The US Tea Party – the shocking, crazy, mixed-up truth [video]

[editor]

Check out this incredible video detailing the madness of the Tea Party:

Divorce and social security are some of this country’s “wicked ways” says Sharron Angle, Nevada, who has gone on record saying that she would deny an abortion to a girl who had been raped by her own father.

“There is no problem that abortion can’t make worse.. I have good friends who were the product of rape” insists Glen Urquhart, Delaware, who thinks that anyone who supports the separation of church and state must be a “Nazi.”

I couldn't embed the video so I've posted it here - it's really, really worth watching:
http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-us-tea-party-the-shocking-crazy-mixed-up-truth-video/

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Excellent. A forceful commentator: I pray that a lot of potential US voters see it.

The extreme right exposed to light in the US is a fearful thing - not simply because the views are so abhorrent, but because so much is at stake for everyone, should such people ever gain control of a nation with so much power.

 

[teuchter]

insists Glen Urquhart

Heh

I am from round those parts

 

[audiotech]

 

[DrRingDing]

Eddie Izzard Versus Christine O'Donnell (!??)

 

[gosub]

ANdrew Neil just did a thoughtful documentary on BBC2 which is worth watching. One thing that struck me, what with the background of a recession, the need to stand up to communism, and the lines about some mythical leader figure will emerge (though obviously not me) speeches.... straight parrlels to the beginings of the Nazi party

 

[Nylock]

Check out this incredible video detailing the madness of the Tea Party:



I couldn't embed the video so I've posted it here - it's really, really worth watching:
http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-us-tea-party-the-shocking-crazy-mixed-up-truth-video/

....That is truly scary shit.... The worst part is that the current news commentary is predicting a republican landslide with tea partiers capitalising on the mid terms...

 

[_angel_]

ANdrew Neil just did a thoughtful documentary on BBC2 which is worth watching. One thing that struck me, what with the background of a recession, the need to stand up to communism, and the lines about some mythical leader figure will emerge (though obviously not me) speeches.... straight parrlels to the beginings of the Nazi party

What communism ??

 

[mattie]

What communism ??

Death panels or somesuch.

I admire the enthusiasm and engagement of some of these people, I'm just simply amazed how it can be channelled towards such false ends.

 

[girasol]

I admire the enthusiasm and engagement of some of these people, I'm just simply amazed how it can be channelled towards such false ends.

Me too, they are all getting together and trying to do something, but they're all so misguided. And they say 'Socialist' like it's the biggest insult! Years of cold war seems to have twisted their view of the word and what it means completely. It's like they have no understanding of community either, or helping each other out.

It's interesting how every now and then there's an undercurrent of anarchism in what they want, no 'big government interference' and 'freedom to govern themselves' - how would they feel if people called them anarchists?

It did get me thinking, in the UK, the interference from the governement with regards to music licensing in venues, for example, is so tight, it's just stiffling things. So in a way I can see what they are on about. Shame there are so many fundamentalists in there.

The Andrew Neil documentary was very interesting.

 

[Citizen66]

I think when they oppose govt interference they're coming from a hard right libetarian position, not an anarchist one.

 

[Nylock]

Andrew Neil's documentary was interesting... The worrying thing that i noticed from watching the msnbc clip on the u75 blog and the Andrew Neil docu is that it appears the increasingly rightward swing of american politics is somehow inexorable and inevitable in the current climate. Is this the case? Is america heading towards a 'hostile takeover'? How much further to the right will the tea party movement go before even it's own membership starts to question what it's doing?

 

[magneze]

What's interesting about the first video is that almost every candidate is "Tea Party & Republican" - so the Tea Party is not, as advertised, some kind of fightback against the Democrats and Republicans, it's just the Republican party by and large.

I have to stop watching and listening to the programmes really as I have the urge to shout "MORON" at the TV/radio when the tea baggers are interviewed.

 

[treelover]

i've just been on a US based disussion blog for people with M.E, very sick people there who support these crazies are calling for abolishing social security, talk about turkeys voting...

The Decline of the American Empire continues....

 

[treelover]

'One thing that struck me, what with the background of a recession, the need to stand up to communism, and the lines about some mythical leader figure will emerge (though obviously not me) speeches.... straight parrlels to the beginings of the Nazi party'

Normally such linkages are absurd, but with the TP who knows, there is the Glenn Beck supporter who stamped on a womans face and the Ground Zero Mosque protest where the loons attacked any black person that went past, Empires in decline are dangerous beasts...

 

[gosub]

In 15 years on the internet I've never been on the wrongside of Godwin before and I don't do so lightly.
Sarah Palin at that Washington rally thought it was appropriate to claim her greatest achievment was to raise a combat vet...

 

[nino_savatte]

Andrew Neil's documentary was interesting... The worrying thing that i noticed from watching the msnbc clip on the u75 blog and the Andrew Neil docu is that it appears the increasingly rightward swing of american politics is somehow inexorable and inevitable in the current climate. Is this the case? Is america heading towards a 'hostile takeover'? How much further to the right will the tea party movement go before even it's own membership starts to question what it's doing?

The thing that stood out for me in the Andrew Neil doco was the way that the Tea Partiers accept whatever myths come their way without question. For instance their veneration of the 'Founding fathers' ignores the social conditions of the 18th century with its poverty, disease and lack of freedoms for women, non-whites and those who were forced into indentured servitude. 18th century American was a distinctly unfree place if you weren't white and male. Then there's the Boston Tea Party itself: the people who dressed as 'Indians' who chucked the tea into the harbour were all smugglers. The Tea Act actually made tea cheaper not more expensive. The smugglers stood to lose a great deal from the Tea Act. For many years, the Boston Tea Party was regarded as embarrassing by most Americans until the event was revived in the late 19th century and given a makeover.

 

[Balbi]

Two years of Democratic House/Senate and White House and the Repubs are screaming, despite the majority of measures being reactions to eight years which saw a tripling of the deficit and an economic recession not seen for more than seventy years in the U.S.

The Dems haven't put forward a decent narrative to explain their actions, and the Repubs. will more than likely take both houses. That means Obama's got two years to get through the recovery with nothing but his right of veto by his side. It's going to be a legislative nightmare over there, especially when the Tea Party/Repub. funders come out to start carving up the Federal budget to suit their interests. More government money going to more private interests at the same time as public spending is cuts, as are taxation rates for all (but especially the high raters....)

That last sentence could easily be the U.K though. The U.S is going to be grim for the next two years, unless the Democratic party and base get off their arse and sort it out.

They really don't have a concept of a society which works together to look after its least well off, which is terrifying really. Freedom, to starve and die needlessly, to be poor and stay poor, to receive nothing while others receive rewards.

Reminds me of Kinnock's quote...

I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance – when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you will be cold – when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort – with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

The really terrifying thing is if the Dems don't put up a decent defenc other than 'they're obstructing us' then we get a Republican President, Republican Congress and Republican Senate....at which point the U.S loses.

 

[_angel_]

i've just been on a US based disussion blog for people with M.E, very sick people there who support these crazies are calling for abolishing social security, talk about turkeys voting...

The Decline of the American Empire continues....

They're terrified of anything "socialist" altho what the hell they possibly could class as "socialist" is mystifying.

 

[Balbi]

It's a cross between South Park's 'THEY TOOK OUR JOOOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBS' and the fear that the money they earn could go to people worse off than them, because it gives them a sense that they're actually a stroke of misfortune apart. They don't want their illusions of the only way being up taken away from them by the heartless Democratic party

 

[kyser_soze]

They're terrified of anything "socialist" altho what the hell they possibly could class as "socialist" is mystifying.

Obama's healthcare reforms for one thing. It's not mystifying at all if you listen to TPers (the campaigners, not the candidates) talk for more than a couple of minutes.

One thing to bear in mind here is that the TPers see Bush as a traitor to 'authentic' GOP values - he was a big-state GOPper with plenty of $$$s for the pork barrel. What they now see is a president whose colour and provenance lots (not all) of them are uncomfortable with (OK, they're racists), who has spunked a huge pile of cash up the wall supporting Wall Street & the construction industry (in a vain attempt to holdup house prices) while they see friends, family, neighbours and colleagues made redundant, having to work 2 jobs to make ends meet, being repossessed etc, and they're seriously pissed off about it. They see their role as historic in the calls to return power to the states (for example) in bringing the Federal govt to heel.

The thing that stood out for me in the Andrew Neil doco was the way that the Tea Partiers accept whatever myths come their way without question. For instance their veneration of the 'Founding fathers' ignores the social conditions of the 18th century with its poverty, disease and lack of freedoms for women, non-whites and those who were forced into indentured servitude. 18th century American was a distinctly unfree place if you weren't white and male. Then there's the Boston Tea Party itself: the people who dressed as 'Indians' who chucked the tea into the harbour were all smugglers. The Tea Act actually made tea cheaper not more expensive. The smugglers stood to lose a great deal from the Tea Act. For many years, the Boston Tea Party was regarded as embarrassing by most Americans until the event was revived in the late 19th century and given a makeover.

It's like Koch, Beck and the real leaders have been able to take the energy in fundamentalist Xtianity and redirect it as some kind of hero-worship for the Founding Fathers and Constitution (altho as anyone who has seen O'Donnell get completely played over the issue of separation of church & state, and the comments of the likes of Urqhart it's a very, very selective reading of the constitution).

 

[butchersapron]

TP are irrelevant - pro-immigration demos have consistently outnumbered them. It's flannel. It's expanded flannel for lefties over here through the Guardian running almost a 24 watch on them.

 

[marty21]

I think there are plenty in the Republican party who are a bit stunned at the tea party pressure group that seems to have taken hold - I think there are several independent candidates who are running who lost the primaries to the tea party candidate.

 

[frogwoman]

do you think their support is falling now ba?

 

[butchersapron]

I think there are plenty in the Republican party who are a bit stunned at the tea party pressure group that seems to have taken hold - I think there are several independent candidates who are running who lost the primaries to the tea party candidate.

It hasn't taken hold except in the media though. IMO.

 

[butchersapron]

do you think their support is falling now ba?

I don't thnk it's falling, i think it was never there - it was an enormous bubble of media led hot air.

 

[_angel_]

Obama's healthcare reforms for one thing. It's not mystifying at all if you listen to TPers (the campaigners, not the candidates) talk for more than a couple of minutes.

They might think that's socialist - I don't!

 

[treelover]

eh, the women who wants to phase out Social secirutuy is higher in the polls than her Democratic candiate, harry Reiud

btw, i have just read an article in the Times where someone (slightly tongue in cheek, she was a LP supporter) got a group of women together for a Tea Party type event, they were angry as hell about welfare and people not playing by the rules(Blair was nothing if prescient) taxes, how 'our boys' were treated here and in Afghan, etc.

I make a prediction if times get really tough in the UK, it will be the 'silent majority' as in the US Tea Party, moaning about welfare, high taxes, joining the French, and possibly immigration who will also take to the Streets...

 

[butchersapron]

You read too much into too many things.

 

[London_Calling]

What's the matter with those people, don't they have X Factor and Strictly?