Posted: March 27, 2011 at 10:33 am
Bloom is Coming Off the Tea Party’s Rose
They were a national sensation, but they are fading away one by one. The crazy bills that the Montana GOP introduced upon taking office–encouraging global warming, funding militias, giving sheriffs autonomy over the federal government, and many more–in the Montana legislature have slowly and quietly been killed by the GOP leadership, which had to face the stark reality that if they didn’t do something to extinguish the craziness, they would do additional damage, additional to the already permanent damage that the Tea nuts have done to the Montana GOP.
If you think it’s not permanent, check Denny Rehberg’s numbers. He’s tanked. He shot his mouth off last fall, about how he’s a Tea Partier. He joined the Tea Party Caucus. Then in February, stupidly thinking that Tea was something more than an idiotic fad of the moment, he showed up at a joint session of the legislature to deliver one of the angriest, fringe speeches ever recorded in the chamber. Now, with the help of the Tea Party’s notorious craziness in the legislature which has left a bad taste in Montana’s mouth, Rehberg’s association with this movement has brought his job approval down to the 40s, for the first time in many years. Months ago, polling had Rehbherg with a strong lead against Tester. Now they are dead even.
Tea, anyone?
One can only hope….
Karma’s been a long time coming, but I’m a believer in the classical definition of hubris- I’m patient.
Poor Dopey Reeburp. Guess he never thought that his benefactors, the Koch brothers, would ever be outed for the nazi bastards they are. YIKES! Big mistake. But really, when you think about it, Dopey has ALWAYS been a teawanker in spirit his entire life. Nuthin’ new there, it’s just someone gave the movement a name.
Dopey’s ALWAYS been a mean, nasty, spoiled little rich kid bully lookin’ out for corporate billionaires and to HELl with everyone else. So, when the time came, he PROUDLY took up the mantle of the teawankers. It’s a little too late to become a teatotaler now!
Now, Dopey’s ONLY chance is a sort of Hail Mary pass, or more specifically, a Hail Pastor Chucky Cheese Bulbdim pass. Maybe, just maybe, Pastor Bulbdim can persuade enough inbreds for Jaysus to move to Montana to make a difference. It’s a long shot, but it’s all that Dopey’s got left.
Still, I’m thinkin’ that Dopey done shot his wad. Drunkin’ stumblebum, suin’ the fire dept., cavortin’ with nazi billionaires, jumpin’ into the nutty teabaggers with both feet. Nope. Just too much history for Dopey to overcome. The dumdass should stuck with the job he had. But HEY, intelligence is the one thing that nobody’s ever accused Dopey of havin’! Koch talkin’ points just ain’t enough this time! Sad, so sad for the Dopester. Guess he’ll have to get a real job, or find another fire dept. to sue!
Denny’s Pick for President
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sunil-adam/michele-bachmanns-calling_b_840861.html
Oh fercrhissakes! Wanna be a govt. sucking millionaire? Hey, no problema. Just get your ass to an Indian reservation and start rakin’ in the good life! It’s all there!….according to Focks news! They’re teabaggerific! Now, is there ANY racial group left in Amerikkka that they haven’t managed to yet set against each other? I doubt it. Looks as if Indians are now in play. Must be a Koch/Murkoch hail mary pass for Dopey Reeburp! How bout it, Dopey? You gonna gobble this Koch?
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/john-stossel-no-group-has-been-helped
What should be understood, though, is the Tea Party is simply a symptom of a much larger problem. The unrest and discontent expressed by the early tea party rallies still exists and some would argue, have gotten worse. The Tea Party was a revolution of sorts (primarily peaceful for the most part, but a revolution none the less) and until the situation that spawned that revolution is addressed, there will be more (and stronger) mini-revolutions. The question to ask yourself is whether you want to see another racists, puritanical, neo religious revolution, or do you want to see a much more logical, focused, directed revolution? In the kind of times being seen now in the US, a revolution is easy to start but hard to direct and only through a concerted effort will any lasting change be made because of one.
There is no question that the Tea Party hurt the Montana GOP, but unless the Democrats can generate enough interest and credibility in resolving the issues that formed the Tea Party revolution, they are in the same boat.
The teaparty had no issues other than what the kochs said that could have. Attacking the goverment is not a strategy. The government functions to protect the powerless from the powerful, NOT the other way around, as the teaparty would have it.
You want’a see a real revolution, go to Wisconsin. But the teaparty is a joke, just as I predicted long before the Lege convened. Hell, I actually KNEW a lot of the folks prancing around on the courthouse steps here in GF, and they were exactly what I knew them to be. Hypocritical racists, goverment suckers, and the most extreme of the rightwing who listen only to beck and blimpaugh. And not too bright to boot. I did not see many of the folks that you describe.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-civil-war-erupts-led-by-super-rich-gop-2011-03-22?pagenumber=2
It does not surprise me that “a new civil war” is coming. A better term would be “revolution” but that is just semantics.
Those that do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. I wish I knew who said that first, I would credit it but it is a “truism” we often forget. Anytime a country develops a large inequity between the ruling class and the vast majority of it’s citizens, revolution becomes inevitable. It doesn’t always have to the take the form of violence either (though it often does). When people are starving, cold, and unable to provide for their families, they revolt against those that hold the money/power. If this class war continues much longer, it will happen here too. From a strictly logical standpoint, it behooves the ruling class to try to prevent this revolution by improving the conditions of those that serve them but it seems our ruling class doesn’t even recognise the warning signs already in existence. It used to be you could stave off revolution by controlling the media but with the advent of the internet and almost instantanious communication by text and phone, there is no way for the ruling class to truly do that. They can use propoganda (it has worked so far with Social Security). They can use strategic application of force like what happened in Montana to the Medical marijuana distributors. They can use distraction (that actually works pretty well on us because we haven’t learned yet – in this information overload society – to figure out what is distraction and what is important). Eventually, though, enough people will be hungry, cold and angry enough to push past all that and demand an improvement. The longer it takes, the more likely it will be bloody.
Make no mistake, it is coming. The Tea Party – though misguided and abused by those that would use it for their own bigoted and low brow agenda – was the first of many such “movements”.
The Tea Party had a point, State and local taxes had increased, but they’d did not understand that because the Federal Goverment was taking in less taxes – Reagan/Bush tax cut state and local goverments had to raise taxes to make up shortfall caused by less federal funds. I was amazed at the regressive tax structure in Florida, when I was there with my folks, there the working poor are completely screwed. 10.00 tax on house phone, cell phone, cable bill, power bills, sales tax, but the wealthy love it because their is no income tax.
That is actually and oversimplification and actually, an injustice to Reagan. While Reagan did do a MASSIVE tax cut to the wealthy in 1981 (reducing their tax from 70% to the 35% it is now), he instituted some of the largest tax INCREASES in the last century by closing loopholes, and making it harder for anyone to escape paying taxes. Revenue increased under Reagan. This is a fact that people tend to ignore.
Under Bush Senior, Clinton and Bush Junior (as well as Obama so far), revenue has fallen because of tax cuts. Clinton attempted to raise taxes by eliminating some exemptions and tax loopholes (ala Reagan) but he was blocked by special interests. Bush Junior did the most damage so far with his tax cuts and special interest tax incentives/breaks and if those are not addressed, there is no hope what so ever of addressing the crushing 14 trillion dollar debt (and the interest on that debt).
Reagan raised my Taxes, not just the wealthy’s . Doubled the Social Security rate, cut deductions I had (I made 12,000-20,000 a year) did away with income averaging, credit card interest deduction, auto loan interest deduction…..
You are making my case for me. Faced with a fiercely escalating national debt, he realized that cutting spending wasn’t enough. To address the debt, he had to increase revenue – and he did. He made significant inroads to addressing the debt but all the presidents that followed him failed to continue that work (though to be fair, Clinton did make the attempt and might have succeeded had he not gotten embroiled in a sex scandel).
I am not one of those people that diefy Reagan, but he did do a lot of things right – not the least of which was that he was able to foster a sentiment of “one country” – something that no president since him has been able to do. Had he not instituted his “voodoo economic” program of “trickle down” investment, we would be in far better shape financially than without him. I am glad I voted for him and would do it again given the choice. I just wish that this generation of politician could find their way to doing things in a bi-partisan way as they did under Reagan instead of arguing who threw the baby out with the bath water.
Instead increasing the rate on the very wealthy by a few % points, when he faced the short fall caused by the wealthy’s tax cut, he increased taxes on middle and working classes instead.
A model thats been followed ever since. Decrease the upper brackets rate and increase the lower brackets….
That is not fair or accurate. He most certainly did raise taxes on the wealthy – by cutting tax incentives, tax shelters and strengthening punishment for tax evaders. I am not saying that he didn’t cut the wealthy a break – he did by reducing the tax they owed (on paper) from 70% to 35%. But when you consider that the vast majority of the wealthy paid almost no taxes under the “70%” tax rate because of the loopholes in the law, the end result was that they paid more in taxes even after the rate was halved… and they thanked him for it because they could stop buying into the – sometimes – expensive tax shelters.
The damage he did was enpower the government to encourage corporations to accumulate wealth under his “trickle down” economic model. By doing that, he set the stage for the corporate takeover of America we are seeing now. Even Bush senior saw his economic policy as “voodoo economics” (bush coined the phrase) but Bush was unsuccessful in reversing it – not that he tried all that hard.
I have made this observation before and always I get the same answer – “But Moorcat, the Average American enjoys a standard of living that far exceeds what those – even in developed, industrial countries have. Why would American’s revolt?” The answer is in the assumption that it matters to Americans how other people live.
Anger is fueled by perception, not reality. We, in America, have come to depend on our increased standard of living (though even that is a perception – what I consider a decent standard of living is very different than someone say in Portland or West Virginia would see as a decent standard of living). When that standard of living decreases, we mourn that decease and it makes us angry. When it decreases a LOT, things begin to get interesting. How many, even poverty level families enjoy the benefit of having at least one car, a TV, a Computer, and running water? What happens to that family when they can’t afford to purchase the electricity to run that computer (or their TV, or their refrigerator, etc)? What happens when their water is shut off because they can’t pay the bill?
I have had the luxury of seeing how people live in over 40 other countries in the course of my life. Even our lower class has it pretty good compared to a lot of other places. That said, it simply doesn’t matter. When the majority of people in the US lose the standard of living they are used to, they WILL revolt. At first it will be “rallys”. Next will come “movements”. Eventually, if the situation becomes bad enough, it will be shots fired. It will happen. History tells us it will happen.
Before Larry jumps on my crap about how the Evil Koch brothers started the Tea Party for their nefarious purposes, consider two things.
1) The first thing to consider is Occam’s Razer that (inaccurately) is summarized as “the simplest explanation is probably the correct one”. Is it easier to believe that unhappy, dis-satisfied people all over the country have begun to express that unhappiness in the form of an unorganized “Tea party movement” or is it easier to believe that the Koch brothers, after brokering the demise of Kennedy, have systematically organized every bircher, racist, bigot and miopic dwarf into a para-military organization intent to causing the demise of everyone who is not-them? The fact that the bigots, homophobes, and beer swilling mental midgets have joined the Tea Party is easily explained given the anti-government sentiment of the Tea Party. I have a real hard time buying Larry’s conspiracy theory.
2) It doesn’t matter. If the Koch Brothers did start the Tea Party, like Larry contends, it backfired badly. These malcontents have only succeeded in proving their own silliness and have proven completely ineffective at acheiving the neferious Koch agenda. What they have done, though, is energized a section of the population that traditionally doesn’t get energized – that of the rational, play it by ear, don’t make waves crowd. Their idiocy has forced these people – who rarely bother themselves to get involved – to actually stand up and ask what the hell is going on. They will vote next time – if for no other reason than the fact that they are embarrassed that a bunch of inbred, homophobic, racists have been elected as their “representatives”
The next movement we will see will be more rational, directed and entergized – in part because of the absolute idiocy of the Tea party. If I were the Koch Brothers, I would be a little nervous about what I had created.
If there were a notable distance between the conservatism practiced by Baucus/Tester and Rehberg there would be a much bigger spread.
From my perspective the differences between our Democrats and our Teabaggers is less than infinitesimal.
Farmer Jon Tester is and will always be as country as was Conrad Burns. The philosophical differences between Baucus and Racicot are miniscule at best; but our current governor is a lot further to the left than was Judy Martz. But then who is not?
I would argue that there is a large “difference” in terms of conservatism between Tester/Baucus and Rehberg. They are (all three) completely different in how they legislate and two of the three vasilate back and forth between conservatism, moderate, and liberal. Further, those three terms almost have no meaning anymore because each person defines them in thier own light – berift of any kind of agreement in terms.
What I will say is that Baucus and Rehberg seem to share a common master – the corporations that donate to thier re-election campaigns. Tester seems to as well but not to the degree Richy Rehberg and Baucus do. What makes Rehberg unique in that group is that he does as little as possible while taking as much credit as possible from other people. At least Baucus and Tester are willing to stand up and propose things – even if those things seem to serve thier corporate masters more than they do us. Tester has actually accomplished a number of things that aid the working class he claims to support, not so much the other two.
Given a choice between Tester and Rehberg – especially given the corporate takeover of America, I am far more likely, at this point to support Tester. I believe that he gets the current financial situation better than Rehberg and is more likely to be swayed by common people like me. Rehberg has proven over and over again that he could care less about us and far more about his fellow millionares.
Having to choose between Rehberg and Tester leaves one with no choice but the party line. Montana has been voting that way pretty much since l961 I’d guess…
Since I have no party line, I will simply vote for which one I think would make a better legislator. I think Tester votes more often for the people in the State of Montana (vs for the corporations that support his re-election). Moreover, I think Tester will actually DO something more than drink his way through his term. Rehberg has been essencially ineffective as a legislator though he has stepped up to take the credit of what others have done.
Moreover, I think Tester is likely to be more true conservative than Rehberg will be. Rehberg has a history of supporting his corporate masters in anything they desire while Tester seems to actually understand that voting for the corporations is not always in the best interests of his constituants. Rehberg has gone on record touting how he has “reduced taxes” (on the rich) not even realizing that by doing so, he has made our economic woes even worse. Tester has gone on record to say that revenue is part of the issue with our current financial woes and while he has said he is against new taxes, he has also said that the exemptions and loopholes in our tax system need to be closed – starting with the rich since they have more of them.
Dislike for Rehberg is not a partisan thing, moorcat; but hoping the farmer jon will do better if he is re-elected strikes me as patriopathy.
Patriopathy? Please tell me that is a coined phrase new to the English language… maybe something Palin made up? I tried to look it up in both the Webster’s online dictionary as well as the Urban dictionary and no hits – therefore I can’t really respond directly to your comment.
I never said that “farmer jon” would do better if re-elected. What I said is that I believe that Tester is more likely to support Montanan’s than Rehberg is. It is strictly a judgement call based on the key elements I spoke about in my original answer to you. You are, of course more than welcome to disagree with me but kindly, in the future, do so with real English words so we can converse with some confidence of understanding each other. Palin is destroying the English language almost as much as “leet speak”.
It is of my own minting, moorcat; but I’m certain you can figure out what it means without assistance from Webster’s online dictionary [or] the Urban dictionary…
Opensecrets.org oN Tester
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?type=C&cid=N00027605&newMem=N&cycle=2010
Open Secrets.org on Rehberg
http://www.opensecrets.org/races/contrib.php?cycle=2010&id=MT01
Overton Window: I think the fundamental insight re the impact of the Teahadists, is that it is now acceptable to spout Bircherist nonsense in mainstream political speech.
<a href=http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150333/the_bizarre_religious_myths_mormon_right-wingers_are_pushing_on_tea_partiers_–_with_glenn_beck%27s_help/"Know your enemy"
Well, I blew that HTML tag. Here’s the link:
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150333/the_bizarre_religious_myths_mormon_right-wingers_are_pushing_on_tea_partiers_–_with_glenn_beck%27s_help/
The Kochs are unhappy
http://kaystreet.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/kochs-lash-out-at-dangerous-critics-radical-obama/
Ah, unfortunately, this is the EXACTL SAME KIND OF LANGUAGE that their dirty bastard FATHER used extensively just prior to the JFK assassination. Well, not THIS time, boys! We’re on to you! (btw, these brothers would have been in their teens at the time. they were probably privvy to any part their dirty bastard father played in it, like PLASTERING Dallas with those wanted posters, and funding the nutjob gen. edwin walker. THIS bit of history ain’t about to be repeated! These nazis pulled a coup once. No more!) This is simply the most hateful, vile group to EVER be in this country, the jonh birch society! I just callin’ nazis, because they are. These are the guys that LOVED and DEALT with Hitler all through the war by sureptitious means.
“Well, not THIS time, boys! We’re on to you!”
You and the rangers gonna step in, doglap?
No, of course not. But holding people accountable? Well, maybe. But here’s the deal, Jed. Our country and its future was STOLEN from us once by folks just like these no good dirty bastard Kock brothers. THIS time around, we’re goin’ into any coups with our eyes wide OPEN!
You wanna call Obama a commie? Well then, F*CK U! You nazi bastards better OWN UP to wackin’ Kennedy! It’s all about turn about bein’ fair play! Yeah, I’m a commie, but YOU’RE a no good nazi!
If you think that social security is communism and worthy of wackin’ a prez over, well then, I’m callin’ you a no good nazi worthy of the same! That’s all.
These no good Kock brothers have had a free ride for too long. They’ve been outed and they don’t like it. Well, I say, TUFF SH*T! We’ve got your number, and if you try any MORE funny stuff with OUR democacray, I’m holdin’ YOU personally responsible.
Does that help?
I don’t know Larry. The oligarchy has everybody else by the shorthairs; and I keep hearing a lot of leftists–not just you–making what I consider quite empty threats about taking back the power. Unfortunately they all seem to be about as nonspecific as you…
Larry thinks the country fundamentally changed on 11/22/63. I took that stance once until I looked at events before and events after, and found no change.
I agree with you on that, but a coup definitely changes things in the sense that the prospects FOR change are immediately stolen from you.
My larger point though is that they type of evil we face changed dramatically after WWII with the advent of collusion between the secretive espionage type units (CIA) and the corporations. That did NOT exist until WWII. When Kennedy threatened to “shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces”, he signed his own death warrant.
What we now have is true fascism whether people believe that or not. And it takes a long time to get a country back from fascism, and a lot of suffering too. Just look at any of the countries in S.A. where we fomented and supported fascist dictators.
I think it’s very important for people to realize two things. One, that we had a coup. And two, the exact SAME forces are still calling the shots, only now they’re going for broke.
Well, others also say that the country fundamentally changed, not in 1963, but instead in 1948 with passage of the National Security Act. That act formed CIA out of the old OSS and changed the name of the Department of “War” to “Defense,” meaning that we were going into a permanent state of war. 1948 was also the year that Orwell published 1984, a book that explained why freedom = slavery and “War” = “Defense.”
It’s a stretch, however, to cherry-pick pieces of evidence from the early 1960′s and draw big conclusions. Kennedy’s “shatter the CIA…” statement was made in the wake of the Bay of Pigs in 1961 – he was doing political cover, nothing more. Allan Dulles understood this. The CIA did not fundamentally change after April of 1961.
More likely, in my point of view, JFK was caught in a perfect storm – Bobby had angered Mafia Dons, Mafia Dons were assisting the CIA, Cuban expatriates were pissed about the Bay of Pigs and thought that JFK pulled the rug on them, the Pentagon was planning a major land invasion of Cuba and assassination of Castro. Eliminate one of those factors, and JFK lives to get us into Vietnam.
That 1948 bill also gave us the NSA, an agency that has eyes and ears on all of us, and is even bigger than the CIA, each with a black box budget. As soon as an agency like that is formed, as Mary followed the little lamb, it starts spying on members of congress and the media, so that its budget is a shoo-in. It can be no other way.
I’m not disagreeing with you. It’s what our current reality is. This sh*t did not happen over night. It’s slow, calculated, and insidious. We have democracy in name only, and the folks paying attention know it. But I also think that an effective remedy begins with an understanding of the origins of our current fascism and the players involved. THAT is why it scares the hell outta me to see the birchers and bushes now calling the shots. REAL scary folks. Not pretend nazis at all. They’re the real deal. They MUST be recognized for what they are.
We live in a fake democracy. It didn’t become that in 1963 – I take it back to the universal franchise. That’s when the leadership decided that if everyone was going to vote, voting would have to be a perfunctory experience meant only to make us feel like we’re in charge.
And it was liberals who pushed fake democracy. Nothing changed in 1963 – that’s what I learned when I dipped my head in all of the JFK books. And that was the lesson I took away. Nothing changed.
The constitution was drawn up by and for a group of bougeois lawyers, farmers and merchants. Since then we have been conned into thinking it established some protections for the rest of us…
Ran across this timely righteous rant at DKos. I’ll bet you’ll recognize this guy, we have ‘em in Washington too:
“It was one of those enormous black pickup trucks, with the huge knobby tires and smoked glass windows and chrome roll bar complete with half a dozen giant chrome halogen lights and a ten foot high antenna whipping about in the slipstream and pipe organ-like exhaust pipes jutting up from behind the cab belching thick plumes of white diesel smoke like the twin contrails of a fighter jet on full afterburner.
The great steel beast wasn’t, in and of itself, unusual for the Glenn Highway at 6AM – or even unusual for Alaska in general, where giant manly trucks full of patriotic manly Viagra-fueled studs are quite common.
What caught my eye were the bumper stickers:
- Proud American emblazoned across a red, white, and true blue Captain America shield;
- In God I trust, In big government I fear. We must protect the country we love!;
- and my perennial favorite: I love my country, it’s the damned government I hate.
Now, to be perfectly honest, those bumper sticker slogans aren’t particularly unusual on the Glenn Highway at 6AM either – and normally, they wouldn’t be enough to rise above my “What the hell?” threshold.
Not by themselves.
No, what caught my eye was the giant Confederate flag treatment in the back window.
Wait, what?
Proud American.
Confederate Flag.
Proud American.
Confederate Flag.”
Read the rest here, it’s worth your time:
http://www.stonekettle.com/2011/03/america-you-keeping-using-that-word.html
Excellent article. I read this awhile back on smirkingchimp.com Ya know, this is EXACTLY what I’ve been askin’ every teabugger on all the forums for a long time. And I’ve never had one of them answer yet. This guy does an excellent job of calling them out.
Oh MY GOD.. that was funny. I followed the links as well and the liberal article was just as good.
I had the unfortunate experience of living in the South the last few years, where I was the Tea Party and the Klan were one and the same….
FYI, Denny’s on his ‘common man energy tour’ and was pumping (for votes) gas at the local co-op (formerly MT Farmers UNION oil) which perhaps the Koch (a.k.a. ‘tea’) Party wants to crush as well, as ‘how dare those farmers and ranchers’ form co-ops to get CHEAPER fuel and exercise BARGAINING power? We’re ALL in this together – union, non-union, Middle Class, farmers, ranchers, etc. – and getting it from the Oligarchs and ‘master of the universe’ corporates who are paying NO taxes or damn little, like General Electric! GE and other corporations (remember GE was Ronald Reagan’s employer, and he even questioned what they ‘kicked in’) contributed 30 percent of the tax revenue in the Fifties (note before Eisenhower’s WARNING about the military-industrial complex which has really NOT been the warrior’s friend) and now corporations only contribute 6 percent of the tax revenue, IF that! 60 Minutes has a great story on this last night about corporation headquarters in Switzerland, the ‘new’ off-shore ‘island’ where US corporations like TRANSOCEAN can launder the profits to AVOID contributing to the Nation’s taxbase, a Nation that FLY covers for the corporations all over the planet, where we still fight and die for energy.
The teaparty is a one hit wonder kinda like the macquraia dance back when I was in high school, or those three brothers that sang that um bop song at the same time too. Basically they had one success and that was the 2010 elections. They may have somewhat of an impact down at the local level, like in county governments in Eastern Montana, and some school board elections, and of course they will have their facebook pages and their mailing lists, but in general they will never have success again at the statewide or national levels.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/tea-party-health-care-compact
Thanks for the link, it will be useful in the post I am writing about Medicare/Medicaid and Health Care Reform