A recent article in The New Yorker revealed that the organization Americans for Prosperity is funded by the billionaire brothers Koch. The organization has provided tee shirts and talking points to Tea Party activists who remain unaware of the wealthy backers of the purportedly grass-roots movement. Surely if the Brothers Koch were as strongly in favor of prosperity for Americans as they are for themselves, they would keep the tee shirts and share the wealth.
It may be a bit unfair to say that the Koch's do not share the wealth. They certainly contribute to some noble causes. Museums and ballet companies benefit from their generosity. They have hospital wings named after them. So, they do contribute huge sums of money, albeit to causes and institutions that their lower working-class political lackeys would consider frivolous.
The Kochs are arch libertarians. They embrace an Ayn Rand world view, according to which the fact that they inherited a fortune and parleyed it into a larger fortune proves them more worthy than others of status, power and influence. That they are able to manipulate the poor, the desperate, the frightened proves their entitlement to do so. That they have the means to steer the political system to their selfish ends is proof that they should. If deregulation serves their empire, they will fight for deregulation regardless of who or what their unregulated endeavors will harm. If maintaining and improving their position requires that they convince the poor to loudly protest against their own social safety net by vilifying it as a socialist entitlement, then the billionaire Koch brothers feel they are entitled to do so.
By holding a stealth position behind an organization that seems to be a wide-spread and populist one, the Koch brothers strive to continue concentrating wealth and improving their political leverage. To do this, they deliberately frighten the most manipulable fringe of the conservative spectrum, the undereducated, the overly religious and the fiscally oppressed. The only way to continue building their leverage is to increase the number of undereducated, overly religious and disenfranchised citizens.
The real grass roots members of the Tea Party have become easy fodder for Comedians. Interviews on site at Glenn Beck's recent rally have spread virally across the internet as laughably inarticulate protesters prove themselves incapable of civil discourse that transcends the most inane mouthing of slogans and epithets. I think, though, it is time for us to stop belittling and begin educating. It is time to deprogram the vast number of desperate people whose energies are being utilized to further causes that will only harm themselves.
The Kochs see the poor as stupid people to be used as fodder in their own crusade for increased profits. As long as we who disagree with them continue to attack members of the Tea Party as fools, we only serve to polarize and entrench them, supporting and furthering the work of our political adversaries. We must engage and embrace individuals.
We must seek to enlighten and educate.
It is time now for the left to remind the poor, the uneducated and the desperate that it is we who fight for their ability to prosper, to learn, to excel. When the hoarders of wealth at the top of the Republican Party and it's Randy sisters the Libertarians call us elitists, we must point out that even our the wealthiest and best educated among us seek only to raise everyone to the highest possible level. When the wealthy seek to hold onto their own tax breaks saying, "A rising tide lifts all boats," we must point out that these are the words of people who can afford boats. When corporate-backed politicians urge us to free the corporate profit-machines of regulation, cheerily reminding us of Reagan's trickle down economics, we have to ask, time and again, whether anyone has ever really enjoyed being trickled on.
The Tea Party is made up of energetic Americans who care deeply about their country and their own prosperity. Sadly, their vision is clouded, their ability to reason impeded by decades of misleading language, corporate disinformation and distorted debate. Rather than continuing to attack and belittle our fellow Americans, let us invite them all up to the moral high ground with outstretched hands and open arms. There is a chance -- though I cannot claim certainty on this -- that the truth might set us free.
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And since the Kochs profit from stupid people believing stupid things, it seems like a perfect match.
Get ready for the newest teabagger narrative that's making the rounds, that teabaggers are from all walks of life, Democrat and Republican--the better to sell the fake grassroots legend.
Question: Would Mr. Brody and the editors of the Huffington Post address gay tea party protestors as "teabaggers" and "koch suckers?"
I'd really like to read their answer.
>the Huffington Post address gay tea party
>protestors as "teabaggers" and "koch suckers?"
Of course. Neither term has anything to do with sex. The Teabaggers were calling themselves that right from the very start. It's simply a term Tea Party members coined to describe themselves.
And the Koch brothers are funding the Teabaggers. So since the Teabaggers are suckling off the teet of the Kochs instead of Big Gubment, why not call them Koch Suckers?
If you see any sexual connotation in this, there's obviously something wrong with you.
Gee, who does this remind me of. Oh, wait, I know: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid And THAT's how ridiculously hypocritical the Left sounds, and all because, as usual, you have no clue of what the actual facts are.
Did you bother to watch the program? If not, get back to me after you have, and then you can explain to me how Clinton's guys don't perfectly fit this description: "That they have the means to steer the political system to their selfish ends is proof that they should. If deregulation serves their empire, they will fight for deregulation regardless of who or what their unregulated endeavors will harm."
The reason why the food in America costs what it costs is because the Federal Government (under Nixon, FYI) put in place a series of subsidies for the agriculture and the food industry. If these were not in place, the food would cost three or four times more than what it does now.
The same is valid for gas. On of the reasons why gas is so inexpensive in America versus Canada for example, or other industrialized countries, is because of federal help to that industry.
While I personally disagree with this system and would rather pay more for my food and gas (basically pay the actual costs), the vast majority of Americans would become bums overnight, was the Government to put a halt on their subsidies. Those who complain the most, the poorest people, will be virtually unable to buy food or drive a car.
So, when you tell me that the tea party is a grass-root movement, it just makes me laugh. There's nothing grass-root about it, given its complete disregard for the well-being of the general population.
This kind of well-being, y'mean? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PwqSCJmbxk
Got the picture now? We're at a point in time when our elected officials are no longer listening to their constituencies but acting in the best interests of their own careers (or legacies) and the lobbyists who own them.
Conservatives started getting really pissed back in the Bush days, with the Rush Limbaugh set screaming about the congressional Republicans abandoning their conservatives principles and spending recklessly, and expanding the government with more, not less, programs and agencies, etc. They screamed about conservative sell-outs and RINO's, and also railed against McCain as the 2008 candidate. THOSE are the same conservatives who abandoned Bush and slowly started coming together as "Tea Partiers," determined to take their government back because they felt that the government no longer had the consent of the governed, i.e., their elected officials weren't listening to them any more.
And as if Tea Partiers weren't already pissed off enough as it was, the thing that absolutely broke the camel's back was the "mandate," where we might as well be living under King George again, because he we now have Big Brother not only taxing every purchase but NON-purchases.
And that's why you began seeing people taking to the streets about two years ago, rallying against the government, and why you're now seeing these Tea Partiers (and like-minded conservative voters) defeating the incumbent sell-out and RINO candidates and replacing them with conservatives. Plain and simple.
And instead of bashing them, liberals might think about cleaning house themselves. Because it was YOUR man of "change" who couldn't have obeyed the insurance lobbyist any fast if he'd tried. And it was You, the Liberals, who ended up in handcuffs for trying to get you OWN elected officials to listen to you instead of the lobbyist. Only the lobbyist won, and you now have no public option. And Karen's insurance cartel is now about to stop writing policies for children with prior conditions. Have you got that picture now?
Stop bashing and start standing up.
I'll believe that when liberals quit calling minorities names when they break free from their victimized mindset.
Liberals don't want the impoverished to excel. That seriously cramps the power of their demographic. Food on the table. I believe liberals are in favor of that. Excelling? No.
I can't even get started on the rest of your answer.
These guys make the lefty bugaboo, George Soros, look like Mother Theresa.
Politics is very much like fan identity. Ask them what they know about the Kochs(cokes)? Tell them what you know in question form. Did you know that the Kochs did this . Did you know that the Cokes did this. Do you appreciate the long term marketing that has gone into this. etc. The Cokes have be philanthropists for some good causes but they worked steadily to create the current political language that drives us apart. The goal is to win friends and influence enemies.
Is this a result of a lack of critical thinking and research ??