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

[ymu]

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

They've got 130+ candidates running for Congress. That's a little more than a media myth. Whether or not they have any long term prospects, I don't know. The Republicans will do worse in these elections because of them, but elections aren't everything. How far rightwards will they manage to drag the political centre of gravity and what sort movement(s) will emerge long-term? Their backers aren't pumping millions in for the sake of it.

 

[butchersapron]

They've got 130+ rich backers. Often centrally placed in media ownership. The much larger pro-immigration demos don't.

 

[ymu]

They've got 130+ rich backers. Often centrally placed in media ownership. The much larger pro-immigration demos don't.

I don't see what the size of their genuinely grassroots opposition has to do with it. That, in itself, does not make them an irrelevance.

The problem for their opposition is that they have little or no political representation, and will have a tough time changing the discourse without media muscle behind them.

 

[Random]

They've got 130+ rich backers. Often centrally placed in media ownership. The much larger pro-immigration demos don't.

There significance is precisely because of their ability to connect rich backers with just enough 'activists' to influence the Republican Party, though. It's not useful to compare them with pro-immgration demos, unless someone is trying to argue that the Tea Party is some kind of social movement.

 

[Idris2002]

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

That would be encouraging were it not for the fact that it's Jean Baudrillard's world, and we just live in it.

I'm glad to hear that Pro-immigrant rallies are bigger - but the thing is that US liberals are all nice people, which means that you should bet on the nasty, vicious swine with the Confederate flags, if you want to decide who'll come out on top at the end of this.

 

[Balbi]

They've got 130+ rich backers. Often centrally placed in media ownership. The much larger pro-immigration demos don't.

Well yeah, but like ymu said - the proimmigration demos aren't running candidates and getting endorsed by potential presidential candidates. Plus, a pro-immigration demo is a demo - they're actually doing something. BNP vs UAF innit.

Hopefully the TP will skullfuck itself in BNP style

 

[butchersapron]

There significance is precisely because of their ability to connect rich backers with just enough 'activists' to influence the Republican Party, though. It's not useful to compare them with pro-immgration demos, unless someone is trying to argue that the Tea Party is some kind of social movement.

I think the argument(s) above are arguing just that.

 

[butchersapron]

I don't see what the size of their genuinely grassroots opposition has to do with it. That, in itself, does not make them an irrelevance.

The problem for their opposition is that they have little or no political representation, and will have a tough time changing the discourse without media muscle behind them.

The size of their grassroots has everything to with what they develop into or if they die.

 

[butchersapron]

That would be encouraging were it not for the fact that it's Jean Baudrillard's world, and we just live in it.

I'm glad to hear that Pro-immigrant rallies are bigger - but the thing is that US liberals are all nice people, which means that you should bet on the nasty, vicious swine with the Confederate flags, if you want to decide who'll come out on top at the end of this.

Tp already lost, US capital quite happy with how things are going overall.

 

[butchersapron]

Well yeah, but like ymu said - the proimmigration demos aren't running candidates and getting endorsed by potential presidential candidates. Plus, a pro-immigration demo is a demo - they're actually doing something. BNP vs UAF innit.

Hopefully the TP will skullfuck itself in BNP style

Wasn't putting them head to head, just examining how something can be blow up beyond all reality and how that can be inflated even more when it appears over here.

 

[Balbi]

Wasn't putting them head to head, just examining how something can be blow up beyond all reality and how that can be inflated even more when it appears over here.

Which is totally like the BNP and UAF, inflated beyond all proportions 'running battles', 'civil unrest'....etc etc

 

[Barking_Mad]

Id recommend watching some of these political ads as per the Guardian website. Some are hilarious

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ric...erm-elections-2010-top-10-worst-political-ads

 

[Balbi]

U.S Political Ads are mental. Jefferson and that would have a fucking fit

 

[frogwoman]

Innit

 

[Balbi]

My name is Teaparty McRepublican and I approve this message.

Joe Bloggs is a democrat. That means Joe Bloggs supports unrestrained abortion and rape of children.

Joe Bloggs is a democrat. That means he want to wear your grandparent skins as a natty suit at his Communist Friends' house.

Joe Bloggs is a democrat. He gives your tax dollars to Fidel Castro and the reanimated corpse of Stalin.

Joe Bloggs is a democrat, but he's trying to kill you with his mind RIGHT NOW.

Vote McRepublican.

(This ad was paid for by the cabal of extremely rich people who are definitely going to fuck you up)

 

[treelover]

'Those who will be most affected by these changes – working families reliant on childcare and most families on middle incomes – have no idea they are coming, or how much their budgets are about to be squeezed. No-one has told them. They've heard that people out of work are going to see their benefits cut; and they suspect that some of the services that they themselves rely on will get cut. But they haven't twigged that their family income is about to be reduced. As it stands, the first thing that many will see of these changes will be when look at their bank statements.'


wait and see how the Uk 'hard working families' react to the coming tax credit cuts'

 

[binka]

Wasn't putting them head to head, just examining how something can be blow up beyond all reality and how that can be inflated even more when it appears over here.

you may well be right but what do you base it on? most of us dont live in america and the only connection we have is through the media

 

[elbows]

The internet is a better connection than the media, Ive found quite a lot of Americans who are far removed from the tired media cliches. Not easy to get an overall picture from individuals but its better than nothing. Certainly shouldnt get carried away with the extreme stuff or the way its delivered, it should be kept an eye on but at this stage the tea party should not have us quaking in our boots.

 

[treelover]

THE WITCH LOSES DELAWARE,


Christine O' Donnell that is...

 

[London_Calling]

It's not really a party though is it; one part of it might want that to be the case but it's just an umbrella organisation for the disaffected and disenfranchised - including those who want hugely improved controls of corporate influence on the political class and special intererst groups/lobbyists.

Wasn't that long ago we were talking about how the agenda of political parties in the US bore little relation to the agenda of huge swathes of the population - and here is the reaction.

When will the UK see hundreds or thousands of coaches full of the disaffected and disenfranchised heading down Whitehall?

 

[elbows]

These goofs are only one part of the much larger story. A story we know quite well now, but that I think is well put in this rather long Spiegel article from a few days ago:

A Superpower in Decline
Is the American Dream Over?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,726447,00.html

Its not perfect but its a reasonably relevant history lesson, guide to whats going on with the American psyche, economy, and what may happen in terms of things like international currency valuation.

A few quotes that dont really do the whole thing justice:

The Desperate States of America are loud and distressed. The country has always been a little paranoid, but now it's also despondent, hopeless and pessimistic. Americans have always believed in the country's capacity for regeneration, that a new awakening is possible at any time. Now, 63 percent of Americans don't believe that they will be able to maintain their current standard of living.

"The fundamental bargain, the core of America, has always been that we can live with big gaps between rich and poor as long as there is also equality of opportunity," Putnam says. "If that is no longer true, then the core bargain is being violated."

The naked fear of the undertow is palpable throughout the entire country, where people who once considered themselves part of the middle class, the solid center of the country, now feel threatened. These are the people who, now that the smoke has cleared, are suddenly realizing that 30 years of economic growth, all the boom years, have virtually passed them by. In 1978, the average income for men in the United States was $45,879. In 2007, it was $45,113, adjusted for inflation. "I have been thinking a lot about this, how it came to this," Amie says.

Agitators like Glenn Beck are "nationalist, racist and proto-fascist," says Henningsen. "They take advantage of the economic situation, almost the way the right-wing intelligentsia did back in the Weimar Republic."

Anyway the story should not be news to anyone who has been paying attention in recent decades. For all the differences between the UK and the USA, there are so many parallels, no doubt because the seeds of this century were mostly planted in the 80's.

 

[likesfish]

palin ronnies idiot child is still in there

 

[treelover]

L/C said

When will the UK see hundreds or thousands of coaches full of the disaffected and disenfranchised heading down Whitehall?

not too long I suspect but it won't be pretty: immigration, taxes, the underserving poor, supporting our boys, all will be in their sights

 

[treelover]

Some members of the same American middle class who had once planned to spend their golden years lying under palm trees are now lined up in front of soup kitchens.

The weird thing is some of these putative retirees now on the bread line voted for a T/P candidate who will cut social security if he gets the chance, its the same as in the 80's people on benefit voted for Thatcher/Major as they were opposed to tax rises, rises they didn't have to pay!