I was vaguely interested in their ideas when the group first surfaced as a third party, more because I am not a huge fan of only having two parties in power. A friend from many years ago surfaced as one of the leaders of the party in the area, which got me even more interested. Then I asked him what his solutions were, because he sure liked to bitch a lot about what was wrong, and he didn’t have much aside from generalities about taxes being bad and the free market being good. Um, okay. Them he started targeting the Republican clubs in the area to gather support, and I tuned out because what I was hearing was bitter Pubbie-speak, and no real solutions.
Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated.
An article by that bastion of conservative journalism, The New York Times.
I’m not conservative at all, but I always love being surprised by data. Maybe the media tends to show the worst of the worst of the Tea Party movement. This poll makes members seem more or less normal, just very conservative.
Of course, the poll doesn’t indicate what population was polled… maybe Tea Party members who read the New York Times/CBS News are more likely to be educated/wealthy.
I’m biased… if freely admit it. The last time I attended church with any sort of regularity was in Kansas City. One of the only positive things about that place was what Emmanuel Cleaver was trying to accomplish in a black community that had little to no positive vibes and a police force that actively targeted it. While in college here in the ATL i worked for John Lewis as a volunteer then as an intern.
Hence… when John Lewis was called a nigger and Emmanuel Cleaver was spit on… I’m pretty much done with your movement. I can see the arguments down the pike about not letting a couple of nuts symbolize an entire movement etc etc… but these look to me to be the same crowd that called the President a monkey when he was ahead prior to the election. Bigotry by yourself… or in a crowd is what it is. Not all tea=party members qualify… but I point out that these bigots found themselves comfortable in your presence… speaks volumes…
Well, according to wierdaaron’s badge database, we have at least three tea party members:
These people obviously are out of the closet, but there’s evidence that we have some tea partiers. Unless they’re doing it ironically, in which case I’ve got nothing.
I guess not many of you use the badger script, I always have a WTF moment when I read one of Sam Stone posts. A Canadian tea partier?
This.
Whenever I hear of infighting between the parties, instead of bipartisanship cooperation (the main reason I liked Obama in the first place), I always picture Osama bin Laden sitting in a cave (no, not the cave he probably is sitting in in real life, I’m talking James Bond villian cave) wringing his hands and saying “good … good”.
I’d love to, but don’t know much about implementation, et al. (Yes, I use FF and Greasemonkey). I’m thinking that, plus low visibility (as opposed to Arnold’s picture thread), is the reason why so few use it.
Thread hijack I know, but can you inform me somewhere how to use it?
Young liberals, old liberals, middle aged liberals, male liberals, female liberals, gay liberals, straight liberals, American liberals, Chinese liberals, Canadian liberals, Indian liberals, Spanish liberals, Japanese liberals, liberal butchers, liberal bakers, liberal engineers…etc, etc. We run the gamut from A to B.
Not complaining, just observing.
Regards,
Shodan
Paranoia much?
I’m not a tea partier at all, but I suspect there are more than a few like me, who keep their politics completely off the boards for whatever reason. I don’t know that I’ve ever made a political comment here. For me, it’s simply because I find arguing politics mind-numbingly tedious and boring and generally a huge waste of time.
Hardly at all. “The SDMB slants left” is pretty much like “most of the US media slants left” - you have to be pretty far gone in denial to think that.
Regards,
Shodan
The Tea Party is like Al-Qaeda*. It’s the newest cool kid on the block, so a bunch of unaffiliated groups with common values decide to grab the label and stick it to themselves. These groups are still wildly different though. So in a way, you can’t really point to anyone and say “That’s the Tea Party”, you have to look at the core values that they claim to share and look at each group separately. You can only say “This group is very TPish, this group is not very TPish.”
So what are those values, and do I share them?
Small government - check.
Lower taxes - check.
Anti-handout - check.
So I guess I’m a Tea Partier. I don’t buy into the SDMB’s smear campaign against this group. Everything unbiased that I’ve read points to them being normal, everyday people. So count me in.
*If I said “Sex is like pizza. Even when bad, it’s good.”, you wouldn’t reply “But sex doesn’t have crust!” would you? No, because that’s not the comparison I made. I never said TPers are terrorists, islamic, etc.
This mkes no sense, since they didn’t care when Bush grew government spending and power beyond any POTUS in recent history, and since Obama is a tax cutter.
I don’t know what you mean by “anti-handout,” but Bush was pretty big on corprate welfare and tax giveaways to the rich. What Obama “handouts” do the teabaggers oppose, and why didn’t they care when Bush was doing all the things they claim to hate?
Um, the populace slants left, hence a democratic president, house, senate. That the board reflects that isn’t actually bias. And doesn’t change that the board is diverse.
No, but it does have tomato sauce.
And pepperoni slices.
Mmmm, I’m getting hungry.
And horny.
I’m not a Tea-Partier, but I’m sympathetic to their goals. I’m moderately conservative on social issues, but I’m very much against Big Government.
The hostility in modern politics is disquieting, but what really turns my stomache is how liberals seem to have a deep-seated need to portray their opponents as a bunch of morons. You see it constantly on this board. It’s hard to be civil with someone who talks about you like you just wandered out of a Special Ed class.
We did. You don’t think his approval rating was at 25% just due to democrats, do you?
Exactly. That’s a pure strawman attack.
Where were the rallies?
So if the SDMB reflects the populace, it should be majority Republican in years where Congress and the White House were Republican. And a majority of Dopers would have voted for Bush in 2004.
Only, not.
Enjoy your denial fest.
Regards,
Shodan
Is that the unified Jewish/Palestinian state that many have hoped for?