Nice work, Mack! Any cats still left in the bag, or have you let them all out already? Those memos were marked Top Secret! Report for self-criticism.
So who in the tea party movement actually speaks for the tea party movement, Starving Artist? I know I already asked that, but perhaps you missed it.
*Arthur: Then who is your lord?
Dennis’ Mother: We don’t have a lord.
Arthur: What?!
Dennis: I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as sort-of-executive officer for the week…
Arthur: Yes.
Dennis: … But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting…
Arthur: Yes, I see.
Dennis:… by a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs…
Arthur: [getting bored] Be quiet.
Dennis:… but by a two thirds majority, in the case of more major —
Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
Dennis’ Mother: Order, eh? Who does he think he is?*
Yeah, all in all you’re not a bad guy. And I do try to make it a policy not to insult individual posters unless they’ve insulted me first, so if you want to point to the instance where I insulted you, and if it wasn’t preceeded by an insult of some sort to me, I would be happy to apologize to you for it.
As for why my general posting style is the way it is, take a look at how squeels and SteveG1 portray conservatives in post 181. This board is full of posters saying shit like that, and no one here on this board, allegedly devoted to fighting ignorance, ever calls them down for it. So, just to make sure that no one comes to develop the belief that these guys must be right because no one refutes them, I do…and in kind. And why in kind? Because it’s utterly, uttlery impossible to have a civilized discussion about politics around here that even begins to stray from the liberal party line, with any attempt to do so immediately swamped by twenty posters shouting the most ridiculous kinds of bullshit. So just to make sure that my points get heard above the din and that liberalism and the consequences of it don’t get a free pass, I post the way I do. It isn’t a style I prefer in my personal life but it’s the one I’ve found most effective around here.
I didn’t miss it, I ignored it. And I ignored because I’ve already answered it. You presume that there must be some specific spokesman for the Tea Party and there simply isn’t. As the link I posted from Wikipedia says, the Tea Party movement “has no central leadership but is a loose affiliation of smaller local groups”. This may be frustrating to people on your side because it deprives you of someone to zero in on and criticize, but there you have it. There simply is no one person at this time who is the acknowledged leader of or spokesperson for the Tea Party.
Can I get a post number? I must have missed it.
So your claim is that the tea party has no center, no focus, no central platform?
Okay, seems to me out of simple randomness some of them must be praising Obama and criticizing Bush43, then.
Sure. Post 133.
As for the rest of your post, that’s not what I’ve claimed but it’s essentially correct. And there may well be some random members who like Obama but are unhappy with congress or vice versa. But the main point is that there is no acknowledged leader or spokesperson for the Tea Party at this time.
Scooter Pies are okay, though.
Then who, if anyone, is in a position to say what is a valid tea party position and what isn’t? If it’s nobody, then is it fair to consider them a viable political force at all?
I can’t cite that I didn’t insult you before that, but you’re welcome to look.
There is no Solomon here; no impartial referee to hold everyone to an unmavering standard of truth and integrity. And even if such a person could exist, would anyone here defer to his opinion?
No, what we’ve got is a user agreement and a line that keeps things mostly civilized. Apart from that, the best anyone can hope for is to enter the fray, fight the good fight, and take their chances.
Effective? How many people have you convinced so far?
He’s convinced me to stop reading his posts…
Well, I am shocked. SHOCKED. As shocked as I was when Clay Aiken came out of the closet.
Remember when all the press was “but they’re NOT socially conservative!”? Yeah. Just completely shocked that that was a lie. My whole worldview has been shattered.
Now imagine me making the blankest face possible.
Henceforth and forever, I shall pronounce his name Palomino.
The Diogenes story was a better one. Amber Lamps and Epic Beard was just two old, stupid losers trying to fight and mostly proving that they both are old, stupid losers
I give no apologies. You have no points, just tired lame talking points that get trotted out too often. You conveniently forget the many “conservatives” who would regularly trot out the traitor get out kick your ass bullshit, don’t you. You conveniently forget the endless instances many of us have wasted our time in the past disproving all the bullshit that gets spewed over and over again. To hell with searching and sorting and organizing the "cites again. Say whatever crazy dumb ass shit you want. I will do the same. Fight ignorance? After regurgitating the same shit year after year, and ignoring contrary cites year after year, I’m not going to bother. It’s just the same tired shit all over again.
I’m shocked too. Who could have imagined such a thing. It was like finding out water is wet.
This is my I don’t believe it face.
I think the incoherence of the Tea Party is a strength for them. They have not established an agenda, they have not established priorities. The pro-life crowd, the serious edge, doesn’t give a rats patoot about anything else. Socialized medicine? No problem if abortions are outlawed under socialized medicine. If you offered to raise all taxes by ten percent to fund an employment program for gay whales, and it included an absolute ban on abortions, they would turn out in droves.
An agenda means prioriities. A lack of cohesion means that all the Tea Partiers can feel included in the huge massive grassroots movement, so long as they don’t feel that their own special Betty Noyer is slighted, and can convince themselves that they larger movement holds that issue to be as important as they do.
It doesn’t matter so much whether or not other Tea Partiers are offended by a bozo carrying a racist Obama sign. What matters is that the carrier of that sign is allowed to believe that the people around him approve. And they will believe that, given the slightest encouragement.
You could say that of the Reform Party. Where is it now?
Then how do they expect to accomplish anything? What do they want to accomplish?!
So, according to #212 more than half of Tea Partiers are in disagreement with the Christian Right.
And, I’m not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but IIRC Obama is opposed to gay marriage. So what does that say about Dems, liberals, people who voted for him, etc?