The Red White and Blue Pill
A Berkeley sociologist made some tea party friends — and wrote a condescending book about them
I find it fascinating that there are so many books written by and for liberals to help them understand conservatives and essentially none by and for conservatives aimed at helping them understand liberals.
To Stop Trump, Democrats Can Learn From the Tea Party
Their tactics weren’t fancy: They just showed up on their own home turf, and they just said no.
Here’s the crazy thing: It worked.
Why Blue States Are the Real ‘Tea Party’
This should have gone viral. It’s basically correct.
Biden Reportedly Calls Tea Partiers ‘Crazy’
Vice President Joe Biden called the tea party “crazy” and said its adherents have “no judgment” during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, CNN reported.
Biden is in trouble for accidentally telling the truth. The GOP has radically shifted to the right and is no longer interested in anything except posturing and profiteering.
Tea Party and Wall Street Are Getting Along Just Fine
it’s hard to find where the Tea Party and Wall Street disagree. Tea Party senators like Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, plus conservative senators like David Vitter, have rallied around a one-line bill repealing the entirety of Dodd-Frank and replacing it with nothing. In the House, Republicans are attacking new derivatives regulations, all the activities of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the existence of the Volcker Rule, and the ability of the FDIC to wind down a major financial institution, while relentlessly attacking strong regulators and cutting regulatory funding. This is Wall Street’s wet dream of a policy agenda. Note the lack of any Republican counter-proposal or framework. The few that have been suggested, such as David Camp’s bank tax or Vitter’s higher capital requirements have gotten no additional support from the right. House Republicans attacked Camp’s plan publicly, and Vitter’s bill lost one of its only two other Republican supporters immediately after it was announced. So why is there a lack of an agenda? Because the Tea Party thinks that Wall Street has done nothing wrong.
Koch Group Abandons Obamacare ‘Horror’ Stories After Fact-Check Backlash
But what’s notable about the ads is what they aren’t: A personalized story of someone who’s been negatively affected by Obamacare, the kind of verifiable set of facts that can be checked – and rebutted, as happened with a recent AFP ad that led to significant backlash from the fact-checking community.
The facts have a liberal bias….so lets base our opinions on something other than facts. Wonderful.
1.8 Million Definite Militia Members to March on DC, Install New Government #MotherJones
Harry Riley has a dream. On the morning of May 16, somewhere between 10 and 30 million (estimates vary) God-fearing patriots will assemble in Washington, DC, for what Riley, a retired Army colonel from the Florida panhandle, is calling “Operation American Spring.” They’ll protest outside the White House by day and set up in campgrounds and RV parks outside the city by night. They won’t leave until President Barack Obama, along with Attorney General Eric Holder and congressional leaders of both parties, resign and appear before a specially convened investigative tribunal for further disciplinary action—a polite version of a tea party coup. It’s not likely to happen—but two former Fox News personalities have endorsed the endeavor.
I doubt its more than a few hundred.
I still sometimes see pundits claiming that the Tea Party movement is basically driven by concerns about budget deficits. That’s delusional. Read the founding rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC: There’s nary a mention of deficits. Instead, it’s a tirade against the possibility that the government might help “losers” avoid foreclosure. Or read transcripts from Rush Limbaugh or other right-wing talk radio hosts. There’s not much about fiscal responsibility, but there’s a lot about how the government is rewarding the lazy and undeserving.
The tea party merges the prosperity gospels with Ayn Rand and walks away with a belief that economics is nothing more than a morality play where the wealthy are wealthy because of virtue and the poor are poor because of vice.
The Tea Party thinks it hates Wall Street. It doesn’t.
many Tea Party Republicans are in favor of the same bills favored by the financial industry. Take the Financial Takeover Repeal Act of 2013, a one-line bill sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that repeals Dodd-Frank and replaces it with nothing. This bill has 22 co-sponsors this year, including notable Tea Party senators such Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
The best way to explain the Tea Party and Wall Street is The enemy of my imaginary enemy is my imaginary friend. The Tea Party is in favor of imaginary Randian makers and opposed to imaginary Randian looters. Wall Street thinks the same. The only rift is who they imagine the looters and makers are. This is the problem with Randian thinking.
Colbert Mocks Tea Partiers For Whining About Tax-Exempt Status They Didn’t Have to Ask For
“How is that possible, that I didn’t apply?” Colbert asked. “Am I breaking the law?” Potter took that opportunity to remind the Colbert Report host that he was not legally obligated to apply for tax-exempt status in the first place.
Amazing. The IRS blocked them from something that they were not obligated to do in the first place.