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 ...
Sorry I have to disagree, Sir Napsalot, but E. J. Dionne Jr. (love the junior part, it fits), understands all three just fine. He and his fellow elitists just reject them, and then try to deceive enough people into believing that they hold mainstream American values, when self-evidently, they don’t.
For E. J., murder is not always to be thought of as murder if it furthers the political goals he favors, so you will hear him condoning abortion, euthanasia, and other practices that blur the borderlands of life. For him life is not sacred, it is a commodity (remember, he is a philosophical materialist along with all other socialist types) to be granted/apportioned as the all knowing political/intellectual elite deem proper. Adultery is not always to be thought of as adultery if it serves the same purposes, so you will hear him condoning homosexuality, an “open” marriage policy, or philandering politicians (so long as they support the right things). It is simply a matter of getting enough people, confused by the pangs of their conscience getting in the way of what they are told is good and right, to look continuously to government and the so-called intelligentsia to explain to them how, really, this is good and normal and beneficial to society when it simply isn’t. Stealing is not always to be thought of as stealing if it serves the proper political purpose. Thus we can talk about confiscatory taxation for the purpose of redistributing wealth as if is is only different in degree from taxation necessary to keep the nation safe and secure. Bearing false witness is not always to be thought of as bearing false witness if it is used to destroy a political enemy of the left.
The left is operating with a different set of commandments than the majority. In E. J.’s world there is no such thing as a fixed morality, moral absolutes of right and wrong. Everything is negotiable ... everything. He, as other leftists before him (think French Revolution, the Nazis (yes, they were not of the right but of the left), the Bolsheviks, the Maoists) never see to understand that the day will come when, if they are successful, the machine they have created will turn on them and destroy them.
It is not that the leftist elite, as distinguished from the fools who listen to them, don’t understand the Tea Party, the original Boston tea party or the Constitution. They do, but do not agree with their goals and purposes. E. J. is not stupid. However, at this point in time he is getting frustrated, because the American populace is not as stupid as the Juniors of this world would like to believe it is. And when you are a member of the self-admitted smartest and most elite ever, that is pretty frustrating. Narcissism gone bad is pretty ugly.
Believe me, I do. He doesn’t write clunky sentences, but I really don’t go past the first “klong”, to use an old Sadire term.
Yep, that’s what my brain feels like when I hit the first false assumption/assertion:
“KLONG!”
Good catch ... I missed that one.
The left is having a tea party in NY as we speak. There were 700 arrests yesterday.
And on the west coast they took hostages in a tea party there.
Exactly right. The Americans that love their country needed a voice. They also needed to know that others felt as they did.
It cannot be reproduced by the left. They tear down, we rebuild.
OK, let’s agree to disagree.
I’ll admit SOME on the Left understand all three just fine but purposedly twisted the meaning they represent.
However, you’ll have to convince me that EJ is one of them.
RE: The left is having a tea party in NY as we speak. There were 700 arrests yesterday.
Interesting contrast right there. When the REAL Tea Party demonstrates, they do it peacefully to air their legitimate cocnerns and grievances. They leave the place spotless and clean.
When the left’s version of the tea party demonstrates, they become rowdy, block traffic, cause a huge inconvenience on commuters, make a humongous annoyance of themselves, and dare the police to arrest them.
You don’t need a Tea Party when you are on the side of the government.
,,,,,, “ can the left stage a Tea Party ?”
If necessity is the mother of invention than the Left created the Necessity that in turn created the current TEA PARTY and it’s growing successes . The radical socialist/marxist and liberal progressives are the reason the Tea Party is thriving ,,,,, so come on you liberal b@$+@rds ,,, buck up and take the credit for the nightmare that’s comin’ yo way !!!
The tea party is a middle-class movement.
The modern progressive left defines itself as that which is against “middle-classness.” (See Obama’s church, for an example).
No.
The Left organizes from the top down. See: North Korea for Leftist examples of mass mobilization.
RE: There were 700 arrests yesterday
NY jails are already filled to the brim, where are they going to put these additional 700?
you’re right... i missed that... great catch.
wish i caught it.
words mean things and the left tries to twist and turn every word to their advantage but occasionally they out themselves.
stage... hehehe
teeman
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