Olbermann: If The Tea Party Wins, America Loses

[Patrick Degan]

Don't have the video, but here's the transcript of Keith Olbermann's special commentary for tonight:

Now as promised a Special Comment on the madness of the Tea Party and the elections of next Tuesday.

It is as if a group of moderately talented performers has walked on stage at a comedy club on improv night. Each hears a shout from the audience, consisting of a bizarre but just barely plausible fear or hatred or neurosis or prejudice.

And the entertainment of the evening is for each to take their thin, absurd premise, and build upon it a campaign for governor or congressman or senator. The problem is, of course, when it turns out there is no audience shouting out gags, just a cabal of corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and political insider bloodsuckers like Karl Rove and Dick Armey and the Chicken Little Chorus of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward** to hanging union organizers, or backward to the Trusts and the Robber Barons.

Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempt to use Democracy to end this Democracy, to buy America wholesale and pave over the freedoms and the care we take of one another, which have combined to keep us the envy of the world.

You do not think your freedom is at stake next Tuesday?

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for senator from Nevada, Sharron Angle, compared rape to, quoting, "a lemon situation in lemonade." She would deny an abortion even to a teenaged girl who had been raped by her own father.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate to be the only Congressman in Delaware, Glen Urquhart, said "there is no problem that abortion can't make worse. I know good friends who are the product of rape."

Mr. Urquhart also does not believe the phrase "separation of church and state" was said by Thomas Jefferson. He thinks it was Hitler: "The next time your liberal friends ask you about the separation of church and state, ask them why they are Nazis."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Ohio 9th, Rich Iott, not only ran around in a Nazi uniform celebrating their military tactics, but implies he is a Veteran and as late as this March listed his occupation as "soldier" even though the volunteer militia to which he belongs has never been called, will never be called, to any active service, in the 29 years in which he has belonged to it.

It's more than just dress-up. They mean business - literally. The Tea-Party-and-Republican-candidate for New Jersey's 3rd House seat, Jon Runyan, defended corporate tax loopholes: "Loopholes are there for a reason. They are to avoid people from really having to pay too many taxes."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the Senate in West Virginia, John Raese, explained, "I made my money the old-fashioned way, I inherited it. I think that's a great thing to do. I hope more people in this country have that opportunity as soon as we abolish inheritance tax in this country."

The inheritance tax applies only to estates larger than $3.5 million. For the 99.8 percent of Americans not affected by the estate tax, there is the minimum wage, which Mr. Raese also wants abolished. Or there is Social Security.

The Tea-Party-and-Republican-candidate in the Indiana 9th, Todd Young, says "Social Security, as so many of you know is a Ponzi scheme."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Wisconsin 8th, Reid Ribble, disagrees. Social Security "is, in fact, a Ponzi scheme."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Arizona 8th, Jesse Kelly, wants to resurrect President Bush's scam to transform Social Security into private investment accounts so the government can force you to spend part of your paycheck on Wall Street commissions, and so that market manipulators can wipe out your retirement money.

The Republican candidate in the Wisconsin 1st, Congressman Paul Ryan, has a more sophisticated plan: Personal investment Social Security, guaranteed dollar for dollar by the government. A fiscal fountain of youth, until you find out its cost: Ryan would pay for it by taxing the health insurance you get from your employer.

If you are not employed, Mrs. Angle of Nevada says unemployment benefits can neither be increased nor extended because that "has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job… There are jobs that do exist. That's what we're saying, is that there are jobs."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senator in Alaska, Joe Miller, says this is academic, because unemployment insurance is unconstitutional. His own wife received unemployment insurance after losing a temp job he got for her. Mr. Miller also called Medicaid unconstitutional. It proved his entire family had received Medicaid funds.

Mr. Miller also claims Social Security is unconstitutional, yet hypocritically he says it should still be paid out, and then the issue dumped into the laps of the states.

The Republican-and-Tea Party candidate for Senator in Colorado, Ken Buck, would not stop at butchering just Social Security. [He said] "would a Veterans Administration hospital that is run by the private sector be better run then by the public sector? In my view, yes."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Pennsylvania 4th, Keith Rothfus, has promised to overturn anything the Supreme Court decides, with which he disagrees: "Congress's ultimate weapon is funding. If the Supreme Court rules you have to do something, we'll just take away funding for it."

Back in Nevada Mrs. Angle decries health care - not reform, but health care itself. "Everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under 'autism'," she said. As to educating those children Mrs. Angle won't pay for, Mr. Buck of Colorado, waxes nostalgic: "In the 1950's, we had the best schools in the world, and the United States government decided to get more involved in federal education…well, since, we've made education worse, we're gonna even get more involved."

In Ken Buck's America of 1957, fewer than one in five Black children graduated high school. Fewer than half of white children did. To the Tea-Party-and-Republican-candidate in the California 11th, David Harmer, Mr. Buck is a wild-eyed liberal. Mr. Harmer once advocated eliminating public schools altogether, and return education in this country to where it was before 1876: "People acting in a free market found a variety of ways to pay for a variety of schools serving a variety of students, all without central command or control." And without girls, blacks, or even the slightest chance you could go to college.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Virginia 11th, Keith Fimian, is "not so sure we need a federal bureaucracy for education."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Florida 2nd, Steve Southerland, wants to "de-fund" the Department of Education because "we can't afford it."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Texas 17th, Bill Flores, offers a tri-fecta plus a delusion. Get rid of "the pornographic endowment of the arts, department of energy, department of education" and with them, he says, ACORN. ACORN — which went out of business last April 1st.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Arizona 5th, David Schweikert, is "passionately" trying to eliminate the Department of Education because it's "unconstitutional."

And while one of the few threads uniting the ragamuffins who constitute the slate of Tea Party candidates is so-called 'strict interpretation' of that Constitution, Mr. Miller of Alaska wants, in fact, to change the Constitution. He wants to repeal the 17th amendment.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for senator from Utah, Mike Lee called the 17th amendment "a mistake."

Last year, Mr. Buck of Colorado said the 17th amendment "took us down the wrong path." The 17th amendment, of course, permits the direct election by the voters of U.S. Senators. Buck and Lee and Miller not only demand you elect them to the Senate; they hope to then deny you the right to elect somebody else, next time.

The ubiquitous Mrs. Angle, meanwhile, wants to repeal the 16th amendment. It provided for a federal income tax. Mrs. Angle does not explain how, without it, the federal government would pay for keeping out the Mexicans she specifically attacks in her newest commercial.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul wishes to repeal the 14th amendment because it interferes with a private business's right to ban black people from its premises, and also because it allows anyone born here in America to be American. He is worried about anchor babies.

The Republican candidate for the 1st District of Texas, Louie Gohmert, fears not anchor babies but terror babies — unborn infants brought to this country in the womb, ready for American citizenship and pre-programmed to blow things up fifteen or twenty years from now. Curiously, he has not been asked if he is in favor of aborting them.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, sees not terror fetuses but headless bodies in endless deserts murdered by immigrants who are nearly all drug mules.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of Colorado, Dan Maes, believes a bike-sharing program is part of a plot to turn Denver into a metropolis run by the United Nations.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senate from Delaware, Christine O'Donnell, believes she was cleared to read secret classified documents about China because she's been working for Non-Profit Organizations for the past fifteen years. She also believes China is plotting to take over the United States and the first evidence of this is that "China is drilling (for oil) off the coast of Florida."

This fear of the Chinese clearly does not extend to the Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senate from Illinois, Mark Kirk. One day he held a fundraiser with American businessmen in China. The next day, he voted against closing tax incentives for outsourcing American jobs to places like China.

The Tea Party-and-Republican-candidate for Senate from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson is also in favor of relocating employees. He testified against toughening laws on pedophiles and employers who shield them. He argued this could damage a business. A business like the Catholic Church.

In Utah, the anti-bailout Senate candidate Mr. Lee, insists on not raising the liability limits for the next BP from $75 million to $10 billion: "You have a set of settled expectations that you give to a business when it decides to make an investment in this. Our country benefits from this type of activity…"

Asked by the Salt Lake City Tribune if that's a kind of bailout, if it leaves taxpayers on the hook for part of the damage, Lee admitted, "Well, yea, probably does."

Mr. Paul of Kentucky called the nationwide pressure on BP to increase its damage payments "un-American." He is also opposed to Federal Mine Safety regulations: "The bottom line is: I'm not an expert, so don't give me the power in Washington to be making rules. You are here, and you have to work in the mines. You'd try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don't, I'm thinking that no one will apply for those jobs."

Mr. Paul's admission that "I'm not an expert" does provide one of the few dovetails of the campaign. It matches nicely with Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, who refuses to offer any specifics about his plan to deal with homeless veterans. He says, "This election is not about details."

Details have proved devilish for the Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the second district of Virginia, Scott Ridgell He campaigned against the stimulus bill, including the Cash-for-Clunkers program. Mr. Ridgell is an automobile dealer, and happily made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Cash-for-Clunkers program.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Missouri 4th, Vicky Hartzler, says she and her husband are just small business owners. "We just want the government to leave us alone," she said. Hartzler and her husband have a farm. In the last fourteen years, that government they want to leave them alone, has given them subsidies totaling $774,000.

Mr. Raese of West Virginia told the Associated Press that "America is in an industrial coma" and blamed the "restrictor plate" that is "a bloated federal government." "I can't think," he added, "of very many times when a government agency has helped me."

The companies Mr. Raese owns have received $2.4 million in contracts from the federal government since 2000, and $32 million in contracts from the state government since 2000.

Back in Colorado, Mr. Buck apparently thought he was speaking to a campaign worker when he self-exposed his hypocrisy. In fact he was talking to a Democratic operative with a recorder in his pocket. Out of the blue, Tea Party nominee Buck blurted, "Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking me about birth certificates while I'm on the camera? God, what am I supposed to do?"

The contempt of Mr. Buck towards his own Tea Party, extends in many cases to reporters - and thus by proxy, to actual citizens.

For instance, the Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, threatened to punch a radio reporter.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of New York, Carl Paladino, threatened to "take out" a reporter from the most conservative newspaper in any major American city.

A spokesman told the reporter that he was now off the Palladino mailing list, which has, in the past, consisted of e-mails featuring racism, pornography, and bestiality. Mr. Miller's private security guards in Alaska detained and handcuffed a reporter, and threatened to handcuff two more, without any legal right to do so, at an event at a public school.

The security company was operating with an expired license; its chief, has links to extremist organizations; and the defense was that the guards didn't know the individual was a reporter, which implies it would be just dandy to handcuff an ordinary citizen.

Ms. O'Donnell threatened to sue a Delaware radio station if it did not destroy the videotape of her interview there.When she did not like a question, she snapped her fingers at her own press aide then shoved him. The campaign manager threatened to "crush" the station if it did not comply.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the Senate from Florida, Marco Rubio dreams more of deportation than decapitation. He said, in March, "There are millions of people in America that hate our country, so why can't we just do a trade? We'll send you Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo, and Keith Olbermann, and you can send us people that actually love this country."

This, incidentally, carries with it a tinge of irony. I don't know that any of his opponents has ever accused Mr. Rubio of not loving this country. He just doesn't love a lot of its people. The person they all love the least is of course the President.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Congress from the Florida 22nd, Allen West, had to leave our military after threatening to kill an Iraqi he was interrogating. Now he claims to have a higher security clearance than does the President. Mr. West also told his supporters that they could defeat his Democratic opponent by making the man afraid to leave his own home.

And Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the House from the Michigan 7th, the ex-Congressman Tim Walberg, wants to blackmail the President into showing his birth certificate… to Rush Limbaugh. He figures he can extort this from President Obama by threatening to impeach him.

You are willing to let these people run this country? This is the America you want? This is the America you are willing to permit? These are the kinds of cranks, menaces, mercenaries and authoritarians you will turn this country over to?

If you sit there next Tuesday and let this happen, whose fault will that be? Not really theirs. They are taught that freedom is to be seized and rationed. They can sleep at night having advanced themselves and their puppeteers and to hell with everybody else.

They see the greatness of America not in its people but in its corporations. They see the success of America not in hard work but in business swindles. They see the worthiness of America not in its quality of life but in its quality of investing. They see the future of America not in progress, but in revolution to establish a theocracy for white males, with dissent caged and individuality suppressed.

They see America not for what is, nor what it can be. They see delusions, specters, fantasies; they see communists under every bed and a gun in every hand. They see tax breaks for the rich and delayed retirement for everyone else. They fight the redistribution of wealth not because they oppose redistribution, but because their sole purpose is to protect wealth and keep it where they think it belongs - in the bank accounts of the wealthy.

They want to make the world safe for Bernie Madoff. But you know better. If you sit there next Tuesday - if you sit there tomorrow, and the rest of this week - and you let this cataclysm unfold, you have enabled this.

It is one thing to be attacked by those who would destroy America from without. It is a worse thing to be attacked by those who would destroy America from within.

But it is the worst thing to sit back and let it happen, to not find the time and the means to convince just one other sane voter to put aside the disappointment of the last two years and look to the future and vote. Because the disappointment of the last two years will be the "good old days" in a Tea Party America.

This is the week in which the Three Card Monte dealers hope to take over the government —the candidates who want their own way, who will say anything to make palatable their real identities as agents of regression, repression, and corporate sovereignty. They are here, they have energized the self-serving and the greedy and the proudly ill-informed.

And if no other fact convinces you of your obligation to vote and canvass and phone and drag even to the polls the most disheartened moderate or Democrat or Liberal or abandoned Republican or political neutral, to vote for the most tepid of the non-Insane candidates, if no other detail hands you that spark of argument with which to invigorate the apathetic, you need only commit to memory the words of Steffan Broden and Sharron Angle.

She can run from reporters but she cannot run from this quote from January, and all the horror and insurrection it implies: "Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going. But, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those second amendment remedies."

Sharron Angle — too subtle for you? "Second amendment" remedies — guns instead of elections - too implicit? Fortunately, to our rescue, to the speeding of the falling of the scales from our eyes, comes the Tea Party and Republican nominee for the 30th Congressional District of Texas, "Pastor" Steffan Broden. "Our nation was founded on violence," he said, on tape.

Was armed insurrection, revolution, an option in 2010? "The option is on the table. I don't think that we should ever remove anything from the table… However, it is not the first option."

Thank you! The attempt to overthrow the Government of the United States by violence is not The Tea Party's first option. Next Tuesday is the first option!

The words are those of Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith from the screenplay for the movie "Inherit The Wind." As the attorney for the man on trial for teaching evolution, Spencer Tracy gets to the gist: "Fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, backward through the glorious ages of that 16th century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!"

The angered judge replies, "I hope counsel does not mean to imply that this court is bigoted." The attorney mutters, "Well, your honor has the right to hope." The Judge warns, "I have the right to do more than that." The attorney explodes: "You have the power to do more than that."

And you have the power to do more than that.

© 2010 msnbc.com

[Invictus ChiKen]

Here is the video Link

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Don't have the video, but here's the transcript of Keith Olbermann's special commentary for tonight:

... Mr. Paul of Kentucky called the nationwide pressure on BP to increase its damage payments "un-American." He is also opposed to Federal Mine Safety regulations: "The bottom line is: I'm not an expert, so don't give me the power in Washington to be making rules. You are here, and you have to work in the mines. You'd try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don't, I'm thinking that no one will apply for those jobs."

Mr. Paul's admission that "I'm not an expert" does provide one of the few dovetails of the campaign. It matches nicely with Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, who refuses to offer any specifics about his plan to deal with homeless veterans. He says, "This election is not about details...."

And here lies the reason why the would-be oligarchs who finance the Tea Party back these lunatics. Because the teabaggers don't know anything. All they really know is what their handlers feed them. So they can be counted on to mindlessly vote for whatever their sponsors (who are now wholly unaccountable) tell them to vote for; while throwing out strawmen for the rabid, supremely ignorant people who voted them in to go attack.

[Broomstick]

Pretty fucking scary all around, isn't it?

Yes, I'm voting next Tuesday. I'm trying to scour the ballot list for nutballs and insane people. >sigh<

[Zed Snardbody]

Pretty fucking scary all around, isn't it?

Yes, I'm voting next Tuesday. I'm trying to scour the ballot list for nutballs and insane people. >sigh<

Same here, as much as it pains me to vote Reid again, it would pain me even more to vote for Skippy McBatshit Insane Angle. The Nevada Republicans had halfway decent candidates this time around that could have provided an interesting and thought provoking race, but no, they ended up running her.

[General Zod]

Pretty fucking scary all around, isn't it?

Yes, I'm voting next Tuesday. I'm trying to scour the ballot list for nutballs and insane people. >sigh<

I've already voted, if only to keep the teabaggers out. Hooray for mail-ins.

[Knife]

Yes, after an early shift and clinicals, I will too be voting. I'm not happy with the Democrat running for Senate, but Mike Lee is a scary son of a bitch so I view it as a protest vote to vote for Granada.

[Patrick Degan]

There are only two parties now: sane and insane. And I wish to be ranked with the former.

[darthdavid]

As much as it pains me to do so I'll be voting straight ticket democrat. I'd love to toss some votes to a third party that actually supports policies I like but I'll take spineless wimps who at least have the grace to be a ashamed when they get caught selling the country to the highest bidder over batshit insane lunatics who want to turn the country into a theocratic corpratocracy any day of the week.

[Xenophobe3691]

Already voted thanks to early voting, so I've done my part to help keep those troglodytes out of power.

Besides, this situation reminds me of a line from The Humanist Inheritance, where one of the historians comments about how the ones in power gleefully dynamited the foundations of the Republic for their own personal gain, never fully understanding the consequences of their actions until they were the ones standing in front of the pits...

Hopefully RedImperator can post the actual quote, I miss reading that story

[Rogue 9]

I'm in the 9th Indiana district. Todd Young has been getting hammered in the ads for all the dumbassed things he's said, but we'll see how much it matters come Tuesday. I'm voting early. I don't much like Baron Hill, but he's certainly better than the alternative.

[Starglider]

There appear to be two halves to the Tea Party, a (sizable) minority who believe that it is essentially a libertarian / paleoconservative movement that has been cruelly mischaracterised by the 'left wing media', and a majority of outright fundie nutcases and know-nothings who really do want to roll America back to 1870 (though in reality they would turn America into Saudi Arabia). Some of the former group seem to be people who sincerely believed the Republicans weren't /really/ under the thumb of corporate sponsors or completely infected by religious bullshit, but have now been forced to admit otherwise - some lingering Stockholm syndrome affection for the Republican party seems to make them back the Tea Party instead of a third party.

[Big Orange]

Here's a pretty loopy article from Janet Daley:

Midterm elections 2010: Prepare for a new American revolution
Popular rage against the elite could change the nature of US politics, says Janet Daley.

More than three centuries ago, the residents of America staged a rebellion against an oppressive ruler who taxed them unjustly, ignored their discontents and treated their longing for freedom with contempt. They are about to revisit that tradition this week, when their anger and exasperation sweep through Congress like avenging angels. This time the hated oppressor isn't a foreign colonial government, but their own professional political class.

In New York last week I was struck by the startling shift of mood since my last visit, during Barack Obama's first year in office. This phenomenon took varying forms, of course, depending on the political orientation of my interlocutor, but the underlying theme of despair and disgust was almost universal. Liberal Democrats (who hugely outnumber most other factions in that city) were despondent and disappointed with the collapse of Obama's popularity. A few of them (remarkably few, actually) were ready to blame this on a "Right-wing conspiracy" of vaguely racist motivation. But most of them were frankly critical of the strategic mistakes they believed the White House had made, and the baffling inability of their President to connect with the people in an engaging way. His shocking lack of emotional expression during last month's commemoration of 9/11 – a point of particular significance to New Yorkers – was remarked upon by a number of people I met.

There was a general sense that his personality was over-controlled and repressed, and that this was perhaps a function of his self-invention: the effect of having made a conscious choice to adopt an identity and a history (the Chicago black activist) which was unconnected to his real past. It occurred to me that, in an odd way, he was a Gatsby-like figure who had reinvented himself but whose new persona could be sustained only with a tremendous act of will. This psychological analysis seemed not unconnected to the political one, which revolved around his peculiar inability to sense what most Americans would regard as alienating and contrary to their own values and culture.

My Republican friends, perhaps surprisingly, were not gloating. They were too furious. But contrary to the superficial British assumption (heavily promoted by the BBC), they were not devoting their excoriation exclusively to the Obama Administration – or even to its clique of Congressional henchmen, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. That they were opposed to the Big State, European social democratic model of government which Obama had imported to Washington went almost without saying. But they were at least as angry with the leadership of their own party for having conceded far too much of the argument.

And this anger – again, contrary to the general understanding in Britain – is not new: it goes all the way back to the Bush presidency. It was widely known in Europe that the American Left hated George Bush (and even more, Dick Cheney) because of his military adventurism. What was less understood was that the Right disliked him almost as much for selling the pass over government spending, bailing out the banks, and failing to keep faith with the fundamental Republican principle of containing the power of central government.

So the Republicans are, if anything, as much in revolt against the establishment within their own party as they are against the Democrats. And this is what the Tea Parties (which should always be referred to in the plural, because they are not a monolithic movement) are all about: they are not just a reaction against a Left-liberal president but a repudiation of the official Opposition as well.

Nor are they simply the embodiment of reactionary social conservatism, which has been the last redoubt of the traditional Republican Right. There were plenty of people in New York who wanted to believe that Tea Partiers were just a new incarnation of the gun-totin', gay-bashing right-to-lifers whom they found it so easy to dismiss as risible throwbacks. This is a huge political miscalculation, which quite misses the point of what makes the Congressional midterm elections this week such an interesting and historic political event. This is so much more than the predictable to-ing and fro-ing of party control midway through a presidential term. What the grassroots rebellion is really about is an attempt to pull the Republican party back to its basic philosophy of low-tax, low-spend, small government: the great Jeffersonian principle that the best government is that which governs least.

One of the more electorally far-reaching effects of this is that Republicanism could become the home once again of a plausible political and economic programme, rather than simply an outpost for those who seem to reject many of the features of modern life. The gun-toters and gay-bashers and pro-lifers may have jumped aboard the bandwagon, and Sarah Palin may be frantically attaching herself to the parade, but this is not their show: the Tea Party protests began (as their name suggests) as a campaign against high taxation and the illegitimate intrusiveness of federal powers. That is what they are still about.

As some astute commentators have observed, the ascendancy of the Tea Parties has meant that fiscal conservatism can replace social conservatism as the raison d'être of the Republican cause. So rather than being a threat to Republicanism, the election of Tea Party candidates might be its salvation. It represents a rank-and-file rejection of what many Americans see as a conspiracy of the governing elite against ordinary working people. All of which makes clearer the appeal of even the naivety and inexperience of some of the Tea Party contenders who have challenged incumbent Republican candidates. If what you are rebelling against is a generation of smug, out-of-touch professional politicians, then a little dose of amateurishness or innocence might strike you as positively refreshing. (In a poll last week, more than 50 per cent of voters said that they would be more willing this year than usual to vote for someone with little political experience.)

The Democrats, too, are experiencing internal turmoil, with the Blue Dog congressmen (who represent conservative Democratic states) having to fight all their natural instincts to support Obama's healthcare and cap-and-trade policies. If they are annihilated in these midterm elections, their resentment against the White House will be terrible to behold. This could be a seminal moment in American post-war history, when popular rage against the political elite brings about realignments within parties which change the whole nature of the country's democratic choices.

Telegraph

She's a reactionary old crone, but she says a few words of wisdom like how phoney Obama actually is after the early '09 euphoria quickly died down and is half-right about professional politicians being out of touch with American people (although they're still less worse than the very shrill amateur Tea Baggers who, like the mainstream politicians, are funded by the same set of megacorporations anyway).

[Broomstick]

More than three centuries ago, the residents of America staged a rebellion against an oppressive ruler who taxed them unjustly, ignored their discontents and treated their longing for freedom with contempt.

Three centuries? :::checks calendar::: Huh? Even assuming that rebellion began a few years before July 4, 1776 and the signing of the declaration of independence, that's LESS than three centuries. I'm supposed to that this lady seriously when she starts with a historical gaff like that?

But most of them were frankly critical of the strategic mistakes they believed the White House had made, and the baffling inability of their President to connect with the people in an engaging way. His shocking lack of emotional expression during last month's commemoration of 9/11 – a point of particular significance to New Yorkers – was remarked upon by a number of people I met.

Of course, if he HAD been very emotional someone would be upset at him for that - he can't win. Hey, Obama has always been emotionally reserved, big surprise.

That they were opposed to the Big State, European social democratic model of government which Obama had imported to Washington went almost without saying.

Anyone who thinks the "Obama agenda" is "big state, European social democratic model of government" doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about.

And this anger – again, contrary to the general understanding in Britain – is not new: it goes all the way back to the Bush presidency. It was widely known in Europe that the American Left hated George Bush (and even more, Dick Cheney) because of his military adventurism. What was less understood was that the Right disliked him almost as much for selling the pass over government spending, bailing out the banks, and failing to keep faith with the fundamental Republican principle of containing the power of central government.

But hey, he was a white, Republican good ol' boy so he was our president and we should support him no matter what, right? Not like the uppity black man currently in office, right? It's OK to tear down a Democrat (even better one that's a minority) but don't touch a Republican, and Republican president must be respected!

So the Republicans are, if anything, as much in revolt against the establishment within their own party as they are against the Democrats. And this is what the Tea Parties (which should always be referred to in the plural, because they are not a monolithic movement) are all about: they are not just a reaction against a Left-liberal president but a repudiation of the official Opposition as well.

I'd find this more convincing if there wasn't so much evidence that the Good Old White Boys Network is funding many Tea Parties from behind the scenes. They're using the outraged T's to serve their own agenda, which does not have the best interest of the majority in mind.

[Knife]

The first time I remember hearing the conservative movement being pissed off was when McCain won the primary in 08 election. That was when you started hearing shit like 'I'm a conservative first, Republican second' type thing this decade. This conservative backlash isn't the surprising, the Democrats have made massive gains in the last three cycles by diversifying, while the Republican's have lost. Naturally some in the GOP see it all the losses culminating with McCain as a slight against their power and came out swinging. In the long term, I think it's more of a last swing of a dying movement but...

If these loonies win enough to drive the bus, they'll drive it off the cliff again. This would not be good for American, not at all and I don't want it to happen; however if and when they do it'll be the death nail in their political ideologies. People today are suffering and just want things to go back to the way they perceive them 5-6-7 years ago. Some haven't quite made the connection that that was the time all the stuff that made their suffering was being made and put into affect. Another round of these yahoo's and their policies should be enough to burn into American's minds of exactly that.

Granted, I think the better way is to keep them in the minority and have this recession work itself out so people can see the Dems and such are working for them and it just takes time. Time to think through all the bullshit that needs to change to get back to where we want to be, time to see that all the GOPer bullshit is just that, shit.

[Crossroads Inc.]

The thing that gets to me about much of the TeaParty is just how blatantly these peopel are being used by the GOP establishment.

Yes they have become a bit of a "wild card" and yes that have, like Frankensteins monster, turned somewhat on the force that created them. But such instances are rare and for the most part, they do their Masters bidding of terrorizing the Left wing in America.

If you look at the past two years, the Tea Party has by and large been responsable for puttign the fear of God into many Liberals and driving them to the right. "Oh no! 'America' is upset! We need to become more like Republicans!' In this regard the funers behind the TeaPart have succeded wildly. Meanwhile average and ignorant Americans continue to vote against thier interestes, not question where the millions of dollars funding them comes from.

It is why the below cartoon is one of my favorites, because it is so true.
[/

[Patrick Degan]

A lot of these teabaggers think civilisation "just happens". They have not the slightest damn clue just how much effort is actually required to have a functioning modern society and why you need a government powerful enough to check the power of very large corporations and financial interests. They think the American revolutionaries were fighting for weak government that "stays out of everybody's way" and never learned that we actually did try that system and that it didn't work, which was why the present federal constitution was adopted.

[Liberty]

I'm in the 9th Indiana district. Todd Young has been getting hammered in the ads for all the dumbassed things he's said, but we'll see how much it matters come Tuesday. I'm voting early. I don't much like Baron Hill, but he's certainly better than the alternative.

We live in the same district, but I've only seen ads for Young, run by the Chamber of Commerce. I've heard it's supposed to be a VERY tight race. And Young is definitely a tea partier. God I hope he doesn't win. I haven't voted yet, but I will, and that vote will sure as hell be for Baron Hill.

Unfortunately the Republican carpet bagger will probably win for senate. I'm voting for Brad Ellsworth and hoping he'll pull off a miracle.

You want some irony? I grew up not far from where I live now, and in high school I campaigned a LOT against both Brad Ellsworth AND Baron Hill. And now I'm voting for both of them and really fucking scared of the damage their opponents will do if elected. Yeah that's me, from religious right Republican to social democrat in five years.

My parents must be really loving this election.

[Crossroads Inc.]

You want some irony? I grew up not far from where I live now, and in high school I campaigned a LOT against both Brad Ellsworth AND Baron Hill. And now I'm voting for both of them and really fucking scared of the damage their opponents will do if elected. Yeah that's me, from religious right Republican to social democrat in five years.

My parents must be really loving this election.

And if the GOP sweep into office I am sure they will think happy times are here again and everything will be ok. The fact that no matter how crappy America becomes, many DieHard conservatives seem incapable of ever blaming the GOP establishment, or coming to the conclusion that the right wing just doesn't care about them.

If Democrats vanished from the world and Republicans rule for the 30 years, then when all the country is a festering sht hole the people will mumble "Damn Liberals!"

[dantheman40k]

The thing that gets to me about much of the TeaParty is just how blatantly these peopel are being used by the GOP establishment.

Yes they have become a bit of a "wild card" and yes that have, like Frankensteins monster, turned somewhat on the force that created them. But such instances are rare and for the most part, they do their Masters bidding of terrorizing the Left wing in America.

If you look at the past two years, the Tea Party has by and large been responsable for puttign the fear of God into many Liberals and driving them to the right. "Oh no! 'America' is upset! We need to become more like Republicans!' In this regard the funers behind the TeaPart have succeded wildly. Meanwhile average and ignorant Americans continue to vote against thier interestes, not question where the millions of dollars funding them comes from.

It is why the below cartoon is one of my favorites, because it is so true.
[/

I love how the guy kinda looks like Glenn Beck

[Rogue 9]

I'm in the 9th Indiana district. Todd Young has been getting hammered in the ads for all the dumbassed things he's said, but we'll see how much it matters come Tuesday. I'm voting early. I don't much like Baron Hill, but he's certainly better than the alternative.

We live in the same district, but I've only seen ads for Young, run by the Chamber of Commerce. I've heard it's supposed to be a VERY tight race. And Young is definitely a tea partier. God I hope he doesn't win. I haven't voted yet, but I will, and that vote will sure as hell be for Baron Hill.

Unfortunately the Republican carpet bagger will probably win for senate. I'm voting for Brad Ellsworth and hoping he'll pull off a miracle.

You want some irony? I grew up not far from where I live now, and in high school I campaigned a LOT against both Brad Ellsworth AND Baron Hill. And now I'm voting for both of them and really fucking scared of the damage their opponents will do if elected. Yeah that's me, from religious right Republican to social democrat in five years.

My parents must be really loving this election.

"Carpetbagger?" Really? I'm not particularly eager for Coats to win, to say the least, but come on; he's not exactly an outsider to the state.

[Broomstick]

He moved away from the state, then moved back here just in time to make the residency deadline to run. There is some question if he is ACTUALLY living in this state or not, or just claiming residency. That fall under "carpet bagging".

[SirNitram]

Few attain Carpetbagging quite like Raese though. He lives in Florida. He paid taxes in Florida, including a tax break only for residents.. Of Florida. Where's he running? West Virginia, where his business is steadily throwing humans away for a bit more electric. Yea, his safety record is bad.

[mingo]

The first time I remember hearing the conservative movement being pissed off was when McCain won the primary in 08 election. That was when you started hearing shit like 'I'm a conservative first, Republican second' type thing this decade. This conservative backlash isn't the surprising, the Democrats have made massive gains in the last three cycles by diversifying, while the Republican's have lost. Naturally some in the GOP see it all the losses culminating with McCain as a slight against their power and came out swinging. In the long term, I think it's more of a last swing of a dying movement but...

If these loonies win enough to drive the bus, they'll drive it off the cliff again. This would not be good for American, not at all and I don't want it to happen; however if and when they do it'll be the death nail in their political ideologies. People today are suffering and just want things to go back to the way they perceive them 5-6-7 years ago. Some haven't quite made the connection that that was the time all the stuff that made their suffering was being made and put into affect. Another round of these yahoo's and their policies should be enough to burn into American's minds of exactly that.

Granted, I think the better way is to keep them in the minority and have this recession work itself out so people can see the Dems and such are working for them and it just takes time. Time to think through all the bullshit that needs to change to get back to where we want to be, time to see that all the GOPer bullshit is just that, shit.

I agree, this is the one thing that gives me hope, that after one more try at "VooDoo economics" people will finally stop listening to these assholes.

[Eleas]

You want some irony? I grew up not far from where I live now, and in high school I campaigned a LOT against both Brad Ellsworth AND Baron Hill. And now I'm voting for both of them and really fucking scared of the damage their opponents will do if elected. Yeah that's me, from religious right Republican to social democrat in five years.

My parents must be really loving this election.

And if the GOP sweep into office I am sure they will think happy times are here again and everything will be ok.

Not all of them, I'd argue. You overlook what may well be the guiding principle of the far-right movement and its backers today: that the average American must not be allowed to feel satisfied and safe. This goes double for their own base. Yes, there will be occasional "oh happy day" moments of triumph, but mostly, all you'll hear are the renewed cries of how a few men of iron principles would sort everything out if they weren't so hobbled by the efforts of lib'ruls, flagrant government-imposed socialism, and a media firmly under the control of the Left.

Mark my words: not a few of these people would sooner denounce the Republicans as part of the problem than they would consider relinquishing their martyrdom. They need to be the righteous minority in the face of encroaching communism; to a 20th century WASP, that's the closest you'll get to shouldering the White Man's Burden.