2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSarah Palin & Tea Party – Dead Movement Walking – The Tea Party Is Dead
The Tea Party movement is dead. When an ant mound is poisoned and the queen dies there are still worker ants running around. However for all practical purposes, the mound is dead. That is the current state of the Tea Party.
The con artists that used the fear and ignorance of the Tea Party following minions to make millions of dollars on books, shows, conventions, and rallies are scrambling for the next issues ripe for exploitation. The immigration issue is losing traction. The fear of Obamacare is losing traction as more and more middle class Americans see the actual benefits. They have attempted to jump on the gun control issue. This may now be falling apart as the share violence America saw inflicted on its most innocent overtake the absolutist position of absolutely no gun regulations.
Sarah Palins contract with Fox News was not renewed. Bobby Jindal in what would normally be a Tea Party friendly crowed, said the party needs to stop being the Stupid Party and start speaking like adults. MSNBC Joe Scarborough, a staunch conservative has excoriated the party by claiming that Republicans cheated themselves to a house majority and is a party in decline. Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman says the party is devoid of a soul, fear based, with no belief in math. General Colin Powell went on NBCs Meet The Press and said the party has a dark vein of intolerance among other very harsh criticisms.
The above are words no Republican would utter even a year ago. As the American population has begun to awaken to the misinformation and outright lies of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, the voices that were too timid or cowardly to speak out will now not shut up. It is like an awakening out of the McCarthy era.
America is a resilient nation. Unfortunately there are times in its history when some would use fear of the unknown or a crisis to either do good (WWII, Moon Landing) or bad (Red Scare, Tea Partys short reign).
Sadly the short reign of the Tea Party has inflicted material harm to the country. The obstructionism they created stalled the recovery by not allowing the institution of real proven Keynesian stimuli. They forced the continuation of tax policies that incentivizes the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy. Some remnants of this destructive movement remain in the House and Senate, which means progress and recovery from their ill doings will be slow.
The 2012 election made much immediately evident. It showed that Americans are engaging more. They did not accept the misinformation that the mainstream media had given plausibility. They did not allow attempts of voter suppression to inhibit their democratic rights they fought for. They realized that a democracy requires engagement.
The Tea Party is dead. Good riddance.
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The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,847 posts)the bad thing is dead and they're not? Like the end of "Carrie," where the hand comes up out of the grave? I'm not satisfied to assume the Teabagger movement is dead; I want a "Dracula" ending, with a stake pounded through its heart.
libodem
(19,288 posts)Desecrate. Grabs the jaw, works the mouth, says sister Sarah, you are so hawt, takes an arm and makes it wave, bye bye..
Gets the army boots and gypsy skirt for a good rip snortin' grave dance.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Look at Rep. Grayson's thread about the 'no budget no pay' clause that was recently passed -- it's a 100% Teabag-originated idea. They're still scurrying around, planning their sneaky deeds with complicit funders, supporters & representatives away from the light of scrutiny.
Criminal sociopaths are always the most dangerous in the dark.
yellowcanine
(35,701 posts)Tea baggers are the philosophical descendants of the Know Nothing Party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
Filibuster Harry
(666 posts)republicans.
ChangeUp106
(549 posts)Problem is the Tea Party became the mainstream Republicans. And anything with the amount of money behind it that the Tea Party could potentially have won't die.
nobodyspecial
(2,286 posts)These people have been around for decades
MyshkinCommaPrince
(611 posts)The same basic movement, with the same basic group of ground troops and keyboard warriors, will be back. Perhaps not immediately, but the wait won't be too long, I suspect. They'll have the same backers and the movement will represent the same (largely unacknowledged) goals and agendas of those backers, but the rallying cry and uniforms and secret decoder rings will all be changed.
Philotime
(2 posts)Please watch Martin Bashir brilliant end of show where he did two stories seemingly unlinked: Palin and monkey into space. This guy is killing it.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)Love Martin Brashir - he's just ruthless sometimes in making his point.
Philotime
(2 posts)William769
(55,147 posts)Welcome.
iloveObama12
(421 posts)meanwhile Obama is still our President