Posted on 05/17/2010 5:58:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The right-wing populist Tea Party movement has politicians of both parties spooked. Democrats fear it will bring so many Republicans to the boil, and then to the voting booth, that they will lose control of Congress. Republicans fear the movement will frighten away moderates and leave their party an unelectable, ideologically extreme rump. The press, both alarmed and delighted by this political force that sprang from nowhere, is eager to prove its lack of elitism and left-wing bias by treating the Tea Party activists with respect. Journalists also sincerely appreciate having something new to write or talk about. It is in their interest to keep this story going.
A Harris poll released the last day of March reported that a third of all adults support the Tea Party, and slightly less than a quarter oppose it. Do they know what they are supporting, or opposing? The movement is not yet united on a single platform or agenda, like Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract With America, which started as a triumph and ended as an embarrassment. The lack of specifics allows anyone who is just existentially fed up (and who isn’t, on some days?) to feel right at home. No one will demand to know what he or she is fed up with. On Web sites and in speeches, Tea Party Patriots reveal a fondness for procedural gimmicks (like a ban on congressional earmarks), constitutional amendments (term limits, balanced budget), and similar magic tricks or shortcuts to salvation. Apart from a general funk, though, the one common theme espoused by TPPs is the monstrous danger of Big Government.
The Tea Party movement has been compared (by David Brooks of The New York Times, among others) to the student protest movement of the 1960s.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Didn't those "old people" pay in to that system all their working lives in a social contract begun by your hero FDR? That's not a "gift" but an agreed upon payment Michael, one I'm sure you'll avail yourself of, whether you need it, or not.
Michael Kinsley, still alive—
(I hate statists.)
Just consider the source. This is nothing more than an active disinformation campaign.
How does Kinky justify his assertion? Does he just make it up?
The right-wing populist Tea Party movement has politicians of both parties spooked. Democrats fear it will bring so many Republicans to the boil, and then to the voting booth, that they will lose control of Congress.
:::::::::
“Bring many Republicans to the boil...”? The CONSERVATIVES of America are ALREADY at a boil, and that is what CREATED the Tea Party movement you idiot....and the government’s main function is now to GROW itself and its power. Those OLD PEOPLE made this country, and they PAID for it. You maggot.
“The Tea Party movement has been compared (by David Brooks of The New York Times, among others) to the student protest movement of the 1960s.”
The comparison with that group of idiots only stands as both groups had “members”. The comparison DIES when you compare that the Tea Party protesters either have jobs or have had jobs, are paying taxes or have paid taxes, and lastly, love America and the Constitution.
"Astro-turf?" "Tea baggers?" If they'd gotten only half the respected that transgendered peeping Toms get, Kinsley could be forgiven as merely forgetful; but he has to be a liar to try to slip this flatus through the crowd.
...and still Monkey Fishing...
Amen.
“a third of all adults support the Tea Party”
A third of all English colonists in America supported the first American revolution. What a coinkydink.
(Now there’s a factoid you won’t find in Slate.)
“a third of all adults support the Tea Party”
A third of all English colonists in America supported the first American revolution. What a coinkydink.
(Now there’s a factoid you won’t find in Slate.)
one more time ...
The Oligarchy gets antsy...when the peons and peasants start gettin’ uppity...they send out the old newshands to try to whip ‘em back in line....
Michael Kinsley
That is really all you need to know.
Metrosexual America hater.
Gay actually. So a self-loather too.
Do you suppose Media Matters and CAP gets these old liberal coots out of mothballs, hands them a big check, and gets their “message” out that way? I think we far underestimate the power of money to get these irrelevant old pundits scribbling again, particularly as unoriginal and dull as this offering from Kinsley is. I remember better and brighter prose than this tired, recycled Jon Stewart snark. “Talking points done. Now where’s my credit for $5K?”
And we should allow a pack of self-admitted, spineless, frightened Nervous Nellies run the country because...?
LLS
“It is to me a new and consolatory proof that wherever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” ~Thomas Jefferson
It is not only a right, but also the duty of free people to speak against every ideology that threatens freedom. Thomas Jefferson
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