Why the Tea Party is Ruining America
I’d like to begin this post by saying that I have no problem with protest movements. If you feel that you are suffering an injustice, by all means speak up. If you are opposed to war, hold a rally. If you are opposed to abortion, start a picket line.
However, what I have a problem with is ignorance and “unintelligence.” And from what I’ve seen from the Tea Party Movement, it is made up of nothing but.
In the 16 April 2010 edition of the Des Moines Register, there is a fantastic article on the Tax Day Tea Party Rallies. In the article there are several Tea Party protesters interviewed, and while Fox News and other conservatives want you to think that this movement is revolutionary and all of that, the quotes that are offered in the article are very telling:
… Ina Breeden, a 70-year-old great-grandmother… [said] that Obama wrote in “Dreams from My Father” that everyone he’s been surrounded by in politics is a Marxist…. Breeden said she hadn’t read the book, but had heard others talking about it.
… “Everything he’s done,” [Diana Clancy] said of Obama, “he’s followed the same orders as Hitler.”
The only problem with these sorts of statements is that they are blatantly wrong. Nowhere in “Dreams from My Father” does it say that he was surrounded by Marxists. Even Mrs. Clancy’s statement is followed by an immediate retraction from her: “Don’t put that. He’s going to come after me.”
The conservative pundits are up in arms about how the Liberals–with their unGodly, baby-killing, pot-smoking, gay-marrying, socialist, fascist, Communist ways–are wrongly portraying the “Tea-baggers” as racist and violent, because they are making sweeping generalizations about a few (which ironically enough, is what they’re doing to Liberals).
And I’ll concede to the fact that there might only be a few racists in the Tea Party movement. And maybe only a few people are throwing rocks in the windows of Congresspeople and are calling for the outright murder of those who voted for the health care bill. But what simply can’t be ignored is the obvious fact that most Tea Party protesters are stupid and ignorant.
Tea Party protesters and Conservatives didn’t want the health care bill “shoved down the throats of the American people.” Never mind that health care reform had been talked about for 50 years. Never mind that there was only a real push for change in the last year. Never mind that there were plenty of opportunities to engage in healthy and meaningful debate of the bill. And never mind that, despite having both HR 3200 and HR 3962 posted online, no one even bothered to read it. It was all too fast and not the change we wanted.
Maybe it’s not the fact that the Tea Party protesters are stupid. Maybe every once in a while a reporter finds a very articulate and knowledgeable protester who knows what he’s talking about, and that screws up whatever narrative that particular news source was going for. The biggest problem is that these people are misinformed about everything.
And what news source is the biggest supporter of the Tea Party movement? Fox News.
It’s amazing how Fox News and Conservative pundits so easily defend the violent actions of this movement, and yet somehow get offended when people call them out on it. It’s also been pointed out on several occasions that Fox News will even tamper with video to make it appear that these protests are bigger than they really are.
Misinformation combined with fear-mongering, combined with impressionable people who will loudly relay any information no matter how wrong it is, equals a dangerous creature that no one can control. The Tea Party movement is promoting ignorance and violence, all without a coherent message. And also their costumes are pretty dumb.
I just don’t get how people can still believe something that has been shown to be wrong over and over again. Is it that common sense is dead, or is it more that in today’s American society, free-thinking and intelligence isn’t in vogue?
Just Makes Sense 
July 26, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I could never understand why middle class Americans support a party that protects the wealthiest. How do the elites brain wash these otherwise very intelligent good Americans into helping them get richer?
October 21, 2013 at 6:02 am
I don’t think it matters either way. our government is bribed wheather it is democrat or republican. they decide the candidates in elections
November 24, 2013 at 5:16 pm
Don,
Your remark points up a large part of the problem.
First, we can never give up on trying to protect a democracy which serves the people. Second, any realistic study of American history shows that Republicans have always been the party of big business – long before they were or were referred to as ‘International Corporations’. Eventually the overwhelming power of all those campaign contributions and all those highly paid lobbyists along with ever more and more resources becoming available to feed that machine and more accountants and more and more lawyers, became evident to even the ‘slowest’ Democrats. If you’re old enough you’ll recall the tremendous shock with which Geo. H W Bush realized that Clinton had beat him at fund raising. For better r worse that was a turning point in U S politics to my way of thinking. As a lifelong liberal I rejoiced that Clinton seemed that ‘popular’ and sadly I didn’t immediately catch on even while I was moaning that Clinton often acted like a Republican!
Today, I see through it all. Our ‘liberal’ politicians have for generations had a strong streak of the Neo- liberal in the pattern of reagan and Bush and they are all very much in the thrall of money which according to the Supreme Court translates to ‘speech’. Both parties have been corrupted by money but there is only one party which spoke out for gay rights , equality for gays, originally for minorities , which ran a minority presidential candidate, which is acting on behalf of improved healthcare – even if not for the kind of healthcare reform we expected – and finally I believe will be the most likely of our ‘two party duopoly’ to take the populist side in a showdown as long as it doesn’t have to be on the bloody streets.
We MUST have campaign finance reform, lobbying reform and some kind of, some version of, term limits ticklish as it is to codify.
We must get all that money out of politics and while we’re about it we would do well to remember that they might be tainted or even damn corrupt on many issues but it’s no mere coincidence that the Democratic party and the philosophy of the left are mated with individual pols with the last vestiges of populist thought and preserving democracy in the mold of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, David Grayson and so on.
We must not become so tired or so intellectually lazy as to just shrug and say ‘they’re all the same’ and we must never give up!
October 21, 2013 at 7:32 am
What a bunch of garbage. You want to talk about intelegence, just listen to the ‘man on the street’ interviewsd if you want to see brainless idiots. Sheep and ostriches are really plentiful in this country. Good luck in the rest of your life.
October 21, 2013 at 9:29 am
Who the hell is he talking about? Tea Party, “progressives, (little p), republicans, (little r), democrats, (little minds)?
October 21, 2013 at 10:02 am
I live in an over 55 retirement community and can’t believe the ignorance on the subject of the Tea Party. Ignorance is bliss and the older one get, it seems the dumber they get. Just my observation.
October 21, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Let’s set the record straight, many have joined the Tea Party revolution b/c they’re tired of our inept and incompetent govt. Let’s just take a few examples of the dear former house speaker, Nancy, who makes such clueless statements like, “We’ll have to pass it to find out what’s in it.” and more recently, ““What difference does it make? Why are we talking about this? We’re talking about a bill that as I said last night, I’m not asking anybody to vote for this bill on the merits,” concerning the latest CR. Those in the Tea Party want to know what’s in a bill before passing it, and we want bills passed on their merits. So here’s to the Dems ignorance, and let’s even throw in the Obamacare debacle..pure stupidity, incompetence, lack of leadership, etc. ‘Nuff said!
October 25, 2013 at 9:26 pm
I agree with you: I have a problem with ignorance. Such as when people state “from what I’ve seen of the Tea Party Movement, it is made up of nothing but [ignorant, unintelligent people].” First of all I should give some disclaimers. I’m not a member of the Tea Party, nor would I likely be a member if it were possible to be a member, since there is no such thing as The Tea Party (in the sense you use it; hopefully your reason for using terms like Tea Party Movement; from here on for simplicity I will pretend it is a monolithic Party on par with the Democrat or Republican Parties). I agree with some of the things some Tea Partiers believe, I agree with some things the Democrat Party advocates, and I agree with some things the Republican Party advocates. Politically, economically, and socially I would disagree with much of what most Tea Partiers, Democrats, and Republicans believe. I have spent a lot of time talking with people from all three groups, along with many who claim to be apolitical (as they talk my ear off about politics!).
Why? Because most Democrats, Republicans, and Tea Partiers are ignorant of what their own Party currently advocates through their “official” platforms (official in quotes because the Tea Part can not have an official platform until they actually become a party). Also, in similar numbers, they are ignorant of their party’s original official platform. And most are certainly way off in understanding the beliefs of the founding fathers.
But let’s look at your post. You quote Ina Breeden and Diana Clancy, then state “that they are blatantly wrong,” which is blatantly wrong, for all we know. You state that “Dreams” does not state that Obama “was surrounded by Marxists” when it does. You may be trying to use a technicality: 1) it does not use that phrase, or 2) I’ll agree not EVERYONE was a Marxist. Not having an electronic copy to verify the veracity of technicality #1, I do not know (though I’m pretty sure you’re correct on the technicality). But it does mention quite a few people that he was ‘surrounded by’ who did espouse Marxist theories – from Americans, to Africans, to Indonesians. So realistically, it is reasonable and fair to state that Obama wrote in Dreams “that everyone [in a non-literal sense] he’s been surrounded by in politics is a Marxist [or has Marxist/totalitarian beliefs].”
“The conservative pundits are up in arms about … Liberals …portraying … [Tea Partiers] as racist and violent … ironically … what they’re doing to Liberals.” Then (ironically) you do the same in the next couple paragraphs.
First of all, I have trouble with the next several paragraphs. Ironically enough you go making sweeping generalizations about Liberals, Conservatives, and Tea Partiers. Conservatives consider Liberals to be “ungodly [true in some cases, not in others], baby-killers [some do believe in killing babies post birth, some only pre-birth, and some not at all], pot-smoking [most conservatives I’ve heard that are against pot smoking don’t believe that most liberals are pot-smokers], …” Further down you lump Tea Partiers and Conservatives together, even though in the beginning I met more Democrats in the Tea Party than Republicans. They are NOT the same group. Of course, in the beginning people that considered themselves Tea Partiers were more in it to fight against taxation or taxation without representation. Today I would agree that more Tea Partiers are what I would consider conservative rather than liberal.
The way you state it doesn’t actually sound like you believe most Tea Partiers are not racists, just that you’ll bend over backwards to sound fair and concede it so you don’t have to take time to hunt up a couple anecdotes that might sound like those people are, since it would not prove to anybody of common sense that those few anecdotes indicate most Tea Partiers are racist. [For disclosure purposes, as a scientist I must state there are no human races – we’re all created equal – but (possibly due to my racial background) I think almost everybody is racist to some degree or another.]
You say that the health care bill was not “shoved down [our] throats” because the reform had been going on for a half-century. My math makes it a lot longer than that, but let’s not quibble. The health care bill certainly WAS shoved down our throats. I dutifully downloaded a half-dozen competing versions and waded through them {I don’t recommend it}. But neither I nor anyone who voted for or against the bill that finally was voted in got to read it before the vote; and to the best I can tell it wasn’t written in its final form until after the vote [though most of it was written before the vote]. That certainly fits the definition of “shoved down our throats.”
More ignorance: Fox is the biggest supporter of the Tea Party. Maybe you need to check donation records again. On that basis you are wrong. Oh, maybe you mean which news group seems to put the most positive spin on it? Not Fox (do some research and think outside the box). Fox tends to report the Tea Party more neutrally. The other four big networks are more likely to give it a negative spin – because that sells. All the networks have some variation on how they report it because the commentators do it their way, the actual reporters tend to spin it the way they think (hence you can see positive comments of the Tea Party on any network, if not from the network itself). And don’t forget, there are thousands of other networks, and their reporting on the Tea Party, the Democrats, the Republicans, and other parties depends on how ‘they’ [the reporters, their news teams, producers, polls, etc. dictate] spin any party. Generally at some level it comes down to the bottom line: money. And now you know why the Libertarian party may or may not get mentioned at election time, and why most other parties are completely ignored unless somebody in them does something incredibly notorious or possibly during Silly Season, which finishes up before the election itself [if someone doesn’t know what that is, read Kornbluth’s short story, The Silly Season, to get an exaggerated idea of it]
More misinformation: Earlier you conceded that most in the Tea Party are not violent, then you refer to “the violent actions of this movement. I assume you will get offended by my discussing the violence in the Democrat or Republican parties, which happens on a regular basis. Of course, you probably claimed that [to use your words, you defend] the Black Panthers in Philadelphia weren’t actually violent. That the violence at multiple G8, G20, WTO, etc wasn’t really violent, or that nobody who was violent was Democrat, Republican, or Tea Party (whichever one(s) you prefer).
I have a cousin who is fiercely conservative but her sister is even more vehemently liberal. A while back the latter referenced a news article about a ‘conservative’ who threatened to kill Obama, and commented that that was just like conservatives. That that kind of thing didn’t happen when Bush was president because liberals were more civil. I debated for awhile sending her some files I had made by copying the comment sections of various news articles back in Bush’s day making all kinds of vile threats about Bush (a section of the files were the threats to move to Canada if he got in a second time). [I also have made files of the same kind of thing in Obama’s time, though to my surprise I’ve had to work harder finding as much vitriol; instead of assuming conservatives are more civil I could assume they are too lazy, or just worn out.]
And finally, your final paragraph. I agree with you. How can you still believe so many things that are wrong? If you wish to speak of common sense, when is the last time you read Paine’s Common Sense? Maybe your problem is that you think too many still are free thinking. Maybe Americans are more intelligent than their educational system would appear to let them be. Though I will agree that none of us use that intelligence as well as we should. But I’m not as ready as you to claim that all who think differently than I are lacking intelligence or common sense. But then you do claim to be liberal. So do I, but more as the Founders meant. So I won’t be joining the Tea Party – or yours.
November 12, 2013 at 9:21 am
Jack: I greatly appreciate these comments. I’m curious as to how you found this blog, specifically this post? You seem to be referring to the Tea Party movement as it stands now, but I’m wondering if you realize that this post was written back in May of 2010? A lot has changed in the over three years since I wrote this post, both in the political spectrum as well as in my personal politics.
Some of the points you made here may be used in an upcoming blog post (my first in over two years), so thank you for statements that made me do some research and double check.
Regarding your last paragraph: you seem to be making a lot of assumptions about who I am and what I believe. Have you read other posts on this blog? Then you’re seeing a lot of rambling posts from a young, hyper-liberal college student.
You said: “Maybe your problem is that you think too many [people] still are free thinking.”
If you had read my statement more carefully, you’d see that I said that people were not free thinking ENOUGH. There’s a complacency that comes when you get your news from an echo chamber, whether your chamber of choice is CNN, MSNBC, or Fox. I encourage people to get their news from “uncomfortable sources” but also to verify that what is being reported is truth.
You said: “I’m not as ready as you to claim that all who think differently than I are lacking intelligence or common sense.”
Not at all what I’m promoting. I enjoy being challenged. All I ask is that if you have an opposing viewpoint, back it up. Have some substance in your argument. As someone who works in the social sciences, I know, like scientists of all stripes know, claims need to have data to back them up.
Finally, you made a big deal in your opening paragraph about how I referred to the Tea Party movement, which I found odd, because reading through the whole post again, each time I referenced the movement as a whole, I used the term “movement.” Maybe you missed it because I didn’t capitalize it. It happens.
Also, were you aware that some states have official Tea Party political parties? There’s one here where I live in Florida, officially sanctioned by the state (http://election.dos.state.fl.us/candidate/parties.shtml). I’m sure there are other political parties just like this in other states.
Thank you again for your comment.
November 9, 2013 at 1:30 pm
“The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.”
“I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” (Back then!)
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
~Thomas Jefferson~
This Government and particularly this administration has made these true and “intelligent” statements and the people who believe in them to be “extremist” “anarchist” and “terrorist”…PERIOD!
November 12, 2013 at 10:25 am
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