Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement
Posted on February 7, 2010 at 7:33 am
The tea party movement is dead. The one I was familiar with anyway. Judson Phillips held it down and Sarah Palin drove a stake right through its heart live last night on C-Span in front of an unsuspecting audience.
Sarah Palin didn’t give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address. It was a purely political speech designed to position her for a presidential run in 2012 or 2016. Period. She wasn’t there to celebrate the organic nature of a movement she had nothing to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers. And she did.
The movement, that came to be officially recognized almost a year ago but whose roots go back further than that, has been snuffed out and replaced in the public mind. The movement that began as a people’s movement of angry independent, libertarians and conservatives will now be thought as the movement of people like Palin, Dick Armey, Judson Phillips, Mark Skoda, etc. Essentially, a wholly owned subsidiary of the “Official Conservative Movement” and the Republican Party.
This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.
The people we saw on the steps of Legislative Plaza and county courthouses across the state last year weren’t “movement conservatives.” Certainly the movement conservatives were there at those protests but the tea parties were much bigger in size, scope and concept than just traditional modern conservatism reheated. Last night, the professional conservatives fixed that for good.
For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition.
Sarah Palin.
Palin, while explicitly saying the movement had no leader, implicitly offered herself up as one. After this speech, which was widely covered on the internet and carried on television, the tea party movement and Sarah Palin will be inextricably intertwined.
So with the spotlight on her and the attention of the curious media surrounding her what did she present as a tea party agenda? What did she discuss?
Ronald Reagan, national defense and superficial deficiencies of the current democratic occupant of the White House. Wow. In all honesty, the speech could have just as easily been given in 1994 as in 2010 which, of course, was the last time Republican operatives and professional conservatives sought to exploit an authentic populist movement of the center-right.
Ronald Reagan? Are you serious? Three times the name was invoked during the speech. Sure, it was his birthday but it serves to remind us what kind of crowd this was in front of those C-Span cameras.
These weren’t the people who were out protesting. This weren’t regular folks. This was the same old network of conservative hacks, flacks, publicists and hangers-on. This was Conservative Inc.
Ronald Reagan has nothing to do with the tea party movement. Nothing. Ronald Reagan is the past. The GOP’s past, no less. The tea party movement was supposed to be the future.
The fact that Palin even has the temerity to position herself as a leader in the movement (and despite her protests that’s exactly what she was doing) is offensive to any student of very, very recent political history. Palin, as mavericky and rogue as she likes to paint herself, was the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2008. She ran with John McCain and defended the Bush legacy. A project she continued last night in front of a faux-tea party audience.
In her remarks, Palin praised the Senator from Arizona and chastised the current President for blaming the past one for his problems. Now, I don’t know every tea partier out there but I do know a few and I don’t remember any of them having a whole lot of good to say about President Bush or John McCain. While they don’t have much positive to say about Barack Obama there no love for George Bush either.
And when did the tea party movement get a foreign policy? I didn’t put a clock on it but the first portion of Palin’s speech seemed very heavy on the neoconservatism.
Palin expressed dismay about the fact that President Obama spent only “9 percent” of the State of the Union on foreign policy and stated that Americans “deserve to know the truth about the threats we face and what the administration is or isn’t doing about them.”
She talked about “homicide” Bombers and the slammed the administration of its handling of the man who plotted to take down a Detroit airliner on Christmas Day.
“Treating this like a mere law enforcement matter places our country at grave risk because that’s not how radical Islamic extremists are looking at this,” she told the assembled at Opryland. “They know we’re at war. And to win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.”
Judson Phillips and Sarah Palin
Palin talked about standing up to Iran, defending Israel and making the world safe for Democracy. All noble goals, I suppose, but what was she doing justifying and perpetuating the foreign policy of George Bush at a tea party convention?
The tea party I’m familiar with was concerned more about the collusion of big business and big government than the War in Iraq. The tea party I’m familiar with was more concerned about rejecting the bailout of Wall Street while looking for ways reinvigorate the economy of Main Street than looking for Al-Qaeda. The tea party I’m familiar with seemed more concerned about restoring the Republic at home than Democracy abroad.
Almost from start finish, Sarah Palin outlined an agenda that either ignored or de-emphasized the issues and the spirit that the tea parties were founded on.
Sure, there was some of the old school tea party rhetoric in there for flavor but, for a keynote address to a movement that at its inception was very radical, there was nothing radical about Sarah Palin’s speech. It was derivative circa 2004 neoconservatism as far as I could tell.
But the media now have their definition of what it means to be Tea Party. This convention gave them simplistic nativism, birtherism, media bashing, homophobia, and a heavy does of neoconservative foreign policy.
That is the image of tea partydom that Judson Phillips poured out to the eager media this weekend and is now percolating through the many channels of mass and new media.
By Monday afternoon, it will begin to harden and the tea party movement will be Sarah Palin’s movement.
And that is no tea party at all.
SEE ALSO:
The speech and other reactions
Comments
402 Responses to “Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement”
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[...] A.C. Kleinheider is less [...]
Look at the bright side, AC. This could mean real job security for Tina Fey!
[...] again, next day: Palin the hijacker? The tea party movement is dead. The one I was familiar with anyway. Judson Phillips held it down [...]
Man, you need to get out more, your brain is calcifying.
So, you don’t like Sarah Palin, what else is new here? You choose to denigrate the Tea Party movement by claiming that Palin is claiming “Leadership” of the tea Party. Mister, that is the exact opposite of what she claimed.
What began as loose unorganized expression of concern about what the federal Government is doing is now taking steps to hold government and politicians accountable. To bring about accountability requires more then unorganized people, it requires a degree of repsonsibility to build an effective means to hold people.government accuntable.
Oh, no A.C.–it is the beginning of the beginning.
Oh good grief.
If the Tea Party movement is based on genuine, broadly held concerns and convictions, no one individual can knock it far off kilter.
I don’t think these people are easily led, or misled. They are particularly sceptical and suspicious of star power, charisma, what have you.
What an amazing bit of hysterical negativity.
This article is nuttier than a fruitcake, a complete crock of horse feathers.
You have completely missed the point.
Crimany, what a temper tantrum. One tea party convention that not even all tea partiers agee with, and you pronounce death for the whole movement. Go back to bed and start over tomorrow.
Two by-the-ways:
A “party” without a “foreign polichy” is worthless. You can’t ignore the rest of the world, especially when parts of it are attacking you. Sarah is obviouly more perceptive than you on this point.
Never read your nonsense before, but it looks like at the root of it, you don’t like Sarah Palin. I disagree with some of her stances, but choosing between you and Sarah as the face of the tea party? You go girl!
I worry about the same thing. We have a tea party that has no real structure or leadership. This makes it harder to keep the focus on the government, spending, tax policies. Perhaps the Contract For America offers an opportunity to solidify what we are all about. If we can then support politicians of either party who are sincere in their support for these points (regardless of what they think about other issues), then we can give both major parties a good scare.
One small plug - the state and local governments are at least as rapacious as the feds when it comes to spending our taxes. Ever notice that they keep threatening to cut teachers but always seem to add other non-essential people to their payrolls? Meanwhile property taxes keep going up and up
Your article is wrong on points too numerous to list. For one, Reagan is an inspirational figure to all who value keeping government small. His philosphy and the fact that he got elected (twice) gives hope to the TEA party movement. Your statement that he has nothing to do with this movement reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of what motivates people like Palin.
Kleinheider - I await your next article. I’m sure the title will be called “Dewey Defeats Truman”.
Don’t jump to conclusions! A majority of people know this was the first convention of this type and do not see the movement dead or Sarah Palin as a hijacker.
Keep your focus ahead and not behind.
Eric,
A government needs a foreign policy. A movement doesn’t. At least not yet. Its already being loaded up with references to scripture, foreign policy, treatment of terrorists etc.
[...] Adam Kleinheider explains: The movement, that came to be officially recognized almost a year ago but whose roots go back further than that, has been snuffed out and replaced in the public mind. The movement that began as a people’s movement of angry independent, libertarians and conservatives will now be thought as the movement of people like Palin, Dick Armey, Judson Phillips, Mark Skoda, etc. Essentially, a wholly owned subsidiary of the “Official Conservative Movement” and the Republican Party. [...]
Get a clue Kleinheider. This article = FAIL.
Right. If only Sarah had aimed her speech at liberal spenders and peaceniks. What was she thinking?
One other good reason for keeping ourselves some distance from the republicans while still supporting a lot of their candidates) is that they no longer represent what we want. When even Newt Gingrich got it so wrong in NY state, when W went along with every big spending proposal, when he nominated the unqualified Harriet Myers, you know that we can’t just rely on their good judgment if we put them back in power. No, let’s hold their feet to the fire - all of them!!
You shouldn’t write articles like this. It reeks of fear: the fear that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi will soon be sent packing in disgrace; the fear that Mann and Pachauri will soon be up on charges of fraud; the fear that A. C. Kleinheider will soon have to get a real job instead of churning out political hackery.
And the TEA Partiers can smell fear.
Your description of the invocation of Reagan’s name indicates how little you understand conservatism and this Tea Party movement. Much of Reagan’s guiding spirit could be boiled down to a mistrust of large government. In his mind, small government was good government and it enhanced individual freedom. This has also been the animating spirit of the tea party movement - more than anything it is a reaction to our federal overlords growing fatter on the tax teat. Not sure that Sarah Palin is the one to be the poster child of that spirit, but at least she is paying it lip service - something most politicians seem to have forgotten over the last decade.
When you come to comprehend this linkage you might be qualified to spout thoughts on the tea party movement and conservatism. Until then, you risk displaying our stereotypical your views are.
“But the media now have their definition of what it means to be Tea Party. This convention gave them simplistic nativism, birtherism, media bashing, homophobia, and a heavy does of neoconservative foreign policy.”
If that’s the image of the Tea Party the media and Washington took away from this convention, fine. They’ll just continue to “misunderestimate” this movement for another year or so. Then in November, they’ll be left scratching their heads and saying “Where in the world did that come from?!?”
The Tea Party has done just fine so far without any help from the media, and that’s not going to change just because Palin gives a speech. And if Washington and the MSM choose not to grasp what happened in Massachusetts last month — the “Scott heard ’round the world” — then they’ll be just as surprised as the redcoats were some two hundred twenty-five years ago. Funny how history repeats itself: Boston featured prominently in that story, too.
Ack, math fail. I meant, of course, two hundred thirty-five years ago.
[...] time, if ever. So for now, boy, you get the coy. Enjoy.Update: (h/t Instapundit) Kleinhelder saw no coyness whatsoever. Was that a speech, or a Rorshach test? var addthis_pub=’smitty1e’;var [...]
Looks like the hijackers had their goons waiting to attack. Adam, I have changed my mind about you based on this and a couple of other pieces that demonstrate real insight rather than simple obedience. Great stuff! I want more like this.
[...] Chatter: Did Sarah Palin hijack the entire Tea Party movement? Maybe [...]
AC buddy,
Your artical is wishful thinking or you live in an alternate reality.
This movement is bigger than Palin and it will not stop until the
present politcal landscape is fundmentally changed. Fear and
denial wear well on you but it won’t save your candidates in the
coming onslaught.
Be well
JP
“Palin talked about standing up to Iran, defending Israel and making the world safe for Democracy. All noble goals, I suppose, but what was she doing justifying and perpetuating the foreign policy of George Bush at a tea party convention?”
Good to see you agree that the Democratic leadership believe in none of these things.
Your version of what happened last night at the Tea Party event does not match what I saw happening. Sure, Sarah Palin gave a speech that she was evidently paid to give. In the speech she “explicitly” said that there were no kings and queens of the movement. It was not the best speech she’s delivered, but there were moments when she did connect. The Tea Party movement is a grass roots movement, but that does not mean that the people under its umbrella are identical. If the more affluent or motivated want to help those with less money or time build the base by sponsoring educational events like this one and bringing home the knowledge to those who could not participate, more power to them. If the Tea Party is to have a real influence, it will be based on people with similar motivations but diverse backgrounds being able to work with each other to bring accountability back to Washington politics. This is no time to nurture bruised egos. Those who believe Washington is taking the country in the wrong direction need to pull tegether to effect change. And if having Sarah Palin at an event gives it more national coverage, good for the people organizing the event! Perhaps if she had participated in the Washington DC march, the POTUS and the major news networks could not have under-reported it. Power to the people with the Tea Party!
You’re overreacting and giving the MSM waaaaay too much power.
“For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition.
Sarah Palin.”
Dude, they’ve been deliberately calling you “teabaggers” for the last year in a pathetic, desperate attempt to marginalize you by connecting you with a repugnant sexual practice. How did that work out?
Seen Scott Brown lately? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. He just got sworn in as a Senator, despite the frantic spasms of the MSM.
Just relax, take a deep breath and come back in a week and think about it.
Is Palin “hijacked” that whole movement with that speech, there isn’t much to the movement.
I think you are off here. She gave a speech anyone could have given. It was fine. She’s fine. The “movement” is fine.
In fact, she helped the Tea Party Movement a great deal.
If Palin “hijacked” that whole movement with that speech, there isn’t much to the movement.
I think you are off here. She gave a speech anyone could have given. It was fine. She’s fine. The “movement” is fine.
In fact, she helped the Tea Party Movement a great deal.
Well said, Kleinheider.
For the conservatives who love Palin, it isn’t about her. For those who love Obama, it isn’t about him.
This is about freedom. Freedom is not about personality cults. Freedom is not about celebrity, personal beauty or soaring oratory. Freedom is not about seeking Great Leaders to rule over you.
This is about The Constitution. This is about liberty.
Contrary to what both sides think, do and say, most of what you are used to in America has nothing to do with The Constitution. Most of what you are used to, and most of what you espouse, from both sides of the ideological divide, is about exercising power and control over others.
Just a hint: Most of what Governor Palin said in her speech has no more to do with the intent of the Founding Fathers or Constitutional principles and ideals than anything President Obama says in any of his speeches.
The Plain Meaning Rule applies.
(Technically, Reagan wasn’t a conservative. He was a social liberal who signed off on spending a helluva lot of money growing the same government you all claim to hate.)
This is one of your finest columns ever. It exposes what the Tea Party Convention has become; just another marketing scheme for the old GOP hacks.
The fact that they are howling in anger in the comments proves that you hit a vein. Great work, sir!
Who is Kleinheider trying to kid? He is a stone cold lefty and evryone knows it.
Lame.
The tea party protests didn’t begin as a protest against “the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout”; it began as a protest against excessive government spending (esp. the stimulus bill). Your attempt to blame this on Bush fairly reeks of President Obama’s cluelessness after his failed stumping for Coakley.
It’s the spending . . . period. Once you get that point, the rest of it (especially including Reagan) ought to start making a little sense.
Kleinheider-”The tea party movement is dead.”
LOL
Just keep spouting this kinda of stuff! Please!!!
An odd nonsensical rant. The ragtag group can’t have views on foreign policy or revere Reagan?
Sounds odd that so many of the movement would show up enthusiastically and pay to hear Palin speak.
What did you think she would say during her address, Kleinendenker? Something like “It’s all Bush’s fault!”
[...] least, it was for Kleinheider, coupled with a big heaping of sour grapes about how nobody wants to come out and march for [...]
After watching the PJTV broadcast of Sarah Palin’s speech and follow-on Q&A, I’m left wondering if Mr. Kleinheider watched the same event. I did not see Sarah Palin claiming the mantel of leadership of the Tea Party, I saw her specifically stating the Tea Party doesn’t need a Cult of Personality Leader. I did not see her engaging in a Republican stump speech, I saw her criticize the Republicans and Democrats. Perhaps she didn’t savage the Republicans or George Bush…but she’s still a Republican (even if the party doesn’t deserve her) and she’s not Barack Obama. I didn’t see her ignore the fiscal irresponsibility of both parties, I saw her specifically attack the insanity that seems to have gripped national government, particularly under the current leadership. Perhaps she spent too much time on national defense and foreign policy, but isn’t that the primary role of the federal government?
The Tea Party and Sarah Palin will both survive this convention. After seeing Ms. Palin’s performance in whole, I feel more confident than ever that the Tea Party movement is a revolution in the making and that Ms. Palin understands it better than most politicians.
I suggest respectfully that Mr. Kleinheider revisit the PJTV coverage and reconsider his rather unhinged-from-reality article.
So how in your estimation should the Tea Party proceed into the future. You spent all these words wringing your hands and expressing your dislike for Sarah Palin and how they made a deal-with-the-highheeled-devil last night. Granting your every point (for the moment but not at all really), who should lead this movement/party? You seem entranced with the romantic notion of the spontaneity and folksy good nature of it all. It sounds like that’s where you wish it would stay. For months (years?)people have been writing how the party needs to coalesce in to a central theme and/or platform of ideas. Now that this seems to be happening people are upset about it? Huh? Sounds like you’re in the camp that just wishes it would all go away.
Oh and what about anything she said last night is inconsistent with the “platform” (be that as it is) of the Tea Party? Without actually getting on the ballot themselves, isn’t it a strategy of the Tea Party to change or co-opt the lower levels of the Republican machine from the bottom up? I don’t see how this will do anything but help that strategy.
Anyway… it’s a new world. Get used to it.
[...] It never stops: [...]
Well of course she is a Republican, and will have the tendency to voice a Republicans concerns,duh!
Must the Tea Party Movement embrace every aspect, or even any of her stated concerns, of course not!
Exceptionally insightful article ACK. You hit it right on the nose.
Hysterical much, Kleinheider?
Go find a paper bag to breathe into.
Sarah Palin wrote her “priorities” on the palm of her hand, like she’s a 14 year old high school student. Photos of her “palmprompter” can be seen here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stefan-sirucek/did-palin-use-crib-notes_b_452458.html
“An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.”
Bush presided over the bailouts. Obama has (unfortunately) presided over the continuation of the bailouts.
“This was Conservative Inc. ”
This nonsense has ALWAYS been Conservative Inc. Bankrolled and contrived. Either you’re extremely naive or extremely disengenous. I suspect the latter.
Palin isn’t an alternative to Obama. She is the Right’s version of Obama.
FACT CHECK
Kleinheider: “… Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts …”
The bank bailouts occurred under George Bush, and it was Bush who “presided” over them, especially in the sense that he was president at the time.
.
Whether I agree with Ms. Palin or not, I have serious issues with this article on simple points of fact. For instance:
“An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.”
You don’t seem to have a clue about the actual timeline of events in the past 2 years - President Obama had not yet been elected much less sworn in when the bailout was initiated. You don’t even bother to include contemperaneous quotes from Obama, or McCain or Bush, about the bailout. Did you mean the stimulous package? TARP? Do you know the difference?
If as a “journalist” you don’t know the basic facts of recent history it doesn’t really matter who you agree with. While I don’t agree with many of the commenters, I can hardly expect them to respect your opinion - sloppy thinking, sloppy writing, no grasp of facts.
Feh.
Pretty sure she was the nominee in 2008, not 2010.
The Tea Party movement had to MOVE. The first round got everyone riled up, the second round got everyone saying “now what”…you could see the frustration of people in the audience. The key to success for all movements is ACTION not just rhetoric.
Yes, you can start a third party, but the reality of this is long term and splinters the vote in the short term leaving the left still in charge…which is completely counterproductive to the movement. The answer is to take back the Republican Party and I don’t care what anyone says, Ronald Reagan embodies the philosophy we believe in. I could run an entire campaign with just Reagan quotes and win the hearts and minds of the people…he made sense and he made us laugh. Big government is one big joke. He had plenty of material to work with.
What we need is people to get off their duffs and get active in the process. If Sarah Palin energizes the average American (read not the political arrogant elite), then SHE should be the face of the movement. What even confirms that for me is that the Left, the Media and the Political Elite on both sides of the aisle don’t like her. Perfect.
As for the Judson Phillips/TPN issue, get over it. The whole thing is a schoolyard fight over who gets to use the ballfield first. TPN got there first. Whoopie do. Do they want the teacher to get involved now to make it all “fair”. Geesh folks, last time I checked, there are winners and losers in life…or have you fallen into the ridiculous Leftist propaganda agenda too. The people who are calling “foul” need to realize they are now apart of the problem because all of us teabaggers just want to get s**t done and move forward. 2010 Elections are here and it is time to kick some Washington (and state/local) butt!
We don’t need another Libertarian Party. The Tea Party MOVEMENT exists to bring back the Republican Party into the Reagan small government camp. He highjacked it once, we can do it again.
If you insist on being pure and losing elections for the foreseeable future, then please, go right on being an anarchist nutcase. Meanwhile, the adults in the room will be voting for conservatives. You need to listen to Mark Levin more. He’s very good at educating you Ron Paulians. “Get off the phone you big dope!”
Kleinheider, you just earned yourself a Darwin award… you are beyond out of touch.
Wow!! Look at all this Instapundit traffic. Let’s face it, the Tea Party is to the right what the anti-war movement was to the left. It will be co-opted by the party and absorbed. This isn’t any sort of real revolution. Just as the anti-war movement wasn’t anything real. If a week is a “lifetime” in politics, then 2012 is eons away.
The leftists in America denigrate anything good about America. You’re either one of them or you’re a “useful idiot” (their term).
This earns the contempt of independent-minded people who watch the parade pass by.
Only a bleating sheep (a la Orwell’s Animal Farm) would swallow the crap you appear to believe.
Wake up, wise up.
I charge plagiarism against one Adolpho Jimmy Carter Klownheider.
Somebody call Kleinheider a waaaaaaambulance. I think he’s got his widdle feelings hurt.
He’s not saying the movement’s dead, folks - he’s saying the embrace of Palin means the movement’s heading down a dead-end road. To me now the question is whether &/or when anyone in the movement will recognize this too.
Well-done, ACK.
More bagger conventions, PLEASE! Give them all the rope they want…
Crapflooded by irregulars … you must be doing something right, A.C.
P.S. “Hijack” implies that these folks went unwillingly.
Ah, it’s all so funny.
Reagan was for smaller government.
Yeah right.
He ran huge deficits and built up the Pentagon out of proportion to what the threat was from the USSR.
The only thing Reagan did effectively was destroy Main Street America.
Sarah Palin’s the same thing. A half wit who would be on government assistance if she didn’t already have a government job. Nothing there ‘cept legs and breasts and the willingness to flaunt it for votes.
The Tea Party was a news maker in the usually news dead summer.
Made up of a bunch of old white people, screaming their lungs out, about ready to stroke out, why wouldn’t the media cover it?
If you want the media’s attention, rule number one, start a fight. And that’s what they did.
And, as events have proven, that’s the extent of their abilities as a political movement.
Tea Party suppoters claim that this group hasn’t been involved in politics before.
BS.
The last presidential election had the largest turn out in a long time. And a lot of those voters were the old whites who couldn’t stand the idea of a black president.
Republicans will play to this group if they think they need it to win primaries. That’s what Palin did.
Sure, it will influence GOP primaries, but it won’t influence general elections, no matter what Tea Paritiers believed happened in Massachusetts.
Sarah Palin deserves the Tea Partiers and the Tea Partiers deserve her, but neither one is really going anywhere politically, and we all know it.
Great article ACK.
So, there’s a grass roots movement that champions less spending and small government and you are surprised and aghast that conservatives disillusioned with the GOP are drawn to it? And that their interest or participation are the death knell of the movement? Sheesh, lighten up.
I’m in agreement that the Republican Party is the enemy since they capitulate their principles at every opportunity but unless you want this movement to be composed of 9 guys in tri-cornered hats waving a Gadsden flag out in front of the Tuscaloosa town hall, we’re gonna have to have a bigger tent.
As a member of the Libertarian Party and national delegate back in ‘98, I am familiar with being surrounded by people that have ideas that seem a tad on the kookier side of life. But get used to it, not every participant is gonna look exactly like you.
Palin is sufficiently disassociated from the GOP at this point to be a bona-fide speaker. Now if Newt Gingrich starts speaking on behalf of the mnovement, yeah, run for the hills.
Wishful thinking,Kleinheider. You’re still not listening.
&: if you disagree with this piece, be prepared to explain in detail how the co-opting by the party establishment of its own protest movement ultimately represented a net plus for the Democratic Party.
The whole purpose of this convention was to hijack a movement for a few wannabe politicos and make some cash. The groups that protested this sham had the right idea in mind.
The local tea party leaders should disassociate themselves with this disgrace as soon as possible.
She gave a Republican Party campaign speech. Testing the waters, building support.
=====
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/07/palin-willing-obama/
Palin ‘Would Be Willing’ to Take On Obama in 2012
By Judson Berger
FOXNews.com
February 07, 2010
====
Ok. Fine and dandy. No problems with that. Ya wanta run for office, run for office. The problem is, she’s now actively trying to hijack the movement in what can only be described as traditional cold-blooded self-serving politics.
It kinda goes against what the T.E.A. Party has built its image around. i.e. grassroots, non-partisan, anti-incumbent populism.
But that’s ok, ’cause it’s Sarah-cuda, eh?
People who could afford to drop $500 to attend this convention aren’t grass root Tea Partiers. If I had $500 (and I do) I will reserve it for “money bombs” for conservative candidates later this year.
I won’t be surprise to find that most attendees will be tied, more or less, to the Republican Party, anxious to rub shoulders with the wild Tea Partiers.
If Palin won anything it was a few more Republicans.
In a way I agree with you AC. I believe that when the politicians “join” or hijack the movement, it diminishes it. That goes for any politician, not just Palin.
This is a comedy piece, right? Dead? I personally wouldn’t been nearly as exhausted if that were true. In our county, we are fielding candidate forums that are blowing away the attendance of long-established local groups. Candidates are coming out of the woodwork who want to talk with us and begging for our support and our ‘TeaApproved’ rating.
Pretending the teabaggers were ever a true “grass roots” movement is either lying or being obtuse. Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks political action group–funded by massive amounts of corporate donations–and Americans for Prosperity were there from the start, running these “grass roots” events.
Also, Obama hadn’t even been elected when the TARP bailouts went down, so it’s stupid to suggest he “presided” over them.
Ya all ain’t gonna know if you been hijacked. Till it is too late. That is how Palin operates. Plans are she intends to start selling you all the iPPP. Otherwise known as the Palin Palm Pilot.
You did realize that the bailout was thought up and “presided over” by W. and his GOOPer Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, don’t you?
You have a right to your own opinions — not a right to your own facts.
That said, the teabaggers need to clean up their own stables. The stench is appalling.
So, there’s a grass roots movement
Where? Please point one out.
Palin is sufficiently disassociated from the GOP
Palin is currently stumping for:
John McCain - Republican
Rick Perry - Republican
Michele Bachmann - Republican
Rand Paul - Republican
Her father and father-in-law have campaigned for Vaughn Ward, Idaho Republican running for congress.
Quoted on Fox News as saying she will “do whatever I can to help the Republican nominee, whoever he or she is.”
When asked by Chris Wallace, “How do you see yourself, as a member of the tea party movement or a member of the Republican party?”
Saint Palin answered, “I think the two are and should be even more so more merging, because the tea party movement is quite reflective of what the GOP — the planks in the platform are supposed to be about…. the two are much entwined, and I’m happy with that. The GOP has some very strong planks in the platform that build a platform that I believe is best to build a strong, safe prosperous nation”
Palin (tea party)disassociated from the GOP? Get real.
Regean granted amnesty to illegal aliens to get votes and did not close the border. Every president since than has copied and look where that has us now. I want someone who is going to be the anti-regean and stop this invasion.
Let’s be clear: Bush and Paulson initiated the Bailouts - Obama inherited the mess.
The stimulus - Obama, yes. Bailouts - no, it was Bush.
RE: nitpicker
The tea party was bought and paid for by more than a dozen GOP backed PACs, PR firms and corporate allies LONG before the first bus tour or teabagger rally took place last year. To name a few:
FreedomWorks, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Empower America, Koch Industries, The Cohen Group, Americans for Prosperity, the leveraged buyout firm Forstmann Little & Co, American Liberty Alliance, American Solutions for a Winning Future, Rupert Murdoch, Our Country Deserves Better, The National Tax Limitation Committee, American Conservative Union, Grassfire.Org, Peabody Energy, Club For Growth, and Move America Forward.
One more thing… Some of the people at the head of those organizations:
Dick Armey, Sal Russo, William Bennett, Lewis Uhler, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Howard Kaloogian, William Cohen, Craig Shirley, David Koch, Art Pope, Eric Odom, Newt Gingrich, Rupert Murdoch, David Keene.
‘at movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique.’
No, it wasn’t unique. There have been many such outbursts in American history, when the policies and attitudes of the governing elites get sufficiently out of synch with the interests, desires, and beliefs of the general public. There’s a classic pattern to them and this one is following it.
1. The outburst is written off as fringe nuts or fake, and denigrated.
2. The outburst (if sufficiently driven) begins to impact electoral politics seriously. (The Tea Party movement has reached stage two with the elections in November and January).
3. The movement either fizzles out in disarray after being unable to cohere around an electable agenda, or it merges with or replaces one of the two parties and becomes part of the new establishment, replacing old one.
There is no escape from stage 3, the Tea movement CANNOT remain what is has been for very long, by the very nature of politics and public affairs. Yes, that means it has to take up partisan politics, it has to have individuals who can be elected to implement policies, whether that be Republicans, Democrats, or a whole new party (the third option only rarely works).
And yes, it means compromise, because no movement ever, I mean not ever, gets to implement their policies intact.
‘The tea party I’m familiar with was concerned more about the collusion of big business and big government than the War in Iraq. The tea party I’m familiar with was more concerned about rejecting the bailout of Wall Street while looking for ways reinvigorate the economy of Main Street than looking for Al-Qaeda. The tea party I’m familiar with seemed more concerned about restoring the Republic at home than Democracy abroad.’
Then the Tea Party you’re familiar with has to grow up and deal with the world as it is, or else fade away to irrelevance. Foreign policy is the first and most important task of the Federal Government, and a ‘movement’ that has nothing to say on the matter is not going to significant for long in politics. The Tea partiers must make common cause with others to achieve anything, and the only realistic allies available are to be found amid thegroups and people who traditionally vote Republican, for the most part. You make not like that fact, but it’s still a fact.
The Republican PARTY, as an organization, meaning its upper tiers and leadership, are not necessarily friendly to the Tea Party movement, obviously. But if the Tea Party movement is going anywhere or is going to have any lasting impact, they’re going to do it in alliance with Republican rank-and-file voters, and a much, much smaller group of sympathetic Democrat rank-and-file.
Whether Palin is the right person to be the ‘focus’ of the movement is debatable. But things have reached the stage where _someone_ will be. If Palin isn’t the one you want, it’s time to figure out who is, but you can’t keep what you had. That’s over now, Stage One is behind it and Stage Two is reachin its end.
americans want fewer government services and smaller, less intrusive governments at all levels. they support tea parties regardless of the interests of polticians.
I think you are missing the point. Exactly what is being said or expressed at these meetings really doesn’t matter. Truth and accuracy don’t really matter. Most of these people are not the brightest lights on the Christmas tree. It doesn’t matter what Obama does or doesn’t do. He was hated by them before he set foot in the whitehouse. The problem with the dems is that they are all too intelligent for thier own good, they all think they are leaders, not followers. Right wingers are mostly idiots, so they make perfect followers. I wouldn’t take them lightly though, get enough idiots together in a room and there’s gonna be trouble. The dems need to hop down from the high horse and take the gloves off and play for keeps. Stop reaching across the isle and getting thier hands slapped. What’s the tickets gonna be? Palin/ Scott brown 2012? Or Romney/Scott brown.
You did this Kleinheider. You did this to yourself.
You were so determined to show that so-and-so Obama that you were willing - nay, eager - to stand up and be counted alongside the birthers, the flat earth society, the global cooling goofballs, the creationists, the bible-thumpers, the klan wannabes, the tinfoil-hat wearing conspiracy kooks and, yes, even Sarah Palin’s own Horde of Ignorance.
It’s a two-party system, and you declared war on one side and gave the other side a free pass (and don’t give me any BS about how you’ve said a few unpolite things about Bush…that doesn’t mean squat and you know it). Well guess what pal, the corporate whores in Washington thrive on unaccountability, and you gave them a triple shot of get-out-of-jail-free blinkerism.
You forgot the most important tenet of libertarianism: the enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. Nothing more, nothing less.
You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. And hey, looke here - now YOU are on the fringe of the movement you helped create. Bonus!
The Armies of the Status Quo stand unchallenged, while we peasants strangle each other over scraps of culture-war idiocy. And YOU are a part of it. Take some f’ing responsibility.
” An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts”
Really? I think its more honest just say they were angered by the new President, Barack Obama, period. Obama hadn’t even been elected when the bank bailout occurred. But don’t let well known facts get in the way of your narrative.
Ronald Reagan’s heart was always in the right place. He was just surrounded by the wrong people. Reagan himself said, “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.” in the July 1st, 1975 edition of Reason Magazine.
I wouldn’t get so down, Kleinheider. I share your frustration (and more so given all these Reagan chest-beaters probably have read about 5 sentences of Reagan’s writings), but as other posters have pointed out, Tea Party Nation, Inc. does not represent the tea party.
The Neoconservative wing is going to be sorely disappointed when they attempt to make this all about their anti-american foreign policy, and the movement evaporates.
Stick to your guns, we all get frustrated at times.
Lying liars.
From November 7, 2008:
Mr. Obama called on Congress and the Bush administration to pass an economic stimulus package. If an agreement cannot be reached this month in the lame-duck Congressional session, he said, it will be his chief goal when he takes office on Jan. 20.
But he had nothing to do with the Stimulus as President-Elect. That happened before him by a couple of days at his urging.
So much for your narrative.
Lewis Lapham is correct. In addition, the Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag admitted the Obama administration intends to break the law and use TARP funds for whatever they desire….instead of paying down the national debt as SPECIFICALLY required by law.
You are all being PLAYED! Politics is like pro wrestling, it’s like coke and new coke. They are two heads of the same beast. Don’t get you panties Ina crinkle folks. You can thump your chests all you want, America has been taken over by the military industrial complex and there is very little you can do about it, short of revolution . But, that would require you to leave you comfy homes and actually go out and do something real. Blogging is useless
Would they have paid $560 to hear Tom Tancredo?
Would they? They did! Eagerly and most enthusiastically too I might add.
americans want fewer government services and smaller, less intrusive governments at all levels.
No, they don’t; they want the government to solve their problems and they don’t want to pay for it.
“Which do you think should be more important for the Obama administration? Reduce deficit even if unemployment remains high. Create more jobs even if it means less deficit reduction.” N=504 (Form B), MoE ± 4.5
Reduce Deficit 25
Create More Jobs 74
So Kleinheider has never heard of “Reagan Democrats?”
[...] Complaints that when Sarah Palin does a speaking engagement at a conference, she gives a Sarah Palin…. I find this sort of “it was so much better when it was just us cool kids, now everyone’s into it” sort of thing to be juvenile. For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition. [...]
They are particularly sceptical and suspicious of star power, charisma…
Uh huh. Which is why they love Palin.
Hilarious.
I had some interest in and hope for the “Teaparty” movement as a way for grassroots Americans to express themselves. I supported Barack Obama for two years but he has disappointed me. Expanding the war to Pakistan is a great mistake, in my opinion. Obama quickly collapsed on Israeli-Palestinian peace; it was obvious that he would not stand up to the Israelis even a little bit.
I could have been interested in a Teaparty Party that wanted to push the politicians to stop blowing our treasure on stupid wars and put the money into this the USA.
Sarah Palin’s speech was the exact opposite. She wants more and more war. She is a neocon. Its exactly the wrong direction.
Palin said “I am proud to be an American” 20 times while looking down at HER HAND! For 100 grand she should at least memorize her propaganda!
How rich that she read her talk in a sing-song voice as she ripped Barack Obama for using a Teleprompter. Once she left the speech for the Q&A, she really went off-message, as well as nearly off-English. (Even though it looked like, at one point, she was reading answers off of her hand.) “They’re not knowin what are we gonna do if we don’t have Tea Party support” was one of my favorite head-scratchers, a great echo of “when Putin rears his head.”
[...] Kleinheinder | NashivillePost.com [...]
“An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.”
Obama presided over the bailouts? He wasn’t even elected when they were passed and signed into law by Bush.
Dead! What an ignorant fool. The Tea Parties are just now boarding the ships, and haven’t even begun to throw the Tea overboard. And we are already dead. I DON’T THINK SO!
Very well-written, ACK. Refreshing. I know you actually care about stuff like freedom and liberty and citizen-centered politics. Don’t always see eye to eye with you but greatly appreciate the thoughts.
Check your facts. TARP and the bank bailout occurred in the fall of 2008, i.e., under Bush. Obama had no been elected yet!
Ron Paul is the leader of the tea party movement. Hopefully his son gets elected in Kentucky. However, the face of the Conservative party will change if Rick Perry gets defeated by Debra Medina in the Texas Republican gubernatorial race.
Sarah Palin is pure establishment. People, stop with the left-right paradigm. Bush was horrible, Obama is a corrupt continuation. So you think, Palin is the answer? Palin is backed by the all the same people that Obama is.
Maybe a few of you need to move over to InfoWars or PrisonPlanet and check out the truth from Mr. Jones.
Let’s talk about the real problems, like the Bilderberg Group and the Federal Reserve; not waste our time on the puppets like Bush, Obama, or Palin.
Watch Alex Jones’ “Fall of the Republic” on YouTube. Just about everyone on this comment page needs to look behind the current, past the puppets, to the real controllers.
Politics is a game for the weak minded to debate. Once you realize that racial, religious, and political separation is part of the game, the quicker you will be to waking up. Don’t fall prey to “Divide and Conquer.” The establishment wins if you do.
When you listen to fools the mob rules!
Ronald Reagan was NOT a conservative. Invoking his name just shows how little some of you people know. The War on Drugs can not be supported by anyone who truly believes in individual liberty and responsibility. WAKE UP PEOPLE!
INFOWARS.COM, PRISONPLANET.COM
And there you have it. Just look at some of the asinine comments on this blog. Surprised Bill Hobbs, the wife beater, hasn’t piped up.
ACK -
You are right on! Perfect analysis. In 2 years your words will be cited as prophetic. And I am one of the original limited-government tea partiers.
Insightful article. Looks like you struck a nerve with Republican/conservative readers. You’re right, this convention was a monumental train wreck and did nothing more than validate the worst stereotypes the movement was attempting to distance itself from. This wasn’t a meeting of fiscal conservatives, this was convention of woefully uneducated Republican Christian zealots.
It was ugly. There’s no possibility of a positive spin on this one.
If this writer believes that ” standing up to Iran, defending Israel and making the world safe for Democracy” are all noble goals. He’s no better than Palin or any other of these Zionist NWO puppets.
The point Kleinheider was making - that so many commenters seem to have missed - is that the Tea Party is not (or was not supposed to be) a rebranding of the American Right.
The Tea Party was supposed to be a consensus movement on the one thing conservatives, libertarians, moderates, independents, and the odd sane liberal all agree on: Federal spending is out of control and the entitlement mentality needs to be disemboweled before it kill us all.
I support a hardline foreign policy (including both wars) and a number of conservative positions on social issues, but I wouldn’t argue for those views at a Tea Party rally. Once you start marrying the movement to arguments over marriage, abortion, and the Middle-East, you’ve lost the coalition that can make change on the one issue we all agree on: politicians spending our money.
This article is dead-on. That was a Sarah Palin campaign speech, not an inspirational Tea Party speech.
I may not agree with everything the Tea Partiers have to say, but she did no favours to the movement. There should be no Foreign Policy discussion, because it is a movement about decreasing GOVERNMENT SPENDING. Were all those people protesting because of America’s energy policy, or is that a Sarah Palin/Alaska pet project that she talks about any time she opens her mouth?
As it stands, after this weekend the brand has been repositioned to Republican Extra Stock. Anyone who is independent or libertarian will soon be driven out as the GOP takes it over. I mean, for Pete’s sake, she even said so in her speech.
[...] Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement [...]
The tea party I’m familiar with was concerned more about the collusion of big business and big government than the War in Iraq.
I think you are confusing the Tea Party movement with the progressive liberal movement. When I look at pictures and YouTube videos from the tea party rallies of last April, all I see is nativism, birtherism, homophobia, and white supremacists.
You and the handful of folks concerned about big business/big gov’t collusion need to come on over to our side for a while. You certainly won’t find a home on the right, where Wall Street Republicans have formed an “action tank” to push a pro-corporate agenda.
Wake up, people.
It amazes me to see people go off on a tangent at the first opportunity - that is why we have the Kenyan villiage idiot we do in the White house today!
If you don’t understand the Tea Party movement - educate yourself. True it was started over taxes, but it goes far beyond that. The very existance of this country as we know it at stake. This very much includes foreign policy, monetary issues (including energy, trade & immigration) as well as taxes & the associsted ramifications for the country. It all plays together - usurping power & destroying our republic is the aim of the elites. They went from baby steps to an outright blatant takeover. Palin & others are the ones who can help stop this. There are others who will come forword soon - like Gindal & I know of several others I’d like to see over the next 20-30 years. People that can be trusted & not only rhetoric - actual experience & proven track records. Wake Up!! The alternative is to take up arms to fix things; and that may not be too far away at the rate things are going!
I have read a heck of a lot of comments here putting the author down. Well, let me agree with that author by saying one thing that cannot be disputed…SARAH PALIN WAS THERE REPRESENTING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY and we remember that she was for the violence and deceit that the Bush administration constantly committed. Now she is on the Republican media mouthpiece FOX, so what else really needs to be said?
If anyone here needs to be reminded what the tea party people are like and what they have done while not paying $549 a person to see Sarah Palin claim that she will be THE DECIDER from now on, take a two minute journey back into history…..
http://www.restrainednomore.com/watch-restrainednomore-taxday-tea-taxed-enough-already-party.php
Tnx,
Rhonda
“People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — name is Barack Hussein Obama,” - Tom Tancredo, speaking at the Tea Party convention.
Tancredo received a rousing round of applause from the all-white audience.
…as if there were any doubt about the world view of this movement.
Look bro, are you wanting an absolute no-name no recognition ‘everyman’ face for the Tea Party?
You really think that the ‘tea party’ movement is gonna totally displace the republican party… or better yet - do you think the ‘Tea Party’ should become ‘The Tea Party’ and go third party?
if you do you will get your wish - the movement will be dead - turn off the ventilator…
Sarah Palin is the closest thing to a person who is truly conservative, personifies someone who saw stuff that bothered her so she ran for office then moved up and then moved up again (Gov’r) and then cleaned house in her own party…
I believe your problem is you see McCain when you see Palin… McCain is the one that is dead… dead politics…
Palin may well be positioning herself for a run - Thank God -someone who isn’t afraid to say things that come out of my mouth…
While you are pining for a re-incarnation of the 60’s liberals fighting ‘against tha man’ dresses up in libertarian dreams… the country will march on and unless we RETAKE the REPUBLICAN PARTY - DEMAND CAPITULATION TO OUR CONSERVATIVE RONALD REAGAN - yes Reagan - OR GET YOUR ASS BOOTED OUT OF THE PARTY - WE WILL NEVER GET RID OF THE COUNTRY CLUB CROSS THE AISLE BIG TENT, SPINELESS ‘LETS PLEASE ALL IDEALOGIES’ OLD SCHOOL REPUBLICANS…
dude, take your rose colored glasses off and ‘embrace the suck’…
Learn how to spell you moron.
“Sarah Palin is the closest thing to a person who is truly conservative, ”
exactly the level of intellect of conservatives today.
Palin had to be schooled on the most basic highschool history by the McCain campaign, totally believed Saddam was responsible for 9/11, changed colleges 6 times in 6 yrs to struggle through an undergrad degree… yes a perfect representative for the neanderthal creationist christian xenophobic conservatives that are the most embarrassing segment of America. Can’t get much worse.
Marx insisted everyone thinks and acts political in defense of their social existence, that insofar as some people have elite interests to protect they automatically wax more political, resulting in the socioeconomic elite of every state dominating politically, whatever it might call itself. The U.S.S.R. and China certainly provided evidence for that particular tenet in spades, pro-industrial elites taking over from feudal, then holding the masses down in the name of socialism, communism, and ironically, Marx. But a time is coming, Marx-the- irrepressible-optimist proposed, when the majority find they have a common, threatened, social existence, and there is no longer any less-favored social segment they can defend their interests by oppressing. At that point, he predicted, the injured majority will rise up and dismantle the political state, and all of politics will abruptly come to an end. During moments of weakened lucidity I’ve occasionally wondered if the collapsing world economy might not gradually bring egalitarian leftists and libertarian rightist together in a movement which warms old Karl’s bones.
This article is bang on! Palin is a neoconservative from the same cloth as Bush and McCain. I am for free markets, lower taxes, and limited government. Guess what, the military is an unelected bureaucracy, too, republicans!! The out of control imperialism, military spending, and the growing police state are some of the most importatnt isssues we face, but I guess that makes me a liberal to alot of simple minded republicans. Don’t you people realize that these neoconservative pitchmen are conning you in the same way that people like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama con the democrats? Republicans push war, war on drugs, federal government intervention on state issues (like gay marriage, for it or against it, it’s a state matter), warrantless searches, and mix it in with rhetoric that makes sense to you as a conservative. Then the dems preach high taxes, strict regulations, political correctness, carbon taxes, and making those fat cats pay, and they get people to go along with it by offering free money to poor people. Just for fun put the republican and democratic agendas side by side, and cross out any points that conflict one another, and put the points that don’t conflict on a list togethter. When you are done you will see where these two parties are taking America. The repubs will win some and the dems will win some, but when I look at the future, here’s what I see from both parties: A bankrupted private sector, taxed to death to fund wars and entitlement programs, and to line the pockets of multinational corporations so they can buy up the remaining industry and ship it somewhere where they can pay 5 cents an hour. No national boundries will exist due to military and trade alliances. Most people who are working will be working for the government, either in the bureaucracy or the military/police. Almost everyone else will be dependent on the government for even food and clothing. Crime will go up, but don’t worry, we have cameras on every street corner, record every phone call, and we have enough prisons and illegal alien police to have their way with all of us. Wars in all corners of the globe use all our remaining manufacturing as we share our destruction with other nations, and people will support it cause the people we are killing are brown and we’ve been told that they attacked us. I know this seems out there, but is it really what you get if you look at both parties agendas together. Go ahead and put the talking points side by side and check it out.
[...] UPDATE: The Nashville Post’s A.C. Kleinheider, who covered the Tea Party convention for that paper, says Sarah Palin killed the tea party movement (”The tea party movement is dead. The one I was familiar with anyway. Judson Phillips held it down and Sarah Palin drove a stake right through its heart live last night on C-Span in front of an unsuspecting audience”). He also observes that ”Sarah Palin didn’t give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address”; he asks: ”what was [Palin] doing justifying and perpetuating the foreign policy of George Bush at a tea party convention?”; and says that what began as “an authentic protest movement” – “of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives [that] was something new and unique” — has now been completely annexed by Palin and her GOP operative-controllers who want a restoration of the standard Bush/Cheney agenda. [...]
I’ve just removed conferateyankee from my reading list…might as well read Kos or Huffington instead
Don’t worry, guy. It’s hard to write anything resembling reason in Nashville, where ignorance is celebrated hand in hand with religion.
It should come as no surprise that Palin seems like a neo-con - she is a neo-con. Former Bush officials are running her “campaign” - even Fox admitted that they were running her book tour. They need another useful idiot to propel their agenda and Governor Facebook fits the profile to a T(ea).
My god. I’d play you a sad, sad song but I don’t think they make a violin small enough.
She is just a tool to distract people from real candidates. Americans are brain dead when it comes to politics.
“you wanting an absolute no-name no recognition ‘everyman’ face for the Tea Party?”
There is no need for a Tea Party at all, let alone a ‘face’ for it.
“You really think that the ‘tea party’ movement is gonna totally displace the republican party”
Of course not. The Tea Party is owned by the Republican Party. The Tea Party even advertises them as “partners” or “supporters” on their websites.
“Sarah Palin is the closest thing to a person who is truly conservative”
That is your opinion and you are welcome to it. The facts paint a much different picture of her. From one side of her mouth she calls President Obama, “Barack the wealth spreader”, while from the other side of her mouth she brags about the number of annual checks she doled out as governor of Alaska to nearly every resident, representing their share of the revenues from the state’s oil riches. She boosted those checks by raising taxes on oil.
She also injected ‘big city’ politics into a small town election and back-doored her community and supporters in the process. She rails against politicians who don’t pay their taxes yet somehow managed to forget about paying property taxes of her own.
Palin is no Conservative. She is an opportunist and nothing more.
I agree with Adam.
The hijacking of country music might be a good metaphor, I don’t know. Anyway, they both happened in Nashville.
I dare anyone to tell me that the author(Kleinheider) is a DFH, because he isn’t.
Like it or not (and there are good reasons to like it), we have a two-party system. Movements outside the parties can attract attention and affect the national agenda, but actually getting things done requires working within the Republican or Democratic Party. The Scott Brown phenomenon brought together establishment Republicans, movement conservatives, TEA Party-ers and dissatisfied Democrats and independents - but the result was the election of a Republican senator. This should be the template for 2010. The TEA Party will continue to be vibrant and influential, but it can’t take over the country by itself. Palin didn’t hijack anything, and if the MSM thinks otherwise they will simply be wrong again.
Ignorance is strength!!! PALIN 2012!!!
A better Tea Party Pledge
http://www.conservativeexodusproject.com/
…
Good points. SP is a political opportunist.
Reagan ran up the country’s largest deficits until Bush, I believe.
Bush bailed out Wall St. as we all know.
What IS SP talking about? A lot of nothing.
Her ardent fans will consume her and she will end as she is now “full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Just change a few lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Vrur_ewM&feature=related
time was, people objected to a leader wearing a foreign flag. i’m just sayin’
I wholeheartedly agree with SmackontheWeb. The Teabaggers (a name which THEY created and later renounced) have been controlled by the GOP for quite some time and are too stupid to realize it. Palin is nothing but a hypocrite. She condemns President Obama for using a teleprompter (which every president for nearly five decades has done), but had crib notes written on the palm of her hand. She demanded that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel be fired for using the phrase “f—ing retards” in a private meeting, but defended it as satire when Rush Limbaugh recently used the same phrase on his radio program. And don’t get me started about the “death panel” lies. I’m surprised she didn’t trot out her retarded baby again (I mean that satirically, of course) while screaming about socialism, communism, or whatever ism gets the ignorant Teabaggers riled up.
We can only hope after our lessons learned from Ron Paul 08 presidential run we will not disintigrate into a wobbling mass of dissent and in fighting. We all know the neo cons are licking their lips at infiltrating the real movment. They have the MSM, time and the money to try to do it.
WE know Mrs Palins motives as they lay bare by supporting McCain and Rick perry. I belive we should cast her aside or have her come to the aid of Debra Medina, Rand Paul and even JD Hayworth. We must keep our movment going as we are making a big splash replacing neo cons with at least a better crop of candidates.
hitnrun,
Great points. As a liberal who feels the one of the greatest threats is financial servitude as both a nation and individuals, and I would love to be able to join with like-minded conservatives, libertarians and others to change the “borrow & spend” ways of Washington, the redistribution of our wealth into the hands of the elite few and the perpetual polarization of our social groups over what should be state’s rights issues.
When will Americans stop fighting each other and unite to reclaim our government from the small groups of dominate men.
This article and the comments here shows how there are two components to the Tea Party Movement: 1) subliterate and very reactionary neo-cons such as those who defend Sarah Palin and 2) socially conservative economic libertarians such as the author. I predict rough waters ahead for the ship of the Tea Party Movement, because these two trends are not easily reconciled.
Bubba,
Good call. The Israeli flag pin is a bit scary. Especially for an “end times” believer.
I agree with this article. Most of the commenters here are as vapid and empty-headed as Mrs. Palin. Sarah is a sell-out like most politicians. She was for the bankster bailout so what more do you need to know? She might be better than what’s in there, agreed, but she’s really been strategically placed to keep the left/right paradigm alive and well. She’s also a little too pro War for most true conservatives.
SARAH PALIN FOR PRESIDENT She will make the best president we ever had. As long as no one sees the strings attached.
The whole idea of a tea party reminds me of Sam Adams, the patriot who dressed-up like an indian to make a statement. It worked once.
I am glad to see so many people wake up. This woman, Sarah Palin needs to set a Biblical example as Titus 2:5 charges her to be “a keeper at home”.
I would not even have invited her to speak. The people who did that are the ones who drove the spike into the heart of the movement.
JUDGE ROY MOORE HAS THE SPIRITUAL, LEGAL AND DISCIPLINARY GIFTS TO LEAD US AND HE DEMONSTRATED THAT.
w
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great article!
You nailed it except for your prediction that this was the end of the Tea Party Movement. I didn’t attend but watched as much as I could stand on C-Span. I don’t think the GOP, Tea Party Nation, or the Tea Party Express has any idea how badly this so-called “Tea Party” convention alienated us true Tea Party members.
They will pay in November along with the Democrats.
Palin is a real conservative. She is a Christian, pro-gun, pro-life, pro-small government. She got rid of political corruption in Alaska, she is pro-drilling oil, she gave back money to her people, etc.
She is an ordinary mom, she is not part of the elite. She got no money from that speach, she gave it all back to the Tea Party movement.
McCain choose her because she was a real conservative, without her, he didn’t stand a chance.
Of course she worries about the military, she has 2 sons in Irak and Afghanistan.
I can see the author of this article hates Palin and Bush. But I have a question for you: If you are such a contitutionalist, why don’t you go after Obama’s usurpation of the presidency since he is not a Natural Born Citizen?
Leaving the Tea Party Kleinheider? Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. Plenty of people to take your place. You have a screw loose the same way Maddow has a screw loose. Seek the help of a mental health professional
The Tea Party movement is getting stronger every day, and one convention or event does not define it.
Millions of Americans across the country are standing up to protect the liberty so many have died for and to which our Constitution entitles us.
Palin did not hijack this movement. She supported it by agreeing to speak at one of its conventions. We welcome her voice as one of many we will hear from.
The Tea Party movement will be defined by those who show up, speak out, and take leadership positions, not by one speaker, no matter how high profile she is.
I can see the author of this article hates Palin and Bush. But I have a question for you: If you are such a contitutionalist, why don’t you go after Obama’s usurpation of the presidency since he is not a Natural Born Citizen?
He might be tempted, but it just doesn’t get the hits it used to.
The Tea Party movement will be defined by those who show up, speak out
You got that right.
and take leadership positions
There is no leadership, there is ‘what’s in it for me’ trying to speak for you.
Always nice to have a new illustration of irrelevant writing. We’re not owned and will not be co-opted by anyone, including Sarah Palin. Since you didn’t know that, you’re obviously not qualified to speak of either the endings or the beginnings of the Tea Party.
Were you even at the event? Your perspective is obviously skewed with some sort of preconcieved fog.
You must be on drugs!!! She is getting back at the GOP “good ole boy” way of doing business. She was maltreated in the 2008 and now she is focusing on getting the voters’ interests front and center.
Excerps of Palin’s speech:
“I’m a big supporter of this movement,” she said. “America is ready for another revolution.”
Palin applauded Scott Brown’s recent Senate win in Massachusetts.
“Scott Brown represents what this beautiful movement is all about,” she said. “He was just a guy with a truck and passion to serve our country. It took guts, and it took a lot of hard work. But with grass-roots support, Scott Brown carried the day.”
Palin warned tea partiers not to let the movement be defined by one leader or politician.
“The tea party movement is not a top-down operation. It’s a ground-up call to action that is forcing both parties to change the way that they’re doing business,” she said.
She said Americans are discouraged by what they see in Washington, and the “Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda” is leaving the nation less secure, deeper in debt and more submissive to big government.
How is her campaigning for GOP candidates across the country and suggesting that the tea party and the GOP “merge”, getting back at the GOP?
Get a grip on yourself man, you’re hysterical. Oh, and also competely off the mark. We’ll carry on just fine without cry babies like yourself. Imagine where we’d be if the original revolutionaries ran around bawling everytime something didn’t go just as they would have liked. Grow a spine man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W6KJRIums4
Here is another of the media that has no fkg clue what the tea party movement is all about. What would he have… Patriot Bill Ayers going out and blowing up buildings? He is an idiot… I guess when the Tea Party plays a major role in booting out all those corrupt Democrats in the fall, he will still be wishing for more radical and unorganized Tea Parties…
and Patriots and Conservatives will be laughing at him.
Is he so ignorant that he does not know that many of the major ideals of the Tea Party are the same ones that Sarah Palin has been practicing and talking about for years? Is he that ignorant… probably not, because the main reason for his bullcrap is to spin a totally bullsht theory… but I guess he can get all ginned up again in a week or so when Sarah goes to Harry Reid country and helps kick off the Tea Party Express and talks at the Boston Tea Party and contributes that $100,000 speaking fee to Tea Parties and candidates that all believe in small federal government, state rights, tort reform, energy independence, strong national security, and on, and on and on…. whooops.. what? no socialism? no bowing to dictators? no corruption and buying of votes? no lying thru the teeth?
No wonder your paper is losing readers with biased content like this.
Sara Palin excites the Republican party like no one I see since Ronald Regan. She has a fresh approach to what needs to be done with the party and in Washington.
She’s a person a great principals and willingness to get involved and fight for what she believes. If it takes her to pull the tea party together and to motivate the GOP. All I can say is go gettem girl, You have my support. Re: your speech today, none of us can can fix this problem, we need to ask for divine intervention. If it take the hand of a women and God almighty to fix this mess, so be it. Let’s get started !.
“Imagine where we’d be if the original revolutionaries ran around bawling everytime something didn’t go just as they would have liked.
I don’t have to imagine what it is like to have a bunch of modern day poser revolutionaries running around bawling because something didn’t go their way.
You are only trying to divide the Tea Party movement. What is you secret agenda? Are you an obot or what?
To all of you sitting in judgement of Kleinheider, just stop and think. The divide within the Tea Parties was inescapeable. This was bound to happen. Several years ago the first Tea Party was formed under the Ron Paul banner during a time when many of his supporters campaigned for him. This movement was sincere and 100% anti-establishment. When this new Tea Party formed, many were inspired by Fox News, specifically the Glenn Beck program. Well, they are neo-conservatives.
Face it. There are distinct differences between these two camps. The Tea Party driven by the so-called conservative news media is more anti-Obama than pro-Constitutional government. They support perpetual war and nation building as do the neo-conservatives and support the foreign policy of George Bush and Dick Cheney. They also support the police state, Patriot Act and Homeland Security. They are loyal to Fox News and live and breathe Glenn Beck and other Republican Party negative talking heads.
The original Tea Party has an entirely different view. They truly believe in Constitutional government and the evidence is that they don’t believe we should be nation building and fighting unconstitutional wars all over the world. They believe that a non-interventionist foreign policy is an example of strong defense as money is not wasted fighting tribal wars when we could be preparing for a real war of self-defense. These Tea Party members don’t support the current police state and policies such as the Patriot Act, which threaten our freedom of privacy and speech.
So, Palin does represent the Tea Party members who despise the Obama administration more than they support Constitutional government. These will be fine with any Republican, just as long as they support the Bush/Cheney foreign policy and the fascist Patriot Act signed into law under the Bush administration. If one half of the Tea Party chooses this type of government, they have every right to do so.
But when neo-conservatives lead this country again, they had better not complain one bit when conditions in this country remain the same or become worst.
This writer sides with the original Tea Parties. I have never joined the Tea Party but I have always been a supporter of Ron Paul’s message.
Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Fox News all remind me of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The only difference is that Beck and Palin are clothed in patriotic attire. But deep inside they smell like neo-conservatives. Neo-conservatives are Fascist just as Obama’a administration is Communist. Tyranny is tyranny and both of these parties are the same.
All of those who listen to the neo-conservative propaganda on a daily basis are just like the Obama supporters who live and breath their liberal propaganda.
So, I have no problem with neo-conservatives supporting neo-conservatives. Those who support freedom and liberty just need to support someone who believes in freedom and liberty.
If I were a freedom loving Tea Party member, I would no longer use the name Tea Party. It has been tainted now and co-opted by the neo-conservatives. To bring more people into the true freedom/liberty movement, you cannot expect them to join the Tea Party. It is now being stereotyped so badly, who wants to be associated with it? I personally despise fascist neo-conservatives just as I do liberal socialists.
What is so sad is that the Republicans are about to fall for the same garbage that the Democrats fell for in 2008. Palin is a Trojan Horse just as Obama was to the liberals. But everyone has the right to support who ever they want.
Are you only trying to dodge the quesion with that nonsense?
I’ll ask you again: How is Palin campaigning for GOP candidates across the country and suggesting that the tea party and the GOP “merge”, getting back at the GOP?
“How is her campaigning for GOP candidates across the country and suggesting that the tea party and the GOP “merge”, getting back at the GOP?”
Let me help you out, the goal isn’t to get back at the GOP. The goal is to elect people who share the same limited government values. If the GOP can be pushed in this direction all the better.
I would bet good money you’re nothing more than a democrat hack feigning concern about the Tea Party movement. You mentioned George Bush 5 times, mostly to slam him and Obama 3 times, in passing.
I’m a member of North Houston Tea Party Patriots. We love Sarah Palin and the conservative movement. We are, for the most part, conservative and do blame Bush for his excessive spending. But we also blame Obama, who makes Bush look like a fiscal hawk.
No one is gonna buy this crap your selling.
Montrealer writes
February 7th, 2010 7:52 pm
You are only trying to divide the Tea Party movement. What is you secret agenda? Are you an obot or what?
…And why does someone have to have an agenda for pointing out the truth. The truth is that there are two different philosophies in the Tea Party camp. The original Tea Party was co-opted by Fox News loyal viewers who accept a neo-conservative platform.
There is nothing wrong with different opinions. I just think that the original Tea Party should drop the name Tea Party and let the neo-conservatives have it. This group can simply work under the banner of Campaign for Liberty or other Freedom/Liberty minded groups. This way everyone can promote those things in which they believe and not have to worry about daily battles and inside fighting.
I personally am having more success bringing Democrats over to the side of Freedom/Liberty. But I don’t beat them up with hate and bash them like the liberal and Republican mainstream media does on a daily basis.
you are correct TxTenther, its the work of a concern troll. No Tea Party person talks like that. Palin embodies the spirit of the movement much more than most of the top politicians. It’s her life. She was a nobody soccer mom from Alaska who wanted to change how things are done.
No wonder your paper is losing readers with biased content like this.
And the hits keep coming.
The author is right about this part: this particular event was co-opted by The Establishment Republicans-R- Us, playing on both the authentic outrage about out of control government and the fact that the hijackers KNOW that they can easily convince these folks that all will be just peachy when Rs fill the halls of congress. (Who said Rahm Emmanuel has the market cornered on “not letting a crisis go to waste”?) This propaganda will be repeated ad nauseam on talk radio, and these folks will lap it up.
But he’s wrong about this one event having driven a stake in the heart of the movement. It’s the old “what’s in a name?” thing. There are plenty of people out there who have been agitating or tea partying long before it was cool, and some of them even come from the left. And being one of them, we see what’s happening, knew it was going to happen and know better than to join this faux “movement”. Oh sure, it’s fun to go to their conventions and cause a lot of hate and discontent, but we do not play along.
The most important thing that many of us have come to realize is that the left-right paradigm is false. Both the War Party and the Welfare parties are guilty of massively growing The Leviathan, using the Federal Reserve as their big ol’ credit card, and the mid-term elections aren’t going to change a damn thing inside the District of Criminals as long as the criminals in charge can gain and keep power and line their pockets at the expense of the American people, their serfs.
In other words, a lot of people are going to be mighty disappointed when, come 2010, those who they elected don’t give them their freedom back. These folks do not realize that 1) the Political Class does not care one whit about The People except to use us for their legalized plunder and 2)the Political Class wouldn’t know freedom (nor do they care) if it bit ‘em on the a$$.
The upside of the tea party movement is that a whole heck of a lot of people are waking up to these realities, getting themselves educated and involved, and are figuring this stuff out. If you think some of them are angry now, just wait ’till they REALLY figure out the truth. It isn’t going to happen overnight, but it’s happening.
That little neo-con faction doesn’t worry me one bit. Whether you call it the tea party or something else, there’s still a rag-tag, unorganized bunch in existence, and we’re not going away.
Quit your whining.
All you stated was YOUR OWN OPINION of what the Tea Party Movement should be…as if YOUR OPINION is the Holy Grail of Tea Party Philosophy.
I hate to break the news to you…but everyone…from the sophisticated Northeast Cities to small town folks in the Deep South…has their own idea of what the “important” issues of the Tea Party are…and most of them are unique to their own corner of America.
I don’t even think you know how hypocritical you sound when you condemn other people for voicing their opinions…and then proceed to speak for an entire Movement.
Wow! The author is an intellectual moron with major in HATE.
The world as you know it is about to change, you might want to get a degree in Oil Field Technology.
It hurts to be a liberal/progressive right now..It is not about you anymore. It is about being an American. Suck it up. You had your chance. You let your party be hijacked by a bunch of nuts. Pay up.
This is very liberal, very transparent wishful thinking and very bad journalism. Wishing won’t make it so, Kleinheider.
Sarah Palin’s values align with the Tea Party movement’s. She is not the leader, nor is the Tea Party hers to win or lose.
They are simply in sync with each other; a mutual admiration society, if you will.
OMG She hyjacked it yes yes she hyjacked it.What a ridiculos statement.The other one about it being dead is even more absurd.hahahaha.
Thats OK, so the rep get back control of Washington in 2012,thats when the igrant people of this country will realize there is no diferance between the two.Its all the same thing over & over,thats when the real tea party will begain only by than it will be to late.The war on terror is the bigest scam in this country history,the only reason we are in Afgan is to protect the Opeum feilds from being destroid,and the gas and oil lines up north.Remember that the fields got destrold when we invaded Ira.Big bucks for the companys that are the real owners of us all,& run this this world.So just go about your buiness watch the game everythings under control.
A lot of the comments on help make the articles point. Its like a old style republican love fest with Palin at the helm.
You might be a teabagger if:
#6
You ridicule supporters of Barack Obama as “brainwashed” and “Kool-Aid drinking Obama worshippers” yet turn all glassy-eyed and weak-kneed while you break down in tears of rapture at the mere mention of Sarah Palin’s name.
“olepapajoe writes
February 7th, 2010 7:42 pm
You must be on drugs!!! She is getting back at the GOP “good ole boy” way of doing business. She was maltreated in the 2008 and now she is focusing on getting the voters’ interests front and center.
What by supporting McCain and saying the Tea Party and Republican Party should merge. You should really look a little more closely.
[...] to celebrate the organic nature of a movement she had nothing to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers. And she [...]
This is like Microsoft swooping down and taking over Apple.
Appreciate a politician that understands their place in the Republic’s Chain-of-Command:
GOD
(AKA, THE CREATOR)
CITIZENS
(AKA, WE-THE-PEOPLE)
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(ESTABLISHED BY WE-THE-PEOPLE)
THREE BRANCHES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
(AKA, AGENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT)
(FORMED BY WE-THE-PEOPLE)
WELCOME TO A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT
(ESTABLISHED BY OUR FOUNDERS)
WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRATIC FORM OF GOVERNMENT
(ALL DEMOCRACIES FAIL)
LOOK AROUND FOLKS, THE CHAIN-OF-COMMAND IS BROKEN AND IT IS WELL PAST TIME TO RESTORE THE CHAIN-OF-COMMAND
The President needs TOTUS to speak with sixth graders, Sarah speaks from her heart and her hand……so what?
Excellent piece on the Tea Party movement, one of the best. However, AC/DC makes one mistake–and that was to say the Tea Party Nation event “gave them nativism” is to denegrate nativists, because the most of the real nationalists/nativists weren’t there. The only one I can think of who was was Tom Tancredo. And I’ll take a nativist over an illegal alien anytime.
BTW, AC/DC didn’t mention the fact that Palin didn’t bring up illegal immigration in her speech even though it’s a serious problem in ouor most populous states.
I’m sure the author was trying to be relevant, unfortunately, he ended up like most on the left by simply sounding ridiculous. Oh well, at least the Lib-Loons will be in agreement. They agree with anything that disparages conservatives.
Mr. Kleinheider is a fool.
Wow. Just wow.
Don’t be silly. The MSM had their definition of “what it means to be Tea Party” all made up from the start.
[...] to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers. And she did. Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement : Post Politics: Political News and… Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn
HA,HA,HA,HA,HA, you libs and Obama are scared to death of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement. You’ll only afraid that the truth of Obama will come out. And it will. Hey Obama “Wheres the Birth Certificate”?
shorter editorial: The Tea Party movement, which was always a crock, now is more obviously so. ps: “try TO define” finally, Opryland: the perfect venue.
If I were an Obama Democrat I would hope and pray that conservatives take the authors advice… it is an absolute recipe for conservative electoral disaster.
I disagree, sarah palin isnt a republican hack, she is all about sarah palin.. We people of the roots of the tea party movement dont need a face. Thats the sweetness of the silent having a voice, hold your cards so none of the polititions know which way to manipulate the vote. Palin is a writer of a book that is about as good as Bob Doles running mate, who was it???
Reads like this opinion was written before the speech was made, else listening comprehension FAIL. A large collection of middle-class Americans are finally getting out and organizing to get the bus back on the road, while Pelosi/Reid and other elitist white multimillionaires keep wanting to send it over a cliff. They have golden parachutes, of course. We just want to be free to live safely in a decent society, make our own moral choices, spend our own money, and have a voice in our own government. Nasty people don’t believe in moral codes (whether religious or not) and want to force their criminal behaviors into the mainstream, thus have no better way to fight good ideas than bringing the debate down to high school taunts. Real Americans support the tea party and whoever embodies the American Spirit! It should not have one leader but many.
i enjoyed the offering, and agreed with Mrs. Palin’s rather odd adoption of a positive protest expression.
however, your interpretation of the Tea Party Protests is mostly founded in your own political vision.
most of those i know throughout the Nation, who began to protest, were indeed mostly Republican.
your views of Bush “incompetence” is simply overt. it doesn’t match the record, and reveals the manner of a sideline cynic who long ago embraced the ‘outsider’ position of a jaded anti-establishment, who will reject any organized effort.
i agree the Tea Party Convention, with the inclusion of Mrs. Palin as Keynote - with a rather predictable speech, was truly lackluster, and defies much of what the Protests were inspired about.
GW Bush was a great President, and a fine conservative one, the fashion is too thick, and lacks basis. he certainly did not cause the Mortgage Industry debasing, which was engineered long prior via the Democrats manipulating the likes of Fanny and Freddie. no, his Administration tried 17 times to get some reform to stop the mess.
the idea the Tea Party protests were mostly unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives, is completely mistaken. it consists of thousands of Republicans, and in nearly every protest, i would see some symbol of a GOP supporter involved.
sorry, i just think your perception about the Republican Party is blinding your offering. certainly, the GOP has had failures, mistakes, imperfections.
however, there is no equating the Parties, nor can one place blame where it simply doesn’t exist. neither, can one associate the very vapid likes of the McCain sophistry with the entire GOP.
Mrs. Palin is a fine American, who is playing a game with populism now and fashion. her presentation as a true conservative is not very honest, especially after her populist tax increases on Oil Companies in Alaska.
however, even though the paid Tea Party Convention performance was a poor choice for Mrs. Palin and the Organizers, and the speech was rather weak - the Tea Party Protests were never a fantasy Third Party fantasy, like the MinuteMen, the Bull Moose, the Reform - American Party, before. it was never a Libertarian Party movement.
it is possible, anyone who tries to define these fine Protests are simply wanting to push their own mantra - which is simply impossible.
however, so many of the Tea Party protests, the challenging nature of the Town Hall Meetings last summer, were comprised of many fine Republicans protesting the insanity of what we have seen since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.
it clearly was never an anti-GW Bush sentiment, or an anti-GOP display. it is fair to suggest it was a protest against the Beltway denial, the overt spending and taxation, even some of the truly vapid conceptions for socialism the Democratic Party continues to push.
basis and reason are essential. WFB grew a great movement with objectivity and facts. the failure to be honest about the Tea Party Protests will leave all wanting. it will leave many disappointed with many seeking to monopolize the effort, whether it is Mrs. Palin, or this fine author above.
Sarah…forget it. You are too poarizing to be a presidential candidate. You are perfect aa a pundit from the sidelines. DO
Well, the tea partiers will obviously be a boon for the republican party. They’re the only ones who are courting it. Democrats certainly aren’t. If the republicans do fail the tea party, they can just as quickly turn on them though.
Bush’s incompetence led to the crisis? Not a major factor. People are just as happy to blame the both parties, since neither did anything that obviously led away from a recession.
Assuming Palin was positioning her as leader, what evidence do you have that there were different people in the group than before, or that she has that much influence over them?
When did she directly defend Bush? From what I can see, she just said Obama shouldn’t continue to blame Bush for his problems- the obvious idea would be, Obama shouldn’t blame Bush for his deficits when he runs them up several times worse. You seem to be lying about what she said. You do that a lot here. You make incredulous statements with little actual backing.
She wasn’t perpetuating the foreign policy of Bush. She was just stating the popular idea that we shouldn’t value terrorist rights and dictator’s perogative over american lives. There’s lots of anger that Obama doesn’t seem to be fully pursuing his core duty, defending Americans from death. Obama would agree with the abstract of most of her goals, so they’re hardly Bush goals.
The media’s view of tea party members is racist, angry, sexist, homophobic far right wing nazi fascist conspiracy filled evil industry stooges who don’t understand just how obviously right Democrats (always) are. If you’re going to play to a left wing media, you can’t expect to be viewed well if you’re the wrong sort of person.
Sarah…you contribute the most from the sidelines. You have too much baggage to ever be a presidential candidate. Let us tea partiers continue to do what we are doing. Grassroots protesting from the bottom up. I don’t trust ANYONE who wants to hijack the movement.
Thank you for penning my thoughts after hearing her speech. She is a Neoconservative, part of the existing establishment, and her views on foreign policy are in opposition to our Constitution. True tea party patriots are not for democracy spreading/nation building. They are for upholding the entire Constitution, not just portions of it.
The liberals/socialist are just hysterical over this pretty,smart and conservative woman.Wait until 11/2/10 they will wetting themselves on election night.bye-bye harry reid and all the rest,time for a little tea party.
A couple of things. I’m a Democrat, but for a long time I have listened to Ron Paul and other libertarian leaders and believed they make a lot of sense. So when I heard about the Tea Party movement, I expressed interest in joining. I want to take the lobbyists and big business and banks out of politics, for politicians to do what they are elected to do - uphold the Constitution and represent We The People. But I was rejected on the grounds I do not worship at the altar of Sarah Palin and neoconservatism. It was made very clear to me that the primary goal of the movement is to elect Republicans and to put them back into power. I was kind of hoping for a third party. Being a social moderate and against nation-building, throwing our childrens’ blood and national treasure into foreign wars, I was deemed out of synch with the Palinites. Now, I have nothing against Israel but I can’t understand how someone can wear an Israeli flag pin everywhere she goes can claim to represent me. I don’t get how we are supposed to lower the deficit by starting a war with Iran? I am also very wary of Mrs (sorry, she prefers to be called “Governor”, even though she quit mid-term) Palin’s history of prolifigate spending while she held elected office, especially on vanity projects which directly benefitted her and her family members - $26 million for a hockey rink in Wasilla while she was the town’s mayor (and her son was living at home and playing hockey) and $10,000 for a snowmobile track for her husband’s use while she was AK governor. I note the capital budget of Wasilla was 55% higher under Palin than Stein and the capital budget of Alaska was 25% higher under Palin than under Murkowski - $3.1 billion of $5.2 billion total projects submitted by Palin herself. While she was AK governor, 90% of spending was in her home region, the Mat Su Valley. And I ask, “How is this fiscally responsible? It just seems like she used local, state and federal taxpayers’ money as her personal piggy bank”.
After reading this gobbly goop Kleinheider uses to bash the Tea Party and Sarah Palin with, it’s clear Kleinheider hasn’t a clue what the Tea Party is all about.
This is Palin Derangement Syndrome on full display here.
Typical nonsensical crap, for a media type like Kleinheider, whose only concern is to tell us who we should be voting for.
Take this quote from Kleinheider, “For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was.”
Typical elitist crap. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought this was the lunatic ramblings written by either Kathleen Parker, Peggy Noonan, David Frum or David Brooks. I hope you’re happy with the crowd you keep.
Kleinheider, you clearly do not understand what the Tea Party is about. Do not try and define what we believe is the Tea Party is all about either. You only embarrass yourself and loose credibility in the vain attempt to look important.
Wow, so like the Island of Misfit Toys, this is where people who have no idea what they’re talking about gather to talk politics. The author laments that Sarah Palin may be trying to “co-opt” the tea party “movement”. Wow, a politician sees a fledgling national movement and tries to get out in front of it? Unprecedented! What exactly has the author done to move this gathering in the direction he wants? Oh right, you thought they might be moving organically to your menu of issues and stood around waiting for that to happen and then, someone came along to channel their energy in a direction you don’t support. So, wash, rinse, repeat. Pathetic. Rather than simply write about the “movement”–whatever that is–you should have engaged it. Oh wait, writing blogs is soooo much easier.
MeIR-
Sorry, it is Governor Palin. Etiquette requires you to use their last honorific. Makes no difference that she “resigned mid-term”. So thrilled you “have no problem with Israel.” Of course, you are lying. You’re qualifications speak volumes.
For Pete’s sake…the Tea Baggers are nothing but an group of ignorant rednecks who want government out of their Medicare and who have absolutely nothing of value to contribute. What better group for Palin to lead? They’re a match made in heaven.
This article is right on the money! Go to http://www.infowars.com. The rest of you necons and limo libs….MOVE OUT OF THIS COUNTRY!!!!!!!!
Siddhartha-
Wow, your intellect overwhelms me. You’ve actually read Hesse? Cause right now I’m just thinking you goggled that name. You have to come back with something better than that. Really, you picked your name to be Siddhartha–you have a responsibility to be a lot more freakin insightful than this…Hesse weeps.
[...] I approached this as an issue based battle but really it may lend itself to a Tea Party hijacking. http://politics.nashvillepost.com/2010/02/07/the-begining-of-the-end-sarah-palin-hijacks-the-tea-par…. With this in mind, it is reasonable to see why several arguments do not make logical [...]
[...] you remain true to your beliefs and hold the politicians accountable. The media has declared that Sarah Palin has hijacked the Tea Party movement, but it’s just as true that the Tea Party movement has hijacked her and that she’s [...]
I just watched that larry the cable guy that says “get er done”, he said retard more than once. Should we as conserned people ask for an apology??? Dang retard word police……
Sarah Palin hasnt Hijacked anything, we all have guns to shoot her arse off the bus. Its about time to let her know that she isnt the leader of us. She is an opportunist…
Happy Birthday 99th Birtday Ronald, thanks for standing up for years for the real people of america, palin go home…
I have to say, it is really cute that Kleinheider is doing what he can to hold the line for the lefty media complex. I’m sorry sir, but you’re a couple decades out of date. You should brush up on some new skills. Oh, and turn out the lights on your way out. Thanks.
One other thing, Palin is a distraction! Did anyone hear Obama talk to Couric about changing our coulture<< didnt now Hope and Change meant the change of coulture, From farming and feeding to the hunting and gathering. Cant figure out what coulture we should be changing into. I kind of like the american colture.
Daniel, obviously, you have not read up on this:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/02/27/etiquette_at_work/
(One of many examples, as a third party she should be addressed as “Former Governor Palin” except when addressing her directly (i.e. when asking her a question) when she should be addressed as “Mrs Palin”. She is called “Governor” both directly and indirectly because she demands it, not because it is proper etiquette.
As for support for Israel, I’m an America-Firster and I do not wear an Israeli flag pin on my lapel. Let me know if you have a problem with that.
By the way, Daniel, the first and best thing the Tea Party movement should do is learn a little bit about the people they are throwing in with. Everything I have said about Sarah Palin is 100% true and verifiable. Did you know the organizer of the Nashville convention is a former bankrupt ambulance chaser? Wow, you’re aligning yourself with these people and you don’t even know about them?
I would be proud to be a part of any movement which wanted to take on entrenched interests and give power back to the people, but it’s never going to happen if you worship false idols like Palin. I believe those who do are in the minority, but agree with the author of this piece that the public perception is now that she is the leader.
Whoa…a Boston.com citation. You certainly know of what you’re talking about. I so certainly stand so humbly corrected! America-Firster, eh? Yeah we know what that means. It means you are on the constant look-out for Israeli flag pins. But, of course, you ” have no problem with Israel” Again, sir, you lie.
MeIR-
You have no idea what you’re talking about. I have never worshiped, nor been a fan of Palin. Your comments suggest that you are too personally invested in one particular event that doesn’t define the movement. Tell you what, when you actually do something that is meaningly, let me know. Until then, see you later. You are so typical of how we got into this mess in the first place. Don’t worry, other people will save this country so you can be free to spout your hate. You, again, won’t have to do a damn thing. Just like old times.
Cheers.
MeIR-
I made a mistake in my last point. I meant to say that “when you actually do something meaningful”…Of course, based on your views, I’m glad you’ve chosen to simply take the traditional role of yelling at a computer monitor, rather than actually acting on your views. Sometimes those of us who believe in freedom are saved by the sloth of our opponents. Goodnight, Mr, “America-Firster”. Thankfully you have no capacity to inject your views into the mainstream. Cheers-
One event? Sorry, Daniel, she wears the Israeli flag to all her public appearances, and her record of reckless spending goes back to her first public office, but if you want to hitch your caboose to her wagon, then go right ahead my friend. You can’t say you haven’t been warned.
It seems to bother you so much when I exercise my freedom of speech that I must ask you what you think the Tea Party movement is or should be? If not about the rights bestowed on Americans under the Constitution, then what?
One final thing. When Sarah Palin talks about the “planks in the platform”, what is she talking about now?
On October 22, 2008, it was not about small government - it was about abortion.
The Pro-Life Republican Platform: Dobson expresses appreciation that the Republican platform is the “the strongest pro-life, pro-family document to come out of a political party, even more so than the platforms during the campaigns of Ronald Reagan.” Palin responds:
“Dr. Dobson thank you so much for recognizing that. This is a strong platform [built] around the planks in this platform that respect life and respect the entrepreneurial spirit of this great country and those things, back to the social issues that are what Republicans, at least in the past, had articulated and tried to stand on. Now, finally, we have very solid planks in the platform that will allow us to build an even stronger foundation for our country. It’s all good and it’s encouraging. You would maybe have assumed that we would have gotten further away from those strong planks. But no, they’re there, they’re solid, we stand on them and again I believe that it is the right agenda for the country at this time. Very, very clear and contrasted tickets in this election November 4th. People are going to see the clear contrasts, you just go to the planks in our platforms and that’s where you see them.”
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/02/05/judson-phillips-threw-a-tea-party-and-trouble-showed-up/19345884/?icid=main|main|dl1|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2F2010%2F02%2F05%2Fjudson-phillips-threw-a-tea-party-and-trouble-showed-up%2F19345884%2F
If the Tea Party movement is all about the stimulus bill and spending as some of you Teabags say…..where the hell where you when Bush SPENT US INTO OBLIVION?????
For some reason this topic reminds me of a comment made by a guy I used to work for …
“If you don’t like the way I run this business then feel free to go start up your own, and prove that your ideas are better.”
IMHO, Sarah may not be the answer for filling the empty leadership slot in the Tea Party movement, but until we find someone better, someone who has taken a firm stand against the 0bamanation, someone with the backbone to fight the communist styled Tyranny we are faced with today, then Sarah will do. ;o)
Vispetti, you had it all correct.
This split had to occur because Palin and the GOP are so much at odds with Ron Paul, Buschanan and the reast of the traditional conservatives.
This issue is always about foreign policy and the police state. For the GOP they run hand in hand and so does it run hand in hand for the Libertarians and paleo-conservatives crowd.
So the divide is there. Palin’s speech was a Neocon trotskyist speech aimed at impimenting Trotsky’s permanent revolution from the White house against “Islamofacism”. Of course Islamofacism based on Tel Aviv’s definition.
Palin is a hard core Neo just like Reagan and Bush. But maybe more like Reagan since Reagan was not as stubborn as Bush W. He changed course pretty quick after the Marine bombing in Beirut.
But Palin’s speech was aimed at the Trotskyist in the GOP who she thinks can help her become President. She is actually closer to Obama in philosophy than to Ron Paul.
The author blasts Palin for not “originally” being a part of the Tea Party movement, but totally ignores her long history of ties to both the Libertarian Party of Alaska, and the Alaska Indepedence Party.
If you remember, in the 2008 campaign she was blasted by the Left for her husband being an member of the extremist seccessionist AIP.
Palin attended two Libertarian Party meetings in 2006 during her Governor’s race. And she actively sought and received their endorsement in 2006. She publicly thanked the Libertarian Party in front of over 1,000 in downtown Anchorage on election night.
The author says the Tea Party movement “originated” from Libertarians. True. But what he neglects to mention is that Sarah Palin is a Libertarian herself, and thus deserves some of the credit for helping to launch the Tea Party movemement.
Eric Dondero, Publisher
Libertarian Republican
25+ Year Libertarian Party member
I have attended several tea party events and there has never been a shortage of Palin for President signs.
There is absolutely nothing new about Tea Parties association with Palin, if you bother to check out the principles that the tea parties have defined, Palin fits to a tee.
Did the Author just figure that out, or has he figured it out yet?
Lame-stream media is trying very hard to kill the TEA party movement. But they are disconnected with RESOLVE of the Tea Baggers. Calls us what you may - we the patriots are RATTLING and are ready to strike in primaries and elections. We will TAKE AMERICA BACK!
Is it really a “movement” if its national convention only attracts around 1000 people? I’ve had birthday parties that big.
On a serious note, it’s unfortunate there is not a true grass roots movement to fight against the most significant threat to our freedoms - the fascism that has been instilled in this country. We have become the United Corporations of America. The middle class is being pushed to the floor by the privileged few and the new “citizens” - corporations. We are repeating the cycle that has been the undoing of all civilizations - the aristocracy subjugating the common person.
The irony is the very people most at risk to being subjected to this indentured servitude are the ones being hoodwinked and distracted by fighting false threats invented by the self-protecting, self-serving corporate interests.
Until people stop wasting time on the ad-hominem slander, denigrating intelligence and knowledge, and rallying around unqualified, self-interested “leaders”, the financiers, bought politicians and corporate “citizens” will continue to erode all of our constitutional rights.
This is certainly the dumbest thing I’ve read today. Then again, it’s still early.
“Reagan is an inspirational figure to all who value keeping government small”
And how much bigger did the Federal government grow during Reagan’s two terms? Talk about delusional!
[...] from The Nashville Post [...]
The author needs to decide if the attendees of the convention were indicative of the Tea Party movement and were co-opted by a prominent Republican, or distinct from the grassroots movement who took to the streets. They can’t be both.
If the Tea Party movement is broader than the conservative wing of the Republican Party, then it will not allow itself to be co-opted.
It is also possible that Sarah Palin was just adept at distilling a core message that appeals to Tea Partiers: smaller, less intrusive gov’t; free market principles; self-reliance over gov’t dependence.
If elected presdent of the United States, Sarah Palin will start a war of aggression against Iran that could easily set of a nuclear WW3 2)protect the economic interests of the corporations and 3)increase legal immigration levels with the intention of reducing White Americans to a racial minority withn the borders of America. 1)would make her a war criminal and 2) and 3) would make her a traitor.
Sarah Palins allegiance is to the state of Israel. I am an American and my allegiance is to America…not to Israel.
The tea party has been highjacked by the Republican party and anybody who denies this is a liar.
The Tea Party was suppose to be an alternative to the Republican party. Now it is the Republican party.
[...] Long live the Tea Party. I’m lukewarm on the tea party folks. After all, they could have been protesting Bush’s big government too. [...]
I see a post by “ksm” above that is emblematic of the new tea party movement (in my opinion at least). “ksm” claims that Ronald Reagan is a true inspiration to people who believe in small government. I wonder, does “ksm” know whether Reagan increased or decreased federal spending during his term? Does “ksm” know whether the federal budget defecit went up or down during Reagan’s term? Does “ksm” know whether Reagan raised taxes or not? Does “ksm” know what Reagan’s closest economic advisor now believes about the policy of Reaganomics he invented.
Kleinheider defends the notion that the tea party movement could have been more than a tired rehashing of the usual uninformed political battles. But there are a lot of people like “ksm” out there. Those battles will be with us for a long time. I doubt the central rational husk of the new tea party movement will be strong enough to avoid being completely co-opted by politics as usual. That is sad.
Kleinheider,
At one point, I had a lot of respect for you. I disagreed with your opinions, but thought you were a decent journalist. After months of being misquoted and my posts taken completely out of context without my permission, I have lost all professional respect and courtesy for you. This post is seriously the worst thing that I’ve ever read. Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo are more nonpartisan.
Thanks for making the Tennessee blogosphere look like a joke this morning. I wish I could be removed from you reader. I’m disgusted, particularly after you tweeted that picture of Sarah Palin last week. Between that frat boy antic and this point, I want absolutely nothing to do with this blog anymore.
Good job in spiraling from respected TN writer/blogger to idiotic hack with an axe to grind against conservatives and Sarah Palin.
-Adrienne
The “Tea Party” is based on fear, hate and ignorance. They are the one’s out to destroy America. To me they all just sound scared and angry at their own failures. Watch the truth about the tea party here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/11/white_power_usa_the_rise_of
Fox News already killed this so-called movement.
Sarah’s just beating a dead horse.
Let me see if I understand the point here - the libertarian conservative Tea Party movement is being “hijacked” by a libertarian conservative Alaskan governor and the conservative movement? OoooK.
I am a Tea Partier, so let me clue you in:
We are the heirs of Reagan Revolution - limited government, low taxes, strong national defense. There is no real difference between the Tea Party and the conservative movement. Indeed, we are the return of the conservative movement to a party hijacked by oxymoronic “big government conservatism” RINOs.
We are Libertarian Conservatives first and Republicans second. Right now the GOP brand is in our doghouse. However, most of us know that third party movement simply split our ranks and give elections to Dems. Thus, our goal is to retake and remake the GOP into a libertarian conservative party and then retake our government through the GOP.
Most of us like Palin because she appears to be one of us - a libertarian conservative everywoman outsider. Sarah is also wise enough to openly embrace the Tea Party movement. If Palin is running for President, a combination of the Tea Party and her base in the GOP gives her an enormous edge. However, Sarah will have to prove herself worthy of our votes.
We do not hate everything about Bush as do you Dems. Bush was a mixed bag. We liked his hawkish foreign policy and tax cuts, but not his profligate spending.
I would NEVER vote for her for president.
bless your little pointy heads…
Don’t sweat it, seriously. You seem more preoccupied with being associated with Palin than what actually goes down. The Tea Party Convention was a joke to begin with and a GOP one to boot, which is why she spoke. She needs a non-Sara PAC to make it look like she was asked to run, not that she was positioning to run, but it won’t fly. This is all a game between her and Romney and once the independent masses get a real sense of what’s going on, she’ll be forced to reign it in. Three years is a long time.
You know, maybe one day you poor conservatives are going to realize how fortunate you are to have a clear-eyed, rational person like Kleinheider on your team. Until that time comes, I am really enjoying the spectacle of watching you crazy piranhas try to gobble him up. He’s a hell of a lot smarter than most of you are willing to give him credit for.
P.S. There’s four inches of snow on the ground in Memphis, for those of you keeping score.
I think most of this theory is overblown. Palin was giving a speech, no more, no less. She was not running for head of the tea party.
Am I wrong, or was the charge of wanting to guard our interests in the world something considered “anti-tea party?” While we certainly should not charge into battle at the drop of a hat, we must admit that there are forces that are intent on the destruction of America; to say any less would be sticking our heads in the sand.
Reagan is old news? Are we talking about the President who proposed a balanced budget amendment, a line item veto, and spoke glowingly about the American individual? Was this the President who passed huge tax cuts that led to an unparalleled era of economic growth? Or the man who spoke glowingly about the founding fathers and the Constitution? The man who walked away from the Democratic party due to it’s alignment with Socialism and big spending?
Boy, to say that Reagan has nothing to do with the Tea Party is like saying that George Washington had nothing to do with Independence, or Abraham Lincoln had nothing to do with abolition.
Or is it that the writer has the view that America needs to extract itself from the world and cocoon itself into becoming a target for every military goon in the world. Has weakness become so in vogue by both the Left AND the Right? We have seen where that got us leading up to WW2. Inaction against threats often make those threats grow. Is my statement anti-Tea Party? Defense of nation? It is in the Constitution.
Good try, but I think your view is more outside of the Tea party than you realize. And no one person will persuade us with the wrong message. But we will listen to the mostly reasonable beliefs of Governor Palin.
Eric Fensler
Democracy Now is funded by globalist millionaire George Soros. The host of Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, is on the take from George Soros. Goodman suported the war criminal Bill Clinton’s bombing of the Serbian Civilian population 12 years ago.
The left genrally speaking, hates the Native Born White American population.
Here is an easy test to see if the Repulican party has taken over the Tea Party movement:someone should ask the Bimbo from ALska if she supports Ron Paul’s opposition to attacking Iraq and Iran? Everyone here knows how Sarah Palin is an aggressive-over-the-top I might add-war mongerer.
If Ron Paul ever has a chance to debate Sarah Palin,the first question he should ask her is this: Governor Palin, do you beleive in the Rapture?
Sarah Palin is pro-atttack and invade Iran. This makes her a War Criminal..like George W Bush and Barack Obama. And do not think for one minute that President Palin will scrap the Police State necessary for those who are pro-war war and pro-LEGAL IMMIGATION. With president Palin expect supression of domestic oppostion to President Palin’s war mongering and race-replacement of the majority NATIVE BORN WHITE AMERICAN majority population through LEGAL IMMIGRATION.
Sarah Palin has no allegiance to OUR AMERICA. She is an opportunist who is looking out for herself. If you believe her nonesense about wanting to serve AAMERICA…you have the maturity of of a ten year old.
There is no difference between the tea party and the George W Bush adminstration at the present point in time.
At least we can have our tea.
Ronald Reagan was a phony who put baack oxford shoe polish in his hair every mornig.
He also gave amnesty to millions of hispanic illegal aliens who later became naturalized US citizens thereby increasing massive the size of post-1965 immigration refrom act voting block which flexed its poltical muscle and installed Barack Obama as US president. The last prsidential election was the firt time non-whites were able to out vote White Americans. They now have the demograhic numbers to do this. You can thank the traitor Ronald Reagan.
Ronald-shoe-polish in the hair-Reagan do not represent ordinary Americans. He was a whore for the greedy-cheating- class.
A. C., your article is italicized, hysterical nonsense. I’m afraid you just don’t get it — and probably never will.
It is so telling to see the sheer volume of comments attached to an article about (how dare they!!?) a ground-up political movement that is frightening the knickers off the left. As noted this morning on the partisan MSNBC, the Tea Party is a greater threat to the Dem-wit party than it is to the GOP. To wit: the core of the TP is comprised of independent-minded voters who swayed in favor of B.O. last year. As noted by Mike Barnacle, these people are lost to the Dem-wit party. It’s a surprising revelation from prominent members of the legacy media who want Americans to believe that the TP is nothing more than an offshoot of disgruntled (i.e. marginalized) conservative Republicans. Also, Dem-wit leaders would be wise to listen to the TP organizers that they wil not (emphasis on NOT) form a third party. They’ve learned their lessons in ‘92 and ‘96 with Perot. For a model of what the TP is and seeks to be, simply look at Moveon.org. Only this one is a mainstream movement, not a leftist-socialist movement. One need only look at all the major polling on American attitudes to see that majority clearly want less government.
“This weren’t regular folks.”
dude, you need to spellcheck.
How many of the Tea Party types here would support an attack on Iran? How many of the Tea Party types here support giving Isarel six billion dollars a year?
How many of the Tea Party types here support the continuation of a legal immigration policy that will very rapidly make the majority White American population a racial minority within the borders of America?
How many Tea Party types here are in favor of privatizing social security and taking medicaide away from senior citizens? An taking SSI away from the physcially handicapped?
Israel has 400 hundred nuclear weapons. Maybe America should have nuked Israel thirty years ago.
Sarah Palin gives her allegaince to a nation-the state of Israel-that atacked the USS Liberty killing 0ver 60 American teenagers. The way I see things, this makes the Bimbo from Alaska a mighty big traitor.
It’s deep in here today I needed my chest waders to read this. This writer should go back on his meds and forget the SuperBowl parties next year. Palin and the Tea Party scare some people out of their minds.
Go tea baggers, go!
Before i woke up i was an npr amy goodman noam chomsky type, then i decided to research some things first by trying to figure out for myself where left and right came from, i ended up at plato’s republic, Ron Paul is still the man, i liked him even when i was a flaming liberal because his message is “follow the constitution” but this palin, she rides into this “tea party” convention on the beast of h*ll and shoots to pieces everything, that NWO hag, the camera cant get enough of her, well thats it! like that b@stard rumsfeld said
you want the name? Fine you can have the name “tea party” but were just gonna keep doing what we have been doing all along!
that painted harlot wants to play ball?
the republican party is going to rediscover the constitution while they are standing in the unemployment line
obama is a chicago politician, now you all know why chicago is messed up
Wow! She really scares the crap out of you “progressives”. Mr. K., were we watching the same speech? Really? Let’s see: So far TP/GOP =3 Dem’s =0 and November is just around the corner. Did you hear that small gathering chanting “RUN SARAH RUN!” I think the TP is adopting her not as their leader but rather as our leader. Think about it Mr.K., “President Palin”. Sorta warms the heart.
“Good job in spiraling from respected TN writer/blogger to idiotic hack with an axe to grind against conservatives and Sarah Palin.”
Actually, recently he seems to have an axe to grind against Harold Ford Jr and liberals-appears to be equal opportunity.
People are trying to say Reagan was “small government”. ROTFLMAO.
He gave us a small tax cut……. mere crumbs. He was a big government politician, just like them all.
Please read the U.S. Constitution, especially Article 1, Section 8 and the Bill of Rights. You will see that there is virtually no federal politician today who follows the Constitution.
Slashing the federal government to about 25% of its size and eliminating the Patriot Act (egregious affront to the Bill of Rights) and Executive Orders…… now that would be small government.
Please people, stop following cult of personality figures and learn about your government and your world.
We can’t even make the choice if we want to wear a seatbelt in our own car…… we are not a free people, no matter how many times we sing it.
I don’t know why everyone seems so upset.I loved this liberal blog. It shows me that,at their peril, libs are trying to ignore what is going on. Nothing could be sweeter.
Ah well, you must consider the source and ignore it. What is to make us think this person is so brilliant they know the entire facts about every issue they write on?
“An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.”
Err, Obama hadn’t even been ELECTED at the time of the bailouts, much less “presided over.”
“An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.”
Err, Obama hadn’t even been ELECTED at the time of the bailouts, much less “presided over.”
“An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.”
Err, Obama hadn’t even been ELECTED at the time of the bailouts, much less “presided over.”
A very important and well written article. Sarah Palin obviously does not represent what we need. She represents the snake-like character of the forces we face. Call us “tea party,” “patriots,” “we the people,” or what you may. The lable is not the issue. The truth of what we need will not be held down or covered up. This article exposes more clearly what we are up against. Stand in truth. Stand with the constitution.
[...] There was a lot of pushback because of the price of the Palin tickets, and many of the rank-and-file tea party activists see her as a symbol of the establishment GOP’s attempt to co-opt their nascent movement. [...]
The knuckle-draggers gathered in Nashville this weekend… Really scary when the attendees chose not to realize that the guy putting it on is really in it for the $$$$. He is broke and in litigation regarding his personal finances! Let’s see… $600 X 600 attendees… sounds like solvancy to me!!!
GW Bush came into office with a balanced budget, and $238Billion surplus. His malfeasance & war-mongering are the hallmark of his regime. After all, it was of upmost importance to avenge Daddy!
GW Bush handed Barack Obama a $1 Trillion deficit, obscene unemployment, the housing and banking industry in shambles and verging on collapse, a war that we cannot win that should never hve been started.
Since Barack Obama has not been able to pull off a miracle in one year we now have the queen of the knucle-draggers pointing and winking and exhorting this group to turn to her?
People, at least be cognizant of the cool aid you are drinking!
For all you neocon and “movement conservative” dolts who have either stated or insinuated here that Kleinheider is a liberal-lefty, let me assure you that he is not. He’s a conservative. A real one. Unlike you.
Google “paleoconservative.” Happy reading. Hope you find it instructive.
Nancy McCune
Your post is Democratic party partisan sewwage. The problem with your The Dear Leader-Barack Obama-is that he is owned by Wall Street and the Bankers and the Israeli lobby-Israeli fifth clomumn in America. And this is the reason why he has no program to fix the economy for ordinary Americans. You can continue to blather on about how Barack Obama has not been given a chance to fix things.
The Tea Party is the Republican party. And the Republican party is the Democratic party in very crucial ways:Both parties: 1)represent the interests of Wall Street and the Bankers;2)both parties give their allegiance to the state of Israel and 2)both supports support a legal immigration party that will rapidly reduce White Americans to a very small racial minority withn the borders of America.
The Bush administration was infested with homosexuals. Ted Olsen a Bush administration insider is working very hard to overturn the the gay marriage ban in California. Dick Chenney has come out in support of gay marriage.
If you vote for Sarah Palin you are voting for war crimes and an Legal immigration policy that will reduce White Americans to a racial minority within the borders of America. Sarah Palin is a pro-Israeli flamming radical. She is a fake conservative. My allegaince is to America.
Kleinheider, you seem to have missed one of the Gov’s points. No one person is the tea party movement. So when the governor spoke, she did not speak as the tea party, she was an invited guest who is part of the tea party. Therefore, she speaks for herself. And can have interests which may not coincide with yours. Kleinheider, you are not the tea party either. For you to set yourself up as the arbiter of what is and what is not tea party is pretty authoritarian. The messiah treads on citizens; don’t you be joining him.
[...] Kleinheider says she did, by turning it into a partisan appendage of the [...]
[...] A.C. Kleinheider opines: Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement [...]
Yes George W Bush caused the whole financial mess. Oh wait, there is Frank in the House and Dodd in the Senate who blocked attempts to address this problem FOUR YEARS AGO. Put down the kool-aid libs. Both sides are both to blame for the financial fiasco. As for the current out of control spending, the budget is totally O’bama. The Bush deficit is peanuts compared to the deficit that Obama is building. That doesn’t even include the devastating effects of “Cap and Trade” and the government health care takeover. Obviously it will be worse if his initiatives succeed. Obama is president folks. His first year has been a total disaster. If you don’t believe me, just ask the 8.2 million unemployed.
Dear Mr. Kleinheider, Seems this is more about ‘YOU’. Couldn’t keep track of the number of times you used ‘I or my’ in your article. I have NO idea who you are(and really don’t care), but you come across like some bitter old man who is so self centered, people have probably given up on speaking any sense to you. YOU’RE THE ONE who insults the Tea Party Movement! Your condescending tone is sickening. No one person etc. will be able to hijack this thing! To not understand that basic point leads me to believe you’re an imposter. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you spend your time watching MSNBC and read the NY Times and Time Magazine to get your talking points. In the meantime, realize you speak only for yourself. Oh, by the way, I’d also like to say a Happy Birthday to Ronald Reagan!!! The fact that you also degrade Reagan is a huge red flag in the eyes of most. Go back into your cave or wherever. We’ll wake you up when this thing is over…maybe…….
I never saw the Tea Party Movement as the liberatarian rabble the way the media seemed to characterize it. Some were libertarians, but all were disaffected conservatives. I don’t know who among these were “real conservatives.”
To be an effective political movement in America, you must affiliate with one of the two national parties. American third parties have never been anything but a spoilers for its end of the political spectrum. Ross Perot was a case in point.
The brilliance of Reagan was that he believed and lived his values. That is why people loved him,… and why the Left still hates him. Evoking the memory of a genuine Conservative who lived his convictions is not a bad thing. I wish the Republican Party had more people of his courage and conviction.
Why diss Sarah Palin? The only reason is that she is a powerful and charismatic figure who does speak to issues that motivate many Tea Partyers. Is she sincere? Divisive? A sellout? Is Palin a Reagan inhereitor? I cannot answer those questions. But I do like her.
I think Kleinhelder asserts ideas or positions that do not seem genuine to me. This disquieting undercurrent to his writing makes me question his opinions, in toto.
The Tea Party will go the way of the pet rock.
This article is correct. Despite all the disagreement in the comments-Palin is an establishment figure. She puts Israel first and is happy to maintain the current economic order that loots the pockets of citizens and funnels the money to the tiny oligarchy who don’t care if ordinary, hard-working, tax-paying Americans have jobs or healthcare or maintain any constitutional rights. If the Tea Party movement really wants to strike a chord with the American people, they need to get real about having the integrity to promote leaders with actual independence from Washington political parties, corporate interests and loony, faux Christianity. Palin is a parasite.
He’s right, it’s over. I don’t think you can seriously deny that there IS a conserted effort by powerful people in our country, and to greater extent,in the world, to exert more control over the rest of us. The Tea Party movement was a result or reaction by the masses to this reality. The masses. The masses are scared of losing their freedoms, losing their sense of history, losing their Country. The very existence of the movement itself, proves this to be true.
These powerful people are very aware of all this, and they will do everything and anything they can to keep us divided, and leaderless. Including using the centrally controlled media to convince the masses that an idiot like Sarah Palin represents the movement. Think “controlled opposition”
A.J. Porter: Spot on, sir.
Palin is Dubya in a skirt.
Why diss Sarah Palin?
1)She will wage wars-war crimes-on behalf of Israel using White American Christain teenagers as canon fodder2)she will work promoting the interests of Wall Street, the bankers and the corporations 2)supports a LEGAL IMMIGRATION policy that will rapidly reduce White Americans to racial minority within the borders of America very rapidly and 30 she is an Evqngelical Christian Zionist who believes in the Rapture…this makes her a screwball and very dangerous with her finger on the button.
The Regan adminstration legalized millions of illegal alien hispanics who went on to vote for the Kenyan Barack Obama…nonwhites had the demographic power to out vote White Americans.
A vote for either the Republican party or Democratic party is a vote for the race-replacement of White Americans. Just wait until hispanics,muslims,asians and africans are majority in the military and police departments. Vote for the Bimbo from Alaska and it will happen real fast.
Great article. Don’t listen to these echo chamber hacks that will follow her off the cliff.
For everything the TEA Party has done so far, to regress back to a soccer mom mentality is just sheer lunacy.
I could have transposed 10,000 Tea Party speeches over hers… all she’s done is to study the arguments of the party and assimilate them into a very NEO-CON movement.
The H-1 and L-1 visa programs all LEGAL IMMIGRANT asians to come in and steal engineering,computer programming and other tech jobs from Native Born White Americans. Sarah Palin is on record as being not only a enthusiastic suporter of these visa programs… but wants to dramatically increase the number of LEGAL IMMIGRANT asian scab workers in OUR AMERICA.
MY question is:Why does Sarah Palin hate NATIVE BORN WHITE AMERICA? And why do the Tea Party members want to vote for such an extreme hater of NATIVE BORN WHITE AMERICANS?
When Sarah Palin says on FOX-fake-NEWS that she wants to be president of America so she wants to serve the American people..get out your vomit bag and vomit into it…unless your a two year old who will believe anyhting.
Sarah Palin like the testosterone-flushed Hillary Clinton are vicious America haters. Don’t let Sarah Palin use your teen age sons and daughters as canon fodder for the state of Israel.
My allegaince is to America Tea Party folks..where is your allegiance to Israel or America?
I heard a bunch of tired worn out neo con blather without any detailed solutions. This dependence on foreign proxy wars is frightening. The warmed over standard repub positions are still there with all the social religous overtones. I for one are tired of repubs and their moral superiority positions.
Follow the constitution, that’s all we ask. The rest is states rights and their perview. That includes social positions, none of which have anything to do with the federal govment.
[...] note: The post he links to complains that the tea party movement is “dead” because Sarah Palin [...]
Couldn’t keep track of the number of times you used ‘I or my’ in your article
That’s what literate folks call a first-person narrative.
YOU’RE THE ONE who insults the Tea Party Movement
The tea party needs no one to insult them. They do a pretty good job of that all by themselves. You see, when a person writes about an idiot teabagger spouting typical ignorant, racist teabagger nonsense, that person is simply making a written recording reality.
Your condescending tone is sickening
To someone like yourself, I am sure that is true. But it is no less sickening than listening to a bunch of ignorant racists.
No one person etc. will be able to hijack this thing!
You’re right. It takes an entire political party to do that.
To not understand that basic point leads me to believe you’re an imposter.
Imposter?? How… never mind. To not understand that the tea party is nothing more than a Republican campaign ad leads me to believe you are ignorant of the facts. Go to any “official” tea party website and look at the list of “partners” and “supporters”. Then look those organizations up and you will find they are owned lock, stock and barrel by the Republican Party.
If I didn’t know any better
You don’t. So it’s probably best if you kept your trap shut about things you obviously know nothing about.
I’d say you spend your time watching MSNBC and read the NY Times and Time Magazine to get your talking points
And where do you get all your talking points? I’m sure they come from real, objective sources of information. Why not list a few so the rest of us can enlighten ourselves?
In the meantime, realize you speak only for yourself
Umm, McFly… Hello! Unless he’s got an alternate universe doppelganger sitting beside him while he wrote that, I don’t see how you arrive at the assumption that he is speaking for anyone BUT himself.
The Tea Party will go the way of the pet rock
The tea party IS the pet rock of the new millenium. Just as many idiots bought pet rocks as have bought into the tea party.
I hope the tea party principles are not dead, but fear that it remains too loose to be a real threat to the established power base, at least at this time. Their overall goal (vision) should be to publish succinic principles, propose realistic solutions, get better organized, and not come across as radicals. As much as I hate to say this, they need to play the media for more positive coverage.
The Republican Party gave away the 2009 election with McCain (& I was one of those Arizonans that voted him into office) and Palin. Both are political liabilities, not assets, and if either or both are on the next Presidential ticket, we’ll see a re-election of Obamation.
I hope the tea party principles are not dead
The tea party has NO principles. So no worries there eh?
Respectfully, to those who are posting about Ronald Reagan being ‘Small government’ and ‘against spending’ - he ’said’ he was those things but his actions were different. The facts are fairly clear about that.
I think that is an important thing to remember here. Will Palin ’say’ those things and then do another?? Why try to lionize Reagan for principles he ‘talked’ about but never put into action?
(Bush also said he was compassionate etc. and ended up with a very reckless foreign policy and a ton of debt - not conservative AT ALL.)
I know this is a touchy subject as Reagan is a saint to a lot of people on the right - but … people .. PLEASE .. let’s not get fooled again.
[...] Справа народ по большей части в восторге, хотя и есть некоторые опасения. Опасения, на мой взгляд, странные. Интеграция Tea Party в [...]
The Tea Party is not about Sarah Palin. To say that Sarah Palins speech is the beginning of the end of the Tea Party movement is wishful thinking. The Tea Party is getting its legs from everyday Americans who feel that their voices are being ignored. Since the Tea Party is representative of smaller government with less government intrusion ,it tends to help the Republicans. But Republicans better listen too. Fortunately many Republicans leaders are starting to listen .The catalyst for this movement is not Sarah Palin but is President Obamas policies. Obamas policies and actions have fermented the general feeling of discontent of which the Tea Party is just a part. Also, polls suggest that the angry voters in the elections of the last few months are largely independents and former Obama supporters. The popularity of the Tea Party is somewhat representative of disdain for “change that is impossible to believe in” Democrats are ignoring and denigrating the “Tea-Bagger” movement. WARNING TO DEMOCRATS. You better start paying attention to the “Tea” leafs.
SAM i think the author’s point is that very legitimate concerns and movement you speak of is being coopted by the GOP. who will fool you into voted for someone who tells you want you want to hear but then does the same ole’ GOP thing they have done for 30 years when holding power.
SAM i think the author’s point is that the very legitimate concerns and movement you speak of is being coopted by the GOP. who will fool you into voting for someone who tells you want you want to hear but then does the same ole’ GOP thing they have done for 30 years when holding power.
To SmackontheWeb… Ignorance is born out of people like you who are ultimately uneducated. Uneducated in the sense that your own hatred blinds you to even considering anyone elses point of view other than your own. (Liberals are only satisfied if they’re completely miserable…) Personally, I don’t have anymore time to waste in arguing w/ someone like you. I’ve got a wonderful life and a job I love. Apparently, you don’t! Get some therapy my friend!
SO, “The movement that began as a people’s movement of angry independent, libertarians and conservatives will now be thought as the movement of people like Palin, Dick Armey, Judson Phillips, Mark Skoda, etc. Essentially, a wholly owned subsidiary of the “Official Conservative Movement” and the Republican Party…
Let’s be honest; that’s all the tea party ever was; one big astro-turf operation.
[...] Shared Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement : Post Politics: Political News and…. [...]
Waylon,it’s great to get to speak with you. First of all,your characterization of President Reagan as being for “Big Government” is laughable. You obviously either didn’t experience the Reagan years or you were oblivious at the time. I voted for Jimmy Carter when he ran against Reagan. I feared Reagan because of the main stream media characterization of Reagan as a “B-Actor cowboy who practiced voo-doo economics.” This is the absolute worst vote I ever cast. He not only generated the greatest Bull market of the 20th century but constantly fought for less government intrusion and spending.He was an effective leader whose change was something most people could embrace. All of his budgets which included deficit cuts, to borrow the Democratic phrase of the time, were ” DOA” I did not make the same mistake again.Reagan was and unfortunately probably will be the greatest President of my lifetime. But to your point about the Tea Party movement. Would you not agree that very generally speaking Republicans are conservative and Democrats may lean slightly more left? Let me ask you this? When was the last time a third party candidate was elected President? Unfortunately many voters vote for the lessor of two evils because a third party vote is a wasted vote. By the way? When did the Tea Party start? PLEASE,I hope your not one of those Bush Bashers who actually believes it started during the Bush years. I identify very strongly with the Tea Party movement and in a perfect world with a perfect candidate would vote along Tea Party lines. But this is not realistic. I do know that because the Tea Party is the absolute antithesis of Obamas policies and rhetoric the lesser of two evils is not a hard decision.
Gee, where did you pick up on that “nativism” thing? Sarah’s endorsing Juan McAmnesty’s de-facto OPEN BORDERS policy! McAmnesty’s also big on “free trade.” This is a double-whammy on America’s blue collar and working class; the jobs that can’t be sent to Mexico, India, or China are filled HERE with illegal aliens! I never heard ex-Gov. Palin say squat about correcting that.
[...] Continue reading [...]
Hey A Hermit. Great line about astro-turf. Sorry,but you cannot take credit. That was first quoted by Nancy Pelosi. Yes the Nancy Pelosi who is somewhat left of the Pacific Ocean. She also believes that opposition to her agenda consists of a misguided midwesterners who aren’t smart enough to do their own thinking. Wow, she certainly knows the mood of the country. Yes , you can also throw out Rassmussen Polls which suggest the mood of the country is changing. After all, Nancy knows best.
RE: Liberty1
Does this mean we will no longer be subjected to your infantile, ignorant racist rantings? THANK YOU!
Ron Paul was Tea Party before it was cool.
Poor Kleinhelder. Cant stand the idea that Sarah Palin is willing to lead by being a conservative? The whole Tea Party movement is ABOUT CONSERVATISM. Its about fighting high taxes, out of control spending and Dr Kevorkian healthcare. What do you want Kleinhelder, More losers like Kenneth Feinberg, Cass Sunstein, Van Jones or Kevin Jennings? Seems to me thats what you are endorsing. Whats the matter with bringing up civilain trials for ENEMY COMBATANTS? Its part of parcel of the whole picture. As someone once said, the big picture is composed of thousands of little ones. I guess you havent figured out yet that not drilling for OUR OWN oil means we have to buy from MOSLEM countries that often support terrorists? Get a grip, junior, or a brain, whichever comes first.
Hmmmm… It seems that wrong about being wrong, yet still haven’t gotten anything right. The risks of “big government” and the national debt are long term risks with numerous workable solutions. The risks of crony capitalism as exemplified by Bush/Cheney and it’s obviously vapid heir-apparent, Ms. Palin, are immediate. To any student of history, the disenfranchisement embodied by the “Tea Party Movement” should be familiar. The masses have always had the power, yet have never wielded the power. Your enemies right now are the multinational corporations - the Carlyle Group, Bechtel, Goldman-Sachs, Citigroup, etc. The model you want to follow is the empowerment of the small business owner and the entrepeneur. Government is not only a necessary evil, but it is an instrument of the people. Get legislators who are responsive to people instead of corporations and you can make this Republic work.
Liberals are scared manureless over the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.
Why… Because they know they are for real, and have exposed the left for what it it is vs what they want us to believe they are.
Billy When Carter and Reagan were president, the Debt was long term risk..
Today the the effects of massive Debt is becomming a short term reality
[...] do I know he knocked it out of the park? Because he has been accused of nativism (see fourth paragraph from the bottom), and the liberals are up in arms (see the comments) about [...]
Ed VanVoorhees, it’s nice to hear the voice of reason. I like Sarah Palin too. She has been very consistant in her opinions and she resonates with conservatives .Unfortunately, bashing Sarah Palin has become a full-time job amongst the media. But its ok They fear her because of the midterm elections. But making Palin the villain is not productive for those opposed to her. Its like a get out the vote campaign for conservatives. Because of the changing mood in this country, this is going to be a “kick the bums out” midterm election. Last time I checked she is not currently running for office. This makes it a win-win for Sarah. She has an audience and can lash out yet no one can hold her accountable. Swing voters could care less about Sarah Palin but she is mobilizing conservatives. Remember the special election in New York? Just weeks before the election Sarah Palin endorsed the Independent over the Republican? He barely lost,but he should not have had any chance. Again this was an Independent OVER a Republican. So much for “in the tank with Republicans” . She is a conservative.
Sam - that’s all I’m saying. Is that thinking the Tea Party movement will result in a president that will lower taxes for the middle class and lower the debt is not realistic. Reagan raised the debt so much. I’m just saying be careful. If that’s what some politicians are promising you as a Tea Party member, they may not follow through.
By what metric do you contend Reagan cut spending and shrank government?
It hurts me to know that a fair percentage of my countrymen are, as far as i can tell, mouth-breathers. Knowing that so many in this country take people like Sarah Palin seriously what so ever, and the fact that people abroad associate America with the same lower life forms that eat that shit up, makes me ashamed to be an American.
…god damn
If Sarah Palin is a conservative than conservatism has been reduced to waging vicious wars of aggression against nations-Iraq and Iran-that do not pose a threat to America and a legal immigration policy that allows nonwhite foreigners from nations such as India and China to steal jobs and wages from from Native Born White Americans…and because of their high fertility reduce Native Born White Americans to racial minority within the borders of America.
The difference-political and policy- between Sarah Palin and George W Bush is 0.
Which nation has 400 nucklear weapons,has not signed teh nuclear nonproliferation treaty and attacked a US naval ship killing over 60 American teenagers mostly White and Christian? I’ll give you a hint:Israel.
Which politician would scarifice White American Christians to aid and abet Israel against its muslim neighbors? I’ll give you a hint: Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin or Ron Paul on foriegn policy? This should be obvious to patriotic conservative Americans.
Trevor
The excrement that is being eaten up by the bacteria that has a taste for it are Evangelical Christian Zionists such as Mike Huckabee who today called for bombing Iran. Reverend Huckabee-allegiance to Israel- is advocating mass murder.
Sarah Palin is an Evangelical Christian Zionist traitor. Sarah Palin in advocating the bombing of Iran is a war criminal. She should sent to the Hague with Reverend Huckabee to stand trial for crimes against humanity.
Nativism is a wonderfull thing. I oopose the colonization of large parts of America by mexicans,muslims,chinese.pakistanis. Nativism is quite normal and healthy.
The rootless cosmopolitanism of immigration enthusiasts is sick,abnormal and treasonous.
All you need to know about Sarah Palin and the teabaggers is this: Directly after her convention talking points memo, Sarah skidaddled down to Texas to campaign for….wait for it….Rick Perry. Not Debra Medina, the teabaggers’ preferred candidate. But Slick Rick Perry. Or as I like to call him, Hair Perry.
And in spite of this, the ‘baggers, sheep that they are, will continue to whinge on that *we* on the left don’t get it, and they continue to support Sarah unreservedly. Oh, we get it, and the notes for it aren’t cripped on our palms!
[...] National Tea Party Convention that I’ve read, Kleinheider over at the Nashville Post has the one that I simultaneously believe and hope is not true: Sarah Palin didn’t give a tea party speech [...]
[...] National Tea Party Convention that I’ve read, Kleinheider over at the Nashville Post has the one that I simultaneously believe and hope is not true: Sarah Palin didn’t give a tea party speech [...]
Eddy I am a teapartier
I don’t oppose immigration one bit. But only if the immigration is legal.
If someone comes to the US in violtion of immigration laws they are a criminal.
if they are here illegally and working they have committed a felony, because that had to have committed Identity theift to have gotten the paperwork to apply for the job.
the jealousy is reeking!!
[...] Hijacks TEA Party? Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement : Post Politics: Political News and… So, did the TEA partiers choose her, or is she taking control? I think this is an attempt to [...]
TN Volunteer
Let me educate you on legal immigration since you seem to be clueless. The scale of LEGAL IMMIGRATION is so large that over timem it will drive the US population to billion. Not only that, legal immigration will change the racial composition of the America radically. White Americans will not only become a racial minority but a rapidly dwindling racial mnority. You will be a racial minority in a nation with a very large and hostile nonwhite majority..and they will be a racial majority in the US military and police departments across the nation. If you don’t like affirmative action..they will force it on you on at gun point.
At a time when water is becoming very scarce in the Western states,Florida and the American South, I can’t for the life of me figure out why you would want to import high fertility nonwhite legal immigrants-unless you are nonwhite-into America. There will be a temondous loss of open space beautifull forests,crystal clear streams. The highways will be more clutterd than they are now.
So I can assure you with 100 percent certainty-whether you want to accept it or not..LEGAL IMMIGRANTS will wreck the nation-they are aready are …they are here to breed,breed and breed some more. You will with 100 percent certainty have to give up a lot to accomdate high fertility nonwhite immigrants and their children.
Which great national and state parks do you want to pave over to provide housing for high fetility legal immigrant hispanics,asians,muslims and africans.
Waylon- Reagan could not possibly reduce spending to the degree he wanted due to the fact that both houses were Democratic. All of his budgets were like I said before ,as Democrats put it, “DOA”. He desperately tried and although not totally successful he kept it somewhat under control thru many vetoes and more importantly economic policy. His tax cuts, which were a election mandate, led to GDP growth rates of up to 8%. The growth of the economy and the increases in revenue that resulted from the tax cuts led to a much lower deficit as it relates to GDP. Yes,I said lower tax rates led to higher revenues. This concept is lost on MOST Democrats who still believe in zero sum economics. The most notable Democratic exception was John F Kennedy who followed the more conservative Milton Freidman economic path. Even Obama knows (through his own words in an interview with Chris Matthews) that this would work today but it would not be “fair”. I guess its more fair to have 8.2 million unemployed. Obviously we disagree that lower taxes would decrease debt thru increased revenue (maybe we disagree more than you think because the tax cut should be for EVERYONE,not just the middle class). . But a close look at history bears me out. It worked big time for Reagan and even though you may not believe it the economy in some respects was in much deeper trouble then now. In the meantime Obama wants to grow the economy with growth rates of 2.5 to 4 % and create jobs. Sorry, ain’t going to happen. We are in deep trouble no matter who you want to blame. Maybe those supposedly” non-sophisticated” Tea Party people are actually pretty smart
Sarah Palin. The female George “Dumbya” Bush. And I mean that with all the respect that comes with being compaired to the biggest failure as a leader in US history. I couldn’t be happer that she took the dip your balls in my mouth… ah, Tea Party for not only $100,000.00 but exposed them as low I.Q. mental midgets easily taken for the ride I’ve been screwing them out of of since I fist met one! LOL! Keep it up you stupid twat., You can kill the ball gulpers,,, ah, Tea Bagers as fast as you killed the Gay Old Party of closeted homesexuals when demented Cancer Face, the US Hero who Crashed More Than Two Jets and Bailed Out to Tell the Tale blindly picked you out of the backass shit hole you came from. May your other daughter bare you a bastard out of wedlock just like the trailer park whore did! LOL!
Eddy.. I dont care. I like People if they come here LEGALLY I welcome them with open arms.
Eddy the water became scarce because of the Warming Cycle from 1987-1998. The record snows and rainfall over the last 7 years is replishing the water tables.
Which is why the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles.
Cheney.. Nope the Closest person to GW bush is Barak Hussin Obama.
he has been to 57 states of our great nation. (Harvard Graduate)
GW Bush “Is your Childern Learning” Harvard Graduate
Barak Obama “Navy Corpse Man” Harvard Graduate
GW Bush “Strategery”
Both love Bailouts.
Both supported teh Patriot act
Both Expanded and extened the Pariot Act
Suck my Chaney I am done making comments on this site, I mean how can I possibly top such an insightful and intelligent argument like yours. My favorite is your reference to “low IQ mental Midgets”. You’ll go far grasshopper.
sam - we’ll going to have to agree to disagree .. especially on the lower tax rates led to higher revenues part. i think you may want to research the supposition further!
also, for the record i do not think the the Teapartiers are dumb. i do feel like some of them have been misinformed over the years though.
kind regards -
Sam you are correct.
The Congress out spent Reagan’s request every year except 1982.
Where the Congress Cut Clinton’s requested spending every year.
You see Only Congress can create a defict. Presidents have NO VETO power over borrowing.
http://www.ipi.org/ipi%5CIPIPublications.nsf/PublicationLookupFullTextPDF/4D0C4F5676D56DA1862567F40051B077/File/reagandf.pdf?OpenElement
Congress outspent Reagan in every year. Congress typically savaged
Reagan’s spending requests as draconian and heartless. Then, the
appropriators rewrote the budget for their priorities and spent a cumulative
$209 billion above Reagan’s requests from 1982-1989.
Waylon, What is your disagreement? You cannot argue that revenue went up. That is a historical fact. The deficit was not totally controlled because of SPENDING. TNVolunteer73 {help me out on this.I’m assuming that you graduated from Tennessee in 1973 . Which means if you followed politics at all you saw the bad times of Jimmy Carter and the absolutely extraordinary improvement because of Reagan}. Oh wait, you already did. You communicated my point(Congress outspent Reagan in every year) better than I could. Thank you!
Hi Sam - My disagreement is that lower taxes lead to higher revenues and that revenue went up under Reagan. I disagree that that that is a historical fact. (It went up under his first tax bill but that was it. the rest went down.)
All the best,
For those of you who still think tax cuts result in greater revenues:
http://tinyurl.com/yflzoyp
The lunatic leftists are boiling mad at a lot these days. To their way of “thinking” anyone who doesn’t agree with them is “ignorant” “redneck”, oh, and my fiavorite, “mouthbreather”. But the common thread is that the lefties who post on these sort of blogs show no original thinking at all. They get their talking points from Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow (proven wrong on so many things so many times)… and that echo chamber of stupidity that comes on in the morning on MSNBC. So I guess the majority of Americans who have been turning off MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and going in droves to Fox are “knuckledragging mouthbreathers” to the angry, navel gazing left. And yet they still don’t understand why progressive-socialism is being rejected everywhere in the world where people have a choice. Well, we will have a choice in November, and this country is going to return to people who actually produce wealth and contribute to what made American great (and hint to the Dem-wit libs… it’s not more social programs that bankrupt the country). So hold on you numbskulls, because you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Hey, parsec! Don’t post links here without identifying the source. I have plenty of data to refute that site you linked.
Oh gee, a Jew trying to pee on the conservatives cornflakes, what a surprise.
The author is a pretender.
[...] took a clear stance on national security issues in her speech, but that was the whole point of A.C. Kleinheider’s objection to it — that she was grafting neoconservative Republican ideas on terrorism onto a [...]
Baggs –
Don’t like that one? Well, how about this one?
http://tinyurl.com/yhndgyr
So let’s see what you got. AEI? Heritage? Wall Street Journal?
Here’s another, more on the tax hike end, from that commie magazine Forbes:
http://tinyurl.com/d4sh2s
Wow Parsec. I am officially a changed person. I have been mislead over the years regarding Reagan tax cuts. I thought that revenues had increased. Excuse me……NOT. WHO THE HELL IS R DAVIS. His figures are a joke. Now let me quote The Heritage Foundation( you may have heard of this foundation).They are a serious think-tank,not an unknown blogger. Hopefully Waylon will read this also. Federal Revenue:1980 starting pt-956 billion,1981- 1004.6 billion,1982 967 billion,1983 898 billion, 1984 950 billion,1985 1012 billion, 1986 1034 billion, 1987 1114 billion, 1988 1154 billion. and the increase over the years after 1988 increased dramatically. The 1st 4 years are not stunningly good but we had this little problem called stagflation. This is inflation with extremely slow or no economic growth. During the 70’s stagflation seemed endless. We essentially had little to no growth for many years prior to Reagan. Also because inflation had gotten out of control the fed had increased interest rates to extraordinary levels. Does prime rate of 18% seem high to you? We had a choice between runaway inflation with no growth or trying to control inflation. Reagan chose controlling inflation. We went into a recession which ALWAYS decreases revenues but inflation was controlled. Factoring in all of these negatives ,the growth in the economy and the revenue growth was staggering. Jobs growth expanded dramatically as well. Here I am defending Reagan. HE DOESN’T NEED TO BE DEFENDED. Success speaks for itself.
Revenues grew every year that reagan was president.
except 1 year 1982
see previous link
Heritage, like AEI, is basically a lobby. Its income depends on not telling you the whole story.
And I’ve cast enough pearls for the night.
Guys —– Reagan raised taxes every year but the first!!! Those figures are not for years that he lowered taxes!!!!! If you listen to the Heritage Foundation and think that they are unbiased you are going to keep getting fooled and keep posting misinformed posts like you have just done!! It makes you look silly!!
All the best-
“Revenues grew every year that reagan was president.
except 1 year 1982″
TNV - that was the (only) year he lowered taxes!!!!!!!!!
I regret to inform you but the Heritage Foundation has played you for a fool. As a Tea Party member don’t let the GOP play you for a fool too!!
Waylon
WHAT he lowered the Tax Rate from 70% to 38%.. which lasted until 1994… when Bush and Clinton raised taxes and created decreased revenue collection.
The growth revenue collection during the 1990s did not occur until Congress reduced capital Gains taxes in 1996.
this is - forgive me - the silliest debate. lower taxes = higher revenues???????
it’s laughable.
THINK ABOUT IT GUYS!!!
THANK YOU!
My sentiments, exactly.
I attended the Tucson Tea Party last year, where both political parties were slammed. Notably GWBush, an object of derision for ballooning deficits, unfunded prescription drugs, Tarp, flooded labor markets, foreign wars. Now that show had credibility!
The roots are grassroots libertarian; lower taxes and quit deficit spending; neither pro-choice nor pro-life; definitely not neocon; the 10th amendment; immigration laws enforced; no bail-outs. That’s it, and that’s all, get our house in order. We don’t want our beloved country to go bankrupt.
Anybody who paid $500 to hear Sarah Palin run for the GOP nomination is not a foot soldier in this movement.
…
http://www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/reagtxct/reagtxct.htm
Tax Rates and Tax Revenues
High marginal tax rates discourage work effort, saving, and investment, and promote tax avoidance and tax evasion. A reduction in high marginal tax rates would boost long term economic growth, and reduce the attractiveness of tax shelters and other forms of tax avoidance. The economic benefits of ERTA were summarized by President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1994: “It is undeniable that the sharp reduction in taxes in the early 1980s was a strong impetus to economic growth.” Unfortunately, the Council could not bring itself to acknowledge the counterproductive effects high marginal tax rates can have upon taxpayer behavior and tax avoidance activities.
Since 1984 the JEC has provided factual information about the impact of the tax cuts of the 1980s. For example, for many years the JEC has published IRS data on federal tax payments of the top 1 percent, top 5 percent, top 10 percent, and other taxpayers. These data show that after the high marginal tax rates of 1981 were cut, tax payments and the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent climbed sharply. For example, in 1981 the top 1 percent paid 17.6 percent of all personal income taxes, but by 1988 their share had jumped to 27.5 percent, a 10 percentage point increase. The graph below illustrates changes in the tax burden during this period.
Click here to see Figure 1.
The share of the income tax burden borne by the top 10 percent of taxpayers increased from 48.0 percent in 1981 to 57.2 percent in 1988. Meanwhile, the share of income taxes paid by the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers dropped from 7.5 percent in 1981 to 5.7 percent in 1988.
A middle class of taxpayers can be defined as those between the 50th percentile and the 95th percentile (those earning between $18,367 and $72,735 in 1988). Between 1981 and 1988, the income tax burden of the middle class declined from 57.5 percent in 1981 to 48.7 percent in 1988. This 8.8 percentage point decline in middle class tax burden is entirely accounted for by the increase borne by the top one percent.
Several conclusions follow from these data. First of all, reduction in high marginal tax rates can induce taxpayers to lessen their reliance on tax shelters and tax avoidance, and expose more of their income to taxation. The result in this case was a 51 percent increase in real tax payments by the top one percent. Meanwhile, the tax rate reduction reduced the tax payments of middle class and poor taxpayers. The net effect was a marked shift in the tax burden toward the top 1 percent amounting to about 10 percentage points. Lower top marginal tax rates had encouraged these taxpayers to generate more taxable income.
The 1993 Clinton tax increase appears to having the opposite effect on the willingness of wealthy taxpayers to expose income to taxation. According to IRS data, the income generated by the top one percent of income earners actually declined in 1993. This decline is especially significant since the retroactivity of the Clinton tax increase in that year limited the ability of taxpayers to deploy tax avoidance strategies, temporarily resulting in an increase in their tax burden. Moreover, according to the FY 1997 Clinton budget submission, individual income tax revenues as a share of GDP will be lower during the first four years of the Clinton tax increase, which include the effects of the 1990 tax increase, than under the last four years of the Reagan tax changes (FY 1986-89). Furthermore, according to a study published by the National Bureau for Economic Research,[2] the Clinton tax hike is failing to collect over 40 percent of the projected revenue increases.
Incidentally, the claim that unrealistic supply side Reagan Administration revenue projections caused large budget deficits during the 1980s is false. Nonetheless, this false allegation is often used against current tax reform proposals. The official Reagan revenue projections immediately following enactment of ERTA did not assume huge revenue increases, and were actually quite close to the CBO revenue projections. Even the Democrat-controlled CBO projected that deficits would fall after the enactment of the Reagan tax cuts. The real problem was a recession that neither CBO nor OMB could foresee. Even so, individual income tax revenues rose from $244 billion in 1980 to $446 billion in 1989.
Conclusion
The Reagan tax cuts, like similar measures enacted in the 1920s and 1960s, showed that reducing excessive tax rates stimulates growth, reduces tax avoidance, and can increase the amount and share of tax payments generated by the rich. High top tax rates can induce counterproductive behavior and suppress revenues, factors that are usually missed or understated in government static revenue analysis. Furthermore, the key assumption of static revenue analysis that economic growth is not affected by tax changes is di sproved by the experience of previous tax reduction programs. There is little reason to expect static revenue analysis to evaluate the economic or distributional effects of current tax reform proposals much better than it evaluated the Reagan tax program 15 years ago.
Waylon
Yes lower tax rates increase revenue.
Taxes are only collected when money changes hands.
That is why it is called Currency, because like electrical current it does not produce unless it is moving, electricty does not produce energy unless electrons are moving.
If you let the people keep more of their money they do 1 of 3 things with it
1. Spend it (money changes hands and is taxed)
2. Invest it (money changes hands and it taxed)
3. Save it. then the banks invest it (Money changes hands and is taxed)
tnv - if you research it further you will find that no peacetime president has raised taxes so much on so many people as Reagan.
I’m not saying he or you is a bad person though.
You’ve just been misinformed by millionaires.
I’m be pissed at liberals like Keith O too. They are just as big a hacks as the ones who have lied to you about things like revenue going up when taxes go down.
I’ve heard all the arguments TNV.
I just disagree.
Take care!
Kleinhider gets it imo.
Anybody, cuter than a bug in a rug or no, that will continue to campaign for Juan Sydney McMussolini doesn’t get it. (It would be nice if she did, but in the meantime, stand down and shut up.)
Yes, ‘08 was a Hobson’s choice between Barack Husein Mugabe or the paleface. Both were/are big govt. socialists. More warfare or more welfare, if not a little of both and some more. Nyet.
We haven’t had a genuine free market since the New Deal if not 1913 and the institution of the Fed Reserve. Granted, Obama’s policies shaded over into outright govt. ownership of business (communism) as opposed to the (fascist) govt. control and over regulation of business, but again it’s all socialist big govt. of whatever flavor.
If the TP gets caught up in the Dim/Repug sandbox food fight, they become part of the problem.
Nuff said.
Thank you.
May I explain in a nutshell why Palin has been able to highjack the Tea Party movement. You ready? Because Americans have become so BUTT DUMB. I repeat, BECAUSE AMERICANS HAVE BECOME SO BUTT DUMB. We are uninformed, gullible, and arrogant, and that is a bad combination. HOW CAN SOMEONE HIGHJACK A MOVEMENT THAT IS COMPRISED OF AMERICANS WHO SUPPOSEDLY HAVE “HAD IT” WITH BIG GOVERNEMTN, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, WAR, ETC. STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES–regretably the only true MANTRA that discribes most conservatives. I GUESS THE LEFTISTS ARE RIGHT IN THEIR DESCRIPTION OF THE REPUBLICANS AND CONSERVATIVES–DUMBHEADS.
TP should keep Sarah Palin and other neocons out. There’s a viable 3rd party path, but it doesn’t include the War Party people. We need to clean house here in this country and bring our soldiers home, in part to stop fighting other people’s wars and in part to get control of our own borders.
Fiscal conservatism? you betcha, and that means winding up these wars real quick, deporting the illegals, and ending outsourcing and these insane “work visa” programs that are putting born-and-bred Americans out of work.
TNVolunteer73,its hopeless. Waylon keeps mentioning Reagan tax increases which actually were extremely small and were tied into spending cuts. No way he was alive during Reagan because his grasp of history is appalling. Considering the HUGE tax cuts,to say that Reagan was responsible for historically high tax increases is revisionist history. There are reasons, economic reasons, why decreased taxes increases revenue. Waylon beleives that you are misinformed by millionaires. He says I have been duped by The Heritage Foundation. As Waylon states”this is-forgive me-the silliest debate ,lower taxes=higher taxes laughable”. He doesn’t get it and probably never will. My lab ,who has been setting by my side,will get it before Waylon. I for one have given up but it was fun.
There is no “tea party movement”, there never was.
There were just a bunch of old white people despondent over their loss of the political majority. That’s it, nothing more.
It’s too bad they couldn’t embrace the future and work for improving America instead of dividing it but maybe that’s what happens to all majorities in decline.
If you guys elect Sarah as Pres, how long do you figure before she quits the job?
If you want simply to take hold of Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul’s post Cold War no-to-Israel, no-to-Federal government paleoconservative nostalgia to your rally-rally style then you don’t need a new “tea party”–you already have a model for White Christians angry at Roosevelt, angry at Abraham Lincoln, and angry at Wall Street.
It’s called the KKK.
Palen’s name should have been Howard because she is about as goofy as the three stooges.
I quite enjoyed your article, I’m a republican myself and I just can’t stand Palin. I think she’s the worst thing that ever happened to the Republican party. I guess I’m more of a libertarian, I’m not really sure how I would define my political views nowadays.
By the way, I spotted two typos in your article, have fun finding them
[...] Palin Hijacks TEA Party? Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement : Post Politics: Political News and… [...]
SAM - many, many people like yourself have been fooled into thinking lower taxes bring higher revenues. some candidates even still say it - mccain did, rudy did too. the mainstream media rarely pushes back when they do. it’s a modern day equivalent of the ‘emperor is not wearing any clothes’. what you are engaged in is partisan dogma.
here is an official from the reagan administation
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/opinion/06bartlett.html
he puts your claim that lower taxes bring higher revenues into context.
don’t feel bad for have been taken for a ride. i’m not saying reagan was a bad prez. i’m saying you have been duped into thinking lower taxes bring higher revenues by partisan charlatans.
i’m just saying don’t get fooled AGAIN by Palin.
Money changing hands, LOL. If that was what happened to money, then we wouldn’t need higher taxes.
What happens is this: Money is spent on item, retailer takes a cut, shipper takes a cut, money goes overseas to China, who locks it away as a means of gaining power over the US.
That’s about half the time.
The other half starts the same, then:Money is paid to CEO or Wall Street Banker for exorbitant bonus they didn’t earn (stolen from stockholders) and they put it away in a foreign trust or spend it hiring some more illegals or some Indians or Pakistanis.
At least if it goes to taxes it stays in the US a while longer.
AC, you’re just plain wrong. The TEA Partiers want strong national defense as much as they want fiscal conservatism, & that’s what Palin spoke of.
If you don’t like her personally, that’s fine. If you disagree with her on policy issues, that’s fine - hopefully you can back that up factually. It’s disingenuous to say that she has killed a movement; she doesn’t have the power to. No one does. The TEA Party movement is not some leftist top-down ACORN type of group - it’s what a true grassroots movement looks like.
That’s strange Jimbo. I think your’e full of it. I saw tons of u-tube pictures and other media that covered the Tea Party meetings, and I noticed people of all ages there. Come on, what’s your real beef? Working for La Raza? Leftist kook, looking to centralize the government as soon as possible? Just plain hate “whitey”. What’s really your concern?
[...] This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush. read entire article [...]
[...] Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement … [...]
Sarah Palin is a teocon !
I dont know. More people have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party than the Democrat or Republican party
And Palin’s approvals are higher than that HAAAAAAAVVVVVAAAAADDDDDDD GRADUATE that believes there are 57 stars on the US Flag.
TNVOL73-
Keep on keepin’ on.
You’re gonna wind yourself up in a mental institution or under a bridge when the political world passes you and the other Palinocons by.
TNVOL73-
Keep on keepin’ on.
You’re gonna wind yourself up in a mental institution or under a bridge when the political world passes you and the other Palinocons by.
But damn, she does have nice legs!
More people have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party than the Democrat or Republican party
BZZZZZZ! Wrong answer skippy… Wasn’t it a Rasmussen poll you were braying like a jackass about a couple weeks ago that absolutely PROVED how popular the tea party was?? Hmmm, wonder what Rasmussen has to say about that AFTER your bagger convention:
The poll found that 36% of voters would support a Democratic candidate on a generic ballot, 25% would back the Republican and 17% would go for the Tea Party pick. Twenty-three percent of respondents are undecided.
In early December, the same poll showed the Tea Party in second place and the GOP in third. Unchanged between the polls, according to Rasmussen, is that 41% of voters have a favorable view of the conservative movement.
Golly, so much for your polls huh? PLEASE! Have more conventions! Hahahahahahaha!
Speaking as a former Republican, perhaps I can shed light for those who take issue with this article.
I disaffiliated myself from the Republican Party last year when I saw ‘my team’ push for Bank Bailouts to ’save the free market,’ and pushing for amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Granted, Palin didn’t support these, but what you need to understand is that the Tea Party movement is supposed to be an Anti-Establishment movement—of movement of non-compliance. To have a keynote speaker be a former Republican candidate who SUPPORTED John McCain and is not what we need, especially one who delivered an anti-Obama speech rather than a speech filled with issues that true Conservatives and Libertarians should care about–issues like ‘Monetary Policy vs. Economic Policy’ and a foreign policy outlined by our Founding Fathers of “non-entangling alliances.”
The biggest problem is that Palin, even if she truly believes the ideas of limited government, and most importantly, SOUND monetary policy (gold-backed money), she is such a polarizing figure that any ‘Liberal’ or Democrat who was considering the ideas of the Tea Party will now be completely unaroused by the idea because of Palin.
On top of that, her speech lacked substance. We need to get out of the “Liberal vs Conservative” mindset and more into the Individualist vs. Collective mindset—and what it truly means to be an individualist society.
The party should be a non-establishment movement—a group of pissed off US Citizens saying ‘NO’ to both parties, becoming Independents and running against all incumbents on true Freedom-embracing policy—sound monetary policy, non-interventionist foreign policy, and superb national security around the borders. That’s the only way that this movement can have a future.
NnWo, your post is the best of hundreds- makes a better argument than ACK did, and I agree with this:
We need to get out of the “Liberal vs Conservative” mindset
BUT, the above statement is not reflective of the Tea Party movement of the last year AT ALL. Take the neocon stuff out, and Palin hit the notes the Tea Partiers have been hitting all year- while there’s some scattering of “Yeah, the GOP, too” Tea Party Protests and Palin’s speech have been filled with anti-obama, anti-Congress, pro-conservative, anti-liberal angry diatribes and propaganda. If you think Tea Party 2009 was a continuation of Ron Paul’s 2007 protest, you have not been paying attention. A bunch of other guys took that over some time back; their faces just aren’t as well known as Palin’s.
[...] a piece by Kleinhelder of the Nashvillepost.com ominously titled “Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks the Tea Party Movement” is [...]
The 2009 tea party was and still is an exploitation of the 2007 Ron Paul fundraisers. These fundraisers broke records for the amount of money they brought in. The original money-bomb coincided with a December 07 fundraiser that brought in $5 million in a single day. Two events (in Nov & Dec 07) brought in nearly 10 million dollars in contributions. That is the only reason we are calling them tea parties today. 2009 organizers saw all the dollar signs and figured they would take a proven money-making theme and run with it.
Grrrr, wrong section.
Why is it we can watch a politician make a speech then the news media tells us what they said?
Because if it is something the media does not like they can try to change it to what they want us to beleive.
Or, it’s because they can get the audience to carry through the commercial breaks if a talking head is disputing whatever was said - it’s bound to get the blood boiling on one side or the other…it’s a business model that works for them.
[...] I think the Tea Party movement has been taken over by Republican political operatives. You know things are crazy when Ron Paul — the person who held the first modern “tea [...]
The person writing this article is obviously a liberal as most journalists are and which are now leaning heavily towards the communist agenda…..
Obama can make teleprompter after telprompter error, and it is ok… Remember we have 57 states now! Funny how the media will never show his blunders. Americans are leaving the liberal news media channels and papers!
The tea party movement is over? Tell that to MA’s people and their newly elected Republican senator, Scott Brown.
The person writing this article is obviously a liberal as most journalists are and which are now leaning heavily towards the communist agenda…..
Obama can make teleprompter after teleprompter error, and it is ok… Remember we have 57 states now! Funny how the media will never show his blunders. Americans are leaving the liberal news media channels and papers!
The tea party movement is over? Tell that to MA’s people and their newly elected Republican senator, Scott Brown.
Palin accepted a job offer from McCain. That makes her hardly worthy of leading the tea party movement to anywhere it wants to go. Deeds, not words, are what best define a person.
reading these comments is seriously disheartening. While the author at least attempted to see things as they are, the readers are clearly a mind-controlled lot who listen to fox, cnn, etc. and believe what they see and hear. America has become a war-mongering whore, we are a police state that kidnaps, detains, and kills its own citizens without trial, in short an unlawful disgrace to our founders. Palin is Bush, just as Obama is Bush. Nobody won at the TP convention.
You nailed it. Sarah Palin is hijacking the tea party. REAL tea partiers want fiscal responsibility, PERIOD! Neo-conservatist foreign policy of war war war does not mix with a small govt agenda..they can’t co-exist. Join the Campaign for Liberty
John Galt.
Palin while governor was the most Fiscally Responsible Governor in the US she took a state that was 5 billion dollars in debt, and brought it to an 8 billion dollar surplus, while at the same time cutting taxes, and having huge job creation in a declining economy.
Wait that is NEAR PERFECT FISCAL RESPONSIBLITY.
War = big government, you morons.
Steve..
Yes I understand Defeating Genocidle maniacs like Hitler, Saddam and Pol Pot is big government. But then again I guess we could be speaking German today in a Jew, Gypsy, Homosexual free world.
The GOP is trying to hold us down so the illuminati can drive the stake ! An ongoing policy until further notice should be to identify and expose all GOP operatives in our ranks. You guys are a terrible disappointment maestros !
[...] Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement - Post Politics: Political News and Views in Tennessee [...]
[...] Kleinheider lamented it was “the beginning of the end,” as Palin used her platform not to [...]
[...] in its wackier elements. Unfortunately, I don’t think they can be reigned in, and neither can “the professionals” who at this point have subsumed the nascent [...]
Sarah Palin is nothing more than another shill for AIPAC. She supports the terrorist state of Israhell blindly. I am a Christian, but I do NOT support the murderous, traitorous, Zionists! I pray for the Jews who are going to pay for the Zionist lies. Again.
Palin is a dupe and you’re all going to fall for it. Again. Even so, come Lord Jesus….quickly.
since when did america become a democracy? as far as i know it is a CONSTATUTIONAL REPUBLIC!, WHICH IS NOTHING LIKE AND IN FACT JUST THE OPASET
Hold yer horse there Hop-a-long. I don’t think anyone was refering to us being a democracy. And if I may suggest, if you are going to yell (all caps = yelling), you might want to check that spelling. Kinda embarassing to call attention to yourself like that and have such obvious errors.
Terrorist state like Israel.
Wow Israel has unilatterally offered peace since 1917.
The Palestinians are the warmongers and terroists
All you have to do is look at the words of Israeli leaders
“There will be peace in when the Palestinians love their childern more than they hate us.” Golda Mier
Compaired to the Words and actions of the Palestinians
“There will only be peace once every Jew has been driven into the sea.”
[...] the Bush legacy. A project she continued last night in front of a faux-tea party audience. Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement : Post Politics: Political News and… Just a few excerpts from the article, but this guy nails [...]
There will always be an attempt by the corrupt to infiltrate and control every sizable group which has consensus with an effort to pull all who follow its leaders under the domination of their power.
So be very wary of your leaders…
Only those leaders who have the focus and courage to stand for the ideals which drew their congregation can be trusted. You can never let your guard down, and you must always think for yourself.
Belonging to a group has the advantage of mass resistance and delegated responsibilities…BUT it is an added responsibility in itself.
the Bush legacy has been continued
1 Obama has continued the Bush No Child left behind policy
2. Iraq policy
3. Afganistan policy (surge)
4. Bailout Policy Stimulus Package Omnibus Spending bill, his new Idea the Jobs Bill.
5. Expanding the Medicare Drug Bill
what can you say
O=W.. Those in the Tea Party opposed the Bush Agenda when Bush was President, and they are still opposing the Bush Agenda since Obama Walker Bush has come to office.
Sarah Palin prods the bewildered herd!
In my continuing education on the real functioning of government, I have been learning about the tactics and practices of propaganda. The role of propaganda in America is to keep the bewildered herd (we the people, according to the propagandists) from ever really effecting policy. Policy is decided by those who know better. The elite. First the political elite (Carl Rove etc.) and the financial elite (the ones who own the political elite).
As I have watched with glee the teaparty movement growing into a force to actually be able to effect change in policy, I’ve been waiting for the counterstrike by the elite, to dismantle, fracture and marginalize the movement.
Enter Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin, the darling of many a conservative has, with the mainstream Medias help, become the defacto spokesperson of the teaparty. The teaparty, whose proposed purpose, is to take back our country from the corrupt politicians, and return our country to Constitutional supremacy. The teaparty a movement of angry Americans fed up with the status quo in Washington, taking to the streets to demand real change in government
. Now the teaparty has a spokesperson in that political rogue, Sarah Palin. There’s only one problem. Sarah Palin is only endorsing establishment candidates. In Arizona, she is supporting John McCain, while the real constitutionalist is left out.
In Nevada, at the Searchlight teaparty express sponsored by Palin, only Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian are scheduled to speak. This leaves the real constitutionalist, the one that the teaparty should be supporting, out of the mix. Sue and Danny will be coached to say all the right things to the teaparty crowd to make them think “Oh, maybe they are the ones”? Any other candidates (the ones without money I hope you notice), are left out and unheard of by the media that will undoubtedly cover the event. This is how it is done, and there are masterminds of propaganda that use this formula on us every day, because it works.
Will the majority of the people in the teaparty realize this? Probably not. Sarah Palin is the classic example of someone used by the propagandists to sway the bewildered herd in the direction desired by the elite. Does she realize it? Who knows, it’s possible that the ones who offered her funding (probably Rupert Murdock) just gave her a forum to do what she does, and it is the people inserted by the ones pulling the strings that set the policies.
Once again, the bewildered herd is agitated to a point that they must be dealt with, but will most likely be duped into supporting the very forces that seek to enslave them.
Take the red pill folks (The Matrix reference for and who don’t understand). Our country is depending on you.
Pat Kerby
[...] the expert on everything and everybody, linked to Uncle’s Post with the following excrement. The post he links to complains that the tea party movement is “dead” because Sarah Palin “hijacked” it. [...]
[...] Party as a whole for participating in the expansion of Big Government. Already, activists are becoming dismayed by the prospect of Palin hijacking the Tea Party [...]
FACT: Ron Paul is and will ALWAYS be the founder of the Tea Party..
FACT: Ron Paul would EAT that woman ALIVE in a debate..
Kleinheider, you hit the nail on the head.
We are simply watching the mechanics of how the demo/repub empire discourages any and all opposition. They introduce their own puppets, such as Palin, into the opposition’s equation in order to try make it their own. This should not be unexpected or surprising.
Hopefully the true standard bearers will see through this and reject Palin for what she has agreed to be: just another shrill for the empire.
Kennedy was silenced by the unpeakable for what he tried to do, which is what today’s tea party is trying to do all over again. Let’s hope that the unspeakable does not raise its ugly head this time around. But sadly, I don’t think we are going to be that lucky. Ultimately, heads will roll if the genuine tea party continues to grow. Then, we will see how the revolution responds.