Since when did the media switch from calling Tea Party members "Tea Baggers" to "activists?" Well, certainly the term "tea bagger" immediately became a joke when people began to realize it referred to a sexual practice of gay men. But why did the term "activist" come about rather than "follower" or "member?"
When I think of activists, I think of how the term became current in the 1960's in the US. It initially referred to "civil rights activists." These were often young men and women who put their lives on the line to fight for the rights of poor and disenfranchised African-Americans. They traveled to the cities and rural slums of the South to live and work alongside sharecroppers, domestics, and the unemployed. Some of the activists, like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were lynched, others like Medgar Evers and Viola Liuzzo were shot to death, and still others like James Meredith managed to live after violent shootings. Scores of people lost their lives so that others could regain their dignity.
Those were activists who actively worked hard and fought for the rights and living conditions of the downtrodden.
Then there are the Tea Party "activists." What is their noble activity? Dressing up in silly costumes and once a year attending rallies filled with other people dressed up in a pastiche of supposedly patriotic clothing. Their main activities are cheering the simplistic platitudes of each other and shouting down anyone who disagrees with them. Right on, brothers and sisters! Oh, and yes, they are actively organizing voters to return conservative Republicans to power. That's really activism that lays it on the line.
And what exactly does this activism activate? Not much. Their clarion call is not "do something" but in reality to do nothing. They seek no redress for the plight of immigrants; they advocate no program to help the disadvantaged; they seek nothing active to occur in relation to economic policy.
In reality, Tea Party followers are inactivists. What they want to happen is....nothing at all. They want no government programs; they wish to roll back health-care reform; they wish that the recession would just go away and think that efforts to spur the economy are too active. And, by the way, they may decry "activist" judges and any surely all of the true activists who came before them -- anti-war, green, feminist, gay and lesbian, disabled, animal rights. Not one of them has died for their cause, nor would they because they are too busy dressing up to look like Betsy Ross or George Washington.
So let's give the term "activist" a rest in regard to what should more rightly be called "followers" of the Tea Party. In fact, slavish following is what is required to be a true Tea Party patriot not any activism at all.
Follow Lennard Davis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lendavis
That said, I do not think of the Tea Party folks as activist. They are regular american that have gotten fired up about the situation we are in and have decided to become engaged in an attept to have thier voices heard.
I do find the the anger against these people from many on the left as somewhat queer.
They label them uneducated and angry rednecks that are being driven like sheep and turn right around and crow about courting the so called "young voters" (college and high schoolers of age to vote) the Dems love so much. As if these kids have any idea what the real world is.
be deamed abusive this time.
I have read a lot a articals about the views of the
tea party. I have just one point to make.
TALKING POINTS without facts to support them
are just talking points and nothing else.
Progressives wish they could be so active about ejecting dinos from their party.
Then you get to the real nitty-gritty."Second Amendment Solutions," "Restoring Constitutional Authority," :Stopping Judicial Activists," "Bringing America Back to God." "Biblical Law For a Christian Nation."
And they may not use "The N Word" in polite society, the code phrase "People Need To Know Their Place" is an effective way of saying "Obama Should Not Be President because He Is A Uppity Black Punk!"
And there it is, folks--their perfect, airheaded little world were ruined by the fact that POTUS and FLOTUS are African Americans! Where's Nathan Bedford Forrest when we need him the most?
It takes all kinds to make our electoral system run smooth.
Even the most obviously odious amongst us all.
--RKJ
"Libertarian and Conservative ideas"
Oh please! lol, you hang out here just to say such outrageous things knowing you get us laughing now stop it! LOL! :D But ok, I'll play--tell us what ideas you're referring to because honestly all I've seen is the "Party of NO" I've never seen in the time President Obama has been in office an attempt by the Repugs to meet halfway. And if you think saying that you did not want healthcare LISTEN HERE Democrats won so it was the Repugs who were required to do the compromising --did you really think we would say, "Yeah we won but we'll still do things ALL your way", you're nuts if you believe that! Go ahead--it's your turn now, 7tony8, and please, have an original thought and not some Party line from FOX News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeGJ4roFUo
That would be an amazing bit of activism in itself.
But then, all the conservatives I know tend to blow out of proportion how "bold" their thoughts are and the danger to them for expressing them. They seem to think being Christian is dangerous, being white is dangerous, and that there is a literal PC police who will cart you off to jail.
Perhaps when they attend these rallies, they actually think they are going to be attacked by police officers in full riot gear.
The only activist here is Dick Armey (aided of course by the Koch brothers as we now know) who actively worked to get the old white bigot base of the Republican party out of their La-Z-Boys and out waving some misspelled signs to create an illusion of a new party. It's the same old party and merely the news incarnation of the Southern Strategy. The only activist here is Dick Armey.
They're baggers. They want you to keep your "socialist hands offa their Medicare!" and are for small government - that will interfere with any pet cause that they approve of. They're ignorant. Okay I'll give them that. They're actively ignorant.
And they're baggers.
So please, enlighten us.
Get the Palestinians an actual homeland they can live on (and no, not by destroying Israel) so that way we can get the rest of the middle east to quit using them to cover up their own issues at home.
These will take hard core negotiation, briberies, work, and sweat and tears but it can be done. (For instance, Hamas may have a bunch of terrorists but they also have effective administrators, work with that part to get them to stomp out the part you dislike.) Sometimes you make compromises but if you push hard, you get what you want.
Prior to the election, Obama talked about reversing tax cuts for the rich and re-instituting the estate tax, which provided the economic incentive for the Koch brothers to invest in tea party sponsorship groups. The other party slogans and rhetoric is just that, words to stir up the followers to make them think they are fighting for their own self interest, even though in the long run they are not.
You can continue with the whole "skin" color argument -- but it's not going to change the majority of people voting for the Party of No because they know they are no racist. They just fundamentally disagree with the approach of spending money and putting their children into debt.
As for fighting for my own self-interest -- having lower taxes and a job is precisely in my own self-interest and those are two things Obama's policies are utterly failing at.
The recession is already turning around and jobs are already starting to recover, and this recession is way bigger than Bush's. Why is it that it's okay for Bush to take three years to recover jobs in a barely there recession, but it's "failure" if Obama doesn't recover jobs 100% in just two years in a recession that was on the brink of depression?
Makes no sense.
The modern tea party protest meme arose out of the Ron Paul nomination campaign, when his supporters staged rallies across the US on the December 16, 2007 the anniversary of the original Boston tea party. These rallies occurred before Obama had even secured the democrat party nomination.
Video proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LsnbN7d-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvGS12EoZUE