It purports to be an even-handed look at the Tea Party movement, portraying it with some accuracy as inchoate and amorphous, a potential powerhouse looking for its Teddy Roosevelt to become a legitimate third party force in American politics. However, if you read the story carefully, reporter David Barstow went out of his way to load it with references to simultaneously marginalize it and give it a 'dangerous lunatics' overtone. His repeated references to the neo-Nazi Aryan Nation, the 'birthers,' gun rights advocates, the Bilderbergers and Trilateral Commission types so beloved of conspiracy theorists, and a resurgent militia movement are deliberately slanted to infer that anyone associated with the Tea Party movement is a lunatic fringer.
What I took from Barstow's article is the idea that millions of Americans across the country are fed up with the Republican Party (though less so than the other guys); the Democratic Party; an intrusive and insensitive federal government that is abusing the public's trust, tax dollars and the consent of the governed as never before, going back to before 9/11; the Obama administration, its unelected czars and all its ideas; and the perception/feeling that the current political parties comprise an elite that is like the ancien regime of France before the French Revolution. There's a feeling that somehow the idiots inside the Beltway who don't manage the country for the benefit of its people are the bought and paid for puppets of Big Business and Wall Street, who take care of themselves and to hell with the ordinary citizens.
I don't think Barstow really understood what he was seeing as he gathered the data for his story. He'd do well to read the 'famine' section of the Pearl S. Buck classic, The Good Earth. He needs to pay attention to the proverbs of the Chinese peasantry about what happens when the rich get too rich and the poor get too poor; because that's the direction the United States is currently headed in.
If things aren't turned around in this country very soon, I much fear me that the Russian economist who predicted the United States as presently constituted could break up by 2012 due to the insensitivity of the yankee gummint and a collapsing economy might be on target. We may indeed get to a point where the citizens take to the streets, guns in hand, in revolt against the central government in Civil War II. And that scares me.
Location: Colorado, with all the pot smoking libtards -_-
Posts: 4,149
I don't think people realize exactly how much they will lose if they "take to the streets". Running water, gas, electricity, food, etc. Civil War II might turn into everybody for themselves, like an apocalypse type of thing. I don't think people are really prepared for something like that to happen, or would do anything if it did happen. However, if people do keep loosing jobs at a record rate, not finding anywhere to live, no running water, electricity, food, etc., then it really just might come down to it. That IS scary!
Our forefathers fought to give us the right to vote, so we wouldn't have to revolt against a tyrannical government or a dictatorship. Right now, we as citizens of this nation still have that right. Next election, be sure to vote out any and all incumbents, good or bad. They will get the message that they work for us. And if one day, the government forfeits that right to vote, the constitution, and tries to disarm us, then that is when this nation will need to be reminded that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."-Thomas Jefferson
I truly hope that day never comes, but we did outlive our forefathers predictions of how long our democratic government has lasted. Even Thomas Jefferson gave our government 200 years max before it failed. You can look that one up too. I hope the people up in office start growing enough brain in there stupid heads to tell them that they better make some changes quick, or they aren't going to be in office much longer.
__________________ Well done is better than well said - Benjamin Franklin
Taking it to the streets and halls of govt. will eventually be the only option.
Ok, everybody please put your guns in the dumpster, and we will give you a month's food rations cards.
David Barstow is the same clown who came on the Olberman show after the Cheney hunting accident dressed up in hunting gear.
His unofficial nickname is David "Can you out radical me" Barstow.
You want a flaming lib......look no further.
ROFL...I wonder if Mr. Barstow would like to interview the retiring US Senator Bayh? The reasons the Senator from Indiana gave for his abruptly leaving the Senate are some of the exact same things TEA party members have been saying since the beginning. I can find no more absolute proof that the members of the TEA party are correct than having a standing Democrat US Senator, who was once considered as a possible running mate for the current President, actually leaving office for those very reasons. Does Mr. Barstow think the Senator is some right-wing dangerous lunatic as well?
__________________ Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty--- Jefferson
I quite agree with you and wish to applaud you on an excellent post. I feel you are really on top of this situation both factually and intellectually.
The New York Times is such a strange news organization. Like the New Yorker Magazine there are occasionally stories of great research and insight. Then. all to often, we have the stories that drift off to the agenda of the writer and the editors.
I disagree the Tea Parties are exclusively of the right wing. While many supporters are politically conservative in nature even in Texas there
were Tea Party supporters of liberal leanings who seek personal freedom, responsible government, accountability in public life, and so on . . .
It is not the Tea Party supporters who threaten any aspect of American life but rather those who have done so much to cause us to be where we are now that feel threatened by those seeking responsible government.
Although I know it is too much for which to hope, I would like it if a Tea Party occurred on every courthouse lawn in America in the weeks leading up to this fall's elections. It would be even better if a candidate truly representing the goals of the Tea Party supporters were on hand to address each meeting.
Finding a canadate that the TEA party can support and will not buckle
under to party pressure would be great
Right now my crystal ball is in the shop for repair so I can't see
the future
The true Tea Party does not want to be hijacked by the Republicans that helped get us in this mess. They want to stand as a new party, I suggest Badnarik, who came back from death to fight for the Constitution.
Some on the left are starting to call attention to the fact that the Tea Parties do not reflect the racial fabric of America.
These are the same folks that have long since claimed the minorities as being "in the pocket" of the Democrats. The problem is that, as much as the media plays it off as being, this has nothing to do with being Democrat or Republican. It has to do with trust in the government, or lack of it; and that is universal across racial lines.
I have no doubt before this comes to a head, the Progressives will preach with the intent to divide the movement along any possible divisions; even if they have to make them up. Age, race, income, urban vs. rural and probably even religion will be used. As much as they point to "fear-mongering" among TEA party members, I have no doubt that "hate-mongering" will become one of their primary weapons.
__________________ Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty--- Jefferson
I truly hope that day never comes, but we did outlive our forefathers predictions of how long our democratic government has lasted. Even Thomas Jefferson gave our government 200 years max before it failed. You can look that one up too. I hope the people up in office start growing enough brain in there stupid heads to tell them that they better make some changes quick, or they aren't going to be in office much longer.
What makes you think our original form of government, as defined by the Constitution of the United States, lasted for more than 200 years? It died in 1913, with the institution of the Federal Reserve Bank, if not sooner. The US of A has been run by an oligarchy of rich and powerful banksters ever since the FED was given control of the money of the government. The only thing that will change it is to abolish the FED, return to gold and silver coin as money, and get rid of every politician that has been in office more than one term.
I support the TEA Party movement.
__________________ Gun control is NOT about controlling CRIMINALS.
Some on the left are starting to call attention to the fact that the Tea Parties do not reflect the racial fabric of America.
SCREW,WHAT THE LEFT THINKS!!
Every time, something is NOT going their way.
They try to play, the RACE card!
Guess what?
The race card, has been so OVERPLAYED.
That Democrats "cringe", when they hear it.
My thoughts...
EITHER YOUR A AMERICAN, OR YOUR A HYPHENATED AMERICAN!
YOU CANT BE BOTH!!!
__________________
"If we ever forget we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." Ronald Reagan
A Man WITH a gun is a CITIZEN, a Man WITHOUT a gun is a SUBJECT
Every time, something is NOT going their way.
They try to play, the RACE card!
Guess what?
The race card, has been so OVERPLAYED.
That Democrats "cringe", when they hear it.
My thoughts...
EITHER YOUR A AMERICAN, OR YOUR A HYPHENATED AMERICAN!
YOU CANT BE BOTH!!!
Still, the demographics speak for themselves. The right has failed to carry this message across racial lines and incorporate these groups into their fold.
__________________ Never explain with conspiracy what can easily be explained with incompetance!
I'm so sick of "hyphen Americans," I could puke. As far as I'm concerned, you're either an American or you aren't.
Maybe I'm just touchy because my ethnic group doesn't have a mainstream holiday. The Irish gave us Saint Patrick's Day, when the beer is green, the cabbage is still only fit for fodder even if you steam it with corned beef, and everybody's Irish. The French gave us Mardi Gras, with lots of parades and parties and drunk girls in the streets flashing their boobs for beads. The Italians gave us the Feast of St. Anthony, where everyone drinks Chianti and eats cannolis. The Germans gave us Oktoberfest, when people drink the beer and do crazy things. Even the Mexicans gave us (shudder) Cinco de Mayo, when people eat overspiced food and drunk burro piss (hey, any beer you've gotta add citrus juice to in order to make it drinkable isn't good beer no matter how you look at it; give me Negro Modelo any time with Mexican food!). You get the idea.
I'm of Cossack extraction. Great-Grandfather sent Grandpa, then a teenager, out after the failure of the 1905 Revolution; he didn't like what he was seeing and wanted the family name to survive. Grandpa got to America, worked hard for about a decade and then bought land and built a dairy farm. He never learned to speak good English, but he thought of himself as an American. He wasn't a Russo-American or even a Cossack any more; he was an American and proud of it.
In the house I grew up in, the two biggest holidays were the Fourth of July and Memorial Day; one celebrating our independence and the other honoring those who made it possible. The ethnic holidays were totally ignored.
Now maybe that made my parents weirdos. Maybe the way I was raised, that you're an American no matter where your ancestors came from and that's what counts, is a charmingly obsolete concept. But my parents had no use for hyphen-Americans, and neither do I. It's one thing to remember the bits of culture from the Old Country that have been woven into the American tapestry. But it's far more important to me to remember that we are more than that; as Ben Franklin put it in 1776, "We've spawned a new race here, Mr. Dickinson. Rougher, simpler; more violent, more enterprising; less refined. We're a new nationality."
We're open to anyone who wants to come here and become one of us, to adopt our philosophy, language and customs as their own, and welcome. But that to me means whole hog or none. Either BE an American, loyal to the nation as a whole, or be whatever nationality your folks were, somewhere else. You can't have two national identities. Pick one. I don't care which, but ONE. And if you choose to identify as an ethnic first and not as an American, as far as I'm concerned don't let the doorknob hit you in the ass on your way out of the country.
If it's in The New York Slimes, it isn't worth the paper it's printed on! Cyrano, all I have to say is....ABSODANGLUTELY! My Great-Grandfather took his family out of Poland as the Great War was heating up because Czar Nicholas was conscripting everyone for cannon fodder against the Germans. My Gramma told me that when my Grampa was a boy he got made fun of because he spoke very little English. If you talked to him when he was older you would never know it. I asked him once when I was a teenager, if he would teach me how to read and write Polish, ( I had a thought that it would be useful being as the Cold War was still on ). My Grampa absolutely exploded on me. He said that an American needs to speak English, nothing else! He said that if those other countries want to deal with us, then they can send people over who can speak our language or stay the @*$ home. He told me that I was an American, PERIOD! Not Polish, German, a d%&m swede, or in his words, whatever your d%^m dad was. My mom told me that my Great-Grandfather spoke 6 languages, so he knew English. So when his family went out in public, he was the only one that would speak. He forbad anyone to speak Polish in public. They would learn English or not speak at all. I know that alot of you may think that that sounds harsh, but to me that tells me that they understood what it meant to be an American more that most people now who are born here. My Granparents instilled in me the desire to learn everything that I could about the founding of our Republic, and the intentions of the Founders. Guess you all know why I'm so opinionated now.
Some on the left are starting to call attention to the fact that the Tea Parties do not reflect the racial fabric of America.
Of course they don't.
And I take it you're talking about Rosie O'Donnell and Jeanine Garoffalo? If so, who are they? Nothing but a couple far left leaning liberals that have diarrhea of the mouth and a couple of far left leaning liberals that are of no real importance and seem to only have each other as their biggest listeners and fans .
__________________ "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms" - Thomas Jefferson
