Larry Vindicated

[GURPS]

Tea Partiers Will Agree with This Leftist Rant

Something scary is happening to America. Whether viewed from the Left or the Right, it can be seen by all.



As an activist contending for individual rights, beginning with the Tea Party movement in 2009 and continuing in and around the Republican Party in subsequent election cycles, I’ve noted increasing levels of apathy and disengagement. Oddly, it doesn’t seem confined to those on the right side of the political spectrum. Note how Occupy flamed out, how Tea Party rallies have become sparse and lightly attended. The hip trend has become “removing consent,” which is libertarian shorthand for taking your ball and going home.

Writing for Mother Jones, Tom Engelhardt attempts to piece together a functional explanation of this “moment”:

… this period doesn’t represent a version, no matter how perverse or extreme, of politics as usual; nor is the 2016 campaign an election as usual; nor are we experiencing Washington as usual. Put together our 1 percent elections, the privatization of our government, the de-legitimization of Congress and the presidency, as well as the empowerment of the national security state and the US military, and add in the demobilization of the American public (in the name of protecting us from terrorism), and you have something like a new ballgame.​

 

[tommyjo]

That's a pretty dumb article. Perfect for your level of intelligence and hatred of this country.

The Occupy movement was doomed from the start for it had no stated purpose or goals and certainly no idea of how to achieve them. The Tea Party was better organized but no more likely to succeed as the concepts of the movement were based on appealing to those with the lowest common intellectual capacity and highest level of fear towards anyone who did not look exactly the same. The galactically stupid rarely stick together or achieve their goals.

This is a telling sentence that shows the authors lack of understanding:

Otherwise, a moment of increasing extremity has also been a moment of—to use Fraser's word—"acquiescence." Someday, we'll assumedly understand far better how this all came to be.

Why do we have increasing extremity in politics? It doesn't require "someday" to understand this. It is the necessary end result of gerrymandering and redistricting. Almost every seat is either safely blue or safely red. In order to win, candidates must appeal to the further and further extremes of their party. Why should average Joe or Jane show up when the party outcome is already a foregone conclusion? Only the freaks on the fringe will bother to vote and they will only vote for candidates who are freaks of the fringe themselves.

 

[GURPS]

and what exactly is the 'fringe' and what is the main stream ?

 

[Hijinx]

and what exactly is the 'fringe' and what is the main stream ?

The Tea Party will rise again when an election nears. It's concept is greatly misunderstood.
It never was an official entity, just a group of people with like ideas. Those ideas have not changed .

 

[Gilligan]

... the movement were based on appealing to those with the lowest common intellectual capacity and highest level of fear towards anyone who did not look exactly the same. .

You are such a clown. I hope you don't wonder why nobody takes you seriously.

 

[philibusters]

I think there is some truth to the article. I read Steven Brill's book America's Bitter Pill which was about Obamacare. Brill is definitely a liberal. He briefly mentions that as the Tea Party was criticizing the government for backroom deals, the Obama administration was working out four separate backroom deals with the lobbyist from the health insurance industry, medical device industry, hospital industry, and drug industry.

 

[BOP]

You are such a clown. I hope you don't wonder why nobody takes you seriously.

I touch myself whenever I see her posts.


Of course it is making my forehead sore and leaving a dent in my table.

 

[Hank]

I touch myself whenever I see her posts.

Of course it is making my forehead sore and leaving a dent in my table.

Weirdo

 

[mamatutu]

I touch myself whenever I see her posts.


Of course it is making my forehead sore and leaving a dent in my table.

Weirdo

Oh my geez. Y'all just made me laugh so! Thanks. This forum is great! :

 

[BOP]

Weirdo

What're you wearing?

 

[SamSpade]

This is a telling sentence that shows the authors lack of understanding:


That's a pretty dumb article.
Perfect for your level of intelligence and hatred of this country.
based on appealing to those with the lowest common intellectual capacity and
highest level of fear towards anyone who did not look exactly the same.
The galactically stupid rarely stick together or achieve their goals.
Only the freaks on the fringe will bother to vote and they will only vote for candidates who are freaks of the fringe themselves.

All that just to say it's gerrymandering and the fact that seats are safe (to which I say, baloney). Somehow the author thinks the points are better made if they are punctuated with insults rather than logic and evidence.

Extreme elements in politics have always existed. Always. It doesn't require a system such as that which exists in the United States for it to exist - it exists everywhere and for a reason the author hinted at - extreme views attract voters. Modest, moderate views bore people and do not inspire them.

 

[Gilligan]

What're you wearing?

He sounds hideous.