What is the Tea Party and why does everyone hate it?

[Solace]

The contemporary political party, not the 1773 uprising.

 

[Tank]

 

[Sherry]

What is the Tea Party and why does everyone hate it?

The contemporary political party, not the 1773 uprising.

Who is "everyone"??

 

[Big Black Dog]

It depends on what the definition of "is" is. I heard a President say that one time. It worked for him.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

The contemporary political party, not the 1773 uprising.

It's a group of American citizens that wants this country to go back to what the founding fathers invisioned and that is small government, low taxes, strong national defense and personal responsibility. The liberal left hates them because they hate freedom, they believe in big government as if the government holds all the answers.

 

[California Girl]

If 'everyone hated it', it would not have had the successes it had in the last elections. Just sayin'. Those who 'hate' it are the idiots who don't understand it, or disagree with its principles. Fuck them.

 

[Baron]

The Tea Party is the best American Party, I do not hate it.

 

[JimH52]

It is a group of ultra-right republicans whose dogmatic views stand as their defining charcateristic.

 

[MajinLink]

A group of pissed ultra-conservatives mostly from the south who hate anyone tries to take their guns or money away from them. They then support crazy theories like abolishing social security, forcing the U.S. to leave the U.N., and overriding Roe vs Wade

 

[Immanuel]

I think those who hate it do so because they see it as an arm of the Republican Party. Liberals who are supposed to be the epitome of tolerance are not tolerant of anything that they disagree with and that would be anything seen to be Republican.

Then again, I'm no fan of the Tea Party either and for much the same reason. You see, I see them as an arm of the Republican Party as well, and neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party are worth spit.

Immie

 

[uscitizen]

figure it out for yourself. The vast majority of tea Partiers voted for Bush twice.

 

[American Horse]

A group of pissed ultra-conservatives mostly from the south who hate anyone tries to take their guns or money away from them. They then support crazy theories like abolishing social security, forcing the U.S. to leave the U.N., and overriding Roe vs Wade

None of that is accurate. No social issues, only economic issues have been a part of the tea party's issues. And the T-party, being more composed of seniors, has not made SS an issue except under the general rubric of not leaving our grandchildren saddled with unbearable debt. You would do better to learn of what you speak.

 

[Cain]

I was approached by a elder veteran and he advised I go if I am interested in learning about politics and such. I am very interested in joining the Tea Party, but first I am going to a meeting to research it, and checking their website for basic principles they stand on. I really hope they are a group of like-minded individuals, but I do not jump into anything blindly.

 

[MajinLink]

A group of pissed ultra-conservatives mostly from the south who hate anyone tries to take their guns or money away from them. They then support crazy theories like abolishing social security, forcing the U.S. to leave the U.N., and overriding Roe vs Wade

None of that is accurate. No social issues, only economic issues have been a part of the tea party's issues. And the T-party, being more composed of seniors, has not made SS an issue except under the general rubric of not leaving our grandchildren saddled with unbearable debt. You would do better to learn of what you speak.

that is absurd, the tea party PR team might try to promote the three lines of Fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets but it goes more than that. Even if they try to skip the subject pubic ally, there are plenty of the Tea party favorites who got elected and those who did not who supported those things and who do support downright insane social issues. By the way the Social Security trust fund has a $2.6 trillion dollar surplus, has never gave a nickel to our debt, and will have a surplus for almost the next 30 years.

 

[uscitizen]

Any party that trashes social security will lose big time at the polls.
The number of elderly is growing.

bush kept talking about SS reform but was a single bill submitted to reform SS while republicans controlled both houses?
No balls.

 

[American Horse]

A group of pissed ultra-conservatives mostly from the south who hate anyone tries to take their guns or money away from them. They then support crazy theories like abolishing social security, forcing the U.S. to leave the U.N., and overriding Roe vs Wade

None of that is accurate. No social issues, only economic issues have been a part of the tea party's issues. And the T-party, being more composed of seniors, has not made SS an issue except under the general rubric of not leaving our grandchildren saddled with unbearable debt. You would do better to learn of what you speak.

that is absurd, the tea party PR team might try to promote the three lines of Fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets but it goes more than that. Even if they try to skip the subject pubic ally, there are plenty of the Tea party favorites who got elected and those who did not who supported those things and who do support downright insane social issues. By the way the Social Security trust fund has a $2.6 trillion dollar surplus, has never gave a nickel to our debt, and will have a surplus for almost the next 30 years.

I hate to disilusion you, and it will clearly shock you to learn that folks in the TP are well aware of the SS TF, and how its funds are shunted aside into the treasury for bond obligations which constitute the Trust Fund.

Again you need to be disabused of the misinformation about TP, and their state of awareness. The status of SS is completely understood by Tp and it is not they who raise the issue; it's TP opponents who call them " lumpen fools who don't know enough to act in their own best interest. " You apparently are a part of their critics without any direct knowledge of which you speak.

So's you know, we who have paid all our working lives into SS (and Medicare since 1966) see those programs as contracts between us and the gov't for which we have paid in good faith, and expect the government's obligation to be honored as represented.

 

[midcan5]

The more history I read, the more life I lead, the more I think we are giving this group too much press. They too shall pass as all populist groups eventually disband and blend back into the various pigeon holes they came out of. Is the tea party any different from say the Greeks protesting a change in their benefits? The privileged, even when the privilege is small, don't appreciate any changes to the status quo.

PS They are not a party, they are republicans, mostly white, and hopefully, in their lives in this free and great nation, done more than just whine. Whining is just too easy.

But if you interested in various perspectives may I suggest the following. LOL

http://www.usmessageboard.com/tea-party/116607-would-the-tea-party-exist.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/tea-party/131004-the-tea-party-and-the-kkk.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/tea-party/134673-tea-party-anarchists.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/tea-party/114928-tea-party-and-sympathizers-please-read.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/tea-party/121511-the-very-angry-tea-party.html


"North Carolina Republicans are circulating court documents that suggest a far-right Tea-Party-backed congressional candidate claimed to be the Messiah, tried to raise his stepfather from the dead, believed God would drop a 1,000-mile high pyramid as the New Jerusalem on Greenland, and found the Ark of the Covenant in Arizona." GOPers Try To Derail Tea Party Favorite | TPMMuckraker


"Koch’s detractors also like to point out the irony of the so-called grassroots tea-party movement’s being funded by a billionaire. Koch’s real motives, they say, are self-serving. In April, Fang posted a dossier on Koch that attributes to his groups a decades-long pattern of “Astroturfing”—funding movements designed to look grassroots, but which in fact represent corporate interests. Richard Fink insists that Koch’s political activity is about principles, not money. “I view David as a courageous American who has a set of beliefs that he’s willing to support consistently over time despite all the flak he gets,” Fink says. “Very few people would do that.”" How Oil Heir and New York Arts Patron David Koch Became the Tea Party's Wallet -- New York Magazine


"Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters - the black protesters - spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose." Cosmic Navel Lint: "Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" - Tim Wise


"The muddled Tea Party version of history is more than wrong and fraudulent. It's offensive. Calling Obama a tyrant, a communist, or a fascist is deeply offensive to all the real victims of tyranny, the real victims of communism and fascism. The tens of millions murdered. It trivializes such suffering inexcusably for the T.P.ers to claim that they are suffering from similar oppression because they might have their taxes raised or be subject to demonic "federal regulation."" Don't ignore the Tea Party's toxic take on history. - By Ron Rosenbaum - Slate Magazine


"Lastly and most importantly, I think the Tea Baggers are really our canary in the mine that we are entering our late empire period. Crisis and decline in such situations does not lead to discrediting the failed ideologies that caused the given crisis, but rather the belief that we are failing because we were not faithful enough to those ideals. (Think of the crisis in Islamic world and the rise of fundamentalism.)" Joe Bageant: Tea Baggers are our canary in the coal mine