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Title: Establishment Terrified by Tea Party Movement
Source:
townhall.com
URL Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/Matt ... errified_by_tea_party_movement
Published: Apr 15, 2010
Author: Matt Towery
Post Date: 2010-04-15 09:26:50 by Eric Stratton
Keywords: None
Views: 614
Comments: 54
Establishment Terrified by Tea Party Movement WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Whenever I'm in the nation's capital, it's always entertaining to see government staff, aides, lobbyists and elected officials doing their thing. They can make you feel like an outsider -- unless, that is, you were there when Ronald Reagan was sworn in, doing then as they are doing now. Then you realize that they're just younger versions of yourself. With age and experience comes a trace of wisdom. In talking to various Washington insiders over the last few days, I've noticed a predominant theme: The GOP establishment hasn't a clue how to manage the so-called Tea Party movement. And the Democrats are equally clueless as they try to profile and pigeonhole these new activists. I've been closely watching Tea Partiers since about this time last year. I noticed early on that establishment Republican elected officials have been letting the Tea Party march right on past. These officeholders are afraid they'll be seen as radical if they associate with the protest movement. Conventional Washington wisdom seems to have it that moderate, swing voters in the fall general elections will turn away from the GOP if the party ends up with nominees for Congress who are either self-identified as Tea Partiers or are somehow associated with them. Consider this oddity: Sen. John McCain has long been cold-shouldered by the GOP establishment, which has thought of him as too liberal for the party's taste. Now he is suddenly viewed as a part of that very establishment, which is itself now deemed too liberal. Believe me when I tell you that the very notion of a spontaneous conservative grassroots movement that they can't get a handle on has this town's Republican operatives baffled. The Democrats are even more in the dark. They have persuaded themselves that the Tea Party crowd is one and the same with the so-called "birthers," who believe President Obama was not born in the United States and should not be eligible to serve as president. The Democrats welcome the Tea Party because they believe it will divide the GOP and bring to the fore weaker and less experienced Republican candidates in November. Either that, they believe, or it will cause a big chunk of disenchanted Republican voters -- either establishment or Tea Party -- to sit out this year's general election altogether. I love Washington -- it's in my blood. But I've been here so many times that I've come to see clearly that the capital city is one whose inhabitants talk almost exclusively among and about themselves. That was true when I was here in the 1980s and 1990s, it's true now, and it was probably true in early post-colonial days. Where else on earth do men still wear neckties to gatherings on Sunday night? It's an insulated company town that's only interested in the gossip and inside perspectives of the "company" -- politics and government. What will become of the Tea Party movement? I suspect that in some cases, there will be Tea Party Republicans who will run against and clean the clocks of their Republican primary opponents. There will be other cases in which the Tea Party candidates will lose badly, either because they are little more than well-meaning amateurs or because their establishment GOP opponents have enough conservative bona fides to satisfy conservative voters. Either way, the Tea Party will not split the GOP this year. The movement, though not as large as some like to portray it, is still a powerful force. The Tea Party is an indication of how heavy the voter turnout on the Republican side likely will be in November, regardless of who the GOP nominee might be for a given office. I keep reading media reports that try to portray some Tea Partiers as racist. They keep insisting that alleged racial slurs were hurled at certain members of Congress when the health care bill was being considered. Much media, like many Beltway insiders, are characterizing as a racist-inspired fringe element what is in fact a loud manifestation of anger and fear over taxes, government growth, and possible abridgements of future liberty and security. I don't buy it. The Tea Party may or may not be substantial enough to transform the GOP into a more conservative party. But my polling tells this: We are likely to see Republican primaries this year that will be contested as never before. And that means there could be an avalanche of Americans voting Republican in November. The Tea Party effort is both symbolic and a catalyst. It will end up spurring a rush of voter intensity the GOP hasn't seen since 1994. Oh, yes, I liked this town a lot in those days. Poster Comment: Yeah, that's it, elections will change things. /s
Matt Towery
Thursday, April 15, 2010
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 41.
#6. To: Eric Stratton (#0)
"Tea Party movement" is nothing but the "2 Party System" only a little mor angry. Two Party System members going to vote:
Where did you people ever get the idea that this was about voting? The only voting I hear advocated is voting for independent, non-party candidates, and that's only as a sidebar. The only people I hear screaming "go vote" are those trying, unsuccessfully, to insinuate themselves in the movement. The only people who buy this bullshit are the progressives/statists and the "lose at all costs" supposed liberty people on the internet. The liberty movement, or what is left of it, is so goddamned paranoid that it lashes out at foes and friends alike these days. You people seem dead set intent on losing. Do nothing, trust nobody, don't act, be quiet, accept fate, hunker down and polish your guns in your basement waiting for WW3; those are the messages I hear echoed more often than not these days from so called "pro freedom" people on the internet. You should be ashamed of yourselves, even pretending to advocate for human freedom.
The liberty movement, or what is left of it, is so goddamned paranoid that it lashes out at foes and friends alike these days. You people seem dead set intent on losing. Do nothing, trust nobody, don't act, be quiet, accept fate, hunker down and polish your guns in your basement waiting for WW3; those are the messages I hear echoed more often than not these days from so called "pro freedom" people on the internet. You should be ashamed of yourselves, even pretending to advocate for human freedom. The Tea Party may be a friend of liberty where you live, but in Springfield, MO they are backing Roy Blunt for Senator. Roy Blunt, the number three man in the House during the Bush Administration. Roy Blunt, a co-author of the free meds for geezers legislation. Roy Blunt, a man who not only voted in favor of EVERY piece of Republican big government legislation put in front of him, but as the number three man, he helped ram it down our throats. Roy Blunt, a hard core Zionist and Israeli-firster, and finally, Roy Blunt, one of the men named by Sibel Edmonds as taking bribe money from from Turkey in exchange for political favors. IMHO, any group that actively pushes for this man to be a Senator is no friend of freedom. I realize that the Tea Party is a non-centralized organization which may not have been co-opted everywhere by republican statists, but I for one will have nothing to do with them on a local level. They are an enemy of freedom loving Americans as far as I'm concerned.
Then organize your own and invite like minded people. That's the beauty of this. There is no central, controlling authority, as you point out. Up here in central Ohio, the events have been strongly libertarian and highly anti-republican/anti-democrat. When "who is John Galt" and "Atlas needs to shrug" signs are in prominence, that's the sign of a *friend* of liberty in my view. The key is, if you don't like it, change it. Expecting leaders/fuhrers to fulfill your wishes is the antithesis of what's going on.
deleted
And yet again... This isn't about the "polls". It's a process. I keep trying to communicate this to you and you keep not hearing what I'm saying. Of course the polls are futile, of course voting is futile, but you and I and others here also started out our political journey, most likely, being mad and thinking we could make a difference at the polls. It took, probably, many years and lots of futility to finally see that the system is a dead parrot, but all through we got madder and madder, refined our thought and many of us ended up just a hair shy of anarcho-capitalist(ish). These people are just starting this, now, this year. Of course they haven't come to the conclusions that you seem to feel they needed to use as a starting point (which would be an impossibility). But they have gotten angry, and their anger is at government, and more specifically, at how the government seems to be wholly at odds with a notion of liberty they've just rediscovered. Give them time, let them learn, bump their knees, get scraped up a bit. They'll harden just like the rest of us. Things are never "too late" except when talking about nuclear war. A government that wouldn't hesitate to use violence on us does so at its own risk because it is sorely outgunned by us "commoners", and sometime soon the anti-government protesters will realize this (assuming violence is used against them in any real capacity). If you only see defeat at the onset, why bother advocating liberty at all? To me this is the most hopeful sign of Americanism reasserting itself I've seen in my life, because I'm taking a long range view of things. The progressives/commies needed almost a century of constant evil to get where they are today. Don't expect everybody to know everything and come to every conclusion you feel they should in the span of a year or two. Patience.
This is an excellent point, SoL, and if anyone recalls life in the early-mid- late 60s, that can relate to your "process" comment. I realize that there were countless events that have destroyed and debased our culture and nation, but it was during this period that a process began that led to the group of people that now inhabit the most upper levels of government.
Well, I'm glad I'm finally speaking in a way that gets my point across. Defeatism was never my forte. I get mad, even borderline depressed sometimes, but there's always something there that says don't give up. I doubt seriously that anybody is going to follow me down the path of non-compliance today right now, but in a few years, who knows? Political maturity takes time, regardless of the political views being talked about. That they're even at the wailing-birth stage of liberty now is a wonder, given how thoroughly the progressive/socialist/fascist message has been drummed into our heads since at least the 1930's. If a person can't see hope in that, then they're hopeless. They still have a lot of assumptions to shake off, and carry a lot of their former political baggage, yes, but they seem to be willing to look at new ideas now, and the ideas they seem to have taken a shine to are mostly little "L" libertarian in nature. Me, I'm impressed, happy and inspired. Good on them. Our job at this point is to help them down the path, in my view. What we shouldn't be doing is sneering at them and belittling them.
#42. To: SonOfLiberty (#41)
Any group that is despised and vilified by the Left should be congratulated on general principle.
Our job at this point is to help them down the path ???
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#8. To: Itistoolate (#6)
#25. To: SonOfLiberty (#8)
#27. To: F.A. Hayek Fan (#25)
#30. To: SonOfLiberty, All (#27)
#37. To: Eric Stratton (#30)
#39. To: SonOfLiberty (#37)
This isn't about the "polls". It's a process
#41. To: Jethro Tull (#39)
Replies to Comment # 41. Our job at this point is to help them down the path, in my view
#43. To: SonOfLiberty (#41)
The education period is over.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 41.