Remember the Tea Party, and what happened to it?
I sure do.
And after all the shouting died, the propaganda against the Tea Party remains because it worked.
And events like that are, as they say, how you get Trump.
Which is the point made here:
I still hear the Tea Party invoked by liberal friends as an example of extremism, despite how calm and collected they were. So few of them even knew that it started in Chicago, on the trading floor, with people upset that they were forced to subsidize failure. It was hopeful and enthusiastic, open to anyone – and the Left treated it like the KKK merged with radical anarchists. The Republicans took their support and generally did nothing.
So, people tried something different. Romney was the ultimate nice-guy candidate. Unimpeachable ethics, a proven record of success, and moderate credentials. The Left chewed him up and spat him out. If Abe Lincoln or George Washington rose from the grave and ran for president, they would get the same treatment.
Thus, after you send in friendly folks with SUV and pickups, then a philanthropist in a limo, might as well send in a tank
That is correct as far as it goes. But I want to add two more weapons that were utilized against the Tea Party. The first was connected with the aforementioned KKK treatment; I think it is important to add that one of the main drivers of that was a specific accusation concocted and/or furthered by two Democratic members of Congress:
“A bright line was crossed on the 20th,” says Christina Botteri, a spokeswoman for the Tea Party Federation. “The left constantly attacks conservatives as racist, as dumb, as evil, but what happened on the 20th is a sitting congressman, with the full voice and credibility of the House of Representatives, accused a group of citizens with whom he philosophically disagrees of assault and then refused to help find the persons responsible. They need to help us find the people responsible or apologize for making it up.”
Conservative Web publisher Andrew Breitbart has accused the congressmen of lying about the incident in an effort to tar the tea party movement. He has gone so far as to offer a $100,000 donation to the United Negro College Fund for proof. Though it appears from footage that at least some of the congressmen’s entourage were filming the walk, no one has claimed the bounty.
“[This] is a slander with real-world repercussions,” Mr. Breitbart asserts on BigJournalism.com. Some in the mainstream press have conceded tea partyers may have a point.
No evidence ever emerged despite lots of looking and much video footage.
The second thing that happened to the Tea Party, of course, was discrimination by the IRS in order to reduce their influence during the 2012 election. That, and the fact that no one was ever prosecuted for such actions, was another reason for ire on the right.
Romney was indeed treated abominably by the Democrats and the media despite his mild-mannered and squeaky-clean profile. He was defeated, as we know, and I personally have many acquaintances who bought every single thing that was said about him. Particularly effective was the idea that he somehow was anti-woman, which they clearly believed was completely true.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It would be a long long post if I was to list all similar events that came together to create the groundswell of popular movement for someone like Trump. The Democrats richly earned him, as did the press.
“The Republicans took their support and generally did nothing.”
That’s not how I remember events. On the contrary, I’d say they “took their support and then murdered the movement in its crib.”
And Romney has demonstrated that, however wrong the specific attacks were, he deserved to be treated abominably. The character Romney has shown by repeatedly kissing up to Trump and then spitting in his face for public acclaim is worthy of nothing less.
Mike
“Establishment” Republicans did pretty much the same thing to Trump after his election. Convinced by the mainstream media uproar, they distanced themselves from Trump and allowed their majority in both houses of Congress to be squandered except for the tax cuts.
Fortunately, now the “never Trump” fraternity has shrunk and has little to no influence any more among Republican voters.
I was one of those people who actually went out, and took part in one of those early Tea Party demonstrations in Northern Virginia, sign and all; a first for usually cynical ol’ me.
It gave me some hope that ordinary citizens–the orderly crowd of whites and blacks, young people with children, and older people–not whack job “activists,”NAZIs, or members of some motorcycle gang—were getting together to protest in front of our local government center and, I noticed, as the days went by, that we were getting some national attention paid to these protests, gaining some traction.
But a comprehensive campaign by the Left, Democrats, and members of Congress, aided mightily by the MSM, very successfully “demonized” the Tea Party–as Tea Party members where caricatured and dismissed as a bunch of supposedly dangerous radicals and, as we have discovered–the IRS was simultaneously used to make it impossible for the Tea Party and similar conservative patriotic groups to organize, to get donations, and to grow in power and reach.
This was the first betrayal, in what has become a long, long list of betrayals, and a pretty unforgettable and unforgivable one at that .
The slanderous propaganda against the Tea Party partially worked because the GOPe was threatened by it and thus opposed the Tea Party.
People bought into that propaganda because it reaffirms what they want to believe. Anything that threatens the comfort zone of their beliefs is frightful to them.
Another tactic I recall the left using to defame the Tea Party was to send people into the Tea Party rallies carrying signs printed with racist or white supremacist slogans. They knew that the media would zero in on those individuals in their reporting. An incredibly dishonest tactic, but it worked.
The Tea Party and people’s reaction to it, and to Donald Trump, as well, have had a very clarifying effect, pretty clearly spotlighting those who just talk a good game, vs. those who, in contrast, are actually for the Constitution, for the rule of law, for honesty, for actual debate on the facts and the merits of various issues, proposals, and actions, who are for true citizen participation in governing themselves, and, then, again in contrast, who is for holding on to power at any cost, and for the use of lies, blunt force, and deception against those who might take their power away from them, who are their enemies and to be crushed.
I never realized just how much Romney is/was like McCain. It’s really come out in the last week.
Another point to consider about the “Tea Party” was that some people saw the opportunity to use the name,interest, and lack of an organization to collect money in the name of the Tea Party. So some people donated money instead of time and got burned.
Another point is some people decided to run for a national office proclaiming that they were part of the Tea Party Section of the Republican Party. Some of those people advanced to the general election without being properly vetted. So, the press did their job and pointed out the wackiness of some of the people. I vaguely remember someone in MA that was really crazy. So, the crazy people essentially made the Rs nervous about anyone who stated they were part of the Tea Party.
I think the people who bought into the concept of the Tea Party still exist out there and I think they have merged in to the MAGA/Trump portion of the party. The people tried to be nice and got slammed, so they are now responding to the Mack Truck approach of Trump.
Dwaz:
I think Romney has become bitter, and was personally hurt by being humiliated by Trump over the Secretary of State thing. He is able to rationalize his own animus and actions to himself by believing that he is actually taking the high road. In that last part, he is joined by all the NeverTrumpers, who believe themselves to be a noble minority.
Romney is a gentleman, and that’s another thing he can’t stand about Trump (who is no gentleman). Romney is also somewhat naive, IMHO, and that naivete was his downfall during his own run for the presidency. He could not believe what was happening to him at the hands of Candy Crowley during that debate, and it blindsided him and in his naivete and gentlemanliness he was unable to fight back effectively. He is really pretty much the antithesis of Trump; oil and water.
I was an early Tea Party person as was my wife. We voted for Trump, our Tea Party Candidate. The Tea Party lives, just not above ground. But we vote, for now that is.
I think the old school civil rights leaders, who fought that battle when it wasn’t sure and the consequences could be lethal, deserve respect.
But when the Congressional Black Caucus lied and said Tea Partiers had called them the n-word, especially John Lewis, they lost me. It was clear they had become cheap, hack, race hustlers.
“John Lewis: Civil Rights Icon … And A Liar.”
https://www.redstate.com/diary/martin_a_knight/2010/03/23/john-lewis-civil-rights-icon-and-a-liar/
Anyone in the MSM who wrote/talked about Ted “the swimmer” Kennedy, usually got around to referring to/praising him as the “Lion of the Senate,” while quite often, in that story, never bringing up the “unpleasantness” of Chappaquiddick.
John Lewis–who was one of the black Democrats who falsely claimed–dispute ubiquitous video cameras and no evidence having ever been found–that people had hurled racial slurs against him and other black members of Congress, as they were taking a walk–a victory lap–in front of the U.S. Capitol building in celebration after the passage of Obamacare–is almost always described as being a “Civil Rights Icon. ”
Any discussion of John McCain always came around to his military service and his having been a POW who had been tortured, and what an “honorable man” he was. Yet, we all saw how–despite him campaigning on it for years, and promising to vote for the repeal of Obamacare–McCain very dramatically and vengefully cast the decisive no vote that doomed that repeal.
Had he been the Republican candidate, I might have voted for Romney who, up until recently, appeared to be a very moral, upright, a “good guy,” but who, by his actions and words, now stands revealed as far from that; his hatred of Trump overwhelming him.
Look very carefully at how people in politics are characterized, and try to see beyond the public persona that the MSM pushes–and wants you to believe in–for each one of them.
If I recall, the black caucus members walked thru a bunch of tea party protesters and later claimed they had been called Niger and spit on. Brietbart offered a reward for proof of this, but the reward was never claimed. Amazingly, with all those reporters and others taking pictures of this event, no one had a video of the alleged name calling and spitting.
I’ve wondered if the Tea Party was hurt by lack of visible leadership. Once the media geared up its customary invective, the Tea Party had no single powerful speaker to challenge the slanders. Breitbart was certainly supportive and important, but he wasn’t the visible face of the Party, someone the larger public could identify with and value.
One thing I remember about the Tea Party was the appeal of it being a true grassroots movement. Of course, the Left said that it was an astroturf movement, but that’s what they tended to grow.
And any attempt to try to organize as a group was delayed by the IRS.
Remember the Tea Party? Hell yes. And it’s blood cries out to us from the ground!
There was an article that was written by a conservative publication during the 2016 election that neatly summarized things, “Nobody cares, LOL”. All the hysterics by the Democrats now fall on deaf years. They simply overplayed their hand, especially with Romney. The other thing is that too many Republicans have been called racist, KKK, Hitler, Nazi etc leading to only one response to Democrat vituperativeness, “nobody cares, lol”.
No mystery here.
From 2016…the GOP and lobbyists openly bragged about how they betrayed and bleed the Tea Party dry for profit.
“How We Killed the Tea Party”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/tea-party-pacs-ideas-death-214164
Here’s a related new article about how the gentlemanly faction of the GOP, the GOPe, can no longer win.
https://spectator.us/romney-republicanism-never-win/
I believe Romney is becoming the leader, and the voice, of that GOPe “good losers” wing. And he wants to be that kind of leader, plus gets lots of good Dem media press. Any elected Rep in the Senate or the House, who speaks badly of a Rep President gets good Dem press.
The lack of Tea Party leadership was not as bad as having Reps who got elected with low tax support, then fail to deliver.
Before the Tea Party were bloggers supporting the PorkBusters, see this 2006 (under Bush) https://www.hoover.org/research/porkbusters
Note that “low spending” Republicanism is currently dead. The EU is running deficits and low interest, to get growth – often negative interest. So is Japan. And China has low interest. So it has been economically safe for the US to have high gov’t spending of fiat money, essentially like printing money by adding $$ onto various accounts. Much of that added money is going into asset price inflation, for houses and stocks; much of it is being invested in actual wealth creating new projects and new businesses, and new jobs.
Trump did not campaign on, and has not produced much, deficit reduction – of reducing the amount spent by US federal gov’t. There were record amounts of taxes collected, but even larger amounts spent.
Why not have 0 taxes and just have the gov’t print money? “Hyperinflation” is the answer, but that only happens when there is some other currency, or gold or something of value that can be used instead of money. Zimbabweans, and now Venezuelans, can use US $. The US now has low cost of living inflation increases, but high asset price inflation. It’s not clear what that means – our economy has moved outside of “economic history”. That means we don’t know.
I remember the Tea Party, support the Tea Party, and believe that the vast majority, 98% or so, of Tea Party supporters are also Trump supporters. They still have a news site:
https://ussanews.com/News1/
The Tea Party’s Front Page – an alternative to Breitbart that I like more.
Tho I’m moving more towards The Epoch Times.
Lots of losing has made many, probably most, Tea Party supporters want to support a winner, more than be a good loser.
The Dems, too, will change — if they lose enough. 2018, they won, so it’s not a surprise that lies and Trump hate continues. Only when lies and Trump hate / Rep hate mean they lose, will they change.
They should change, they’re terrible.
We should help them change, by first helping them lose.
We should help them change, by first helping them lose. –Tom Grey
Or as Gen. George S. Patton said:
No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making some other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
Of course I only mean that figuratively.
“Only when lies and Trump hate / Rep hate mean they lose, will they change.”
A nice thought. A rational, sensible assumption.
But I’m not sure about that. Not at all….
…since when all is said and done, they have their principles.
(Like the Palestinians.)
They are right. They are virtuous. They have the media on-side and protecting them with an robust, resounding never-ending echo chamber. They cannot lose.
They are invincible.
Long live the Resistance!!! (AKA, No one can force us to back away from our holy mission! No one. )
My friends, we are in a full blown big old mess of a civilization going through a change. I was at the 2009 SouthFork Ranch 4th of July Tea Party Celebration and what I saw was a whole lot of good Americans, each with their own agenda gathering together for the largest up to date Tea Party PARTY ever. Lots of good folk, all sorts of people rich and poor and plenty with different pigment of skin and background and some how we mostly went silent until we voted for Trump. Can we do it again? I certainly hope so.
Here is a transcript and video for Rick Santelli’s speech from the floor of Chicago CME on Feb. 19th, 2009. I remember watching it live. This was shortly after the Obama White House issued it’s first one or two sets of directives.
Some days prior CNBC had a lengthy interview with Warren Buffett, a vocal Obama supporter, who specifically and reluctantly repudiated all of the Obama directives except one, as bad economic policy.
Here is a section from the Santelli transcript:
Notice how the other CNBC hosts immediately start referring to it as a mob action. Also, that guy Wilbur, is Wilbur Ross a whale investor only at that time and the current Sec. of Commerce.
This was the first betrayal, in what has become a long, long list of betrayals, and a pretty unforgettable and unforgivable one at that .
Wait until you figure out the Deep State’s connections to 9/11.
Cynical? Heh. Not compared to those of us in the know.
Any discussion of John McCain always came around to his military service and his having been a POW who had been tortured, and what an “honorable man” he was. Yet, we all saw how–despite him campaigning on it for years, and promising to vote for the repeal of Obamacare–McCain very dramatically and vengefully cast the decisive no vote that doomed that repeal.
There’s another side to McCain’s military history. Let’s see if I can find out the link.
http://www.unz.com/article/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/john-mccain-was-not-hero-obituary-war-racism-sexism
It would explain why he got so angry towards Bush II due to some pac ad ran about McCain’s military record. He is way too triggered over it.
And it explains why the media constantly bolstered him as the Maverick. PillowC and company should have known how many skeletons was in this guy’s closet and how easy he would be to leverage.
Palin, for all her strengths and weaknesses, wasn’t considered nearly his equal in the “we got blackmail on you” thing.