Dear Thomas Friedman. . . .

[Foxfyre]

Note to Mods: It's okay with Erickson to use his letter in its entirety.

Note to everybody: I am becoming increasingly annoyed by pundits and commentators who don't do their research or even check out the facts before repeating the 'talking point' lines about who does or does not have any ideas or plan for whatever.

Which is why I especially appreciated Erickson taking Friedman to task for not only being a jerk, but for the blatant dishonesty and lack of scholarship in Friedman's recent column:

To: Thomas Friedman
Thursday, September 30, 2010

Dear Mr. Friedman,

I read your column on Wednesday in which you wrote, “The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated protest against the growth in government and the deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam.”

I suspect you are writing more about yourself than the actual Tea Party Movement. You see, I was sitting across from you on the Acela Express last week from New York to Washington. We all saw and all heard you berate the Amtrak worker for not picking up your trash quickly enough. We all heard you complain that you were trapped in your seat because, heaven forbid, you had your tray table down and couldn’t be bothered to move your laptop to get up.

Never mind that the Amtrak employee was actually in the midst of doing his job.

We also all heard you mutter about how the Amtrak employee’s failure to pick your trash up quickly enough was a sign of why the country was disintegrating or something or other like that. Yeah, you said that too. We all heard you. You were too busy lecturing to see all the glances back and forth among those around you and the smirks caused by that last line.

Now you are rattling on about tea partiers having “no plan to restore America to greatness.”

I guess we need to go ask your buddies the Chinese for a plan. I’m sure they have one. I’m sure they can impose it by fiat. And God knows if you were in China last week, the poor train worker could have been taken out back and shot for not picking up the trash of China’s greatest American propagandist.

That’s what the Chinese do. They are, lest you forget, communists. If that surprises you, it is probably because you know less about China than you think you do and you sure as hell know nothing about the tea party movement.

Sincerely yours,

Erick Erickson

 

[Annie]

Do you have a link? I looked for it, but cannot find it.

 

[8537]

Do you have a link? I looked for it, but cannot find it.

Just go to any of the various rightwing agitprop batshit crazy websites and it's bound to show up.

 

[Annie]

Do you have a link? I looked for it, but cannot find it.

Just go to any of the various rightwing agitprop batshit crazy websites and it's bound to show up.

Doesn't work for Google advanced, but whatever.

 

[Foxfyre]

Do you have a link? I looked for it, but cannot find it.

Oh yeah. I forgot to include it. Sorry. (Though Erik Erickson of Red State is now a familiar pundit in his own right to many of us these days.)

Dear Thomas Friedman | RedState

 

[Annie]

Thank you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/opinion/29friedman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

September 28, 2010
The Tea Kettle Movement
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

There are actually two Tea Party movements in America today: one you’ve read about that is not that important and one you’ve not read about that could become really important if the right politician understood how to tap into it.

The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated protest against the growth in government and the deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam.

That is not to say that the energy behind it is not authentic (it clearly is) or that it won’t be electorally impactful (it clearly might be). But affecting elections and affecting America’s future are two different things. Based on all I’ve heard from this movement, it feels to me like it’s all steam and no engine. It has no plan to restore America to greatness.

The Tea Kettle movement can’t have a positive impact on the country because it has both misdiagnosed America’s main problem and hasn’t even offered a credible solution for the problem it has identified. How can you take a movement seriously that says it wants to cut government spending by billions of dollars but won’t identify the specific defense programs, Social Security, Medicare or other services it’s ready to cut — let alone explain how this will make us more competitive and grow the economy?

And how can you take seriously a movement that sat largely silent while the Bush administration launched two wars and a new entitlement, Medicare prescription drugs — while cutting taxes — but is now, suddenly, mad as hell about the deficit and won’t take it anymore from President Obama? Say what? Where were you folks for eight years?

The issues that upset the Tea Kettle movement — debt and bloated government — are actually symptoms of our real problem, not causes. They are symptoms of a country in a state of incremental decline and losing its competitive edge, because our politics has become just another form of sports entertainment, our Congress a forum for legalized bribery and our main lawmaking institutions divided by toxic partisanship to the point of paralysis.

The important Tea Party movement, which stretches from centrist Republicans to independents right through to centrist Democrats, understands this at a gut level and is looking for a leader with three characteristics. First, a patriot: a leader who is more interested in fighting for his country than his party. Second, a leader who persuades Americans that he or she actually has a plan not just to cut taxes or pump stimulus, but to do something much larger — to make America successful, thriving and respected again. And third, someone with the ability to lead in the face of uncertainty and not simply whine about how tough things are — a leader who believes his job is not to read the polls but to change the polls...

Friedman isn't nearly as smart as his pretensions allow, and he gets it wrong in the main, once again.

In the main, the tea parties aren't a party, they are a movement, which he does get. His problem is an inability to recognize that many that traditionally are his readers and agree with him, do agree with what the tea parties stand for. It's inconceivable to him.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Tom Friedman is kind of a left of center William Kristol, in the sense that you can't help but wonder,

who decided he was smart? Who decided we need to hear his opinion on anything?

 

[Annie]

Tom Friedman is kind of a left of center William Kristol, in the sense that you can't help but wonder,

who decided he was smart? Who decided we need to hear his opinion on anything?

Huh? What is it you are trying to say here?