# Whence the Tea Party... **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 1, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707 "2010-10-01T11:12:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/41 "2010-10-02T22:53:56Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Oh, please! Some of 'em lie just like some of any other group lies. (How did you feel about the Clintons, btw?) Some are bigots just like some of any other group are bigots. Some can’t spell (‘morans’) just like some of any group can’t spell. There have been many occasions around here where I’ve seen posts and OP’s with improperly spelled words and I don’t remember you or any of the other posters to this thread concluding therefore than they are idiots. Let’s be clear about something: YOU started a thread, in which YOU posted a series of lies, and then YOU linked to a video which you called a cite. Except, you don’t believe what you did was wrong, to you the ends justifies the means. As you say, other people lie. The Clintons lied. Obama lied. So the Tea Party might as well lie, as long as it gets them in power. So then after posting a video and series of lies you said: > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Not that I expect any of this will gain any kind of traction around here, but in my opinion it goes a long way toward answering questions like why Sarah Palin is so popular despite her inexperience, what gave rise to the Tea Party, and why the electorate is so angry. So what you’re saying is that the electorate is angry because people keep lying to them. Did you see the video clips I posted? They show Hannity flat out lying to his viewers. Not that it will have any traction on YOU. Hannity did was he felt was right, isn’t that how it goes when it’s a conservative that is a lying and deceitful asshole? Once again, you’ve proven the exact opposite of what you set out to do. You posted a series of lies, and shown us that the Tea Party is all about lies. They’ll do what ever it takes to regain power. So I thank you, for being dumb enough to post something so stupid. And hopefully people will realize that the Tea Party is nothing but lies to serve their goals. kudos. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > One thing we do know about the Tea Party is that as a group they are better educated and wealthier than the general population. This tells me they are likely smarter than the general population too. If that’s true, why do they so easily fall for such stupid lies? And why do they know so little about economics and history? > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Listen to Reagan in the clip I posted and you’ll find out a great deal about what Tea Party members and other conservatives are concerned and angry about where it comes to the direction this country has been headed. Again, the clip you showed was full of lies. You should be ashamed to have posted that. It did not support your position, he showed that you are either stupid or deceitful. Why should we believe anything else you have to say? > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > > [@Saint Cad](#): > > > > The problem is that TPartiers are also ultra social-conservatives and rather than trying to get some rationality into the system, it has been hijacked by PalinBeck to pull the Republicans to the right rather than towards the center where it should be. > > I have come disagree with the idea that Republicans and conservatives should seek a centrist position. The left in this country, being never satisfied, is always agitating for change, and this constant pressure for leftward movement always seems to acheive some measure of success. Thus the country, thanks largely to Democratic congresses over the last 80 years or so - which only a small percentage of the country ever approves of - has been moving inexorably to the left, and dragging centrists and Republicans along with it. (As an example of this leftward drift, look at how few Republican candidates these days take a strong stand against abortion. Without getting into the question of whether abortion itself is right or wrong, the fact is that it’s become so well ingrained and over such a long period of time, that most people in the U.S. have come to accept it as a fact of life. Therefore, you find many fewer Republican candidates taking a strong stand against abortion anymore. And this is but one example of what I mean by the leftward drift the country has taken.) > > Thus, to be a centrist means that you are constantly shifting your position to the left. Needless to say, if you’re a conservative this is not a good thing to have happen. So when I see people extolling the virtues of a centrist position politically, I see them extolling the virtues of someone whose position is constantly moving to the left. Thus I’m in agreement with Rush Limbaugh (on this particular issue) when he says that we need to oppose Obama and the Congress and get back to the basic, fundamental Repubicanism. The way to get the country to run the way we as conservatives think it should be run is not to keep going along part way with what the Democrats are always pushing to do. Yup, and thus ends the great Tea Party experiment. Start with people angry about the economy, and people legitimately bothered by how government fucked up, then bring it all back to abortion. At this point, I actually feel sorry for you. Government is only going to get bigger, taxes are only going to get higher, black people share your water fountains, women get to vote, gays will soon be able to marry turtles. Life sure sucks for conservatives. Have a beer, listen to some Elton John, watch your grand children grow up. You really don’t need to be that concerned about what other people do. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/42 "2010-10-02T22:55:39Z")
> [@A question for those who lean left...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-lean-left/555287/62): > > **Starving Artist** today: > > > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > > > One thing we do know about the Tea Party is that as a group they are better educated and wealthier than the general population. This tells me they are likely smarter than the general population too. > > **Starving Artist** three days ago: > > > [@A question for those who lean left...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-lean-left/555287/62): > > > > …I would point out, **Brain Glutton** , that merely attending college is not any kind of reliable measure of innate intelligence, and intelligence alone is not any kind of measure of judgement, wisdom, self-discipline and things like that. Dude, you totally took his statement out of context. What he was trying to say was that he’s right and you’re wrong. Why are you attacking him?! I don’t see you attacking other people that post stupid shit. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/43 "2010-10-02T23:23:33Z")
Why show quotes from three days ago, we can use much more recent stuff: > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Hare unquestionably and defiantly stated his lack of concern for the Constitution in drafting legislation because he considered his actions and his beliefs morally superior to it, etc., etc., etc. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > you’ll find that the Tea Party in general is fed up with the direction the country is headed, which includes spending, government redistribution of wealth, and the government overreaching its proper role and infringing upon our Constitutionally mandated freedoms. Okay, so here **Starving Artist** believes very strongly in upholding the constitution and its mandated freedoms. He first lied about what Hare said, and then explains further that Hare is a bad person because he is unconcerned about the constitution. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > As an example of this leftward drift, look at how few Republican candidates these days take a strong stand against abortion. Abortion is constitutionally protected. It’s as much a right as gun ownership. So should republicans disregard the constitution, and speak out against a mandated freedom? Thus angering conservatives. Or should they accept abortion, allowing society to slide to the left, thus angering conservatives. Which is it? Abortion or the constitution? ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/44 "2010-10-02T23:44:53Z")
[Here](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904) is a much better description of where the Tea Party came from and what it represents. > [@Matt Taibbi](#): > > Of course, the fact that we’re even sitting here two years after Bush talking about a GOP comeback is a profound testament to two things: One, the American voter’s unmatched ability to forget what happened to him 10 seconds ago, and two, the Republican Party’s incredible recuperative skill and bureaucratic ingenuity. > > This is a party that in 2008 was not just beaten but obliterated, with nearly every one of its recognizable leaders reduced to historical-footnote status and pinned with blame for some ghastly political catastrophe. There were literally no healthy bodies left on the bench, but the Republicans managed to get back in the game anyway by plucking an assortment of nativist freaks, village idiots and Internet Hitlers out of thin air and training them into a giant ball of incoherent resentment just in time for the 2010 midterms. > > They returned to prominence by outdoing Barack Obama at his own game: turning out masses of energized and disciplined supporters on the streets and overwhelming the ballot box with sheer enthusiasm. But the best line: > [@](#): > > Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it’s going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I’ve concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They’re full of shit. All of them. Which pretty much sums it all up. Now that it will have any traction, but it goes a long way to answering the questions I had about the movement. > [@](#): > > At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry’s medals and Barack Obama’s Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin. They’re full of shit, each and every one of them. It is a party of lies, that uses manipulation and deceit to convince gullible morans to vote Republican again. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/45 "2010-10-03T21:52:24Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > … > > Fuck, the worst thing about this, is that you’re too fucking lazy to find real quotes. > > You should be ashamed. I know you’re not, but you should be. It seems clear that to you the ends justifies the means. > > I’d be more annoyed but I long ago wrote you off as a victim of Poe’s Law, there is no way anyone is legitimately that stupid and partisan. > > … > [@emacknight](#): > > Holy fuck, you really might actually be that stupid and partisan. > > [snip] > > You have so perfectly shown us where the Tea Party came from–idiots. Really fucking stupid people that believe shit like death panels, and [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=576939) made up story about Kerry and Bush. … **emacknight** , you’re coming very close to personal insults here. Please avoid crossing that line. Thanks, **twicster** , for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/46 "2010-10-03T23:41:32Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > > Thanks **Crackrat** , for posting the context of the quotes that\*\* Starving Artist\*\* so thoughtfully cut and pasted for us. > > > > Once again, **Starving Artist** proves to be an embarrassment for reasonable conservatives out there. > > > > Will you never learn to actually do some research before cutting and pasting from an idiot blog? > > I have to confess I expected a somewhat livelier thread this, but c’est la vie. 🆒 > > I take it from most of the responses so far that msot of you are taking the position that fleshing out the quotes has actually changed their meaning in a substantial way? Or that quoting remarks from private citizens or office-holder wannabe’s cancels out remarks by congressional lawmakers, the Speaker of the House and the President? So you think altering quotes for your own benefit is okay. But over in [this thread about Sarah Palin](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12974418&postcount=30) you take offense to the same practice. > [@Is it possible I've missed out on this Palin person?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-ive-missed-out-on-this-palin-person/555283/30): > > How’s about that quote in context, chum: > > snip > > So, as anyone can see, the way the left has portrayed her comment - which is allegedly that Alaska’s proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience - is every bit as misleading and dishonest as anything Rush Limbaugh ever says. Can we conclude that what you did was misleading and dishonest? BTW did you watch the clip I posted? ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/47 "2010-10-03T23:43:50Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > **emacknight** , you’re coming very close to personal insults here. Please avoid crossing that line. > > Thanks, > > **twicster** , for the SDMB Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/48 "2010-10-04T00:04:50Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > So you think altering quotes for your own benefit is okay. Let me ask you this: when you guys post out of context snippets by Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin or whoever on the conservative side, are you “altering quotes”? If so, it’s such a common practice around here that it hardly deserves mention. Still, I altered nothing. I posted the comments verbatim from the clip I linked to, for the reasons I stated above. And IMO none of the completed quotes materially alter the snippets in the clip, for reasons I also explained above. > [@emacknight](#): > > Can we conclude that what you did was misleading and dishonest? Of course you can. And of course you will. But it wasn’t. > [@emacknight](#): > > BTW did you watch the clip I posted? No. Now, having said that I’ve got things to do and I have neither the time nor inclination to deal with your often days-long diatribes over my posts. Have you perhaps noticed how the discussion in this thread has ground to halt in the wake of all your ranting and raving? You’ve done this several times before and while there isn’t much that can be done about it, I’m simply not going to play along. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/49 "2010-10-04T00:26:04Z")
[Religious Right demands their due](http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=130238835) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/50 "2010-10-04T02:30:54Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Now, having said that I’ve got things to do and I have neither the time nor inclination to deal with your often days-long diatribes over my posts. Have you perhaps noticed how the discussion in this thread has ground to halt in the wake of all your ranting and raving? Let me get this straight, you start a thread, post a total of five times, then declare you’re leaving, and you accuse someone else of grinding it to a halt. Really? **emacknight** has done more to keep this thread going than you have. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/51 "2010-10-04T02:58:59Z")
> [@Baboonanza](#): > > If you were trying to make an actual point you would have been better of at least _trying_ to be bi-partisan. It hasn’t stopped anybody on the left, including here. > [@](#): > > And the people who support Sarah Palin have _clearly_ based their thinking on a rational assessment the role of government and the current congress people’s opinions on the matter and then decided that what the country needs is a right-wing publicity whore who has folksy charm. Ah, that’s what you call bi-partisanship. Res ipsa loquitur. (Underlining added) > [@](#): > > …the Tea Party exists because most people hold ignorant stupid beliefs and like to be part of a gang, even though this readily leads to their exploitation by those with vested interests (ie the money behiond the Tea-Party). The irony, it burns. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/52 "2010-10-04T03:11:40Z")
Gotta love that cite. _Crosshairball_. Very droll, especially that logo of the cat hacking up a hairball. Bit of a rightish sort of slant. Just a tad. Breitbart, Hewitt, Coulter, Beck, Malkin…and, oh! Micheal Savage as well! Most of the tighty righty sites disdain Mike “The Savage Wiener” Weiner, seeing as he is barking mad and venemous. Kinda like Glen Beck with tertiary syphillis. Is this the sort of thing you offer to polite company, expecting anything but scorn and derision? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/53 "2010-10-04T03:55:42Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Let me get this straight, you start a thread, post a total of five times, then declare you’re leaving… I did nothing of the sort. I merely refused to engage with emacknight, a poster whom experience has shown can bog you down so far in straw men and accusations of things you never said that you spend all your time trying just to set the record straight. > [@Robot Arm](#): > > …and you accuse someone else of grinding it to a halt. Well, the thread was moving along nicely and had generated around 40 posts in its first twelve hours, and then, in the wake of emack’s multi-post rants, nothing but twickster’s warning for the next twenty-four hours or so, whereupon it’s picked back up again as the apparent result of a post I made since then. So I don’t believe you’ve made a very case that emacknight has been driving the thread, and/or in support of your implication that I ground it to a halt. > [@elucidator](#): > > Gotta love that cite. _Crosshairball_. Very droll, especially that logo of the cat hacking up a hairball. Bit of a rightish sort of slant. Just a tad. Breitbart, Hewitt, Coulter, Beck, Malkin..and, oh! Micheal Savage as well! Most of the tighty righty sites disdain Mike “The Savage Wiener” Weiner, seeing as he is barking mad and venemous. Kinda like Glen Beck with tertiary syphillis. > > Is this the sort of thing you offer to polite company, expecting anything but scorn and derision? **luci, luci, luci** …remember when I said in the OP, “Not that I expect any of this will gain any kind of traction around here…”? (And besides, it’s not like you never post anything from leftie sites, is it?) Still, what on Earth leads you to believe I would expect this crowd to react to the OP with anything but scorn and derision? Scorn and derision is the de riguer response around here to anything even vaguely conserva…uh, I mean not rabidly liberal, now isn’t it? And you’ll notice I’m sure that nobody’s said anything even vaguely in defense of Obama’s statement or of Pelosi’s statements, etc., etc. But the best defense is a good offense, yes, no?, and so here we are at a point where the Tea Party and I come in for all the abuse (and we can take it), while nary a peep gets said about the President of the United States voicing the sentiment that there comes a time when people have made enough money, and where the Speaker of the House encourages Democratic representatives to ignore the will of the people even if it costs them their jobs and claims that the health care bill needs to be passed so people will know what’s in it. And how is it somehow an exuse to claim you don’t have two days and two lawyers to read a bill? I mean, isn’t it your job to know what’s in the bill you’re voting on? And what?..the government can’t afford the lawyers and the time it takes to figure out the bills it’s trying to pass? Pretty weak sauce, **luci**. I’m glad I’m not on your side and not having to try to defend the statements these people have made. No wonder you guys would rather insult me instead. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/54 "2010-10-04T04:21:33Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > [Scorn and derision is the de riguer response around here to anything even vaguely conserva…uh, I mean not rabidly liberal, now isn’t it? Well, no. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/55 "2010-10-04T06:05:57Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > …a poster whom experience has shown can bog you down so far in straw men and accusations of things you never said… > > …your implication that I ground it to a halt. That’s just about priceless. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/56 "2010-10-04T06:32:03Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > ..(And besides, it’s not like you never post anything from leftie sites, is it?)… And I say so. I say it right out, this is a lefty site. Its a gesture of respect for my reader. Why I don’t do is some pathetic passive-aggressive preemptive strike, I don’t start in whining about how I won’t get a fair hearing because everyone is prejudiced against me, boo hoo hoo. Like for instance… > [@](#): > > …Still, what on Earth leads you to believe I would expect this crowd to react to the OP with anything but scorn and derision? Scorn and derision is the de riguer response around here to anything even vaguely conserva…uh, I mean not rabidly liberal, now isn’t it?.. Your site has a couple of positive points. One, is a surprisingly accurate sense of itself, comparing itself to something the cat hawks up. Refreshing candor. The second was the count, there were two people there, and I was one of them. Not for long, mind. Also mildly interesting is its peculiar bent towards Catholicism. You expect to be taken seriously, offering this kind of crap? They offer links to every right wing slime ball, not excluding Michael Savage, for Chrrisake! Michael Fucking Savage, Rush Limbaugh with rabies! Tell me you don’t actually _listen_ to that rectal pustule? Tell me you don’t think that anyone who takes that festering pool of paranoia and venom seriously is worth my attention? Because they do, you know. The people you are offering as sources of intelligent commentary, they approve of Michael the Savage Wiener, they link to him. So, you want to be taken seriously, shown some respect? You could start by not offering craptastic sites. A little step, to be sure, but you got a long, _long_ haul ahead of you. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/57 "2010-10-04T07:41:07Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > You expect to be taken seriously, offering this kind of crap? They offer links to every right wing slime ball, not excluding Michael Savage, for Chrrisake! Michael Fucking Savage, Rush Limbaugh with rabies! Tell me you don’t actually _listen_ to that rectal pustule? Tell me you don’t think that anyone who takes that festering pool of paranoia and venom seriously is worth my attention? > > Because they do, you know. The people you are offering as sources of intelligent commentary, they approve of Michael the Savage Wiener, they link to him. > > So, you want to be taken seriously, shown some respect? You could start by not offering craptastic sites. A little step, to be sure, but you got a long, _long_ haul ahead of you. What I expect - here on the most intelligent message board on the planet - is that people will react to information itself rather than where comes from. It doesn’t matter a whit whether the quotes in an OP come from the lips of Rush Limbaugh himself or from the Daily Koz; what matters is whether the information presented is accurate. The information in the OP is accurate in two ways: one, it demonstrates the arrogance of our Democratic leaders; and two, it illustrates through the words of Ronald Reagan what a great many Tea Party members and other conservatives are resentful of and concerned about with regard to the direction govenment in this country is headed. Now as to your mentioning upfront that you’re posting information from a biased site, well, good for you. But that doesn’t mean I’m bound by the same rules of etiquette that you’ve dreamed up for yourself, and it doesn’t mean there was the slightest deception in posting from the site I did. I made no effort to mislead anyone as to what it was or where it came from, and given that fact I see no see no reason to post its political orientation beforehand. People around here are perfectly capable of recognizing for themselves that the link took them to a right-wing site. But again, that shouldn’t matter in the slightest. What matters is what Obama, Pelosi, et al. said, and not only have you nor anyone else offered the slightest defense of their statements, you have chosen to condemn me simply because of where the information comes from. So I say again, pretty weak sauce, **luci**. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/58 "2010-10-04T08:46:07Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > If the Tea Party had any balls, the first thing they would have demanded was higher taxes to balance the budget–true fiscal responsibility. The second thing… Don’t worry about the second thing. They would have been dead meat once they uttered the first. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/59 "2010-10-04T19:13:15Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > > Now, give money to bailout large companies and banks that refuse to lend (a recreation of what happened in 1929 when Hoover gave the banks money. Looks like the Dems never learn from history) and it is clear that we need a government that has a tighter rein on spending. > > This caught my eye. Would you educate me on Hoover giving money to the banks, please? > > As far as TARP goes, all indications are that it was 1) a spectacular success, and 2) not anywhere near as costly as the doomsayers represented. > > 1. The U.S. (and, by extension, the world) had a banking industry with the sword of Damocles hanging over its head. It was apparent to everyone that the money markets were about to collapse. (“Everyone”, because I’ve never heard an argument that they weren’t, only that we should have let them collapse.) TARP prevented the Great Depression of our lifetimes. That we still wound up with a Great Recession is not good, but it’s far better than the alternative. > > 2. The CBO estimates that rescuing the U.S. (and, by extension, the world) from a Great Depression II will wind up costing the taxpayers about $66 billion. The White House about $50 billion. Cheap at twice the price, I would say. > > I’ll also note that I, for one, remember which administration was in power when TARP was enacted, and that it is one of the very few items for which I applaud that administration. When the Great Depression hit, Hoover gave a ton of money to the banks to loan out. The banks held on to the money saying thank you very much. Sound familiar? As for the other points, I pointed out that the validity of the various points are open to debate. In fact, your point 1 is contradicted by New Deal Democrat whose argument would be that you can’t prove that TARP saved the economy but you can’t say that the economy was saved by TARP. In fact it might have been saved IN SPITE OF TARP or if left alone it may have been saved on its own. What proof do you have that without TARP we would have had Great Depression II? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707/60 "2010-10-04T19:21:23Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > > [@emacknight](#): > > > > If the Tea Party had any balls, the first thing they would have demanded was higher taxes to balance the budget–true fiscal responsibility. The second thing… > > Don’t worry about the second thing. They would have been dead meat once they uttered the first. I remember when Ross Perot was trumpeting the deficit as Problem Number One, and promised to fix it the plain-common-sense way: Cut spending and raise taxes **at the same time.** Which might have been disastrous for the economy in practice, but, still . . . Never thought I’d miss him. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-the-tea-party/555707.md?page=4)