National Candidates Backed by the Tea Party Movement Have Had Damaging Results
The more intelligent and responsible Moderate Republicans have voiced concerns that the Tea Party has only inadvertently hurt the GOP. A quote from within the Republican Party, "With the Tea Party creating the mischief like that currently in Colorado, we may not win any seats. At the moment there is not a cohesive Republican strategy of what we're going to do, and certainly among the Tea Party types, there's clearly no strategy of what we're going to do."
Many of the Tea Party’s favorites have failed to secure key nominations. The California Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore lost to businesswoman Carly Fiorina; Doug Hoffman lost in the New York House special election despite Sarah Palin’s backing; and Idaho Congressional candidate Vaughn Ward lost the Republican primary even though he too nabbed Palin's endorsement.
The Tea Party’s efforts have only backfired on the Republicans. Sen. Bob Bennett, the three-term senator from Utah, lost his re-election bid. The chances are that now this seat could very easily go to the Democrats.
But Tea Party supporters mindlessly say that the discord in the movement is its strength, not a weakness.
"It's designed to be fragmented. That's the difference between the Tea Party and the political elite," said Shelby Blakely, a spokeswoman for Tea Party Patriots, a national group that provides support to local Tea Party organizations.
The differences of opinion are "mathematically impossible to avoid and we actually don't want to," Blakely said. "We are working towards a common goal and when it comes down to the wire, we unite and we become a rather larger force of people who can donate millions of man hours and resources to the right candidates, to the right issue, the right legislation. We've proven that." (?!?!You are loosing elections right and left and Shelby Blakely is claiming success?!?!?!?)
Many candidates who really don’t have a chance of winning are exploiting the popular grassroots momentum of the Tea Party, but the question is, “How long that allegiance will remain.” In Massachusetts, the Tea Party helped Sen. Scott Brown win an upset victory over Democrat Martha Coakley for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. The Tea Party Express released an ad extolling the virtues of Brown, and the Our Country Deserves Better PAC poured money into his campaign. He was hailed by many as the first official Tea Party victory, even though Brown distanced himself from the movement instantly. But Brown's decision to side with the Democrats on Wall Street reform outraged Tea Party members, leading many to call him a traitor but the reality was that Brown is a Moderate Republican and the Tea Party claimed his victory after the fact.
Americans' view toward the Tea Party is divided. 30% said they are more likely to support a candidate who is associated with the Tea Party political movement, while 30% percent said they are less likely to. So I guess the balance of the 40% just consider the Tea Party is just BATSHIT CRAZY!
The next test of Tea Party's mettle is in Georgia, where on July 20, Palin-endorsed Karen Handel will face off against former Rep. Nathan Deal for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. My predictions are, the Tea Party will just manage to convert this election into another Three Ring Cluster F*#k!!! This is the only true measure!!!
The title of you post, Engineer, gives me hope that there still are viable and sensible people withing the GOP. Isn't it amazing, though, the power of Rush Limbaugh. Chris Matthews [MSNBC] has a running offer to any elected GOP official to come on his program and state that Limbaugh does not speak for the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is 70-something days since Matthews made this challenge and NO ONE has taken up that challenge.
Wow! What strength. Goebbels is put to shame!
May the tea party be the cause of the demise of the Republican party as well as its own spectacular flame-out. It is infested with bigots and racists and woo believers.
ReplyDeleteTea Part Patriots? More like
ReplyDeleteTea Bagging Parrots.
When disunity is described as a benefit, it's like fundamentalist theists saying they represent progressive scientific discovery. Bizarro world at its finest. A pox on the Tea Baggers and the Repubs.
Good article, Engineer.
I wrote this earlier today and posted it on Mudrakes blog in response to the Mason City, Iowa Teap Party billboard, it seems appropriate here.
ReplyDeleteBecause I know you might appreciate it, here is the original un censored version:
The saddest part of the billboard in Mason City, Iowa, paid for by the North Iowa Tea Party, is not the idiotic comparison of President Barack Obama to Hitler and Lenin. Oh, no. It's not the absolutely disingenuous response from the group, which was, "The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism." That's like saying the real issue in the Roman Polanski case is our extradition treaties.
No, the saddest part is not the moron's understanding of the vast, vast differences between the Nazi's "socialism" and the Soviet Union's. Or that a legally elected President and Congress spending money in the way they said they'd spend money when they campaigned during that election does not equal socialism. When one goes to Beck U, one can't get all those nuances in a 90-minute online lecture. If you're letting a man with no hands fuck you in the ass, you can't expect to get a reacharound.
And, no, the saddest parts are not the unwittingly ironic statements on the billboard. To "Live free or die," one might say, "Umm, didn't you just get to put up a big ass sign that says the President is Hitler? That seems pretty goddamn free, motherfucker." To "Radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive," one might say, "Truer words, man, truer words."
The saddest, most pathetic, most "Tell me about the rabbits, George" part of the thing is this: "Democrat Socialism." Why? Because the use of the word "Democrat" as an adjective. It's a trick that Republican cockmongers toss around, as a way of denigrating the Democratic Party by emphasizing "rat" at the end. It's sort of like looking at Newt Gingrich's big ass and saying, "Now that's a Republi-can." Except not as funny. The GOP's language game goes back, at least, to Joe McCarthy. And it's been used by Republicans since in order to tarnish the name of the opposition.
What's sad is that, by using it, the North Iowa Tea Party is taking on the vocabulary of the elite and powerful on the right. It's as if they're insisting to Mommy and Daddy that they can wear big boy pants now. It's like they're just pleased as punch that they get to be Sarah Palin's and Jim DeMint's lackeys or Frank Luntz's whores. God, how pleased the ultraconservative Republicans must be; how they must laugh. They've got the yokels suckered now, so much so that the yahoos think they can act like they have any power at all or plans more than destroying Obama for the sake of destroying Obama.
Bonus points: The North Iowa Tea Party website features this line about a reading group it's put together: "The aim is to study the Constitution of the United States and focus people's attention on the abominations being perpetrated on us by the 'entitlement people' and the politicians that benefit from their votes." Ya gotta admire the phrase "entitlement people." It's the newest way to say, "Niggers."