculous apparel and even more ridiculous rhetoric flying around. It was mentioned that IMMEDIATELY the press noticed that everyone in the audience was Caucasian and elderly. Nevada realized probably before the rest of America that the Tea Party was crap created by the Republican Party to try to re-brand their foul smelling mess of a political party.
Subsequent efforts by the Tea Party to roll through here in their magic bus met with very few crowds to greet them. One time they showed up in an empty sand lot on Las Vegas Boulevard south of the airport. Bullhorns going, jumping up and down, screaming they want to take this country back...and nobody was there. Tourists drove by and laughed. They thought it was some kind of weird cutting edge Las Vegas entertainment. Not a political rally.
For Nevadans, it was fortified in the elections of 2010 when the Republican Party, in their intense hatred of Senator Reid, ended up fielding a complete whacknut cat lady for a candidate to run against him (Sharron Angle). She got trounced. Because she was such a mentally challenged politician, she ended up spending more time running away from the news media than talking to them.
The Tea Party, contrary to what other commenters above say, was 86'ed in Nevada quite awhile ago: Driven 80 miles out in the desert and buried six feet down. A complete failure of an idea.
Nice try. Didn't work here. The voters rejected them before. And they will reject them again. And any candidate that starts even the slightests hint of Tea Party rhetoric, they have to know they will be toast.
I'm just glad to see the rest of America is waking up to their garbage. Grassroots. Yeah. Right. Gimme a break. If they are grassroots, then grits ain't groceries, eggs ain't poultry, and Mona Lisa was a man.
The Occupied group is mostly union-sponsored and consists of radical teachers/students, socialists, anarchists and unionized workers. There is a reason why this group failed to attract new recruits. Socialism, weird theories and a belief system based on what is yours is mine thoroughly repulsed the American people.
From the LVRJ, here is a view of from one patron last year when Occupiers visited the Meadows Mall food court:
" The occupiers startled one man sitting in the Meadows Mall food court when they began shouting today. So much so, that his glasses slid down the bridge of his nose. As he readjusted them with his index finger, the holiday shopper said he was confused by the group's message and what the protesters wanted.
When he realized the group was part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, he disapproved.
"Oh, those are the bums of Wall Street," he said, chuckling. "
The Tea Party has sustained while the Occupy movement floated off in the wind like a meaningless trial balloon.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/occupy-las-vega...
Thanks, teabaggers, for doing your part (and then some!) to help the Democratic Party maintain control of the US Senate. Your outstanding work on behalf of majority leader Harry Reid and President Obama is greatly appreciated.
Like a hungry leech, don't ever stop sucking the GOP dry of its miserable existence.
When did wanting lower taxes, and smaller government intrusion become radical? You know this is the new normal when this paper writes a condesending article over a group of people who disagree with their out of control spending and shredding the Constitution ideology and doesn't write a story on Nevada's Senate leader Harry Reid taking bribes! Maybe that's why Harry hasn't passed a budget in 4 years, he's too busy counting his own money.
This author has NO CLUE who the tea party really is.
The teaparty was started by liberty groups that supported Ron Paul in Dec of 2007. FW was already in existence as a GOP PAC or lobbying group and they allowed the media to lift the name. HOWEVER they had NOTHING to do WHATSOEVER with helping the tea party get started. There was NO money involved then, and none now. The legit tea party remains a movement that is unfunded. Ron Paul is the Father of the movement. The lynchpin issues are Federal Reserve, Anti-War, and Pro-Personal Freedoms.
Further, the groups mentioned in the article are GOP PACS aligned iwth the GOP and are NOT legit tea party groups..
The tea party as formed in 2007 remains UNFUNDED and strong as ever.
http://www.nhteapartycoalition.org/tea/a...
"It all started when whiny screechy Sarah Palin stood on a stage outside Searchlight, Nevada along with a bunch of people in their RVs sitting on lawn chairs with ridiculous apparel and even more ridiculous rhetoric flying around."
-----------------------------
How could i forget the Teabag Woodstock in Harry Reid s desert farm field?
:-)
Didn't the Obama-noids say the same thing right before the 2010 election? Yea, I thought so. Same hope and change. Hopefully with the same results in 2014
The only players in the game of politics now are the Republicans and Democrats, as usual.
All the stuff about the Tea Party is a waste of time. They are Republican conservatives.
The parties have conservatives, moderates and progressives in them, although weighted differently.
The other potential parties in play could be the Greens, Libertarians and Modern Whigs. Their success depends on the voters.
The Tea Party is not a Party in the sense of a political party. It is a historical title representing an event.
If the so called Tea Party is given credit for the change in the Republican Party, it is because more moderate Republicans left as a result of the change in the Republican Party to the more conservative right.
The question is where did they go? Retirement, for some. But that leaves a void for moderate to progressive Republicans. Where will they go? Perhaps the Modern Whigs?
All I would like to see is our representatives being able to work on our behalf. At the moment, that is not the case.
I don't think it is entirely the Tea Party's fault because they were voted in by voter's. Voter's need to be held accountable for what is taking place. It is a shared responsibility.
That said, it is also notable that there is alot of big money organizations influencing the minds of voter's, manipulating them, appealing to self interest and creating division. So, they are culpable as well.
It is not just in the US. It is a worldwide difficulty, whether money, movements, or religion. A very sad state of affairs. There is chaos and division in the voting public, and it is very destructive.
It seems it is not only parties and voters that are responsible. I ask who is benefiting from all the global chaos? It seems so coordinated. Why?
Those Obama-Noids spanked your guy Mitt Romney in 2012...
independent here. i use to vote about 50/50 but the tea party has driven me away from the republicans. they are actually splitting the republican party making it easier for the dems to control things.
when will they realize this?
The republican way is the Freeman way. Just change the subject when you don't like it.
The Tea Party/Conservative Rules:
Rule 1: Keep taxes low
Rule 2: Keep government small.
Rule 3: Love America & The Constitution it's worked pretty well so far..
The Rules for Liberal/Progressives/Socialists
RULE 1: "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." Power is derived from 2 main sources -- money and people. "Have-Nots" must build power from flesh and blood.
RULE 2: "Never go outside the expertise of your people." It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy." Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.
RULE 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
RULE 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." They'll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They're doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
RULE 7: "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag." Don't become old news.
RULE 8: "Keep the pressure on. Never let up." Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
RULE 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
RULE 10: "If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
RULE 11: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative." Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem.
RULE 12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
I belong to the progressive, get something done Coffee Party. Flush your weak, used tea bags.
The bad guys often win! But, the good guys always win in the long term!
And, the truth always comes out in the end>>>>>>>> http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/55598...
The tea party was a bunch of ignorant, irresponsible know nothings.
Unfortunately, you can be really stupid and still get elected into office in the US.
The right wing media will support anyone who lets them control this country.
The sooner the tea party goes away the better off everyone will be.
This has never been a grass roots group. This was the efforts of the 1% who convinced working-class right-wing conservatives to back tax reform that pushes more money to the top with the hopes of a trickle down back to them.
Working class taxpayers have to abandon both the DEM and REP party and back real entitlement and tax reform that helps the middle class. This "party's" agenda does none of that. And neither does the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Proof positive: Read the above comments Liberal/Socialist Rules 5 and 14! I told you!
Sorry make that Rule 12
LOL "the Rules" might as well be forgotten as liberal/socialist process. It seems they were co-cpted long ago by the conservative movement, all the way back to the McCarthy era, followed by the John Birch Society, and many conservative groups that followed. In fact, they are about the only ones who write of them, yet fail to look into the mirror for an accurate reflection in themselves.
Much of what is written here is nothing but regurgitated meme both old and new. Where does it all lead, except to more chaos and confusion, as well as heavy doses of fear to control people with?
All individuals on all sides of the issues must seek to be honest with themselves and not just interested in pointing the finger and name calling. It solves nothing. However, this takes a good deal of analysis and integrity. That is often what is lacking in politics on any level, including opinions.
We get so addicted to criticizing without any real personal analysis of the issues, on every level. It sounds as if we want easy, quick solutions for very complex problems with global implications. That condemns us to failure from our own ignorance.
We desperately need a revival of the value of mature behavior and rational thinking arising from the very best of human traits and moral enlightenment. In other words, we need a miracle!
Knee-pad media will aways hold less-government in an unfavorable light. And give fawning coverage to the hollywood types who wade through Occupy camps.
All of the people who wrote sincerely on behalf of the Tea Party here seem like some of the originals, those who meant well, and were -- maybe in some cases -- still are patriotic. My hat is off to them for a valiant effort.
Those caveats aside, the Tea Party movement since being appropriated by the republican extremists is an abject failure that has set us back quite a bit.
It is my opinion that true Tea Party party folks would march lockstep firmly in support of much of the Occupy movements goals. There would be more they agree upon than disagree.
The "useful idiots" are out in full force, basking in what they believe is the glory of the guy with the Cheshire Cats grin, empty rhetoric and empty promises reelection win. But, as I have seen over and over, things change in the blink of an eye and the mid-term election will show them for the greedy and grubby bunch they are. Without conscience or remorse, they steal the future from coming generations so they can ride on the gravy train today. I, like millions of others, still support the TEA Party and its goals. Unlike the parasitic class, we have a life to live, bills to pay, work to do, and cannot be active 24/7, but will pick the right time to put our collective shoulders to the wheel and work hard to oust the big government spenders from office and restore a modicum of fiscal sanity to Washington, DC, Carson City, Clark County and local governments. In the meantime, all of you "useful idiots," continue whistling past the graveyard.
We observed in this article comment thread how the discussion of the democrat's Occupy movement and the conservative/independent's TEA party can polarize political sides.
Politically speaking, democrats this last election cycle attacked conservatives in an attempt to demonize their opponents and it had some success. There was no attempt by democrats to defend Obama's poor economic record so going negative was a strategy to divert attention from his record. Many know the Saul Alinsky rules for radicals. Below are the main rules they leveraged against Romney, Ryan, Bush, etc.
The fifth rule: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.
The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
Democrats attacked the candidate much more than his/her ideas and, unfortunately, many of the uneducated voting segment of society buy into the false narrative put out by democrats about republicans. Republicans do this some but not to the extent that democrats do. The poor and uneducated easily buy into these negative tactics.
Why? They don't know lies from the truth.
Should we really believe a democrat speaking for the values of conservatives or vice versa? The educated reader would read right through the motive behind it. The uneducated reader are prey to political rhetoric and it's the reason why we elect ineffective people to office. We elect based on rhetoric, not a logical understanding of issues and the positions of candidates that would ultimately project to an action plan that would effectively solve an issue.
"I, like millions of others, still support the TEA Party and its goals. Unlike the parasitic class,"
---------------------
You live off Social Security, Medicare, Veterans benefits, etc, but you re AGAINST all that.
Yadda Yadda Yadda...
One day RefNV might realize that the doyenne of the radical right, Karl Rove, employed all of those tactics DECADES before Democrats ever did.
GOP hypocrisy continues... full steam ahead, Ref!
"Tea Party 'in disarray,' losing ground with voters"
Gee... I wonder why? lol
TruthmonsterTex @ 9:38
"Sorry make that Rule 12."
No need to apologize, Tex, cos I doubt anyone read your post/essay.
That was my accessment of the Searchlight Rally!
The reality. From 1968 to 1992 (20 of 24 years) we elected a Republican president. The only reason for the gap was Ford did a stupid thing by pardoning Nixon which may have cost him the election in 76. So here we have overwhelming republican control of the White House for 20 of 24 years. Are we now going to believe that those former Republican voters suddenly decided to become the suck the teat class? Unlikely.
The question becomes why the shift away from conservative principles. I find it extremely hard to believe that those hard working republicans, do it on my own, vote republican suddenly decided to teach their children "suck the teat" principles. Many are still around, still voting. Why the shift? Please don't sell me "they decided they wanted a handout"....
Is it possible that shift has been the result of lost wages, lost jobs, lost pension, lost healthcare and the disintegration of middle class attainability. Something to ponder. Those republican voters did not just decide to become welfare queens or democratic voters. Why the shift to advocacy politicians like Obama?
Tom, the jobs dried up for the 50-somethings. Easier to go on SSDI and vote the fleabaggers. Early social security. Can't blame them really.
I feel sorry for the plain ole republicans who are disenfranchised by the polarizing crap from their right.
What we need is civility and gratitude for our slathering of freedoms, our resources and our timing in paradise.
Did you notice that the article referenced states mostly based in the South? Absolute crapholes like South Carolina and the like. I worked in all the states from SC through Lousyanna and Tejas. Yes, they have a lot of work, but the pollution there is nasty. Rotten places to live. If we let the tea baggers take control, we'll end up like China, with horrible pollution and poverty wages. Take your choice, America.
As the unemployment rises in Clark county, and it will go back up, know that you have been played. The TEA Party movement has not gone away, it has morphed. You can blather about all the things you want about republicans. This progressive paradise is about to get a make over and we in the TEA PARTY movement are going to laugh. The Democrats and the progressives in the Nevada legislature are going to do it all by themselves. Your pay checks just got smaller. Your other taxes are getting ready to go up. Property, sales taxes, DMV taxes are all going up. Welfare participation will go up as well. This state has had to work hard to keep the unemployment up this high for this long. And the county commissars did their job well too and they all just got re-elected. There will not be new businesses coming to Nevada, no new jobs. Just more welfare and higher taxes to rob you blind, while the politicians you elected fleece you for your last dime.
We tried to warn you, but you just think that if you wish it, it will be so. It will be fun watching you get the bill. I expect to hear howls all the way up to Mt.Charleston.