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The Very Angry Tea Party
The NY Slimes ^ | June 17, 2010 | J.M. BERNSTEIN

Posted on 06/17/2010 4:34:39 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough

The seething anger that seems to be an indigenous aspect of the Tea Party movement arises, I think, at the very place where politics and metaphysics meet, where metaphysical sentiment becomes political belief. More than their political ideas, it is the anger of Tea Party members that is already reshaping our political landscape. As Jeff Zeleny reported last Monday in The Times, the vast majority of House Democrats are now avoiding holding town-hall-style forums — just as you might sidestep an enraged, jilted lover on a subway platform — out of fear of confronting the incubus of Tea Party rage that routed last summer’s meetings. This fear-driven avoidance is, Zeleny stated, bringing the time-honored tradition of the political meeting to the brink of extinction.

It would be comforting if a clear political diagnosis of the Tea Party movement were available — if we knew precisely what political events had inspired the fierce anger that pervades its meetings and rallies, what policy proposals its backers advocate, and, most obviously, what political ideals and values are orienting its members.

Of course, some things can be said, and have been said by commentators, under each of these headings. The bailout of Wall Street, the provision of government assistance to homeowners who cannot afford to pay their mortgages, the pursuit of health care reform and, as a cumulative sign of untoward government expansion, the mounting budget deficit are all routinely cited as precipitating events. I leave aside the election of a — “foreign-born” — African-American to the presidency.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: hysterical; iamsmartandyouarenot; november; racecard
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To: Travis McGee

At this point, such an ultimatum would indeed just inflame things further.

As another columnist pointed out the other day,
“intellectuals” who attempt to denigrate the Tea Party as a bunch of hicks or rubes
is only affirming what we already think - they are a bunch of out of touch elitists that need to be purged from all power.


41 posted on 06/17/2010 5:42:07 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

This writer is another completely clueless member of the MSM. He also might want to look up metaphysics and find out what it really means.


42 posted on 06/17/2010 5:43:37 AM PDT by numberonepal (Don't Even Think About Treading On Me)
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To: Travis McGee

The Bonus Army is an interesting (and un-taught) historical reference. MacArthur and Eisenhower had a big ‘enforcement’ role in that, IIRC.

Only upside of the whole gig was the GI Bill. That and exposing the ‘benevolence’ of FDR.


43 posted on 06/17/2010 5:44:45 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
There is indeed something not just disturbing, but frightening, in the anger of the Tea Party.

Ah! Another leftist/Marxist out for a walk among the "natives" trying to understand them.

Has anyone noticed that when the leftist/Marxists attempts to write about the Right it is as if he were an anthropologist trying to understand a foreign people and foreign land?

I leave aside the election of a — “foreign-born” — African-American to the presidency.

Yep! That silly piece of stinking dog pooh! Can't step in that. Imagine!... Those silly birthers insisting that the Constitution be upheld. That's so bizare we'll just "leave that aside". (/s)

Lilla cites as examples the growth in home schooling,

According to the author it is due to libertarianism. It couldn't possibly be due to ineffective teaching practices, violence, moral decay, homosexual infiltration, teachers unions, dumbed-down standards, textbooks that denigrate and/or ignore our nation's history, and Marxist indoctrination in the government schools.

Finally,...Please note the author's picture at the bottom of the essay. He has that same snide, nose uplifted, superior look that Obama has.

44 posted on 06/17/2010 5:45:42 AM PDT by wintertime
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To: Cboldt

Like most libs, he may not even be aware that he’s basing all of his conclusions on myths and lies. His/their basic assumptions of who man is and who God is put lenses over his eyes such that he CAN’T see the truth.


45 posted on 06/17/2010 5:45:52 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
if we knew precisely what political events had inspired the fierce anger that pervades its meetings

This elitist scumbag has probably never visited flyover country. If he doesn't understand our anger now he never will.

46 posted on 06/17/2010 5:45:59 AM PDT by 6ppc (It's torch and pitchfork time)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

Ooooh, the VERY ANGRY Tea Party. It looks like the Monty Python troupe missed a fun possibility when they portrayed the results of the “Serious Party” against “The Silly Party”, “The Very Silly Party” and “The Slightly Silly Party.”


47 posted on 06/17/2010 5:46:19 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

In light of the Gulf Oil disaster perhaps we should temporarily use the words, “Tar Party”.

Though I am at a loss to make the letters TAR into something useful, ideas?


48 posted on 06/17/2010 5:49:56 AM PDT by Eye of Unk ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act" G.Orwell)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

Idiot author should be forced to follow Code Pink around for a year and a day -— then he’ll learn the real meaning of hostility & downright mean nastiness.


49 posted on 06/17/2010 5:52:54 AM PDT by hennie pennie
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To: MrB
"Interesting that he calls the TP a bunch of nihilists. Nihilists believe there is nothing but the present life, and this leads to a worship of the state. You exist for the perpetuation of the power of the state, and that’s your only worth. The Tea Party people are the exact opposite of nihilists."

This article is projection; virtually all comment from the LEFT is projection. That is, they perceive the world in terms of their own bigotry. They "project" their own bias on to others.

It is a quite obvious phenomenon commonly associated with those of limited imagination; hence they are unable to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes," or unable to concede that others have more insight. It is a total lack of respect for the independent intelligence of other people, in short, arrogance.

Is that not obvious with today's Democrats?

It is also the same as the Nanny society, and is clearly related to the family function of fathers pushing the kids out the door into the real world versus the mothers who do not trust (respect) the ability of the child to handle it.

Mr Bernstein here claims others are nihilists, because he himself is a nihilist; he has nothing to offer. Hence the tagline below. It is a lack of imagination, and the cloying effect of arrogance and personal ego.

Again is that not obvious in today's Democrats, personified graphically by Barack Obama?

And incidentally many, many academics, certainly most, inherit this affliction.

All Democrats will insist that you see the world as they do in their limited intelligence. It's called Leftism.

Johnny Suntrade

50 posted on 06/17/2010 5:56:56 AM PDT by jnsun (The Left: the need to manipulate others because of nothing productive to offer.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

America is made up of laws with the root to those laws based on the bible. They need to stop trying to add laws only for a certain person or gender or subvert them with hidden adjendas. It is up to our elected leaders to set the example higher than the bar is already set. Not obey only the ones they like or disagree with.


51 posted on 06/17/2010 5:58:02 AM PDT by Moonbug
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To: LurkedLongEnough

To the New York Times, the unlimited expansion of the welfare state is such a self-evidently worthy goal that they can’t understand how any legitimate political movement could possibly be opposed to it.


52 posted on 06/17/2010 5:58:55 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ( "The right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended." - Rowan Atkinson)
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To: Blueflag
becoming what Hegel called, referring to the original Jacobins’ fantasy of total freedom, “a fury of destruction”

Dude, your people are the Jacobins, literally. You believe everything they believed: Rights are given by the state, not God; religion is evil, and must be replaced by the state; the state must rearrange and run people's personal lives, because they cannot be trusted to do so; enemies of the state have no rights, and can be confined or executed to suit the political needs of the leadership. And so forth.

We're tired of your fury of destruction of the past 70 years. We're going to tear it out by its roots and spray it with Round Up just to make sure.

53 posted on 06/17/2010 6:00:13 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: Blueflag

This is the kind of crap I would have expected as a response to the Tea Party from the House of Lords in 1775...what a loser.


54 posted on 06/17/2010 6:02:52 AM PDT by Keith (We live in an America of National Socialism...sound familiar? It should...)
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To: SamuraiScot

He actually posed the question in the depths of his article (and the depths of his depravity) -

does the concept of the individual come from some inherent individuality or is it created by society.

This IS the crux of the matter - Who is the sovereign Creator? Is it God or government? He assumes “society” or government is the creator, obviously.


55 posted on 06/17/2010 6:03:16 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: MrB
-- he may not even be aware that he's basing all of his conclusions on myths and lies. --

That's the charitable take. My point was that a significant number of these media twits is in fact willfully dishonest. Ends justify the means sort of philosophy. This writer is a myth creator, as well as myth consumer.

56 posted on 06/17/2010 6:04:34 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: SamuraiScot

“We’re going to tear it out by its roots and spray it with Round Up just to make sure. “

classic....well done!


57 posted on 06/17/2010 6:04:52 AM PDT by Keith (We live in an America of National Socialism...sound familiar? It should...)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
The Very Angry Tea Party

AFAIC not angry enough.

58 posted on 06/17/2010 6:07:09 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Cboldt

It’s hard to tell if a lefty is self deluded or is intentionally dishonest, or a mixture of the two.

As Sowell pointed out in his “Intellectuals and Society”,
“intellectuals” stop examining a topic or issue at the point
where they feel good about themselves for being “on the side of the angels”.

This is why they only credit themselves with being “a good person” for “saving the earth” and “caring about the poor” and will not further examine the destructive nature of the policies they promote to “accomplish” these goals. Feeling good about oneself IS the goal, and once accomplished, no further examination is done or required.


59 posted on 06/17/2010 6:07:49 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

By avoiding town hall meetings, the cowardly Democrats are giving their Republican challengers a great campaign issue. Both Kinzinger in IL 11 and Fitzpatrick in PA 8 are running ads on this issue. I expect many others will as well.


60 posted on 06/17/2010 6:17:31 AM PDT by randita (Visit keyhouseraces.com for a list of vulnerable DEM and must hold GOP House seats.)
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