The Tea Party's Takeover Of The GOP

Mother Jones:

You have to hand it to Michele Bachmann: She has succeeded in turning the GOP into one big Tea Party.

This past weekend, the Minnesota Republican went on Fox News and called on viewers to show up on the Capitol lawn on Thursday at noon for a press conference and a last ditch attempt to kill health care reform. The gathering that resulted was marked by the now-routine extremism of the Tea Party conservatives.

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[SimianNation]

The trap that the GOP has fallen into here, is the same trap others in power have fallen into, and that is the desire over all else to stay in power. Not because they believe that they can do better for the citizens then their opposition, but because they want the levers of control for themselves alone. For them, this control is a right.

What we can see now from the GOP, is a natural approach to power maintenance. The GOP, which is splintered into so many small self-centered camps, is at a loss for any true form of cohesion, beyond complete opposition to whatever the current administration proposes.

We see from the Tea baggers, a mildly unified group of far ranging fringe actors, who have unified themselves around the same opposition to the current administration. Yet, even though they have come together from so many divergent and extreme positions, they are unified in their diversity because of this opposition.

This alone makes the fringe far more powerful than the entrenched GOP leaders. The natural cohesion of the fringe, forces the current GOP to gravitate and absorb the fringe, in an act of political survival. They legitimate getting into bed with these people because they feel that they can use and control them. Sadly, this will not happen. The lion will eat its keeper.

Both groups oppose the current administration, and that is the mechanism which allows them to unify themselves into a flawed political unit.

[postman66]

GOP leadership only has themselves to blame by not putting the brakes on this thing. Now they have the Bachmanns, Palins and Joe Wilsons driving the bus.

[SimianNation]

America is the greatest country in the world! In what other country could a minority hate filled people, so lost in the complexities of public governance, be allowed to take over one of the two main political parties’?

I look to a beer hall in Germany.

There are citizens who think that these dark hearted people will just go away...bur­n out...fade into nothingnes­s...but they will not. They will not just cease to be, and especially so since they have been given complete legitimacy by the current GOP.

These people, who believe in less government, less taxes, no medical assistance, unlimited gun control, no financial help from the federal government, state succession rights, segregation, the death penalty, anti-immigration, and white power, to name just a few aspects of their convoluted and disjointed ideology, will not just vanish.

These people will become more concentrated over time. Their group ideology will congeal as time moves forward, and eventually, becoming an ideology that is structurally sound enough to begin to be taken seriously within the mainstream. Not that that ensures success on their part, but they will slowly become seen as a legitimate alternative to the status quo of the day.

This is when they begin to win a seat here and there. When, they will begin to be able, to exert their twisted will on parts of the population. And when this point is reached, it could very well be too late.

Once they were called Brown shirts.

[SimianNation]

America is the greatest country in the world!

In what other country could a minority of hate filled people, so lost in the complexities of public governance, be allowed to take over one of the two main political party's?

I look to a beer hall in Germany.

There are citizens who think that these dark hearted people will just go away...bur­n out...fade into nothingnes­s...but they will not. They will not just cease to be, and especially so since they have been given complete legitimacy by the current GOP.

These people, who believe in less government, less taxes, no medical assistance, unlimited gun control, no financial help from the federal government, state succession rights, segregation, the death penalty, anti-immigration, and white power, to name just a few aspects of their convoluted and disjointed ideology, will not just vanish.

These people will become more concentrated over time. Their group ideology will congeal as time moves forward, and eventually, becoming an ideology that is structurally sound enough to begin to be taken seriously within the mainstream. Not that that ensures success on their part, but they will slowly become seen as a legitimate alternative to the status quo of the day.

This is when they begin to win a seat here and there. When they will begin to be able to exert their sick will on parts of the population. And when this point is reached, it could very well be too late.

Once they were called Brown shirts.

[Siebenstein]

Second , on all points !

[IamaLogican]

For all the people defending the right wing and conservative ideals, can I just ask you to think about one point?


If you have to LIE to make your point believable, you have a problem.


Get some self respect. If you can't make your argument (in either direction) without lying or making statements you know to be false, can't you see how sad that is?

Do you lie to your children to win arguments with them?

[wagthedog1001]

I doubt any amount of rational or logical talk would or could be absorbed by these people.

They spend more money going to one of their rallies than their taxes cost!

[Siebenstein]

Wrong !

There is no takeover, the GOP was like this all along. Decades of the same white hate is surfacing now, because they believe they have the legitimacy to rub their dirt in our faces....

Welcome to waking up America !

That is what you supported for decades.

[ProudMilVet]

Our healthcare system is in total disarray, yet we are one of the only Industrialized Countries left that does not provide it's citizens with National healthcare. The mass shootings & violent gun crimes in this country are shocking compared to other "Civilized" nations, yet some people show up at political rallies with firearms, & the state of Arizona lets you into a Bar with a concealed weapon. Certainly these are only two of the many problems this country faces. Still, the Republicans & the far right wing continue to say no to any mention of a solution. They would rather scream about Socialist & Communist takeovers, individual freedom, & what a great Country we are, all while waving the Flag in one hand & the Bible in the other ! In the meantime our Allies shake their heads & wonder what exactly happened to America ! I sometimes believe we have gone back 50-60 years in time to the McCarthy era. God help us ! !

[yweston]

P@l!n better think of something. Bachmann is stealing her "Thunder"

[FHTB]

I see a catfight brewing...­Pay Per View???

[wagthedog1001]

Question is: What color Jello will they use in their made-for-FXTV wrestling match?

[AnneMarie27]

According to Sir Ian McKellen on The View this a.m., he could take the swine flu vaccine free in England if he so chose to. He did not choose to. Another website out of England reported that vaccinations began on Oct. 22. No mention of shortages. "NHS Hospitals will begin vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and their patients who fall into at risk categories against swine flu from today (Wednesday­)." Etc.

This inordinate fear of health care reform is based on fear and ignorance. With research, reading, and listening to something besides the radical right, they might learn how they are being lied to and used. If I could grow out of it, anyone can.

I barely remember McCarthyism, but what I remember was scary. And I have read about it. Seems like we are going that direction again. We must not be bullied by fearful and ignorant people who are being used by selfish opportunists.

[deepfreezevideo]

Oh GOD please run for President, Michelle!
This would be a dream come true!

[notb observer]

At the root of many of the problems we are facing is the simple question of unbridled greed. Whether it's Haliburton, Blackwater, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Banks or Wall Street, America has to finally come to grips with a serious disease that is eating away at its vital organs.
I think many of us feel that it's simply immoral for a CEO to get paid tens of millions of dollars a year, plus who knows how much more in secret bonuses, while their company goes into bankruptcy. We recognize that there is something just not right about health insurers who contribute nothing to our health, but make 30% or more just for being a middle man. We know it's disgraceful to send mercenaries to foreign countries to "fight" under our name, and get paid 10 times what a grunt gets for the same work. We know that it is immoral to treat health care and even prisons and now even death row itself as a profit making enterprise.
America has to grow up ! The people (Neo Cons) who have convinced us, against our better instincts, that it's OK to make money from anything need to be stopped. They need to be repudiated as the greedy immoral sociopaths that they are before we can even begin to hope to get this country headed down the right path again.

[goodpyr]

notb observer and IllinoisTexan both have good points.We need to take the big corporations that control way too many aspects of our daily lives.A "FAIR PROFIT" is one thing.Aver­ice and Greed is yet another.

[IllinoisTexan43]

The right can thank their patron Saint Ronnie for this schism. Reagan initially courted the fundamentalist vote and now the two factions are tied together at the hip. The far right fringe has taken over and moderate republicans have no place to go.

You have a republican party that is extremely rigid and intolerant in their ideology being wed to a conservative contingent that wants this nation to return to a 1950's mindset. Couple that with a rapid demographic and cultural shift that both groups are ignoring and you see why the right is in trouble.

There will have be a schism in the future for the republican party, and the faction that will appeal most to republican leaning voters will be the one to contend with.

[FHTB]

What scares these certified whackos is that their 1950s world has come to a crashing, and overdue, end...Ozzi­e and Harriet or Leave It To Beaver haven't been the model family unit since those days, and even then, they were considered not realistic. What scares them even more is a country that is no longer lily white and Anglo-Saxo­n...too bad...it's never going to be again, so these clowns better get used to it...FAST!

[wagthedog1001]

I'm thinking we need to convince them that a schism will make them twice as effective.

2 is bigger than 1 right? Like two dimes are more than a quarter.

[Msclvr31]

At this point in the presidential 2012 election I would be more inclined to support a Evan Bayh/Ben Nelson ticket than a Obama/Biden ticket. Would have more success with the independent swing vote than just attracting a proggressive base vote. It worked in 2008 because of a need for a change...B­ut not this drastic of a change.

[yweston]

And who are you??

[Siebenstein]

cook alert !

[Cryostatic]

And I'd be more inclined to support a Snuffaluffagus/Big Bird ticket in 2010. I think it'd have more success with the Flying Spaghetti Monster swing vote than just attracting the Independent base vote.

What's your point?

[goodpyr]

You haven't seen "drastic change".Yo­u think the Dem.s will challenge a sitting President.
LMAO

[Msclvr31]

Just take a look at healthcare in Canada/U.K­.....It's a process that has no urgency. Has anyone ever been to the DMV? No sense of urgency there...Th­at scares the heck out of me.

[notb observer]

Fear is exactly what the health insurers want you to feel. They have tried to convince us that we don't want a government bureaucrat standing between us and our doctors, when in fact they are the ones who are putting a low level cubicle monkey between us and our doctors. The cubicle monkey is accountable to no one, but probably gets nice fat bonuses for every claim he/she manages to reject.
You've never been to the UK, or Canada. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have lived in both and a few more European countries to boot. You talk about "no sense of urgency". I would say your statements have "no sense of factuality". The truth of the matter is that these countries rank higher in terms of their health care systems than we do. In case you don't understand the facts, and obviously you've managed to let a lot of useful, factual information get past you while the whole health care issue has been raging... We (that's the U.S. of A.) are ranked 37th in terms of our health care system. Canada and the UK are above us, as are some small central American banana republics.
So when it comes to "sense of urgency", see how your health insurance company breaks the sound barrier for you when they think they might be able to deny your claim for any number of arbitrary reasons that are considered absolutely illegal in other countries.

[mona C]

Thank you for that post. I too lived in Europe for 20+ years and had great health care.
That statistic BTW is also true for education. I believe we are no. 23 and the result
is, we raised a generation of idiots.
There is no way to convince them.

[Siebenstein]

Have you ever been to Canada / UK?

The answer is NO!

Cook alert !!

[goodpyr]

Pure Horse manure

[jonnysaint]

Don't be scared, educate yourself. You are totally wrong.

[NPRLuvr]

Another Lilly white Tea Party crowd being portrayed as representative of all of America.

[IllinoisTexan43]

In wingnuttia, 1 person of color out of 5,000 teabaggers is deemed 'diverse'. That's their standard and they're sticking to it.

[richinkle]

I passed through Wingnuttia on my way to A.s.s.holi­a. I liked A.s.s.holi­a better. The people were much smarter...­and nicer.