"Tea Party Activists Are the New GOP"

[proud2BlibKansan]

By John Nichols

Richard Viguerie, the legendary hard-right activist who spent much of the past decade arguing that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were too liberal, now declares that: "Tea Party Activists Are the New GOP."

There is little reason to argue with the man whose direct-mail campaigning funded the rise of the Republican right in the late 1970s and who grumbled loudly when Newt Gingrich, Bush, Cheney and Republican leaders tried to soften the party's roughest edges.

Viguerie isn't grumbling now.

He's celebrating. And rightly so.

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If Viguerie and his compatriots are correct, it is not just the Republican Party but America that is about to take the most rightwing turn in its history.

If Viguerie and his compatriots are wrong, the Grand Old Party could be turning toward the permanent minority status that only the most enthusiastic Democrats dared imagine.



http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/490865/tea_party_activists_are_the_new_gop

[SpiralHawk]

1. Republicons are welcome to their mythical, diaper-clad, wide-stance, hate-filled Homeland

Their fact-hating Homeland of fear and trembling, closted kinks, and FAIL Freakery...

Leave America for Americans.

[YOY]

2. "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were too liberal"

That's some scary fucking shit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I laughed the first time I heard it

It's not funny anymore.

[YOY]

5. They get everything they wanted and it didn't work.

There is some serious mental illness going on.

YEah, just like some mentally ill folks...the first inital reaction is to laugh and then you realize that the problem is serious and not an act.

[ProleNoMore]

3. Strip Away The Republican Heritage, The Core Of Tea Bagger Angst Should Not Be Ignored

That core angst is that something is terribly wrong with America and the American political system.

That is something that many from all political stripes can agree on.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Something is seriously wrong with the republican party

George W Bush is exhibit A.

Teabaggers are exhibit B.

The Democrats have problems too but they aren't near the implosion level of the GOP.

[ProleNoMore]

7. Agreed - That Said, Much Is Seriously Flawed With The Democratic Party - The DLC To Start

eom

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Yet they keep on winning elections

I'm no DLC fan. But I don't see them as influential as they hope to be. I see their influence waning.

And the far left is not taking over the Democratic party like the far right is taking over the GOP.

The GOP is about to implode. The Dems are not.

[ProleNoMore]

10. Maybe, The Dem's May Not Be "About To Implode", Yet That Is A Far Cry

From being an effective political organization.

Witness the current performance on health care reform.

[YOY]

11. What we witness is us doing their job for them as we move to the right to accomodate.

We have our own problems...but being insane is not a problem.

[ProleNoMore]

12. Problems Are Problems Whether They Be Insanity Or Accommodation

eom

[DBoon]

19. And the so-called Democratic "far left" isn't as violent and intolerant as the RW

To match the loony rhetoric of the teabaggers and Glen Beck admirers, you'd have to go as far left as something like the Sparticist League of Bob Avakian's Revolutionary Communist Party

What the mass media considers the "far left looneys" are people that in any saner country would be moderate social democrats - people like Grayson, Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich.

What's considered the "mainstream" right of the republican party would be a dangerous neo-fascist cult

If the so-called far left of the democratic party took over, it would be nothing compared to what has already happened in the far-right takeover of the republican party

[joeycola]

8. yes, I can that is for sure.

[firedupdem]

13. The core of teabagger angst is reflected in their signs and screams!

They want their country back from an African American president or as they call him:

-A lyin african, muslim terrorist, marxist, fascist etc.

They are a major part of what's wrong with America! Racist nutbags who had no issues with the last 8yrs and didn't find their outrage until this president took over. Fuck them and everything they stand for.

[ProleNoMore]

14. My View Is Slightly Different, Much Of the Racism Is Fanned By Republican Ideology

Strip that away and one may find, at a deeper core level, the real underlying angst stems from similar fears that many Democrats have.

However, I would agree that the Republican party is a comfortable home for those that are truly Racist.

[firedupdem]

15. Strip away their racism and hatred for all things Obama and I'm

to find what similarity with them and Democrats?

What fear is it that they have when they scream "Thank God for Glenn Beck" etc?

What are these "fears" you speak of that they have in common with many democrats (non racist democrats)?

[ProleNoMore]

16. Economic Fears, Retirement Fears, Education Fears, and Yes Health Care Fears

Many of these people are motivated by similar fears as those on the left.

Sadly there rhetoric has been shaped by their media icons which is reflected in their public mantras.

Pull them aside and one might find that they are equally disturbed by the ineptitude of government, the all prevailing power of corporations, and their inability to be heard.

They would use different words to frame their argument, foreign to many on the left.

Once past the rhetoric, similarities begin to emerge.

[FraDon]

18. "Fears" of our true common enemy: the Banksters and their play book:

unregulated, global capitalism.

But our angry neighbors don't see, don't hear, don't understand that the Matrix is not fiction, it's metaphor.

Religions, dogmas, absolute orthodoxies - they all poison the wells of good will, and are so regularly and effortlessly corrupted and manipulated by the Banksters.
.

[Odin2005]

17. The new Brownshirts.

[madrchsod]

20. meanwhile the democrats have Stockholm Syndrome.....

they still think they have to please their capturers