Republic = Tea Party Nation?

*Republican = Tea Party Nation?*

I don't think these two are interchangeable, but you can do that if you want. It allows you to make a more controversial statement and get more responses.

Wow, these Tea Party people are nutjobs.

I love this part from the article: "The organization says President Obama and the Senate want to destroy the country's economy so they can remake the U.S. into a socialist country."

Ha! Obama! A socialist! Anyone who would make that claim doesn't know what socialism is.

"The government is wrecking the economy so let's wreck it more so people will KNOW it's wrecked!"

In a word, yes.

"There is no daylight between me and the tea party" - House Speaker Boehner.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52722.html

The Tea Party sponsored Republican presidential debates. 62 House Republicans are members of the Tea Party Caucus (and 4 Senators). The entire GOP leadership was calling for tea party protests during the healthcare debate. The whole outfit is funded by big Republican donors like the Koch brothers.

"“Every single candidate from the Republican side of this thing, with the possible exception of Jon Huntsman, has had to reach out to appeal to the Tea Party,” he says. “They will be an important part of the Republican base.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/12/tea-party-express-sponsors-debate-has-movement-gone-mainstream.html

I'm not trying to get responses. Please explain to me the ven diagram that is the Tea Party and the Republican Party and how they don't overlap almost exactly. Who are the Republicans who are critical of the Tea Party or who don't pander to them?

Republicans need Tea Party votes. That doesn't mean they are the same thing. If they were the same thing, we wouldn't call one group Republicans and one group the Tea Party... Just because the Tea Party falls on the right doesn't equate them to Republicans.

In primaries candidates need to appeal to the 'radical' strongly opinionated population. In the general election they appeal to the moderates. Just wait and see how the Republican nominee will distance themselves from the Tea Party come election time.

They are the tail that wags the dog. They are what the RSS is to the BJP. The most powerful Republican in Congress and all significant Presidential candidates have declared themselves sock puppets for the Tea Party. And you're not going to see a single Republican candidate repudiate this pledge.

I don't remember Obama or Hillary trying to embrace anything particularly radical.

Just like McCain did when he unleashed Sarah Palin on the world.

As David Frum said: the Republicans are afraid of their base, the Democrats hate theirs.

Well, the Palin thing was just stupid. McCain was moderate and needed the support of the far right, but Palin was not a good choice.

@SD: Obama pushed stronger on more controversial and left wing ideas in the primaries such as health care, but come general election time it was all about the economy. Also, just because Putin posted some article about Tea Party folks doing something stupid, don't assume that Republicans are going to 'embrace it'.

"As David Frum said: the Republicans are afraid of their base, the Democrats hate theirs."

I like this.

Speaking of Sarah Palin, I was wondering what was going on with Gabby Giffords. I see that she managed to come back to the House specifically to vote in favor of the debt ceiling back in August, which makes the Tea Party actions surrounding both her attempted assassination and the prevention of raising the debt ceiling a little more disgusting to me.

Health care is NOT controversial among most Americans. The majority want free health care.

I seem to recall Hillary hitting Obama on being too leftwing and his association with supposed "radicals".

And Kerry made his campaign all about how Howard Dean was the next Che Guevara.

McCain was never a moderate on anything except campaign finance reform.

As for Republicans not falling line and embracing stupidity, here's this:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/grover-norquist-would-be-proud-all-8-gop-candidates-turn-down-a-10-1-budget-deal-because-of-taxes/

Oh and there was those anti-gay boos that none of the candidates repudiated. And the cheers about letting a guy die in the ER. Mums the word on that, too.

But see, that stuff about Hillary and Kerry is not about them actually PANDERING to radicals, it's almost the opposite: smearing their opponents by saying they're too radical in order to make them look less favorable.

Oh and Republican Congressmen encouraging tea partiers to spit on and hurl abuse at pro-healthcare reform Democrats. Yes of course, they don't embrace Tea Party stupidity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhKW9liqKK0

@SD: Health care is still a controversial issue among americans even though there is a slight majority 60-40 ish that favor national health care. Of course they do. Americans don't look at where the money will come from, they just want the free health care part. Health care is a controversial issue especially among politicians. And Obama's stance on health care was far-left.

@Putin: I will disagree with you on McCain. You seem to think that if they are not a Democrat, they are far-right. This makes no sense. There are things such as moderate Republicans...gasp

Not sure why you bring up the link about the 10-1 budget deal.

Regarding the anti-gay boos. I think this was horrible, but the people on the stand need to have those votes. Once general election times come they can be more moderate because they will have the Tea Party vote locked up since no Tea Party member will vote for a Democrat.

McCain and Palin continued to take no action on cheers of objectionable natures up through about October of 2008. Well after the primaries. Palin even encouraged them.

I will agree to disagree about health care. Because that's not the main thrust of this topic.

So the Republican congressmen should apologize for the radicals that are acting on their own??

But according to you, there is no difference between the two. How come I didn't see Romney in there spitting on people and spewing racial slurs??

"There are things such as moderate Republicans...gasp"

You seem to be living in the pre-2010/pre-2008 world. Look at the election results. Where are these alleged moderate Republicans? The few that existed either went Democrat/Independent or were defeated. Even pretty conservative Republicans like Bennett in Utah lost their party nomination. The only two moderates that defy all odds and cling to power seem to be the two Maine Senators. In the House, moderate northeastern type Republicans have been completely wiped out. The two GOP House members from that region include one who is Frank Guinta, who is far-right.

"You seem to think that if they are not a Democrat, they are far-right."

No, I think Republicans with a lock-step conservative voting record, are far-right. And McCain has shown his true colors ever since Obama came to office, becoming more and more openly conservative. I mean he beat JD Hayworth in Arizona, and Arizona is a crazy-pants state. If he was a moderate he would have been destroyed.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/24/mccain-had-most-conservative-voting-record-in-2010/

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2008/04/14/82495-mccain-seen-as-independent-despite-conservative-voting-record/

"Once general election times come they can be more moderate because they will have the Tea Party vote locked up since no Tea Party member will vote for a Democrat."

No, they can't ignore the Tea Party vote in the general election. They may not vote for a Democrat, but they also may not vote for a Republican either and just sit the election out, which would spell doom for whoever (Mitt Romney) is the eventual Republican nominee.

"So the Republican congressmen should apologize for the radicals that are acting on their own??

But according to you, there is no difference between the two. How come I didn't see Romney in there spitting on people and spewing racial slurs??"

So giving a wink and nod is not tacit support to you? You have to be physically there doing the spitting, waving Gadsen flags from the balcony and saluting the nasty rallies isn't support.

Tea Partiers were quite happy to run as independents vs Republicans in 2010. They did that in upstate NY and Colorado, off the top of my head.

If anything Clinton's healthcare plan was more "far-left" than Obama's. Obama's didn't include an individual mandate while Clinton's did. But neither of these plans was anything close to socialized healthcare, so I don't get the far-left label.

Here Putin... It's easy to explain.

Tea Party is generally a *subset* of the Republican party (althouhg there are some TPers who don't fall into the Repulbican category). Just as oranges are a *subset* of citrus fruit.

I prefer a different analogy. The TPers are like mint. Mint is a subset of herb. They just happen to be a type of herb that kills off every other herb in the garden.

Kind of like the Occupiers and the noxious smells coming from their campsites are killing off downtown small businesses (part of the 99%) who can't escape the odors.

So now you're against the movement? That was quick.

False equivalency, Putin. I never said I was for the movement. I said I supported their right to have it. I suppport your right to be a socialist, but that doesn't make *me* a socialist or for socialism in general.