Posted on 10/03/2011 7:46:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Why hasn’t there been a Tea Party on the left? And can President Obama and the American left develop a functional relationship?
That those two questions are not asked very often is a sign of how much of the nation’s political energy has been monopolized by the right from the beginning of Obama’s term. This has skewed media coverage of almost every issue, created the impression that the president is far more liberal than he is, and turned the nation’s agenda away from progressive reform.
A quiet left has also been very bad for political moderates. The entire political agenda has shifted far to the right because the Tea Party and extremely conservative ideas have earned so much attention. The political center doesn’t stand a chance unless there is a fair fight between the right and the left.
It’s not surprising that Obama’s election unleashed a conservative backlash. Ironically, disillusionment with George W. Bush’s presidency had pushed Republican politics right, not left. Given the public’s negative verdict on Bush, conservatives shrewdly argued that his failures were caused by his lack of fealty to conservative doctrine. He was cast as a big spender (even if a large chunk of the largess went to Iraq). He was called too liberal on immigration and a big-government guy for bailing out the banks, using federal power to reform the schools and championing a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Conservative funders realized that pumping up the Tea Party movement was the most efficient way to build opposition to Obama’s initiatives. And the media became infatuated with the Tea Party in the summer of 2009, covering its disruptions of congressional town halls with an enthusiasm not visible this summer when many Republicans faced tough questions from their more progressive constituents.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Classic. The politics of envy writ large.
What is this, “movement envy”?
I thought the left were the Progressives, the ones with all the new ideas, the ones with the high-class educations, the ones who came out of our most elite schools.
I thought the left were the winners, the ones who didn’t have to worry about the knuckle-dragging throwbacks who only wanted to lynch Blacks from lampposts.
I thought the left was the party of the little guy, the working man, who rejected the clenched-up intolerance of Conservatism for the enlightenment of mankind.
Whaaaaat...?? We are going to reject all this now?
Oh, and above all, I thought the left was the party that stood up for and stayed true to its’ many principles.
The answer to that is no, because the TEA Party is an entity that backs limited government, anathema to the democrats.
But none of that matters, because in Dionne’s dutifully liberal mind, the only question about anything is... “will it please Obama.”
Yes, probably. Well, they would serve tea, BRITISH tea, to each other. They would discuss the latest in Liberal Intelligentsia Elite “thinking”, better known as the L.I.E., and of course talk about their Expert Counterculture appearences on the tabloid Main Stream Media - - - .
HEY! I believe that I am describing the present ! They already have THEIR “T.E.A.” Party and it stands for TAX ENTERPRISE AMERICA !
That’s another reason that they can’t organize an analog to the Tea Party.
Just like with talk radio and Fox News, the Tea Party is a COUNTER to the prevailing ubiquitous leftist/secular humanist culture in America.
You can’t gain a following or market share when what you’re selling is available wherever else you turn.
It’s like selling snow to eskimos.
BTW, this is a clear admission that the Left's astroturfing attempt to replicate TEA Party anger at townhall meetings was a complete and dismal failure.
“We are Spartacus”
The Left could never match the Tea Party because they are pigs and do not clean up after themselves. They also are very violent and that will not go over well with folks. The left is also angry whereas the Tea Party is resolute.
A “left” teaparty would be to the TEA Party what Air-America was to the likes of Limbaugh, et al.
Pure astroturf. The TEA Party movement is something that is uniquely conservative. It is because they have logic and reason - and a civilized attitude - on their side.
The left has emotion. Cut through that and they have nothing. It means their events need to be powered by emotion and, when the stakes are high, that is never pretty.
They can send fake letters to everyone and look like there's millions of activists - when in fact it's three paid professionals in a 'war room'... Those three people and their political bosses can't have a 'Tea party'.
There's two sections to the 'hate' section of of liberal elites. 'rent a crowds' - where Union goons, ACORN members, citizens working off court ordered speeding tickets, protests.
And the street riots bunch - bored citizens who think it's still 1968 - who want entertainment and excitement. They can't do 'Tea Party' either...
“Stage”?
LOL man, talk about starting out on the wrong foot.
—The Left could never match the Tea Party because they are pigs and do not clean up after themselves.—
I gotta admit that every time I think of leftist events and their aftermath I think of the mess at the end of the movie Woodstock. That pretty much says it all.
And it hasn’t changed. Some of the old hippies are now TEA partiers, and they don’t leave that kind of mess any more. They grew up. :-)
How far can a Coffee Party go on the platform of “tax us more, abort our children, make us all debt slaves and destroy our military”.
It’s just not a very catchy platform.
They tried. It was called the “Coffee Party.”
I recall seeing the video of their first mtg on TV. Complete with Susie Benjaman of Code Pinko in attendance.
They did...it was called the “Coffee Party”
It was so wildly successful that apparently, nobody remembers is
RE: It’s just not a very catchy platform.
How catchy is the platform — MAKE THE GREEDY RICH PAY MORE FOR THE NEEDS OF SOCIETY?
The answer to dionne’s question is an emphatic “no.” The Tea Party movement is already the response from the right to what the left has been doing for decades. They have been “organized” by their “leaders.” We are self-activated and self-organized.
Where do these people get this sort of stuff? Dionne tries to make it sound as though deep pockets on the right have thrown large sums of money at the Tea Party movement to build it up, when nothing of the sort has happened.
He's subtly trying to reinforce the 'astroturf' claim by some on the left, including Nancy Pelosi. It was a lie when she said it, and it's still a lie. The Tea Party is effective because it's not owned by any financial interests.
No, Dionne, the most efficient means to building opposition to Obama's initiatives was Obama's initiatives, you moron.
It would definitely be “staged”
RE: It was so wildly successful that apparently, nobody remembers is
Does anybody remember the NO LABELS movement?
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Labels
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