Why we should worry about the Tea Baggers getting into office.

[edhopper]

Look around, they are winning Primaries in very safe Republican strong holds, they are going to Washington.
Sure, the Repukes won't take control of Congress this year, and probably not in 2012 either.
But the American voters are idiots, and sooner or later they will be back in power. And now that the Tea Party is the driving force in the GOP. (that and Corporations) We will see these wingnuts with real power pushing an absolutely fucked up agenda.
The Bush years showed us that they can and will do whatever they want, with a willing lap dog press to enable them.

[havocmom]

1. What? Me worry? Nah. Even if a handful got into office, it has merits.

I have always missed dueling in D.C. Figure the idiocy of the tea baggers just might bring that back. They do seem to be mainly shooting each other in the foot as it is.

[edhopper]

2. And the people yawn

and still vote them into office.
They might be the final nail in this country.

[tom_paine]

9. The final nail was driven on 12/12/2000 - the rest is the corpse getting runny and stinking

Make no mistake. It was all over but the shouting a long time ago - it's just that any enterprise as large as our Empire carries a lot of inertia and thus takes a long time to actually get where it's going.

In many ways we should be thankful for this massive inertia. Everything good in our Plebian lives comes from the past, from that inertia - what remains of the Bill of Rights, the fact that the Bushies can't come right out and get to their Final Solution (whatever that may turn out to be) because of the way they had to treat us (relatively "nicely") under threat of the Cold War and having a bunch of Commie Assholes takeover on the Capitalist Assholes (really both doing the same thing, anyway - stealing everything from the bottom 80% to give to their pals), and so forth.

In either case, it's all semantics and, if there is a civilization capable of recording human history in a century or two, historians will debate for centuries more exactly when it was that the American Empire fell.

[havocmom]

12. My friend, I fear you are correct, as usual

A presidential election was overturned in plain view. The perps got away with it. That was it right then and there. After that, the puppetmasters didn't have to hide the agenda anymore. It was a done deal.

Hey, Tom, lad, we need to quaff a pint or three and talk old times.

[HillbillyBob]

18. My mom seems to think that chimpy mcdumbass is

err was a 'real boy' err pResident. she still does not fucking believe me when I tell her that bastard was unlawfully installed..needless to say, now she is all teabagged out..When we told her what we saw the night of the 2000 election in fl when we saw our ballots dumped into truck mounted shredders she told me I was either hallucinating or high (was in pain on painkillers from colon cancer surgery, but there were a dozen others standing there watching too and we were talking about trying to do something even if it got us killed..unfortunately my partner was the only able bodied one there the rest of us were old or AIDs patients and I had stitches and staples ). I am about ready to tell her she is not welcome here.

What really bewilders me is that she has become a konservative when she used to be pretty liberal and my dad(they devorced long ago) who was pretty conservative until about 7 8 years ago is now a flamin liberal.... We were raised Southern Baptist and Methodist.

He was really down on me when I came out in 82(well was outed) we did not have friendly relations for almost 20 years...now he rants about the stuff that I do hell he is almost more liberal than I am..this is a good thing even if I am a bit taken aback by it. He and stepmom even dropped in from almost 400 miles away to visit last year..she is still hard core Southern Baptist.

[hamsterjill]

13. I couldn't agree more!

There was a fork in the road at that time, and America was turned in the wrong direction.

[elocs]

3. We ignore or treat lightly the Tea Baggers at our own peril.

I am sure there were those in the late 1930s who thought Hitler and the Nazis were a joke as well and nothing to worry about. The Tea Baggers may not be that bad (although who knows what they would do if they had the power), but they could still be very horrible for this country.

Democrats have the numbers to largely halt or limit the Tea Bagger advance, but if we choose to concede elections to them or sit on our hands because we are disappointed in our less than perfect choices then this country will reap some terrible consequences and people will suffer.

[HillbillyBob]

23. I have had more than a couple Holocaust survivors

say that the US is going the same way that pre war Germany did.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Wait until the first few are elected,

and the voters actually see what they bought.

Buyers remorse can be a real bitch.

These loons in three-pointed hats and misspelled posters won't get far.

[Sinistrous]

5. Because there is no room in Government

for any more illiterate sociopaths.

[conspirator]

6. Oh I am so scared of the bogeyman. U suggest we remain prisoner of the lesser of 2 evils forever?n/t

[treestar]

16. so you'd prefer the worst of two evils?

:wtf:

[HillbillyBob]

20. You list UK as your country

Do you or have you visited here and been exposed to these assholes?
I sure have and I would just as soon shoot them as deal with them. Some of my idiot relatives and neighbors are baggers...I have started to keep the 12guage pump shotgun loaded behind the front door again. Im no coward, I have personally pushed back on a bunch of kkk idiots and had to resort to that shotgun to keep them from burning my home down while my friends and family were inside they are the same folks as the baggers. I would rather not have to kill or wound someone, but I will if it is a Me or Them situation.
Being out gay for almost 30 years I have had plenty of chances to deal with them from a lynch mob in Selma to assholes throwing rocks and bottles at my home to name calling and physical assault since I am now disabled and cannot defend myself with out a weapon I have no reason to be gentle with them since i have had to deal with them all my adult life. If you are not here on the ground you have no say because you don't know what you are babblin about.

[bigwillq]

7. Repukes will be back in power.

Sooner or later, that's the way things go in politics. We can't expect, not in the current political climate, that either party will hold majorities for too long. Repukes will take over, and then DEMS will gain it back, etc, etc, etc....

[LeftinOH]

8. Teabaggers=Republicans; I don't believe the "Tea Party" is attracting anyone

from outside the usual percentage of right-wing voters. To use an automotive analogy, the Tea Party is to Republicans as the Cadillac Cimarron was to the Chevy Cavalier: Same thing, but with flashy add-ons.

[SecularMotion]

10. The teabaggers are our friends

They are driving any sane republicans to the Democratic Party.

There will always be pockets of lunacy in congress. The fact that the republicans are getting nuttier is not a sign of strength.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Driving The Car Further Off The Cliff...

Think of this as real short term gain that will result in long term pain.

The teabaggers are far more a threat to the rushpublican party than they are to Democrats or the country. They represent the fringe that has been destroying the party for the past decade and made it the minority party in many ways. The extremism on that side is driving the moderats and independents out of the party in ways that aren't measured primarily since the corporate media is so fascinated with the noise makers. The battles that have gone in many red states, Utah, Kentucky and Arizona are leaving deep scars that could come home to roost in November. Will those who supported J. D. HeyI'mWorthless vote for McCain? Or will the RNC and the Kentucky GOOP really work to get out the vote for Paulbot Jr.? Let them continue to play their purity tests...its turning that corrupt party more and more irrelevant every day.

As far as the few who will win in November, they will be a new class of rodeo clowns...reminders to the rest of the country of how unhinged the GOOP is.

[tom_paine]

17. I hope you are right, but recent history does not suggest it will be so

Thanks largely to the fusion of Corporate M$M with the RW Lie Machine, combined with the latest principles in advertising, marketing, PR and behavioral/statistical/mass psychology, the Tea Party Op will likely be a complete success, as virtually ALL of the RW PsyOps have been these past 40 years.

The Teabaggers are not meant to be a threat to the Rushpublics, doubly so since they are being run and financed by the Rushpublic Aristocracy. They are meant as a PsyOp to pull the National Dialog even further to the lunatic RW Authoritarian "conventional wisdom" while never truly threatening the Rushpublic Aristocrats' hold on power, even when they are ostensibly "in the minority".

And there is NO WAY the Corporate M$M will do anything but treat their lunacies with deferential respect and the customary lie laundering.

It has become quite clear that, statistically speaking, the American Subject Populace is powerless and defenseless against this "Nuclear Bomb of the Mind" synergistically structured.

Plus, as has pretty much been the case for the last 40 years, the Democratic Leadership is either co-opted, cowed or clueless - perhaps some combination of the three, and thus the only counterforce to restrain the madness has voluntarily agreed to be the Washington Generals with a perpetual startled look on their faces.

This does not even count the DLC Corporates' drive to eliminate the Democratic Party as a viable alternative to the Rushpublics, which has also been tremendously successful.

[KharmaTrain]

21. The Teabaggers Have Been Co-Opted...

The original baggers from last year were a Pys-Ops operation...run by rushpublican cover groups like Freedomwerks and other more black ops...the remnants of what was once termed "the Mighty Wurlitzer"...or a tightly controlled GOOP/right wing message machine. It was overtaken over the last year by the Paulbots...people who aren't in the mainstream of the GOOP...remember, they held a separate convention in Minneapolis in '08. They also were joined by LaRouchies and lots of other fringe groups that are outside the control of the RNC or even Freedomwerks. That's where the primaries are being fought...who really controls this corrupted party?

No, the teabaggers initially weren't meant to be a threat but they are now. It's a fracturing of the party between the hard right and the looney hard right. The corporate media remains fascinated with them cause they stir up shit and bring in ratings. As the OP points out they best operate in the reddest of states and this is creating divisions within the "regular" party that could easily suppress their own GOTV and voter turnout this November.

Both parties are corporate driven since running for election has become so expensive. It costs each Congresscriter a minimum of $1 mil every two years...even in the safest districts and that amount easily doubles in a contested primary and/or general election. Thus the politicians spend most of their time getting the money to keep their jobs...without the money they can't get the votes. Add to that the lack of desire of politicians and the totaly duplicity of the SCOTUS is making any true campaign finance reform "cost prohibitive".

It's easy to blame...a lot harder to fight and make change happen. It doesn't happen over night and requires tremendous persistance. Some take it as a threat, but it's a sad reality...this is the system we're stuck with. We can work to fix and reform it from inside or curse it from the outside. That choice is yours...

Cheers.

[Scuba]

14. Why the 'secret hold' must be killed. Even one TeaPartier could halt gov't.

[HillbillyBob]

15. You are so very right

I have wondered what kind of country we will have if enought of those turds get into office. I have never been a fan of assassination.............

[JohnnyLib2]

19. I'm in Kentucky (Paul) and have roots in Nevada (Angle).

I AM worried.

[HillbillyBob]

22. I am so sorry

We escaped florida in 2002 after multiple job outsourcing that ruined us financially,we did have savings too, but a year without work....
We moved to NC my partners home state..its mostly progressive, but repressive in spots. Mostly the folks are sane and pretty wonderful..except that oogly from dist 5 virgina foxx. Our rep is Brad Miller.
On the night of the 2000 election we saw our ballots being put into shredders..and still few believe us. We were harassed by the fbi and nsa for speaking out, including threatening phone calls and anonymous emails how that was done we don't know since partner is a puter security specialist and could not trace them and our home was invaded and ransacked by about 6 or 8 suits in black Crown Victorias with gov tags as per our neighbors, this was after we moved from FtLaud to NC..our next door neighbor was so scared she moved a couple days after that w/o notice. We moved a while after to a place in the woods.