The ridiculousness of the Tea Party attacks.

[Grim17]

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, who's also a member of British Parliament, and he really nails it in his latest op-ed in the Telegraph.

If Tea Partiers are such deluded fools, why are they doing so well?
By Daniel Hannan

First, Leftie commentators ignored the Tea Party: throughout the summer of 2009, its rallies were barely covered except by Fox. Then, as it grew, they sneered at it: what a lamentable gaggle of rednecks, birthers, truthers, stump-toothed Appalachian mountain men and assorted survivalists. When these laughable Frondistes began to win primaries, pundits assured each other that they had made Republican Party unelectable. Now, with a week to go before polling day, and the GOP comfortably ahead in the polls, columnists have had to come up with a new line. Predictably, they have hit on the argument that Tea Partiers are a bunch of thickos, dupes being manipulated by powerful Right-wing corporations.

There is a classic of the genre in today’s Guardian. George Monbiot describes the Tea Party as “one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen”, and goes on to explain that the poor, deluded saps who turn up to its meetings are puppets on the strings of two wealthy industrialists, Charles and David Koch.

A telling phrase, that, “false consciousness”. It was coined by Friedrich Engels, and became a mainstay of Marxist theory. Marx argued that, because proletarians didn’t always understand their true interests, democracy was open to abuse. Reactionary and bourgeois elements could make the workers think that they wanted one thing, when what they really needed was something else. It was the doctrine of false consciousness which Lenin and, later, Stalin, used to justify their tyranny.

Very few commentators these days consciously long for the return of the USSR. But several cling, Marx-like, to a certain disdain for the electorate: an uneasy sense that, left to themselves, people might vote for lower taxes instead of the kind of eco-correct statism that is in their “real” interest. Lurking behind many of the attacks on the Tea Party is an equivocal attitude to democracy. For the Tea Party is a product of perhaps the most responsive electoral process on Earth: the open primary...

If Tea Partiers are such deluded fools, why are they doing so well? – Telegraph Blogs

 

[MKULTRABOY]

If Tea Partiers are such deluded fools, why are they doing so well?

If socialists are such deluded fools why are they doing so well in Europe, and Venezuela, and Thailand etc.

 

[DarkWizard12]

If socialists are such deluded fools why are they doing so well in Europe, and Venezuela, and Thailand etc.

Because socialists aren't deluded, most are rather quite educated. It's not that their deluded but that they pioneer failed policies of the past.

Communists are the ones are deluded...and they really aren't doing too well either.

 

[Boo Radley]

If Tea Partiers are such deluded fools, why are they doing so well?

Who ever said deluted fools never do well? :lamo

 

[Coronado]

Who ever said deluted fools never do well? :lamo

Hell, we've been filling Congress and the White House with them for years ... :doh

 

[MKULTRABOY]

Heh! .. . . . !!

 

[Grim17]

If socialists are such deluded fools why are they doing so well in Europe, and Venezuela, and Thailand etc.

Gee, I don't know... Maybe it has something to do with promising people they can have it all without having to work for it, and failing to tell them the price their society will pay in the future if they take the deal.

I find it interesting that you use Europe, Venezuela, and Thailand in your examples, when they are actually examples of how socialism fails.

Good Job!

 

[MKULTRABOY]

Wait whats this I hear :cups hand to ear: the largest capitalist bust in history occurred in the last 2 years. you dont say.
What else is this? Theres no country in the world that isnt partly socialised. oh em gee!

 

[Deuce]

Delusional people can't be successful? I have two words for you.

Lady Gaga.

 

[Goof Noodle]

Wait whats this I hear :cups hand to ear: the largest capitalist bust in history occurred in the last 2 years. you dont say.
What else is this? Theres no country in the world that isnt partly socialised. oh em gee!

You obviously know nothing about economics if you think America was running under a capitalist system. However, thanks for admitting that Obama and company have been nothing but a bust in the last two years. Maybe you should listen to conservatives and fix something

 

[Goshin]

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, who's also a member of British Parliament, and he really nails it in his latest op-ed in the Telegraph.



If Tea Partiers are such deluded fools, why are they doing so well? – Telegraph Blogs

The Tea Party's remarkable successes so far, are the very reason why the criticism has become so shrill and outlandish.

One word: fear.

 

[Teh Internets]

The Jonas Brothers did good and had alot of sales. Does that mean that they're music is good? The correct answer is hell no.

 

[cpwill]

If socialists are such deluded fools why are they doing so well in Europe, and Venezuela, and Thailand etc.

isn't Europe burning over austerity measures and Venezeula going through a food shortage?

 

[cpwill]

The Tea Party's remarkable successes so far, are the very reason why the criticism has become so shrill and outlandish.

One word: fear.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win."

-Ghandi

 

[American]

If socialists are such deluded fools why are they doing so well in Europe, and Venezuela, and Thailand etc.

Could it be an issue with their constitutions?

 

[American]

The Jonas Brothers did good and had alot of sales. Does that mean that they're music is good? The correct answer is hell no.

Are you going to use this retarded logic on every issue? Show us how this logic has the slightest relationship to the OP.

 

[Boo Radley]

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win."

-Ghandi

Huge difference between Ghandi and the tea party. Huge.

 

[Josie]

Huge difference between Ghandi and the tea party. Huge.

I know there are many small differences, but what's the huge difference?

 

[Boo Radley]

I know there are many small differences, but what's the huge difference?

Ghandi was actually working for a real cause. Tea Party members or most incoherent and often factually wrong. Not only do their candidates often don't know the Constitution (something I linked for Rev a while back), but neither do most of the members. As it is a large part of their rallying cry, along with cut spending but don't touch my medicare, they are far more factually silly than Ghandi was. Just being pissed off is no where near the same as having a just cause to work for, and having the intelligence to know the factors involved. If the Tea Party wins, we may all be far worse off than we are. The same could not be said of Ghandi.

 

[MKULTRABOY]

isn't Europe burning over austerity measures and Venezeula going through a food shortage?

Why yes Europe is practically Burning to the ground :roll:

 

[cpwill]

Why yes Europe is practically Burning to the ground :roll:

Greece and France certainly seem to be in a bit of trouble; England, too, is facing drastic cuts. Iceland.... well the less said about Iceland the better. Germans are getting increasingly irritated with having to foot the bill... so on and so forth.

Europe has engaged in more socialism than we have, which is why they are facing the consequences earlier (though our subsidization of their defense gave them a bit more breathing room). Venezuala, similarly, is dealing with constant energy shortages, food shortages, clean water shortages....

 

[winston53660]

Greece and France certainly seem to be in a bit of trouble; England, too, is facing drastic cuts. Iceland.... well the less said about Iceland the better. Germans are getting increasingly irritated with having to foot the bill... so on and so forth.

Europe has engaged in more socialism than we have, which is why they are facing the consequences earlier (though our subsidization of their defense gave them a bit more breathing room). Venezuala, similarly, is dealing with constant energy shortages, food shortages, clean water shortages....

And the roses are just a bloomin' here in our backyard:lamo

 

[cpwill]

they are not, but we are not yet where they are; where the state is staring at bankruptcy.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Ghandi was actually working for a real cause. Tea Party members or most incoherent and often factually wrong.

Please link to and provide evidence of this claim.

Not only do their candidates often don't know the Constitution (something I linked for Rev a while back), but neither do most of the members.

You did? Who are our "Candidates", please stop fibbing.

As it is a large part of their rallying cry, along with cut spending but don't touch my medicare, they are far more factually silly than Ghandi was.

Again with the dishonesty. Medicare is paid into, I for one would be all for abolishing it, just give me back my money. Talk about silly, your half truths ship sailed that ocean a long time ago,

Just being pissed off is no where near the same as having a just cause to work for, and having the intelligence to know the factors involved. If the Tea Party wins, we may all be far worse off than we are. The same could not be said of Ghandi.

So make up some bull****, then spout it off as if it's fact. Must be a boo radley post. :thumbs:

 

[Boo Radley]

Please link to and provide evidence of this claim.

Funny how you need a link for what is clear in cut spending but don't touch my SS. Anyway, how about this:

Mr. Armey and other forces in the Tea Party Movement may benefit from a refresher course on American history before they come to Harrisburg. While they invoke the Boston Tea Party of 1773 to rail against taxes and public spending, the Tea Party was actually a protest against a tax cut for a multinational corporation of the day, the British East India Company. The tax break was part of an effort by the British Crown to create a tea monopoly in the American colonies.

“The Tea Party protesters have their history wrong and their anger is misplaced,” said Sharon Ward, Director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. “The Boston Tea Party was about tax fairness. Were these protesters acting in the spirit of the real Boston Tea Party, they would be protesting corporate tax loopholes that allow profitable corporations to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in Pennsylvania taxes and leave the rest of us paying more

Tea Party Protesters Have Their History Wrong | The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center

Along with the Tea Party has risen not only an incoherent political movement but exciting and refreshing variations on the English language. Now Flickr user Pargon has collected together many fine examples of "Teabonics", the curious pidgin that has emerged on the simple signs and crude posters handcrafted by the modern-day Poujadists:

Teabonics: the language of the Tea Party movement | Richard Adams | World news | guardian.co.uk

But the reality is that Tea Partiers engage with the Constitution in such a selective manner, and for such nakedly political purposes, that they’re clearly relying on it more as an instrument of self-affirmation and cultural division than a source of policy inspiration.

(snip)

The list goes on. Most Tea Partiers claim that the 10th Amendment, which says “the powers not delegated” to the federal government are “reserved to the states,” is proof that the Framers would’ve balked at today’s bureaucracy. What they don’t mention is that James Madison refused a motion to add the word “expressly” before “delegated” because “there must necessarily be admitted powers by implication.” In last week’s Delaware Senate debate, O’Donnell was asked to name a recent Supreme Court case she disagreed with. “Oh, gosh,” she stammered, unable to cite a single piece of evidence to support her Constitution in Exile talking points. “I know that there are a lot, but, uh, I’ll put it up on my Web site, I promise you.” Angle has said that “government isn’t what our Founding Fathers put into the Constitution”—even though establishing a federal government with the “Power To lay and collect Taxes” to “provide for the common Defence and general Welfare” is one of the main reasons the Founders created a Constitution to replace the weak, decentralized Articles of Confederation. In 2008 Palin told Katie Couric that the Constitution does, in fact, guarantee “an inherent right to privacy,” à la Roe v. Wade, but added that “individual states…can handle an issue like that.” Unfortunately, Palin’s hypothesis would only be viable in a world without the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave Washington sole responsibility for safeguarding all constitutional rights. Then there are the proposed amendments. In the current Congress, conservatives like Michele Bachmann have suggested more than 40 additions to the Constitution: a flag-desecration amendment; a balanced-budget amendment; a “parental rights” amendment; a supermajority-to-raise-taxes amendment; anti-abortion amendment; an anti-gay-marriage amendment; and so on. None of these revisions has anything to do with the document’s original meaning.

How Tea Partiers Get the Constitution Wrong - Newsweek

You did? Who are our "Candidates", please stop fibbing.

I did. And you ran away. I linked oneof them again for you up above.

Again with the dishonesty. Medicare is paid into, I for one would be all for abolishing it, just give me back my money. Talk about silly, your half truths ship sailed that ocean a long time ago,

Nope. People don't get just what they paid into. Many get more.

So make up some bull****, then spout it off as if it's fact. Must be a boo radley post. :thumbs:

Incoherent angry post. Must be a tea party member. :lamo