Thread: Stop Mocking the TEA Party

The media doesn’t get it, says Kirsten Powers. The Tea Party crowd is about to radically reshape the Republican Party on a scale not seen since Barry Goldwater in the 1960s.

Stop Mocking the Tea Party

It’s time to stop mocking the Tea Party.

Whether they are loons, principled conservatives, or a mix of both, they are a potent force that won’t be intimidated off the national stage by snarky media coverage and clueless attacks from the establishment....


The Washington establishment has its nose out of joint because a rag-tag group of misfits have deigned to challenge the entitled incompetents who run the U.S. Congress. Somehow, because a few of the Tea Party candidates support abstinence training, or other garden variety right-wing notions, they are more dangerous than the people who were actually in charge of our country as it was being run into the ground economically.

We’ve been treated to obsessive coverage of Christine O’Donnell’s opinions on masturbation, and whether she had premarital sex, because we all know that these are the Very Important Issues facing our country.


Every Tea Party candidate has been variously described as crazy, stupid, and on track to destroy America, if elected. Funny, that’s pretty much what was said about Barry Goldwater and his followers by the establishment. And yet, that didn’t stop him from reshaping the Republican Party and laying the groundwork for the Reagan Revolution...


In Kate Zernike’s new book, Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America, The New York Times reporter debunks the myth that the Tea Party is “Astroturf,” and a creation of Republican strategists. In fact, she describes it as a legitimate grassroots uprising.

Whatever you make of them, Zernike’s reporting makes clear that the Tea Partiers care deeply about the future of their country. They aren’t intimidated by difficult odds. Many of them had their first experience in political organizing when they put together their maiden Tea Party rally. They detest the Republican Party almost as much as the Democratic Party.


And the more they are mocked, the more determined they are to push forward. The derision of elites, to them, is a badge of honor.

An interesting article. What say you? Is it time to stop ridiculing the TEA party?
Is there another Republican revolution underway...this one within the party?

Fair point. If I dislike the Republican Party, and I truly do, then I shouldn't necessarily complain when someone tries to change them.

But on the other hand, if there are certain things in particular I dislike about the Republican Party and the Tea Party is demanding they be MORE like that and do MORE of those things... where does that leave me?

If I were a Yank I'd vote for the Tea Baggers before any Democrats or Republicans because to date nobody representing the Tea Party has launched war after war after war on innocent and unsuspecting impoverished brown people. But I just get the feeling that given half a chance they would.

Originally Posted by Inspector Gently

Fair point. If I dislike the Republican Party, and I truly do, then I shouldn't necessarily complain when someone tries to change them.

But on the other hand, if there are certain things in particular I dislike about the Republican Party and the Tea Party is demanding they be MORE like that and do MORE of those things... where does that leave me?

If I were a Yank I'd vote for the Tea Baggers before any Democrats or Republicans because to date nobody representing the Tea Party has launched war after war after war on innocent and unsuspecting impoverished brown people. But I just get the feeling that given half a chance they would.

I'd resister with the Communist party.

There's a huge difference between Barry Goldwater style conservatism and the Tea Party. We can only wish the Tea Party had any similarities to the Goldwater revolution. But it does not.

The Tea Party doesn't have a platform, they're simply anti-democrat and anti-Obama. That's not a sound basis for a political party.

Originally Posted by Inspector Gently

Fair point. If I dislike the Republican Party, and I truly do, then I shouldn't necessarily complain when someone tries to change them.

But on the other hand, if there are certain things in particular I dislike about the Republican Party and the Tea Party is demanding they be MORE like that and do MORE of those things... where does that leave me?

If I were a Yank I'd vote for the Tea Baggers before any Democrats or Republicans because to date nobody representing the Tea Party has launched war after war after war on innocent and unsuspecting impoverished brown people. But I just get the feeling that given half a chance they would.

Listen. You critics of the USA have really got to get off of this bonehead American racism thing. The only reason we don't go to war with non-brown people is because all of those who yank our chain ARE ARMED TO THE TEETH!!!

Maybe you have an argument to call us cowards. But 'racist' is simply unintellectual.

Pretty good and sensible article. The Tea Party is a conglomeration of common citizens. Their only problem is that hyper-perpetually outraged opponents like our friends at this forum can't stop drawing cartoons when they critique the Right.

Ps, love that t-shirt Vortex posted.