For JTF's Reading Pleasure: "What is the Tea Party"

[CRedskinsRule]

What is the Tea Party? A growing state of mind - Yahoo! News

Interesting article, but I mainly wanted JTF to have some fun reading for this Independence weekend!

[saden1]

What does "I don’t really understand it, but I like what they stand for" mean?

Lindsy Graham said it best:

On four occasions, Graham met with Tea Party groups. The first, in his Senate office, was “very, very contentious,” he recalled. During a later meeting, in Charleston, Graham said he challenged them: “ ‘What do you want to do? You take back your country — and do what with it?’ . . . Everybody went from being kind of hostile to just dead silent.”

In a previous conversation, Graham told me: “The problem with the Tea Party, I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out.” Now he said, in a tone of casual lament: “We don’t have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.” Chortling, he added, “Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today.”

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by saden1

What does "I don’t really understand it, but I like what they stand for" mean?

Reminds me of porn a little bit:

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."
- Justice Potter Stewart


I went to VCU and im still involved with VCU and we have a huge emo/hipster/scencester crowd. Richmond city is also extremely liberal. Like most colleges i would say the school is liberal leaning. But a lot of the students are clear Tea Party supporters and they are well organized and active.

I think of the Tea Party as a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. Socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by saden1

What does "I don’t really understand it, but I like what they stand for" mean?

Lindsy Graham said it best:

He says that because he knows he is part of the problem the one like the people in the Tea Party want to see gone. He wishes the Tea Party would go away and when they run someone against has ass he can sit at home and talk about how they are fading away some more. The left is just as scared of this growing movement. Hell I might donate some money to them because we need other choices then what we have in DC today. What is Congresses approval rating 18% or something like that so I know I'm not the only one who feels we need change.

[Lotus]

Nearly half say blacks lag in jobs, income and housing "because most African-Americans just don't have the motivation or willpower to pull themselves up out of poverty."

With such bigoted views, the Tea Party will be its own undoing. History is moving in the opposite direction from such views.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by firstdown

He says that because he knows he is part of the problem the one like the people in the Tea Party want to see gone. He wishes the Tea Party would go away and when they run someone against has ass he can sit at home and talk about how they are fading away some more. The left is just as scared of this growing movement. Hell I might donate some money to them because we need other choices then what we have in DC today. What is Congresses approval rating 18% or something like that so I know I'm not the only one who feels we need change.

Seems to me he doesn't give a shit about his job security like his buddy McCain seems to. Tea Party = Green Party at best and overall people seem to have a negative view of them. Time will tell, my bet is they disappear soon as Obama leaves office.

[Miller101]

Originally Posted by firstdown

He says that because he knows he is part of the problem the one like the people in the Tea Party want to see gone. He wishes the Tea Party would go away and when they run someone against has ass he can sit at home and talk about how they are fading away some more. The left is just as scared of this growing movement. Hell I might donate some money to them because we need other choices then what we have in DC today. What is Congresses approval rating 18% or something like that so I know I'm not the only one who feels we need change.

Congress' approval rating is at 18% only because Republicans keep filibustering everything! If Democrats were to get a majority in the Senate then you would see the filibustering stop and their ratings go up.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Miller101

Congress' approval rating is at 18% only because Republicans keep filibustering everything! If Democrats were to get a majority in the Senate then you would see the filibustering stop and their ratings go up.

Yea right. Maybe its because they all suck and they all need to go.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Miller101

Congress' approval rating is at 18% only because Republicans keep filibustering everything! If Democrats were to get a majority in the Senate then you would see the filibustering stop and their ratings go up.

Last time I checked the Dems had a majority in the Senate. They had a supermajority (minority doesn't have enough votes to keep a filibuster going) until the special election was held to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Kennedy's passing was won...in liberal Mass....by a Republican. If that's not an indictment of the Democratic controlled Congress I don't know what is.

[Miller101]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

Last time I checked the Dems had a majority in the Senate. They had a supermajority (minority doesn't have enough votes to keep a filibuster going) until the special election was held to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Kennedy's passing was won...in liberal Mass....by a Republican. If that's not an indictment of the Democratic controlled Congress I don't know what is.

The Democrats never have had a majority in the Senate! Sixty Seats is a majority in the Senate! 60! And thats just breaking even! The most they have had in this term is 58. You can look it up if you don't believe me. Your Republican pals filibuster everything that comes along. Every single bill!!! Thats why I said that we need to get some more Democrats in the Senate. So the Republican Filibuster can be broken. Then and only then things will start getting done. The American People will be happy to see things get done and their ratings will go up. On the other hand, If it stays the way it is now......................................with Republicans still holding power. Our country could very well stay in the freakin dirt!

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by saden1

What does "I don’t really understand it, but I like what they stand for" mean?

Lindsy Graham said it best:

It's really quite simple, I don't know why they would have trouble answering:

Cut spending.

Get some people in Congress to say no on spending bills and yes on cutting programs. From an economic perspective, the deficit needs to be brought under control before we really put ourselves in financial trouble.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

It's really quite simple, I don't know why they would have trouble answering:

Cut spending.

Get some people in Congress to say no on spending bills and yes on cutting programs. From an economic perspective, the deficit needs to be brought under control before we really put ourselves in financial trouble.

I wish it was that simple because the only spending people seem to want to cut is foreign aid.

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by saden1

I wish it was that simple because the only spending people seem to want to cut is foreign aid.

I would be happy, slightly, if we cut each one of those areas by the percent of people who want it cut. so 7% cut in SS, 22% cut in Defense, 71% cut in foreign aid, etc etc. It would be a start.

As for not answering the one question, that is your typical trick question. No answer, or any answer, and it would be thrown around and mutilated in the press. People know what they want to be done, but the mass media and political elite work together to run contrarian ideas through the "spin" cycle.

Lotus, if it is a pure racist tendency it will die out, but what if the phrasing was not put into black/white dialogue as it gets portrayed, but instead just a simple, generic, our American culture is creating lots of people nowadays who are more willing to rely on handouts versus working hard and living within our means. Would that be more sustainable.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

I would be happy, slightly, if we cut each one of those areas by the percent of people who want it cut. so 7% cut in SS, 22% cut in Defense, 71% cut in foreign aid, etc etc. It would be a start.

As for not answering the one question, that is your typical trick question. No answer, or any answer, and it would be thrown around and mutilated in the press. People know what they want to be done, but the mass media and political elite work together to run contrarian ideas through the "spin" cycle.

Lotus, if it is a pure racist tendency it will die out, but what if the phrasing was not put into black/white dialogue as it gets portrayed, but instead just a simple, generic, our American culture is creating lots of people nowadays who are more willing to rely on handouts versus working hard and living within our means. Would that be more sustainable.

I'd like to see a politician run on a platform of cutting medicare, ss, and defense..that will be the day. It's not a trick question, it's rhetorical question.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

I would be happy, slightly, if we cut each one of those areas by the percent of people who want it cut. so 7% cut in SS, 22% cut in Defense, 71% cut in foreign aid, etc etc. It would be a start.

As for not answering the one question, that is your typical trick question. No answer, or any answer, and it would be thrown around and mutilated in the press. People know what they want to be done, but the mass media and political elite work together to run contrarian ideas through the "spin" cycle.

Lotus, if it is a pure racist tendency it will die out, but what if the phrasing was not put into black/white dialogue as it gets portrayed, but instead just a simple, generic, our American culture is creating lots of people nowadays who are more willing to rely on handouts versus working hard and living within our means. Would that be more sustainable.

Obviously able-bodied people who would take a handout rather than working are parasites who drag down the economy for the rest of us while they pick our pockets. I have no problem with that part.

But people of all races fit that description. And the Tea Partier in the article specifically couched things in racial terms and there have been plenty of racist signs at Tea Party rallies. That is what I was talking about.