Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent discusses CNN’s poll of the Tea Party Movement:
__
Tea Party activists are 60 percent male and 80 percent white, with 77 percent of them self-identifying as “conservatives” and 44 percent identifying as “Republicans.” While 47 percent of Americans report making less than $50,000 a year, only 26 percent of Tea Party activists make that little, while 34 percent make $75,000 or more. The major way in which this movement differs from the Republican Party’s makeup is in geography. Only 31 percent live in the South. Twenty-nine percent live in the Midwest, and 28 percent live in the West. Only in the Northeast, where 13 percent of activists live, are they relatively underrepresented (19 percent of all poll respondents live there).
So, is it correct to assume that some portion of the “Tea Party Movement” are basically well-to-do racists who just don’t get enough social validation from their immediate neighbors?
And would it be wrong to encourage the Angry White Men to relocate to an area where their bullshit deeply held political convictions would be more in tune with their fellows, or does Mississippi have enough problems already?
geg6
And bankers and traders. Don’t forget them. After all, it was a trader who started it all.
Ash
Only 80% white? I don’t believe that. Sorry white people.
Xtream Teem
Teh bitchin http://tiny.cc/ymeCH
ellaesther
I’m sorry. Did you say “some portion”?
me
The rest are “Independent” right?
Common Sense
I’m pretty sure that the Tea Bag movement is merely a loose cooperative of the most extreme right wing elements in every community.
El Cid
Well, I guess this does make them a lot more like the Founding Fathers.
beergoggles
In the northeast that demographic is called gaylisters.
geg6
@me:
Yup (or at least, mostly).
Bubblegum Tate
@Common Sense:
Oh, there’s no question about it–that’s exactly what it is. But it is interesting to see the demographic breakdown.
andrea
try 99% white
b-psycho
WTF @ the 3% that call themselves “liberals”…who are those people?
Kennedy
@Ash: I second that.
Mike Kay
@b-psycho:
Mrs. Jane Hamsher-Norquist
Common Sense
@Common Sense amended:
I’m pretty sure that the Tea Bag movement is merely a loose cooperative of the most extreme right wing elements in every community. Which is why they are on an unwinnable kamikaze mission. Here in TX for example the Tea Bagger Gubernatiuorial candidaet was actually doing quite well (admittedly with an assist from the other two tearing each other down) until she expressed doubts about whether or not the US was involved with 9/11. Even out here, truthers are considered “out there.”
Note: I don’t usually quote myself, but the software won’t let me edit my post…
Mark S.
Following some of the links from an earlier post, I came across the Tea Partiers’ new manifesto, The Contract From America. It contains a lot of conservative memes, like privatizing Social Security and drill, baby, drill, but as Right Wing Watch states, there isn’t a lot of red meat for Bible thumpers:
This would tie in well with the poll results that say most teabaggers are well-off, tax-and-government hating types. They sound more like Ron Paul followers than traditional Republicans.
El Cid
The silver-tongued teatard elegies to the Grand American Experiment continue.
Well, at least she didn’t quote from Walker, Texas Ranger, and recommend a roundhouse kick to Murray’s head before jumping out through the bay window right as the fireball explodes out behind you.
Mike Kay
@b-psycho:
I’m sure there’s some Hillary/Edwards PUMAs out there. Lord knows they’re on the internets still screaming about the primaries.
freelancer
yes.
El Cid
@Mark S.: Neal Boooortz was beside himself today with anger that somehow the uber-powerful “Fair Tax” was removed from the list being voted on for the Contract
OnFrom America.Sue
40% are college graduates? Then what’s with all the spelling errors on the signs?
de stijl
Predominantly of the “Republicans are libtard pussies” stripe.
Elvis Elvisberg
Ditto. No way in hell.
Mike Kay
@Sue:
they graduated from the Yale School for Locksmiths
http://www.libertysecure.co.uk/images/yale%20×5.jpg
Dimmic Rat
Mississippi is a great place to live, don’t send them here.
lol
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted by telephone February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans, including 124 respondents who said they had taken active steps to support the Tea Party, such as donating money or attending a rally self. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points and plus or minus 9 percentage points for Tea Party activists only.
Why is anyone taking this poll seriously? It’s crap.
jenniebee
The numbers look like the emergence of these parties make about zero difference to Democrats and a potentially destructive difference to Republicans. My feeling is that this is nothing more than the piper’s bill coming due on decades of Republican campaigning on abortion and lowering the deficit that never produced results on either issue (not that the campaigners intended that they should – what else would they have to campaign on next time if they eliminated abortion rights and balanced the budget?) Anyway, this is the R party faithful getting fed up and pitching a ruckus, and the R party establishment making the standard wife-beater’s package of empty promises (I love you, you know I’d never hurt you, come back and things will be different this time I swear…)
These polls and the Michael Steele kabuki haven’t changed my mind – the Tea Parties are finally something that is Not Good News for John McCain, which means that they are fantastic news for Democrats.
Joshua Norton
If they’re so damned well off, how come they were positively weeping tears of rage and spitting nails over the cost to attend the last Teabaggers’ convention? Surely they don’t expect things to just be handed to them. Or do they?
Mark S.
@El Cid:
Is that this one?
But see, these are secular conservatives, because the original draft called for the tax code to be no longer than the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not tax capital gains. Thou shalt not tax estates, etc.
geg6
@Sue:
They don’t specify which college.
And then there’s that pesky 60% who obviously didn’t make it out of high school.
lol
@Ash:
Tends to happen when the margin of error is +/i 9 percent.
jharp
Calling Nate Silver.
The poll is bullshit. It’s already been debunked.
http://www.openleft.com/diary/17427/cnn-produces-poll-of-americans-who-exaggerate-their-political-activism
Josh Huaco
80 percent identified as white, the other 20 identified as ‘Murrican.
Sentient Puddle
I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if education level of teabaggers really is higher than we expected. As fresh out of college as I am, I still see all kinds of stupid shit from Facebook friends and friends of those friends commenting and starting moronic arguments about why the gold standard is teh awesome.
I mean Christ, I took the basic macroeconomics class at that school (which was about it as far as economics classes went there), and even I know how moronic this shit is.
jacy
Only 80% white? Great googly creeping god, WTF are the other 20%, eggshell, ecru, slightly off-white?
de stijl
It’s a total coincidence that 97.5% white New Hampshire was selected as the home state for the Free State Project over 37% black Mississippi.
Josh Huaco
@Sentient Puddle:
I could never figure out why “ooh, shineeey” is something money should be based upon.
El Cid
@Mark S.: There should be no law longer than 3 words. In words of no more than 5 letters. And they must be printed on stone tablets. [I.e., ‘STOP THE SPEND’.]
Ash
@lol:
That only pushes it up to 89%, which is still too low. And of course a poll with only 124 respondents is bullshit, but it’s still funny.
J. Michael Neal
@Mark S.:
Good luck with that. Try defining the word “Income.” 4,543 words wouldn’t even get you through the glossary.
bemused
@b-psycho:
Hopelessly confused.
freelancer
@Xtream Teem:
And with that lineup, I lose a huge amount of respect for The Gregory Brothers.
Mark S.
@El Cid:
HOMESCOLE
[or however that idiot spelled it]
Annie
@Josh Huaco:
LOL….If the media didn’t give this sorry little group of racists so much publicity, they would have crawled back into their wholes long ago. It is the media that has kept them alive.
All it will take is one rally with more than 500 anti-teabaggers to retake the narrative, and help Democratic candidates in November start going on the offense, instead of hiding under their desks.
Teabaggers — You want small government, give up medicare and social security and farm subsidies and unemployment support, etc. Taxes are lower (point Democrats). Stimulus is working (point Democrats). The troops in Afghanistan are on the offensive (point Democrats). Many captured Al Quaeda (point Democrats), etc., etc., etc. Get Grayson and get moving.
El Cid
@Mark S.: BIBLE IN SCHOLES
Mark S.
@jharp:
Isn’t that how many people Malkin counted at the DC tea rally?
freelancer
@El Cid:
Are you sure they wouldn’t spell it BIBEL?
jenniebee
Just got a robocall voiced by Michael “oldest son of Ronald” Reagan. The second question asked if I agreed that the last president to cut or reform taxes was his dad and that now taxes are back up which is “hurting average people like you and me.”
I failed to agree either with the premise that the last president to cut or reform taxes was Reagan (see Clinton, Bush ’43, plus Reagan raised taxes three times) or with the notion that the eldest son of a movie star and US president is an “average person” so I didn’t get to hear question #3.
Anne Laurie
@de stijl:
Y’know, I thought about including a clause that we’d cede New Hampster to the glibertarians and Paultards (which is a real sacrifice, since I live within 15 minutes of the NH border). But I decided Mississippi really needed the tax revenues — I mean, “enhanced opportunity for free-market business formation” — more.
Third Eye Open
@Sentient Puddle: Working for a college, myself, I know the people you’re talking about. They are generally out of the Business and Econ schools (surprise, I know) but they have bought whole-heartedly into the “libertarian” camp. I see this as a third option to piss-off their very Republican parents without having to share common ground with the “hippies and women-study crowd”.
But one thing I can never wrap my head around is this gold-standard BS. There is only $12-billion produced each year
El Cid
@freelancer: It’s the sound of the word what matters, not how you ay-leets spell it.
Third Eye Open
My Kingdom for an Edit button…
@Third Eye Open: …$12-billion of gold produced each year. How does backing every dollar with tangible goods work, since $12-billion is a drop in the bucket of just OUR national budget. This is not snark, I really want to understand how this plan works…or doesn’t
ChrisZ
Indeed. Even ignoring the people who claimed the “other” way of actively supporting the movement, you still had 2% of respondents, or about 4.5 million people claiming to have given money to the teabaggers. Just under 4 million donated to the Obama campaign and only around 800,000 to McCain.
ChrisZ
Well my comment was supposed to be a reply to jharp’s article, but the reply apparently didn’t work. Nor does the edit button.
HyperIon
@El Cid: regarding hanging someone in effigy
When I was a kid, the only folks who got hung in effigy were college coaches. I swear this happened fairly regularly when the state team had an unexpectedly bad season; there would be a rally and fans would hoist a dummy with the coach’s name on a card around the neck. And nobody thought much about it. Now it appears to be tantamount to calling for a lynching. Strange times we live in.
El Cid
@HyperIon: I’d point out that the speaker didn’t say “in effigy”.
Security Commander Nyder
Mississippi has plenty of problems, but it can always absorb more angry white guys who hate Those People.
cfaller96
Speaking for South Carolina, we’ve got enough problems as it is. Joe the Teabagger should stay in Ohio, plzthx.
b-psycho
@de stijl: They couldn’t resist the “live free or die” motto.
BTW: considering who tends to run shit in Mississippi, it’s not like blacks don’t have built-in incentive for anti-government activism there. There’s a difference between people that are skeptics of government power because it overwhelmingly translates to corporatism & violence and the idiots that define not wanting to pay taxes because they think all the money goes to lazy niggers as a philosophy.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Third Eye Open:
About how it sounds. It’s insanely deflationary. It’s about as close to voodoo-economics as you can get.
More goods and services with a fixed money pool will create massive downward pressure on prices. Downward pressure on prices and assets equals lower incentives for investment, more difficulty paying off debt, and a negative wealth effect that creates economic stagnation. It’ll be great for people with a lot of money in the bank, though.
On a tangential note, you’ll often hear a lot of these glibertarian/tea party/paultard types spout off on the wonders of deflation, and how inflation is an evil conspiracy created by the fed.
jenniebee
@J. Michael Neal: It’s always the simplest concepts that require the longest definitions. Check out the dictionary definition of “the” sometime.
jenniebee
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason: The prospect of deflation should scare the ever-living shit out of every person with a car loan, a mortgage or a credit card balance. You think you’re underwater now…
de stijl
Third Eye Open,
I think it mostly comes down to full-on FDR hate.
A la FDR took us off the gold standard, FDR was a socialist, socialism is bad and wrong and icky, ergo, ipso facto, taking the opposite of FDR must be right, QE-fucking-D.
Thus, it is proved.
Nevermind that “Assuming a gold price of US$1,000 per ounce, or $32,500 per kilogram, the total value of all the gold ever mined would be around $4.5 trillion. This is less than the value of circulating money in the U.S. alone, where more than $8.3 trillion is in circulation or in deposit (M2).[21]” or that a return to the gold standard would mean the end to monetary policy as a tool against recession.
There are lots of rare elements. Gold is unique in that it’s shiny, can be found on the surface, doesn’t tarnish, is malleable – easily used make jewelry and coins, and our ancestors generally liked the cut of it’s jib.
I say fuck gold! Let’s convert to the tellurium standard or, if you’re a DFH, the bismuth standard.
Gold is fiat currency blessed by history and tradition.
El Cid
@jenniebee: I’m not so sure that the prospect of deflation would alarm people, no matter how much it should. We really don’t have inflation now, yet most everyone I talk to at work are convinced that we’re experiencing / about to experience terrible inflation.
Origuy
The racial breakdown of those who were classified as “Tea Party Activists” is 80% white, 2% African-American, and 10% Latino. That leaves 8% as “Other” or “Decline to State”. Probably most of the decliners were white. Also, keep in mind that this was a telephone poll. The poll-takers had no way of verifying the race of the respondents. People lie.
Litlebritdifrnt
Have not read all the posts so forgive me if this has been covered but round here (home of Camp Lejeune) 100% of the Tea Party people are RETIRED MILITARY OR CIVIL SERVICE, so basically every single one has been “sucking on the government’s teet” their entire working and retired lives with both payroll, retirement pay and medical benefits. Whenever I see them spouting “Taxed enough already” I want to scream “so its okay if we cut your retirement pay and lifetime medical benefits then right? right?” crickets. If there is one thing I cannot stand with these people it is their IGMFU attitude.
Degringolade
I live in Mississippi and for f—‘s sake don’t send me any more of these people.
phoebes-in-santa fe
I stopped reading after I saw that they were claiming to be only 80% white.
There is no way that group is not 99.99% “pure”.
EIGRP
@Common Sense: That made me think of Monty Python:
and then this:
-Eric
Mike in NC
I have a brother with an MBA who’s almost functionally illiterate. Can’t compose an e-mail paragraph without 20 typos.
About 90% of the hardcore Republicans I knew in the DC area either worked for the federal government, were retired from the federal government, or were contractors for the federal government. Extremely well off, but they loved to rail against welfare cheats, complain about bloated government, and light candles to their little Ronald Reagan shrines. Just the usual hypocrisy.
gbear
@b-psycho:
Is that what it is? I always thought it was “Live, freeze, and die”. Whadayaknow.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
They aren’t as old as I expected, though. 60% are younger than 50.
EIGRP
@El Cid: That works really well for them, such as “Drill More” and “Bomb Iran”
-Eric
El Cid
@EIGRP: And those are both better because they only have 2 words. “Drill Baby Drill” though fit the limit. Of course, you can always just add “NOW” onto the end of any 2 word barking declaration.
Citizen Alan
@de stijl:
The figure for Mississippi is misleading, as we have successfully kept the bulk of our un-Caucasians neatly confined to the Delta region (not coincidentally the only Congressional district with a black Representative). The Teabaggers would probably feel quite at home in several of the Northeastern counties, and in some places could effectively send their kids to all-white schools.
God, talking about my home state is so depressing.
Isand in Alabama
At what point do people accept that tea baggers are just klansmen without sheets?
Bo
I have to agree with previous MS posters: don’t send anymore stupid, loutish, bigoted rednecks to MS. We have enough of the home-grown variety already.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
They sound like the same people that tend to lead al Qaeda, well of and extreme. Which really does make the Republicans like the Taliban.
Brett
I was more surprised at how young the movement is – 40% aged 30-49, as opposed to 35% of Americans as a whole. Whenever you see a newspaper interview a teabagger (like that one long piece in the NYT), it’s always “John Freeman, 67” or “Jenna Wilkeson, 59”.
Jeffro
Teabaggers skewing towards higher incomes fits with “Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State”s main point: these culture war issues (of which Teabagging mostly is about, imho) are mainly an upper-middle-class & up thing.
GREAT book.
Nick
@b-psycho:
Jane Hamsher and the caravan of crazy at OpenLeft perhaps?
darryl
Matt Yglesias went to Harvard, and he can barely spell his own name.
cleek
racists?
i wish you weren’t so eager to go there.
darryl
I remember a conversation with a wingnut relative about that.
me: what’s so great about gold
them: it’s got intrinsic value.
me: no it doesn’t. Soup’s got intrinsic value. I can eat it. Jacket’s got intrinsic value. It protects me from the cold. What’s the intrinsic value of gold?
them: It’s got intrinsic value.
It seriously was like Brawndo. It’s got elec-tro-lytes. They’re what plants crave.
darryl
If you want a serious explanation, it’s because it’s rare and fungible, and currency is an abstract system which requires that. If a chemical process was invented tomorrow which could make gold out of water and old burrito covers, it would cease to be rare, and the price would collapse.
darryl
@ cleek:
Seriously, dude? Move to the Deep South, where I live. The Tea Party is 50% We hate liberals, and 50% We hate niggers.
delurker
@darryl:
also gold is basically useless. That’s why having, say, germanium as a reserve currency would be bad: all the germanium would go into bank vaults and electronics would become hella expensive overnight.
Seanly
@Degringolade:
As one of the few liberals in South Carolina, I would also ask that our state not take in any more white male wingnuts.
Citizen Alan
@darryl:
While I agree with the sentiment, this formulation amuses me — it implies that 50% of southern Teabaggers are racist liberals while the other 50% are pro-miscegenation conservatives. That would make an interesting political movement.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Brett:
This takes me back to this poll I saw on age and party affiliation. Gen X’ers were the most Republican outside of the Silent Generation. They started paying attention to politics during teh dreamy Reagan administration, and for many of them, their fragile little minds never unwarped.
deadrody
Well, Anne, all “tea baggers” are racists ? Very nice. Good to know it isn’t only John upholding the fine standards here.
The Tim Channel
Mississippi has all kinds of problems, but racial strife isn’t really as big an issue as you perceive it to be. That is more of a beltway mentality.
Enjoy.
ksmiami
p.s. I think they are lying about their incomes… kind of like Joe the Plumber lying about his so called tax burden. They don’t make a dime over 60 k and the ones at the actual events are unemployed because most people can’t take that kind of time off right now.
They are Rush Limbaugh’s core listener group. As-wipes, all.
waylon
i think it’s short sighted to think of tea party people as all ‘asswipes’. perhaps a percentage of them are normal people like you and me who have turned to a different set of folks for information and truly feel big institutions are threatening the ‘little guy’. that’s not so different from what we think right? some of them are clearly asswipes don’t get me wrong but a percentage of them may have the same politics we do. and elections are a game of percentages. all i’m saying is don’t fall into the us against them trap.
Evinfuilt
@Sue:
Liberty University is still a college, even if its for “Home Scholers”.
ksmiami
I guess I meant the vocal ones – look, I am sympathetic to people who are afraid of technological change, global integration and a feeling of powerlessness… BUT, as a whole these people have allowed themselves to be totally duped by the Scaifes and Norquists and are confused as to who has made them victims of globalization… They are mad as hell…at what exactly? And why have they rallied around the same group who has basically decimated the middle class starting with Reagan and getting its final push by the Bushies. I think Warren Buffet’s saying, if you are sitting at a table trying to figure out who the patsy is, then it is you…” They are unwilling to assess reality – that wealth in this nation has been concentrating at a rate unprecedented since the early 1900s and the government does exist to provide stepping stones for the less fortunate, invest in infrastructure and education and maintain a strong middle class. It is easier for them to blame the rung below, then look up for awhile and I find them as a group, pretty unhinged and a threat to civic society….
waylon
@ks i know. it’s wild. it’s crazy!
i just wish we could figure out a way to tell them to stop rallying around the same people who are screwing them. i don’t know what that is but it almost certainly not by calling them assholes and referring to them with dick jokes. the people who are screwing them at least treat them with respect.
Elie
@Annie:
Totally agree — I think this whole teabagger thing is partially a media generated phenomenon that stays alive because of the media..
I also think that seeing this bull on a consistent basis glorified in some ways, is turning us even more into a nation of bullys. That is what the teabaggers do — disrespect and intimidate to try to impose their personal desires on our political system and its elected leaders — leaders selected by the vast majority of Americans. They are basically trying to invalidate that legitimate process with mob rule.
I want them to be told to stick it and to be shoved back into their rat holes, failed septic systems and the like. That is, unless they can become civilized and take part in our legitimate process.
PS – That survey was too small and non representative but I would wager that a higher proportion of teabaggers than the general population have serious mental illness too
Elie
@waylon:
Unless you think that being manipulated and used is not being treated with respect.
The teabaggers are being played against their own self interest. I do not feel being exploited is being treated with respect… no way.
ksmiami
But this gets to the heart of it, right?… How do you communicate this to the teabagger hoi polloi that they are being used without sounding like a “condescending ‘litist” – I don’t think it can be done so the best you can do is the FDR thing. Create successful programs that make a material difference in the lives of the middle class and then shout that you created said programs from the highlands. I still believe that Obama has that potential, but he needs a new communications team pronto!
Bender
Yeah, especially the black ones that Lefty Media has to airbrush out of the narrative.
lethargytartare
@waylon:
“but a percentage of them may have the same politics we do.”
who’s this “we” you’re speaking of? you got a mouse in your pocket?
waylon
@elie – true. on the surface they treat them with respect while they really jack them and play them for fools. i should have said they pretend to treat them with respect.
@ks – ya. i don’t know what the answer is.
we probably just have to take a big fall. we can’t talk to them without sounding like elitists. our messaging to them is non existent besides insulting them. they continue to listen to the garbage they are fed. most people on both sides are scared. most people on both sides are getting screwed. the powerful are so powerful and getting more and more powerful. we’ll see how it all plays out. until then, i’ll be downloading stones boots.
http://twilightzone-rideyourpony.blogspot.com/2010/02/rolling-stones-more-stoned-than-youll.html
Elie
@waylon:
Waylon: do you talk to someone who is screaming and ranting and insulting you?
I think I have trouble actually believing that these folks really have issues that they truly want to fix or address. You can’t solve anything screaming and ranting.
I feel no obligation to haul them in. They have to bring themselves back into the system if they are truly wanting a solution — which I doubt. They are being coached to showboat and make the Dems and Obama Admin look bad. Beginning and end of it.
lethargytartare
@Elie:
“I think I have trouble actually believing that these folks really have issues that they truly want to fix or address. You can’t solve anything screaming and ranting.”
that’s probably because the entire movement is comprised of people who just knew there’s something they didn’t like about Obama, but they juuuuuust couldn’t figure out how to articulate it until a former hedge-fund president hanging out on the CME floor told them it was all about the socialism of making “us” pay for “their” houses.
waylon
i don’t know elie. people rarely do that to me. but yes, i would talk to them for sure! a lot of times people that do that kind of thing are just scared. you have to take the high road, not freak out, show them a little courage. display the peace in your soul. when you do they totally disarm and are putty in your hands! it’s a hard thing to do though i admit. you want to kick their ass at first!!!!! but you have to chill, be smart. not freak as i say.
thanks for the dialog. peace.
ksmiami
And Elie I agree in that you have to stand up to bullies and not let your own voice be cowered… I think a big public smackdown would be a healthy first start… Grayson could be an effective speaker, or Trumka… They need to weave the narrative that Democrat policies serve the many and the Reps, not so much…
bjacques
I notice a few posters (I’m looking at *you* cleek@83 and bender@101) taking Anne’s statement about “some portion” of teabaggers being racists and replacing “some portion” with “all.”
But, judging by the number of “homescholed” teabaggers out there, I don’t think the movement is very big on reading comprehension either.
I’m all for condescension and dick jokes. Every time a teabagger says something nutty in public, there is a Republican Congressman or Senator encouraging it and a Village pundit stroking his or her chin(s) and calling it the legitimate voice of a worried electorate.
It’s past time that someone in high office or on a national talk show will tell a teabagger “You are a fucking idiot and an embarrassment to anything with opposable thumbs. Go home and read a book and come back when you have something intelligent to say.”
Dick jokes are a start, at least.
Elie
@waylon:
Waylon:
Here’s the scene:
We are shipwrecked on an island and have found enough wood and parts to start building a boat. Among us are people with experience building boats and navigating but there is still a lot of uncertainty about how we can get to safety. 75% of the folks start to pitch in an help out, gathering wood, working with the experienced boat builder, figuring out our route, etc.
Of the 25% not participating, 10% want to stay on the island and want to use the wood that we are using to build the boat for fire. The other 15% are screaming that the boat builder is incompetent and we are all going to our doom.
The boat is ready, and you want to go out on high tide. How much effort do YOU want to expend convincing the screamers and the stay on the island with no change folks to participate and come along?
I think its their choice and I wouldnt spend one minute. When the time comes, we who want to try to get back home, get in the boat and do our best to go forward.
You can spend your time on the island trying to convince the minority to go and to try to quiet the screamers until some more wood washes us or whatever..
Waylon
Elie – Thanks for the post. I don’t understand it. Who is the 75 %? Who/what is the boat? Is it meant to reflect contemporary American politics??
Anyway thanks. I’ll ponder it.
royalblue_tom
Waylon, the problem is that the majority of the teabaggers are not sincere (I’ll concede that in some cases this is sub-conscious). No matter how polite you are, or firm in your convictions, you will never win them over because they’ve already picked a side, and you aren’t on it. Even if they agree with you, they will go vote against what they just agreed with.
Most are essentially “born again” republicans trying to suggest that they weren’t to blame for the last 8 years, even though they cheered the republicans every step of the way. Their “We’re #1” mentality demands that they are on the winning side, and when they’ve lost (especially due to their own choices), someone must have cheated.
In almost every case, their sole cause is the same as the republicans because that’s what they are – against whatever the democrats propose. Asked about any proposal, their solutions are tax cuts for the rich and reduced government programs (except for defense spending and wars, and creating a fundamentalist christian theocratic state).
And if it comes to a vote, all will ABSOLUTELY vote republican if there isn’t a teabagger candidate, regardless of the candidates or the issues.
Waylon
Far out man. Thanks.