Stages of Denial

Take pity on the left as it grapples with the tea party revolt

Matt Kibbe | April 29, 2009

According to Pajamas Media, 700,873 people attended some 883 tea party protests on April 15. It was a remarkable day, a tangible expression of public outrage that I have not experienced in my 25 years of advocacy and grassroots organizing on behalf of free-market principles.

Judging from the left's hysterical reaction, something really big must have happened. But the only way to really understand the left's misinformed and paranoid attacks is to realize that the protests represent tangible proof that basic libertarian values continue to resonate with the American electorate. That, apparently, is a difficult thing for some to accept.

I attended the tea party in Atlanta along with 15,000 other activists, and was struck by the makeup of the crowd. This was not a typical conservative Republican rally, with local GOP activists, Ron Paul enthusiasts, and single-issue obsessives. (Those folks always show up—and they did in Atlanta.) The difference was the new people: Young hipsters, families, angry moms, and retirees alike left their normal routines and work obligations to show up in protest of government policies that they passionately believe will ruin what is unique about America.

What were the tea parties about? Reading the signs and talking to people (unlike CNN's incredibly hostile Susan Roesgen, I actually let folks answer my questions in their own words), the "agenda" was crystal clear. Tea party activists were worried and angry about government bailouts for the irresponsible, about spending that "stimulated" record growth in government and not much else, and about government borrowing that will place unconscionable burdens on future generations of Americans. My favorite sign of the day: "Give Me Liberty, Not Debt."

Some tried to diminish the tea parties as misguided tax protests. In reality, the protestors demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of economics that went well beyond objections to higher tax rates. You can't spend money you don't have, the tea party attendees understood, and government spending above current revenues must be paid for with higher taxes, more borrowing (to be paid for with higher taxes in the future), or artificial government expansion of money and credit, which can only debase the currency and make everyone poorer through inflation.

So how did the media miss the real story? Perhaps the question itself is silly because it assumes that left-of-center reporters were actually trying to "report." Some were, though most simply regurgitated the talking points supplied by partisans in the blogosphere.

But facts can be stubborn things, and no matter how many times those talking points were repeated by reporters, it quickly became clear that a substantial slice of the electorate would not buy into the promise of really big government. Imagine how that must have felt for many leftists: Having dutifully sat through a four hour and 17 minute subtitled movie about Che Guevara that every sane American ignored, many in the Hope and Change Brigade misinterpreted the voting public's rejection of Republican over-spending and gross mismanagement last November as an endorsement of La Revolución!

Wiki-trained psychologists like me immediately recognized their pain. The remarkable ends to which lefty bloggers, Nobel Laureates, bit-part actresses, and even a senior White House official all went to discredit the massive grassroots revolt perfectly matches Elizabeth Kübler-Ross' famous work on how to deal with grief, death, and loss.

Take Janeane Garofalo. Many tea party attendees were understandably offended when she compared them to members of the Ku Klux Klan. "It's not about bashing Democrats, it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don't know their history at all," she told Keith Olbermann. "This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks."

I know what you're probably thinking about Ms. Garofalo, and it's not kind. I thought it too. But look beneath the surface, and at least try to imagine her pain. As Kübler-Ross explains, first comes denial, then comes anger. Hope and Change, for Janeane, was dying. And she couldn't believe it.

This shift from denial to anger is an integral part of the Kübler-Ross healing process for the radical left. Remember that the tea party deniers started their work in the weeks building up to April 15th, first claiming that the grassroots gatherings were really just cleverly manufactured PR events. Paul Krugman best represented this position: "They're AstroTurf (fake grassroots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House majority leader, and supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires." The Nobel Laureate economist lifted that story from Think Progress and the Huffington Post. They, in turn, lifted it from a particularly emotional blog post at Playboy.com that described FreedomWorks as a "mega-beast." By repeating the story, Krugman made it the talking point for just about everyone, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said, on cue: "We call it AstroTurf; it's not really a grassroots movement."

Somewhere along the way, this willful denial gave way to ridicule and mockery. Many reporters turned downright hostile. Sometimes their rage morphed into locker room-style double entendres. For instance, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said teabag 63 times during a 7-minute segment on the protests. CNN's Anderson Cooper, who presumably wants to be taken seriously, opted for dirty jokes rather than his heavily branded expertise in "investigative journalism." Together, they no doubt managed to make teabag the Google word of the day.

Regardless, the transformation was fascinating. Within a week, the storyline went from cries of "AstroTurf" to Senior White House adviser David Axelrod—Obama's very own Karl Rove—declaring the tea parties too real for his comfort. So real that he actually pronounced them "unhealthy." When questioned on CBS's "Face the Nation," Axelrod said: "I think any time you have severe economic conditions there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that's unhealthy." Unhealthy? "Well, this is a country where we value our liberties and our ability to express ourselves, and so far these are expressions."

Call me old school, but I still live in a country where the citizens more than "value" their liberties and their ability to express opposition to government policy. These liberties define us; they bind us as a nation. They are explicitly defined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. So make fun of me. Call me a "teabagger" if you must. But now a senior White House official is suggesting that my freedom of speech and my right to peaceably assemble are "unhealthy" and are only acceptable "so far." Will the White House grow tired of our "unhealthy" expressions and send the First Amendment packing, much like it did to former GM CEO Rick Wagoner? That's far scarier than the somewhat kooky guy who participates in Revolutionary War reenactments on weekends, and wore his full costume—Samuel Adams style—to the Atlanta tea party. (Full disclosure: the kook in question also works as FreedomWorks' press guy, resigning Sam Adams, I fear, to the dustbin of "AstroTurf.")

Did the tea parties matter? One reasonable measure of progress may be the sheer volume of vitriol produced by their critics. This alone is an attractive value proposition. The tea parties also happened to fall smack in the middle of the April "recess" for members of the House and Senate. That's when legislators (at least those in competitive seats) go back home to hear from their constituents. In the short run, the tea parties send a real signal to senators and congressmen who, already uncomfortable with the aggressiveness and speed with which the White House is pushing policy through Congress, will think twice when the president's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint comes back to the floor.

Comments

|4.29.09 @ 4:43PM|#

I don't know if it's really a "massive grassroots revolt" but it has gotten some people hyperventalating. Even the President is mentioning them.

We'll see if they've got legs, or tar, or feathers, or pitchforks of a real revolt.

robc|4.29.09 @ 4:45PM|#

The lack of use of real tar and feathers is a sign of decline of the American Empire.

PR|4.29.09 @ 4:46PM|#

tea bags across america. rachel has got her finger in the dyke on this one.

anon|4.29.09 @ 4:51PM|#

My libertarian values include respect for human rights, keeping Christian fanatics' morals out of my bedroom and their hands off my body, and an end to a stupid drug war. And until the GOP pulls its head out of its ass on those issues, the Left/The Democrats are going to be in control.

Catch 22, folks.

|4.29.09 @ 4:56PM|#

So how did the media miss the real story?

I wouldn't say that they missed it, so much as they chose to deny it.

-jcr

|4.29.09 @ 4:58PM|#

Will Obama end up like LBJ? Didn't we just get rid of a President that spent more than LBJ? Will the "bail outs" be tied to Obama and the Democrats? As I wondered in February will he be a Jimmy Carter, done in one term, or will the Constitution be amended again to make Obama President for life over his government/corporate kingdom?

|4.29.09 @ 5:01PM|#

Will Obama end up like LBJ?

I don't know, has he tried lifting Hillary up by her ears yet?

-jcr

|4.29.09 @ 5:02PM|#

If the tea parties have them scared, I can't wait to see how they react to a mass exodus of taxpayers when the shit really hits the fan.

|4.29.09 @ 5:07PM|#

Build a viable party that's as strong as the Democrats pretend to be on civil rights, while as strong as the Republicans pretend to be on fiscal responsibility, and I'll vote straight-ticket for it every single damn time.

Since no such party currently exists, I scrutinize both parties, along with the Libertarians and the MN Independence Party for candidates, hoping to find SOMEBODY to vote for in each race.

But such a party could capture my imagination and that of millions of other Americans. Which makes it all the more a damn shame that the Libertarian Party is so completely dysfunctional.

classwarrior|4.29.09 @ 5:08PM|#

It is telling that there is no specific denial in this article that these "spontaneous" protests were organized by lobbying firms (some of which also helped the banks get their bailout money)plus our fair and balanced friends at Fox News. Just Google "Dick Armey" "AIG" and "tea parites" to see what I mean. This is not a grass roots revolt, it's manipulation by corporate America. Perhaps these protesters will then demand that corporate political donations be banned to stop this nonsense. Oops, no can do, that would take away the "free speech" rights of those banks.

|4.29.09 @ 5:09PM|#

I scrutinize both parties, along with the Libertarians and the MN Independence Party for candidates, hoping to find SOMEBODY to vote for in each race.

Most of us just have to figure out who to vote against. I've got to say the Ruling Party makes that awfully hard most of the time.

-jcr

Guess My Bra Size|4.29.09 @ 5:10PM|#

I'd love to teabag Rachel Maddow. I know deep down she really wants it.

|4.29.09 @ 5:11PM|#

It is telling that there is no specific denial in this article that these "spontaneous" protests were organized by lobbying firms

The article also fails to deny that they were organized by Leprechauns United against Socialized Medicine! Always after our lucky charms, they are, those devious little bastards!

-jcr

|4.29.09 @ 5:14PM|#

Folks are still goin on the idea that Obama inherited a huge sack of crap and he's just doin the necessary evils to try fixing things back to where we should be. A silverstone coating.

|4.29.09 @ 5:15PM|#

There maybe have been some corporate money involved, but that seems hardly relevant given the obvious "homespun" signs and motley character of the participants. To me it seems more like a spontaneous collaboration of a number of different anti-tax groups plus genuine public anxiety about the debt level.

Elemenope|4.29.09 @ 5:16PM|#

The left's histerical reaction

I don't know what leftist media you consume, but the predominant left reaction I saw was incredulous crossed with bored. It's more scratching heads than pissing pants.

economist|4.29.09 @ 5:19PM|#

"reality, the protestors demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of economics that went well beyond objections to higher tax rates. You can't spend money you don't have,"
This doesn't really require a sophisticated understanding of economics, just common sense.
And yet, somehow common sense stands out. Perhaps it's not so common anymore?


"The left's histerical reaction

I don't know what leftist media you consume,"

You know, the Lefiti-types. The ones who say "you guys are irrelevant, so I'm going to devote a bunch of time to denouncing, 'cause that's just the way I roll".

Think Keith Olbermann.

JB|4.29.09 @ 5:22PM|#

Leftists are retards. The sooner those giant clumps of cells are aborted, the better.

economist|4.29.09 @ 5:22PM|#

On a tangential note, Rachel Maddow has a face that makes me want to smack her silly. Not that I would. It wouldn't be gentlemanly. But Keith Olbermann should beware. I won't seek him out, but if he comes within ten feet of me, I'll consider it an invitation.

Not really relevant to the board, I know, but someone had to say it.

duster|4.29.09 @ 5:22PM|#

Compositionally, this is the same voting block that showed up to vote for the very first time in 1994 in reaction to the big government overreaches of the Clinton Administration

...and that is why no good will come of it. Unless, of course, you are a lover of GOP-style big government. To a civil libertarian, it's just another flavor of shit.

|4.29.09 @ 5:26PM|#

"tangible proof that basic libertarian values continue to resonate" Umm,yeah...
90% of the crowd was there out of curiosity or just for kicks. 5% were Fox minions, and 5% actually gave a shit. Calling this episode a "revolt" is way too generous. It took an Australian (Murdock) to make it happen. Cavuto et al were pathetic.

Her Royal Highness Queen Liz d|4.29.09 @ 5:28PM|#

whilst one approves of any behavior that pisses off pinkos

one is deeply troubled by the association between these wonderful pro-capitalist youths

and the terrible occurrence that happened a few generations ago in Boston, Great Britain North America

That was like well gay

One thinks that both the Democrats and republicans are pinker than Pussy

but one prefers the Republicans because at least they pretend to be capitalists


One thinks that this Obama chap is pinker than a Barbie collectors convention in the Don Cesar Hotel

Her Royal Highness Queen Liz d|4.29.09 @ 5:29PM|#

@ T. Paine

You want some gaybo?

I still owe you for that shit you pulled off in Great Britain North America

Pussy

hmm|4.29.09 @ 5:35PM|#

Maddcow, I mean Maddow just wishes she had the balls to teabag.

JP|4.29.09 @ 5:43PM|#

If Republican Sponsor X puts up a billboard saying "Honk if you oppose Pres. Obama's budget," and 700,000 of the people driving by read the billboard and then honk, does that mean all those honking drivers are astroturf?

I mean, nobody forced or even helped me to attend my local tea party. There were no busloads of union members/seniors/whoever being dropped off to swell the numbers. I heard the announcement "gather here on such-and-such a day if you're fed up with big government," and I voluntarily chose to attend.

|4.29.09 @ 5:53PM|#

Um, the left wasn't being hysterical. We were making fun of you. Because of all the abuses and waste and death of the last 8 years, you guys finally show up to protest a couple months into the Obama administration...

And say what you will about the subject of the protests, but the fact that you have to explain it at all means the protests weren't exactly laser-focused on a particular issue. A consensus seems to be forming on the right about it--it's about the bailouts and the massive spending. But this was arrived at after the fact, once all the other obvious reasons people showed up were shown to be hypocritical.

|4.29.09 @ 6:06PM|#

Um, the left wasn't being hysterical. We were making fun of you. Because of all the abuses and waste and death of the last 8 years, you guys finally show up to protest a couple months into the Obama administration...

Tony, you're so fucking retarded I want to cry, sometimes. It's like you refuse to understand what kind of person posts here.

"You guys"

Seriously?

I can pretty much guarantee that I've been to more anti-war protests in the last four years than you've been to in your entire, leftist life.

|4.29.09 @ 6:07PM|#

Because of all the abuses and waste and death of the last 8 years, you guys finally show up to protest a couple months into the Obama administration...

So how long is going to take you to start protesting all the abuses and waste and death of the Obama administration, Tony?

Certainly the waste is cranked up, TARP and bailouts are going to amp up the abuse and corrpution, and Obama's still fighting those stupid wars.

but the fact that you have to explain it at all means the protests weren't exactly laser-focused on a particular issue.

The fact that we have to explain something slowly and in simple words may have more to do with the density of who we are explaining it to than the difficulty of what we are explaining.

hmm|4.29.09 @ 6:11PM|#

Because of all the abuses and waste and death of the last 8 years, you guys finally show up to protest a couple months into the Obama administration...

Are you saying that you are doing the inverse? People started to complain about the waste and government with big O in office, but you stopped bitching about the waste and abuses once big O was in office?

I think the people that have remained vocal and dissatisfied throughout have the moral high ground on this one.

|4.29.09 @ 6:14PM|#

The fact that the left would wig out over something so pointless and time-wasting...

max hats|4.29.09 @ 6:14PM|#

I wouldn't say that they missed it, so much as they chose to deny it.

Are you really trying to argue there was a media blackout of the tea parties? Really?

max hats|4.29.09 @ 6:16PM|#

tea bags across america. rachel has got her finger in the dyke on this one.

I'd love to teabag Rachel Maddow. I know deep down she really wants it.

HUURRR LESBIANS HURRR.

|4.29.09 @ 6:19PM|#

Are you really trying to argue there was a media blackout of the tea parties?

Not a black out, but a deliberate attempt to ignore the message and try to pretend that it was just republicans with sour grapes.

-jcr

Alan Vanneman|4.29.09 @ 6:20PM|#

Thank god you found someone to write about the tea parties with no axe to grind! Good work! You know, I'm starting to miss Ginnie Postal. How about a couple of her old columns from say '92 or '93?

The Angry Optimist|4.29.09 @ 6:27PM|#

max hats - direct your "HURR HURRRING" to Rachel Maddow and Cooper, who were just as immature with the tea party stuff whilst on air. And remove the stick out of your ass.

max hats|4.29.09 @ 6:30PM|#

Not a black out, but a deliberate attempt to ignore the message and try to pretend that it was just republicans with sour grapes.

Just republicans with sour grapes is certainly false, but largely republicans with sour grapes seems pretty dead on. PJ Media reports over 700,000 turnout in this story, Fox hyped it endlessly, and many republican politicians showed up. The signs and slogans shouted at the parties were a mix of libertarian and straight up partisan republican, with I'd say the balance well on the side of the latter. Anecdotaly, the only person I knew who showed up was a fundamentalist Republican, and many other partisan republicans told me they wanted to show up. There wasn't a scientific poll conducted on the participants, nor could there have been, but all signs point to mostly republican. 700,000 people according to PJ Media. For that to be true, either a huge fraction of people who identify libertarian actually showed up, which is incredibly impressive, or it was mostly republicans. Ockams razor says republicans.

Sean W. Malone|4.29.09 @ 6:31PM|#

Yeahhhh.... Tony really doesn't have a good grasp of the word "libertarian".


I however, didn't go to the LA tax protest cause umm... it was on a Wednesday at 3pm. Wtf?

Then, I didn't go to last weekend's Audit the Fed rally cause it was sponsored by 9/11 Truthers. Ugh...

max hats|4.29.09 @ 6:34PM|#

max hats - direct your "HURR HURRRING" to Rachel Maddow and Cooper, who were just as immature with the tea party stuff whilst on air. And remove the stick out of your ass.

What? I don't think pointing out that "tea bagging" has a bit of a double meaning is quite the same as going YEAH AND LESBIANS REALLY WANT THE DICK FUCKING DYKES. How is Maddow's sexual orientation germane or relevant to anything here? Her entire bit would have worked the same (actually, better) had she been a straight male. So why is there suddenly a cavalclade of homophobia directed at her?

ed|4.29.09 @ 6:35PM|#

Take Janeane Garofalo. [Please!] "This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks."

You know, the left doesn't hate America. They hate half of America.
It's a hatred that borders on sociopathic.

The Angry Optimist|4.29.09 @ 6:37PM|#

are conservatives gonna get a new Buckley? you know, a limousine conservative? Because I'm available and I'm willing to sell my soul for that lifestyle.

I'm gonna get out my thesaurus now.

The Angry Optimist|4.29.09 @ 6:40PM|#

So why is there suddenly a cavalclade of homophobia directed at her?

Homophobia? Like I said, remove shalalee from your rectum, bitte schoene. It was a joke...a play on words and little jab at her sexuality. Ha ha? Nothing?

I mean, what if I said that "I know Anderson Cooper just loved talking about teabagging all day that day"?

max hats|4.29.09 @ 6:43PM|#

I mean, what if I said that "I know Anderson Cooper just loved talking about teabagging all day that day"?

That would at least make sense. Rachel's sexual orientation has nothing to do with anything here. It would be like cracking a black joke on Roker because he messed up the weather report. Yes, she is gay. And?

alan|4.29.09 @ 6:56PM|#

It would be like cracking a black joke on Roker because he messed up the weather report. Yes, she is gay. And?

Jesus Christ, lighten up, man. You really believe any one owes you a fucking answer with that silly And? That is such an attractive quality on display.

max hats|4.29.09 @ 6:57PM|#

I am terribly sorry for the offense, and have come to agree that bitches who like other bitches ain't right. In the head. Either head I mean LOL

alan|4.29.09 @ 6:59PM|#

that bitches who like other bitches ain't right.

It's only not cool if they don't let you watch.

|4.29.09 @ 7:00PM|#

Please spare me the "we're not wingnuts" crap. I get it, really. But there is certainly a contingent of wingnuts here and they don't get nearly any of the name calling and stupidity directed at the two or three liberals. That we're commenting on an article that's a defense of teabagging against those hysterical hate-filled leftists means the "you guys" is whoever you are who are defending teabagging, and forgive me if I confuse run of the mill wingnuts with thoughtful libertarians since they seem to show up to the same events.

alan|4.29.09 @ 7:01PM|#

Their right to privacy, how 'bout our right to publicy.

Okay, that sounded better in my head.

alan|4.29.09 @ 7:05PM|#

whoever you are who are defending teabagging

You said yesterday you are part of the left that takes a hard line on civil liberties, so shouldn't you be defending tea bagging just to be consistent and every thing.

Though, I'm not sure why Reason is still covering a two week old story. Some forensics there, but not that interesting.

Sean W. Malone|4.29.09 @ 7:11PM|#

That we're commenting on an article that's a defense of teabagging against those hysterical hate-filled leftists means the "you guys" is whoever you are who are defending teabagging,


What?

max hats|4.29.09 @ 7:12PM|#

I don't know if anyone is saying the teabaggers don't/shouldn't have the right to protest, or that police should mess them up, anything like that. Most on the left as I see it think that teabaggers have the right to teabag, and they have the right to make fun of them. Compare this to the reaction to the anti-war protests in 2003.

Some Guy|4.29.09 @ 7:15PM|#

many in the Hope and Change Brigade misinterpreted the voting public's rejection of Republican over-spending and gross mismanagement

It would be awesome if that were true, but I think there's plenty of denial to go around.

If Ron Raul/Bob Barr/SOMEBODY that wasn't proposing trillion dollar deficits would have even showed up with a few percentage points then maybe I'd have a little faith in your theory.

|4.29.09 @ 7:22PM|#

Compare this to the reaction to the anti-war protests in 2003.

Which was what? That they didn't have a right to protest?

Calling them traitors may have something to do with the fact that the EXACT SAME PEOPLE protested the war in Afghanistan a year earlier and were going around screaming that America "had it coming" on 9/11.

It's certainly why I refused to be seen with any of them.

|4.29.09 @ 7:24PM|#

Are you saying that you are doing the inverse? People started to complain about the waste and government with big O in office, but you stopped bitching about the waste and abuses once big O was in office?

While we do direct the blame where it belongs and aren't for obvious reasons looking for ways to blame Obama for everything--which we feel he is making a good faith effort to try and fix--if you bother to go to a liberal site you'll find much hand-wringing about various Obama policies and actions.

|4.29.09 @ 7:29PM|#

Of course the problem is that 90% of spending is on 4 areas

Military
SS
Medicare
Interst on debt

Everyone wants to cry about high taxes, but I didn't see that many people saying I'll retire at 75, or take my Medical.

To many people have bought into the lie for to long. They want lots of services, AND low taxes. But it ain't going to happen.

The Angry Optimist|4.29.09 @ 7:31PM|#

most of the antiwar protest ire was directed at fringe groups like ANSWER.

Sean W. Malone|4.29.09 @ 7:33PM|#

I'm not at all sure what you're talking about Max... the bulk of the mainstream media seemed to be covering the hell out of the anti-war protests in 2003, often in an extremely positive light.

We are comparing apples to apples no? Cause if you want to compare fringe elements of the left to fringe elements of the right who said that everyone should just shut up then fine, and if you want to compare politician's responses, perhaps you should be paying more attention to the Obama admin and various (D) senators saying that the "teabaggers" are unhinged...

But if you want to compare news coverage to news coverage what you said makes 0 sense.

max hats|4.29.09 @ 7:41PM|#

Calling them traitors may have something to do with the fact that the EXACT SAME PEOPLE protested the war in Afghanistan a year earlier and were going around screaming that America "had it coming" on 9/11.

The problem with any protest is that it will always have a bunch of totally crazy people show up. It makes it very easy to marginalize any protest by just pointing out how the arguments of a couple guys with big signs don't make sense. The only fair way to measure a protest is by the majority of the people there, but that is rarely done by either left or right.

hmm|4.29.09 @ 7:43PM|#

While we do direct the blame where it belongs and aren't for obvious reasons looking for ways to blame Obama for everything--which we feel he is making a good faith effort to try and fix--if you bother to go to a liberal site you'll find much hand-wringing about various Obama policies and actions.

I do read the "liberal" sites. The majority of the hand-wringing is that not enough is being done and a civil liberty abuses not being corrected. The later being something I agree with. You might want to cap the assumption game it has bitten you in the ass here more than once.

If you aren't looking to lay blame where it lies then you are doing the opposite of what you are accusing people here of and trying to avert blame where it is due. Same thing with a twist.

Please spare me the "we're not wingnuts" crap. I get it, really. But there is certainly a contingent of wingnuts here and they don't get nearly any of the name calling and stupidity directed at the two or three liberals.

First the discourse here between ideologies is far more forgiving than a conservative posting on a far left board or a liberal posting on a far right board. You're pissing and moaning that you are getting picked on for makeing statements not inline with 90% of the population here. That is just silly. You're welcome to your opinion and no one here would stop you from espousing it. But don't expect a fucking parade for an ideology that is directly opposite to that generally espoused by the majority of the board. Lets just ignore the fact that you tend to hang on the Big O nutsack and spew a lot of talking points that look like they might be ripped right off the white house daily points memo.

The Angry Optimist|4.29.09 @ 7:52PM|#

max hats - ANSWER wasn't a "fringe group", it was THE group for antiwar rallies.

max hats|4.29.09 @ 7:55PM|#

Then ANSWER's membership must be pretty amazingly huge.

The Angry Optimist|4.29.09 @ 7:58PM|#

hey, you can ask them yourselves. they claimed 100-200K attendance for "their" rallies in the run up to Iraq.

max hats|4.29.09 @ 7:59PM|#

I was at an anti war protest. The only time I ever even heard of answer is when someone turned on O'Reilly some time after the fact.

|4.29.09 @ 8:30PM|#

How dare they give positive coverage to protests against something so wrong and such a mistake that 95% of the planet morally condemns it. Of course from my perspective, coverage of the anti-war protests was severely suppressed especially given the fact that they consisted of some of the largest protests in history.

Publius|4.29.09 @ 8:55PM|#

How dare they give positive coverage to protests against something so wrong and such a mistake that 95% of the planet morally condemns it. Of course from my perspective, coverage of the anti-war protests was severely suppressed especially given the fact that they consisted of some of the largest protests in history.

God how I tire of this shit.

People today are SUCH FUCKING WIMPS!

More people died in the first 15 minutes of the battle of Stalingrad than have died on both sides in the Iraq war.

Go back a bit further to the 3rd Punic War. ALL of the male Carthaginians were killed, the women and children were sold into slavery, and the land was sown with salt.

waah fucking waah

MJ|4.29.09 @ 9:11PM|#

"Um, the left wasn't being hysterical. We were making fun of you."

And the way you made fun showed that you hadn't a clue about who the tea partiers were and what their frustration is about. The left is making itself look silly in its denials of the tea parties' legitimacy.

B|4.29.09 @ 9:27PM|#

"Um, the left wasn't being hysterical. We were making fun of you. Because of all the abuses and waste and death of the last 8 years, you guys finally show up to protest a couple months into the Obama administration... "

And since the Obama administration is not pulling out of Iraq, is adding troops to Afghanistan, is broadening the Bush administration definition of state secrets, is going beyond the Bush administration when it comes to its prerogative to wiretap, is continuing attacks with UAVs in Pakistan and has spent more in three months than Bush did in three years, I am assuming you are pissed off about that waste, death and abuse in this administration, right?

Yeah I didn't think so. So why don't you just shut the fuck up hypocrite.

|4.29.09 @ 9:30PM|#

MJ,

Who's denying their legitimacy? I think teabagging parties were legitimately funded by the conservative establishment and the people there legitimately thought they actually had a point to make.

B|4.29.09 @ 9:31PM|#

"How dare they give positive coverage to protests against something so wrong and such a mistake that 95% of the planet morally condemns it."

Yeah sure they do. Boy that statistic wasn't jusn't pulled out of your ass, was it? I have an idea, why don't you ask the people who suffered under Hussein's tyranny how they feel about it.

B|4.29.09 @ 9:34PM|#

"Who's denying their legitimacy? I think teabagging parties were legitimately funded by the conservative establishment and the people there legitimately thought they actually had a point to make."

Jesus fucking christ, don't you idiots ever fucking deviate from the talking points? This was no more funded by the conservative establishment than the anti-war protests you fucking bozoes are always going on about. And at least at these protests there is not a large contingent of anti-semitic bigots calling for the destruction of Israel and shouting how peachy fucking keen communism is.

|4.29.09 @ 9:36PM|#

B,

I'm just as upset about our foreign entanglements as I was before. I just don't blame the people who inherited them more than the people who caused them.

Obama has not dismantled the Bush police state yet, and I'm not about to sit back and ignore this. But I'm willing to give the Democrats a little more time than 100 days to address every item on my checklist before I go ballistic.

As for spending money, I don't like that the government was forced into the position of having to spend so much money in order to rescue the economy from spiraling into collapse. I seriously doubt Obama or the Democrats like it either. But I'm not gonna blame them for the hand they were dealt or for being activists in the interests of the common good rather than being slaves to ideology.

jtuf|4.29.09 @ 9:36PM|#

Call me old school, but I still live in a country where the citizens more than "value" their liberties and their ability to express opposition to government policy. These liberties define us; they bind us as a nation. They are explicitly defined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. So make fun of me. Call me a "teabagger" if you must. But now a senior White House official is suggesting that my freedom of speech and my right to peaceably assemble are "unhealthy" and are only acceptable "so far." Will the White House grow tired of our "unhealthy" expressions and send the First Amendment packing, much like it did to former GM CEO Rick Wagoner? That's far scarier than the somewhat kooky guy who participates in Revolutionary War reenactments on weekends, and wore his full costume-Samuel Adams style-to the Atlanta tea party. (Full disclosure: the kook in question also works as FreedomWorks' press guy, resigning Sam Adams, I fear, to the dustbin of "AstroTurf.")

Hmm, just imagine this administration in charge of nationalized health care.

B|4.29.09 @ 9:41PM|#

"Obama has not dismantled the Bush police state yet, and I'm not about to sit back and ignore this. But I'm willing to give the Democrats a little more time than 100 days to address every item on my checklist before I go ballistic."

I just love it. So now "hasn't dismantled them yet" is a euphemism for "expanding them", eh? Sure thing. And please, don't criticize the Bush administration for waste and write "oh, I am not gonna criticize Obama after 100 days". That is all the more reason you should criticize him, because it has only taken him 100 fucking days to spend would Bush did in a few years. When you throw his $3.6 TRILLION budget in there, there is no fucking contest as to who is the most wasteful.

And please spare me the scripted "well, he has to revive the economy" bullshit. Quadrupling the fucking debt and passing $1 trillion dollars in new taxes does not help the fucking economy.

If you refuse to criticize Obama and his spending, you surrender all right to criticize the waste of the Bush administration, lest you become the most bald-faced hypocrite on the face of the fucking earth.



P.S. Yes I use fuck a lot.

B|4.29.09 @ 9:43PM|#

"Obama has not dismantled the Bush police state yet"

When you consider the fact his administration released a report(right before the Tea Party's,) either implying or explicitly stating a huge swath of the population is potential terrorists, the above statement becomes the understatement of the fucking year.

B|4.29.09 @ 9:47PM|#

And as for the left and the Tea Party protests, you douchebags can't even show a fucking modicum of respect for people exercising their First Amendment rights in a free society. Instead we get juvenile Tea Bag jokes that would have been too fucking retarded for Beavis and Butthead.

|4.29.09 @ 9:55PM|#

If you refuse to criticize Obama and his spending, you surrender all right to criticize the waste of the Bush administration, lest you become the most bald-faced hypocrite on the face of the fucking earth.

What money is being spent on isn't relevant at all? I don't see all government spending as evil. I don't enjoy the stimulus spending, but I don't think it was avoidable. If the previous stewards of our government had rational economic policies we wouldn't be in this mess.

But for all the accusations of fealty to Obama I'm actually quite a cynic: cynical enough just to be happy that we have a president and a Congress not beholden to a psychotic ideology that rejects data and evidence that doesn't confirm its preconceptions.

Bruce majors|4.29.09 @ 9:59PM|#

We are repeating them on July 4th in DC, Chicago and most other cities.

I post info about them on my facebook page daily, though one can also find them just by googling tea parties.

Brian Sorgatz|4.29.09 @ 10:11PM|#

They, in turn, lifted it from a particularly emotional blog post at Playboy.com that described FreedomWorks as a "mega-beast."

Well, damn! Playboy.com will have to be rhetorically punished at my blog tomorrow morning. Ooo, they're gonna get it.

John C. Randolph|4.29.09 @ 10:21PM|#

I don't enjoy the stimulus spending, but I don't think it was avoidable. If the previous stewards of our government had rational economic policies we wouldn't be in this mess.

The house is on fire! Quick, douse it with more gasoline!

Obama is continuing and compounding Bush's mistakes, just like FDR compounded Hoover's fuck-ups.

-jcr

|4.29.09 @ 10:24PM|#

But I'm willing to give the Democrats a little more time than 100 days to address every item on my checklist before I go ballistic.

How long? Eight years?

But hey, why should I complain? After all, he gave us a one-week hiatus on the DEA raids, didn't he?

If he pardons Charlie Lynch, then I'd have to revise my opinion of him. Until and unless that happens, he remains an unmitigated hypocrite.

-jcr

Sean W. Malone|4.29.09 @ 10:26PM|#

cynical enough just to be happy that we have a president and a Congress not beholden to a psychotic ideology that rejects data and evidence that doesn't confirm its preconceptions.

God you're an idiot Tony. About 90% of what Obama has done in office so far has been *expanding* Bush-era policies and ideological positions. Furthermore, the economic "stimulus" spending (which you may recall didn't work in 2003-2004, didn't work in the 90s, didn't work in the 80s, didn't work in Germany or Japan, didn't work in the Depression, and haven't worked... EVER!) is from such a tired and stupid playbook I'm not even sure how you could possibly justify it.

As far as I and probably most libertarians can tell, all Obama has *done* is ignore data that doesn't confirm is predetermined ideology and philosophy of government. And what's worse, his views on government seem to be about as Tyrannical as the United States has ever seen.

But I guess the bulk of history doesn't qualify as "evidence".

Sean W. Malone|4.29.09 @ 10:34PM|#

and also Tony;

"How dare they give positive coverage to protests against something so wrong and such a mistake that 95% of the planet morally condemns it."

Yeah, how about News gives... Neutral... coverage for a change?? That would work well for me. Instead of misunderstanding the Tea Party movement, and then spending 3-4 days making fun of it with college humor, perhaps it could have simply said,

"700,000 people were out protesting today about bailouts, government spending, and what they believe are government policies that will lead to higher taxation and inflation."

There. Done. Facts.

Likewise, instead of ooing and ahing over Cindy Sheehan, they could have said:

"300 people came out to Bush's ranch in Texas today to protest the Iraq war, they've been there for 3 weeks." Blah blah.

MJ|4.29.09 @ 10:37PM|#

"I think teabagging parties were..."

I was talking about tea parties. Whatever parties you have on your mind...I'd really rather not know about.

|4.29.09 @ 10:40PM|#

All I know is that if it weren't for blogs I would have never heard of "tea party" protests. Maybe I don't watch enough TV - but I have yet to hear a co-worker or even a random passer-by mention them. And I work in the business world. So Kibbe (and Maddow) may be getting a little too excited. Then again I've never heard anyone in the real world discuss Somali pirates, Obama shaking hands with Saudis or Terry Schiavo. Funny how the blog/media world really seem to have so little connection to our lives.

EJ|4.29.09 @ 11:19PM|#

"cynical enough just to be happy that we have a president and a Congress not beholden to a psychotic ideology that rejects data and evidence that doesn't confirm its preconceptions"

That's funny... didn't mr O just scrap the dc voucher program right after he deliberately withheld releasing the education department's study showing the program worked better and for 1/3 the cost? Got to love how he puts science before ideology.

|4.29.09 @ 11:22PM|#

The Left missed the story? Apparently you guys missed the fact that the crybaby fringe Right hijacked your event. Sorry to be the one to inform you, but libertarians weren't what the Left was reacting to. That being said, I find it amusing that you would stage a tax protest when the vast, vast majority of you are receiving tax breaks courtesy of... *DUN*DUN*DUNNNNN* the Left.

|4.30.09 @ 12:08AM|#

I find it amusing that you would stage a tax protest when the vast, vast majority of you are receiving tax breaks courtesy of... *DUN*DUN*DUNNNNN* the Left.

Hey moron, one of the points of the protests was that it's not really a tax break if you issue vast, unpayable amounts of debt to fund it, thereby ensuring much higher taxes in the future.

|4.30.09 @ 12:22AM|#

you douchebags can't even show a fucking modicum of respect for people exercising their First Amendment rights in a free society.

We can respect the right of tone-deaf assholes to sing in public, but they can't really complain about critiques of their caterwauling.

The teabagathon was lame. Sorry about that.

chris |4.30.09 @ 12:59AM|#

The Tea Parties weren't about tax increases. They were about out of control debt and the tax raises that will result. Once again you fucking party hacks miss the point. Maybe next time people gather to voice their opposition to stupid financial policies, we'll consult the left and the right so we can get a theme or speakers that you both approve of. Wake up! You are being fleeced!

|4.30.09 @ 5:50AM|#

I only hope that these things get really big, a little violent, the mob that now controls Washington very scared.

Many of the people going to these things probably are just jumping on the bandwagon, but so what? If they help turn the tide against the obamatards, i'm all for it.

The New Guy|4.30.09 @ 7:43AM|#

"That being said, I find it amusing that you would stage a tax protest when the vast, vast majority of you are receiving tax breaks courtesy of... *DUN*DUN*DUNNNNN* the Left."

Yeah, it's a real bummer when you try to buy off the population with bread and circuses, then they don't STAY paid off. There oughta be a law!

JohnD|4.30.09 @ 9:09AM|#

I have to ask the question again....
Is Tony a straw man? He sounds waaaaay to idiotic to be a real person.

Anthony|4.30.09 @ 9:20AM|#

Everytime some left wing issue pops us within 15 minutes there is a well organized protest complete with professionally printed signs and rhyming chants.

And we are the atsroturfers?

|4.30.09 @ 9:55AM|#

>Everytime some left wing issue pops us within 15 minutes there is a well organized protest complete with professionally printed signs and rhyming chants.

It's called ACORN. Remember in the late 1990s and 2000s after the Community Investment Act was revamped and given "teeth?" Banks that didn't meet the anti-free-market legislation's requirements for handing out money to people who had no intention of ever repaying it were visited by ACORN rent-a-mobs who stormed around on their premises, intimidated their owners and scared away their customers.

When there's a well-funded (government-subsidized) organization of leftwing activists dedicated to doing nothing but protesting, grafting and looting taxpayers who show up on cue as an organized mob with a specific objective that includes shutting down people who don't comply with the diktats of their government paymasters, that's apparently the Democrat's new definition of "grassroots."

|4.30.09 @ 9:56AM|#

I'd love to teabag Rachel Maddow. I know deep down she really wants it.

OK, had to google her to see an image.

That's a dude, dude, but maybe you already knew that?

Guy Smiley|4.30.09 @ 10:03AM|#

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said teabag 63 times during a 7-minute segment

Maybe she's hetero-curious.

Teabagger|4.30.09 @ 10:08AM|#

I think that Fox News actually hijacked the whole Tea Party movement and, in doing so, discredited it. It became associated with what the left sees as a far-right nutjob movement. When Hannity jumped on the bandwagon (let's face it, he has nothing left) the whole endeavor when south.

|4.30.09 @ 10:10AM|#

"My libertarian values include respect for human rights, keeping Christian fanatics' morals out of my bedroom and their hands off my body, and an end to a stupid drug war. And until the GOP pulls its head out of its ass on those issues, the Left/The Democrats are going to be in control."

It's ok, I guess, for the left to allow Muslim fanatics' morals in our bedrooms and bodies and everywhere.

|4.30.09 @ 10:40AM|#

I think the Democratic party would love for Code Pink to go away. They don't embrace the wackos in their own party like the Republicans do.

|4.30.09 @ 10:41AM|#

It became associated with what the left 80% of the country sees as a far-right nutjob movement.

Fixed that for you.

Winston Smith|4.30.09 @ 10:41AM|#

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

You know, I had actually forgotten about the unstoppable teabag juggernaut...I guess I was busy thinking about how we just got a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Yeah...you guys are really kicking our butts alright.

You've got us right where you want us...

The Chad|4.30.09 @ 10:45AM|#

Tara, that is exactly the problem we are facing. Well put, can we put that on billboards and commercials and flashing banner ads?

bloodstar|4.30.09 @ 11:01AM|#

I'll take Nate Silver's estimates over at fivethirtyeight.com over anything done by the people over at Pajamas. (538 Estimated a little over 300,000 nationwide) Either way, 300K or 700K is less than 0.25% of the population. Which is really not all that impressive.

Personally I don't have a Dog in the fight. I like some of the principles behind the tea party, but I don't like how co-opted the concept became once you had Beck and Fox jump on board and treating it as some Republican or Conservative idea.

|4.30.09 @ 11:08AM|#

The teabaggers are about mob mentalities, dittoheadism, self-aggrandizement and delusions of grandeur. Their "protests" are silly and will do no good.

|4.30.09 @ 11:16AM|#

I don't think the "left" is hysterical about tea parties...I met several fervantly anti-war people who were from the "left" who were protesting at the tea party. Many of the people had signs like "republicans suck too"...there was widespread understanding that the false left-right paradigm is a mind trick to keep us from throwing out the two-party monopoly the elite are use to opress us...the people who work for a living.

|4.30.09 @ 11:34AM|#

I'll take Nate Silver's estimates over at fivethirtyeight.com over anything done by the people over at Pajamas. (538 Estimated a little over 300,000 nationwide) Either way, 300K or 700K is less than 0.25% of the population. Which is really not all that impressive.

Numbers at that level or lower were a groundswell, a fucking steamroller, if you will, when it was anti-war protests, but are a gnat on the donkey's ass when its an anti-tax protest.

Is that about right?

Orange Line Special|4.30.09 @ 11:34AM|#

FreedomWorks were the geniouses behind this video. If they were smarter, they could have had a good impact on what was in the stimulus; they might have even played a role in blocking.

Instead, what FreedomWorks did had no impact whatsoever.

No doubt this comment will attract a lot of the usual purely ad hominem flak, because FreedomWorks defenders don't have a counter-argument. I have no doubt that smart people will realize that what I'm saying is true.

obese|4.30.09 @ 11:36AM|#

Where were all these protesters during the 8 years of insane military spending brought on by two ill-defined wars? I totally get Ron Paul and the libertarians. I think there are many Americans who want government to be as small as possible. But the hypocrisy of the right always astounds me. Apparently they're ok if massive government spending goes to kill people thousands of miles away who were no more a threat to us than the swine flu, but that same amount of government spending to build roads, keep industries afloat and try to prevent an all-out economic collapse is tantamount to treason. That is just ignorant. And furthermore, the original government bailout was by the Bush Administration, and that one had no intention of ever affecting Main Street. The powers to be had the nerve to tell congress to give it the banks now, and don't ask any questions. Where was the outrage on the right then?
And lastly, what is their alternative? They protest, but they have nothing productive to do or say. "you say you got a real solution, we'd all love to see the plan."
I honestly think people forget that this country was very close to a total economic meltdown, and government spending got it out.

guy in the back row|4.30.09 @ 11:43AM|#

Holy cow, who left the gate to the stable open?

|4.30.09 @ 11:53AM|#

>Where were all these protesters during the 8 years of insane military spending brought on by two ill-defined wars?

Coming from people on the left who complained about the Bush deficits and "selling our grandchildren down the river," and who promptly disappeared and shut their yaps the second their boy took office, these criticisms ring hollow.

Try again with something more genuine.

Chad|4.30.09 @ 11:54AM|#

Sean W. Malone | April 29, 2009, 10:26pm | #

cynical enough just to be happy that we have a president and a Congress not beholden to a psychotic ideology that rejects data and evidence that doesn't confirm its preconceptions.

God you're an idiot Tony. About 90% of what Obama has done in office so far has been *expanding* Bush-era policies and ideological positions. Furthermore, the economic "stimulus" spending (which you may recall didn't work in 2003-2004, didn't work in the 90s, didn't work in the 80s, didn't work in Germany or Japan, didn't work in the Depression, and haven't worked... EVER!) is from such a tired and stupid playbook I'm not even sure how you could possibly justify it.

Actually, any honest person would simply admit that there is no way to ever know if stimulus "works", because there is no way to know what would have happened without the stimulus.

I would be interested in your theory of how ANYONE could spend money without boosting the economy and creating jobs, however.

Barry Loberfeld|4.30.09 @ 12:06PM|#

Pity? The Left is DEAD!

Brian Sorgatz|4.30.09 @ 12:50PM|#

Earlier, I wrote:
Well, damn! Playboy.com will have to be rhetorically punished at my blog tomorrow morning. Ooo, they're gonna get it.

For me on the west coast, it's still morning. I'm working on it now.

|4.30.09 @ 1:14PM|#

Matt Kibbe twists the truth like a pretzel and Freedomwatch is a corporate sponsored partisan gang.

Please go away. We've had eight years of this appeal to the low-information rednecks of the US. You make me sick.

|4.30.09 @ 1:30PM|#

the vast, vast majority of you are receiving tax breaks

No, we're not. They're just shifting the means of taxation from direct collection to inflation.

-jcr

|4.30.09 @ 1:32PM|#

what FreedomWorks did had no impact whatsoever.

Specter just came out of the closet and had to admit that he's really playing for the left wing of the Ruling Party. You call that no impact?

-jcr

Chad|4.30.09 @ 1:50PM|#

John C. Randolph | April 30, 2009, 1:30pm |

No, we're not. They're just shifting the means of taxation from direct collection to inflation.

Agreed. Any tiny pittance of a tax break I receive is dwarfed by what I will lose to inflation and future tax increases+interest!

I immediately put every "stimulus" tax cut directly into my childrens' college funds. It is their money, not mine.

Brian Sorgatz|4.30.09 @ 2:18PM|#

Brian Sorgatz|4.30.09 @ 2:20PM|#

Earlier, I wrote:
Well, damn! Playboy.com will have to be rhetorically punished at my blog tomorrow morning. Ooo, they're gonna get it.

Where I live, it's still morning. I said I would do it, and I did it.

Max D.|4.30.09 @ 3:51PM|#

"Voting block"? Try "voting BLOC."

|4.30.09 @ 4:01PM|#

Ugh. Tony.

Joe, come back! All is forgiven!

erik jay|4.30.09 @ 4:28PM|#

You're behind the times a bit. Kubler-Ross's so-called "famous work" never included any claim that there was a common, even fixed set of responses to grief, death, or any other kind of loss. She denied saying it was a "generalized truth" before she died. And it is really less than even an ungeneralized truth, as this excerpt from the article "Five Fallacies of Grief: Debunking Psychological Stages" by Michael Shermer and Matt Collins shows:

According to Russell P. Friedman, executive director of the Grief Recovery Institute in Sherman Oaks, Calif. (www.grief-recovery.com), and co-author, with John W. James, of The Grief Recovery Handbook (HarperCollins, 1998), "no study has ever established that stages of grief actually exist, and what are defined as such can't be called stages. Grief is the normal and natural emotional response to loss…. No matter how much people want to create simple, bullet-point guidelines for the human emotions of grief, there are no stages of grief that fit any two people or relationships."

This darn cliche has entered the realm of urban myth. Stop using it.

Stagman|4.30.09 @ 5:09PM|#

Ugh. Tony.

Joe, come back! All is forgiven!

I agree. How has come to this?

Other Matt|4.30.09 @ 6:42PM|#

Joe, come back! All is forgiven!

No.

|5.1.09 @ 6:15AM|#

As someone who is a leftest, I was against the bailouts in the financial sector (which started under the Bush admin). The whole tea party concept, grassroots or astroturf, was embarassing. I am curious to how many protestors contacted their representatives about the issue. In my blue collar factory town, the eight people I asked who were driving to the states capitol did not. In light of war crimes, disturbing civil liberties violations/rulings (supreme court or otherwise) would make me want to raise my pitchfork and march if going through the proper channels, voting and contacting your representatives had failed.

On a side note, I think it's a good idea to know what fascism is before you call someone a fascist. Also, (again, I'm anti-bailout) understand the United States socialist practices such as your police, fire departments and the postal service.

Finally, Kudos to Reason!!!
I'm happy to see a prominent non-leftist article even if it's one I disagree with.
Hooray for the 1st amendment.

Peter Jensen|5.1.09 @ 7:05AM|#

Looks like Matt Kibbe drank FNC koolaid.

Peter Jensen|5.1.09 @ 7:16AM|#

Correction, Matt Kibbe is one of the heads of FreedomWorks which worked hand in hand to promote this fake grassroots mvnt.
In other words this piece is just propaganda!

The Libertarian Guy|5.1.09 @ 10:12AM|#

David Axelrod: The Democrat version of Karl Rove.

|5.1.09 @ 12:21PM|#

"If you refuse to criticize Obama and his spending, you surrender all right to criticize the waste of the Bush administration, lest you become the most bald-faced hypocrite on the face of the fucking earth."

I would argue the inverse is true. All the idiots who sat back and cheered useless legislation like the PATRIOT act and No Child Left Behind are bald-faced hypocrites if they whine about the current spending. Wait a minute, isn't that who mainly attended the tea parties??


I suppose bandwagon libertarians are better than none at all. At least Matt Kibbe would argue so

|5.1.09 @ 5:09PM|#

Staying focused on the big picture will be hard, but making two tangible changes come 2010 will be easy - total turnover in 2010 and term limits by 2012. The tea party att4endees were the 40% of us in the middle who identify themselves as "no party," and both parties have every right to be concerned. neither of them can claim 40% of the electorate.

|5.4.09 @ 2:20PM|#

A very well written article! Very objective and honest reporting! WOW! Thought that was a dead art! I'm glad to hear that somebody did their homework, and had the guts to call it like it is! Grassroots...it sure is....we had the hardest time trying to figure out how to do it and where, as we aren't normally doing these kinds of things and had no help! It was in the works long before FOX news got wind of it- they just decided to cover it cause they knew the msm wouldn't! Face it- we aren't going away!

Joe 6 Pack|5.5.09 @ 2:38AM|#

HA! A pro-teabagging piece by a lead teabagger! 700,000 people! With "a sophisticated understanding of economics"! Participating in a "grassroots" event!

Let's see, should I believe the Nobel Prize winner, or the Republican flack who more than likely thinks Ayn Rand was a genius?

This is the funniest thing I've read all day. Many thanks for the chuckles.

Bill Ross|5.5.09 @ 9:49AM|#

Do the math. If civilization is to exist, the values of the productive MUST prevail. Failure to oppose has doomed all socialist endeavors and will DOOM the US. Further, revolution can win by peaceful means (such a teaparties+).

Proof:
http://www.nazisociopaths.org/modules/article/view.article.php/c1/32

Bill Ross
(Electronics Design Engineer)

|5.6.09 @ 3:48PM|#

The great teabagging crusade of '09 will end up known more as the event that launched a thousand double entendres than as one that moved the politics of the time. Three weeks out and nothing has become of it. If that is not proof that it was an astroturfed spectacle promoted by a Fox News network that now does little more than preach to the choir, I don't know what is. What you people fail to grasp is the stench of the failures of the Bush administration isn't going to go away anytime soon. And when the majority of the electorate see the same clowns who celebrated Bush as Churchill waiving teabags, it stands little chance of growing beyond the April sideshow that it was.

|5.6.09 @ 3:51PM|#

Umm... there weren't 15,000 people in Atlanta. It was half of that -- and using Pajamas Media as a reliable source? Why not just use Conservapedia?

http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2009/04/27/the-myth-of-the-15000/

Xanthippas|5.6.09 @ 3:59PM|#

Wow. So Reason has stooped to printing straight-up propaganda. Welcome to irrelevancy, guys.

http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks

|5.6.09 @ 4:24PM|#

I'm sympathetic to the libertarian point-of-view here, even if I don't agree with it. A good friend of mine helped organize one of the protests in Arizona. But these weren't libertarian events. They were Republican events. Regardless of how they got started, they were co-opted by Fox News and Dick Armey and all the other douchebags who helped drive this country in the ditch. So while it may have felt good going to one of the events, they came off to the majority of Americans as just a stupid GOP freakshow. Which is sad, because while I am not a proponent of Austrian economics, I recognize that we need to hear that point-of-view as we move forward. Hearing that Michele Bachmann is now a Dr. Paul acolyte is not exactly what I had in mind.

|5.6.09 @ 8:19PM|#

Who spoke at Pittsburgh's "tea party"?

Alan Keyes. Wouldn't exactly call him a libertarian icon now would you?

It doesn't matter if the tea party protest idea was originally a Ron Paul movement thing, it was completely and totally co-opted by the GOP and the radical, right-wing nutjobs-- Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and all of FoxNews. Grassroots my ass. What did most Americans see and hear about them, if they heard about them at all? That the republicans were having a big we-hate-Obama party.

I know a lot of you are all excited about doing it again on the 4th of July. I seriously doubt that is going to go over well.

|5.6.09 @ 8:39PM|#

"When you consider the fact his administration released a report(right before the Tea Party's,) either implying or explicitly stating a huge swath of the population is potential terrorists"

Ummm....that report was ordered by the BUSH ADMINISTRATION before Obama ever got into office along with a report on left wing fringe and terrorist groups like the ELF. The report on the leftist groups was released earlier this year to no fanfare.

You people are fucking pathological.

|5.6.09 @ 8:43PM|#

"Everytime some left wing issue pops us within 15 minutes there is a well organized protest complete with professionally printed signs and rhyming chants."

That comes with 40 years of protesting.

Captain USA|5.6.09 @ 10:30PM|#

OK, sure. Technically I suppose hysterical laughter is a "hysterical reaction."

Looking forward to more street comedy from you clowns on "American Freedom Day".

Hint: Try big puppets.

|5.6.09 @ 11:45PM|#

The left (as well as the middle, for that matter) is mostly laughing at the teabaggers. The number that turned out is small compared to the antiwar protests, which turned out tens of millions of people. And the media paid far less attention to the antiwar protests than they did to the teabaggers.

|5.7.09 @ 5:19PM|#

Some left-wing blogger must have linked to this article yesterday, thus we have moonbats posting here, starting the afternoon of the 6th. Some of them have even attended the Move-on seminars on persuadin':

"I'm sympathetic to the libertarian point-of-view here..."

Oh, do tell. You are "sympathetic" to libertarians, as long as they do not engage in or join mass movements.