The Tea Tantrum Movement

The Atlantic ^ | April 10, 2009 | Andrew Sullivan

[Zakeet]

I spent the better part of an hour earlier today scanning the various sites and blogs to try and understand what specifically the Fox-Pajamas tea parties are about. Having absorbed about as much of the literature as I can, I have to say I'm still befuddled.

Option 1: It's a protest of the bank bailouts orchestrated by Bush and now Obama. But surely these tea-partiers understand what would happen if we didn't bail the banks out. Are they advocating letting major banks fail? Or are they advocating a Krugman-style government take-over? No idea.

Option 2: It's a protest against tax hikes. But there have barely been any!

[Snip]

Option 3: It's a protest against illegal immigration. Ok, so why the tea? Weren't all the original tea-partiers illegal immigrants?

Option 4: It's a protest against government debt. Yay! I will leave aside the somewhat awkward fact that Fox News and Pajamas Media barely covered the massive debt racked up by the Republicans during a period of economic growth.

[Snip]

What it looks like to me is some kind of amorphous, generalized rage on the part of those who were used to running the country and now don't feel part of the culture at all. But the only word for that is: tantrum.

These are not tea-parties. They are tea-tantrums. And the adolescent, unserious hysteria is a function not of a movement regrouping and refinding itself. It's a function of a movement's intellectual collapse and a party's fast-accelerating nervous breakdown.

[Bob J]

You've been artound this site almost as long as I. Let me give you an example.

Back in the days of the 2000 election debacle the Free Republic Network decided to help organize and support a national month of protests in support of GWB. That effort ended up well, we had over 250 events across the country and eventually GWB was inaugurated.

But we knew we needed a concise message to get our point across in a way that everyone could could understand. One of members and a good friend of mine, you may remember him as "Registered", designed a graphic that accomplished this.

That's what this movement needs.

[papertyger]

No, but according to your commenter profile (dismisser) you believe they're all too stupid...

No, just you. And you know what: I'm right. Your thought process is one continuous string of prime time cliches, and I think you've written enough now to demonstrate it to any lurkers who might be tempted to think you have a point.

[freeangel]

I believe that people believe what was fed to them in the crappy public school system. — Kind of a rewrite of the Constitution by the liberal left.

[papertyger]

I hope I’m wrong.

Me too, Bob. Because that five percent will be the only ones who have figured out power does not negotiate with powerlessness.

The rest will continue to "protest."

[RaceBannon]

You’re a Marine and don’t understand initiative and motivation?

Why did we do close order drill? To buld teamwork, cuz you never did a left oblique in combat, did you?

Holding these ralies builds a sense of team, it motivates, it keeps the issues alive

otherwise, people will just go to sleep and let others rule us

Wake up

[papertyger]

Real movements create messages over time.

Examples?

[mickey finn]

This is not about abortion. Get a grip.

[papertyger]

My “buy” order is in ;o)

[GOPJ]

You're right - that sign was a part of a natural movement. I remember the thread the first time it showed up... Everyone just knew it was right - - the concept was “sticky”. “SoreLoserman” signs were sprinkled through every protest. Great stuff. The "good old days"...

[EDINVA]

Reminiiscent of Petuh Jennings’s editorial about America having a 2 year old’s temper tantrum in ‘94 when they dared vote in GOP majorities to both houses of Congress. Suppose any mass movement from the Dems liberal dogma is a ‘tantrum.’

I didn’t realize the tea parties were a function of the GOP so much as a grass roots movement of taxpayers who’ve just had it with government (by either party) amassing atrocious debt with concommitant tax burdens today and worse tomorrow.

[papertyger]

I am not now, nor have I ever been, in the armed forces of these United States. I apologize if in any way I have lead anyone to believe I claimed that honor. Any familiarity I may display in the area of weapons, warfare, or stratey/tactics is exclusively from self-directed study, NOT training by United States Armed Forces.

That being said, how much sense does it make to throw every single cherry you have on the parade ground at one time, then sit back to see what kind of order emerges?

[Bob J]

I support the tea parties but I also know that sometimes you only get one good shot. If it's not good it makes recreating it later several times harder.

If a movement doesn't define itself in easy to understand terms early on and then stay on message and pound it home every chance they get, they in effect leave a blank slate that allows your opponents to write it for you.

It's harder for conservatives since our opponents own the MSM. Give them any kind of daylight and they will run with it until they drive you into irrelevance. We're seeing that now in the articles and columns stating the message is unclear. Once they get label to stick then it will be on to Sullivan's tactic, calling it a childish tantrum.

Does “tantrum” remind you of something? It was word Dan Rather used to describe Reagans election victory in 1980.

Some things never change.

[Bob J]

Ooops, you’re right, that was jennings.

[Eric]

I've been kicking around FreeRepublic for more than 10 years, and your style reminds me of another person who used to engage me and many others with strawmen arguments, red herring statements, twisted logic, mis-quotes, and managed to create general mayhem. That username was "ASH".

I'm sure some of the other old timers here at FreeRepublic remember him/her/it. If I remember correctly, Moderators banned Ash for life...but, it almost feels like ASH is back.

Your style is very similar, and that is not a compliment.

[papertyger]

This is not about abortion. Get a grip.

Here's some good advice. Before you decide someone else is being stupid, make sure you understand what they're talking about.

"Abortion" is THE premier example of how conservatives have been lead in a circle and STILL haven't figured it out after forty years.

[Clint Williams]

Couldn't agree more...

Me too. Call me when they start marching -- and not one second before.

[mickey finn]

After reading your posts, I don’t think I need your advise, thank you.

[papertyger]

Does “tantrum” remind you of something? It was word Dan Rather used to describe Reagans election victory in 1980.

And on the heels of Carter, no less! What else are you supposed to have when someone puts a stick in your eye?

*****

PR? Marketing? Sociology?

[papertyger]

your style reminds me of another person who used to engage me and many others with strawmen arguments, red herring statements, twisted logic, mis-quotes, and managed to create general mayhem. That username was "ASH".... Your style is very similar, and that is not a compliment.

Apparently not too similar, because I'm still here after more than ten years, and you would be able to point to a specific fallacy instead of waving your fairy wand and pronouncing me "icky."

[papertyger]

Then don’t offer yours...

[acsrp38]

If I remember right the inspiration for tea parties was not from Fox, it was a CNBC reporter.

[capt. norm]

Give me something, anything, by which we can measure your success or failure in influencing government and/or the press.

It's called the satisfaction of taking a stand....a concept you would never understand, and have proven unable to understand with your posts.

Thank God there were very few gutless people like yourself when the original Boston Tea Party happened.

[kcvl]

Andrew Sullivan marries Aug. 27 in Provincetown, Mass., to health-club worker and acting student Aaron Tone. “I now understand the meaning of the phrase, ‘the happiest day of your life,’” Sullivan, stated after the ceremony.

After receiving copies of the wedding photos, Sullivan wrote on his blog: “Seeing them again reminds me of the dreamy dusk and night that we chose — a full moon over the water, and family and friends-who-are-family sending the love right back at us. This was not — repeat not — a political event,” he said. “But it took politics to get past politics, and to see this movement we are a part of as a human endeavor to bring love and civility and family into lives that have sometimes been denied all of the above.”

[bzybee]

Does Andrew know that it is not just Republicans who are going to the Tea Parties?

[commonguymd]

Good grief. ish.

[kcvl]

Andrew Sullivan & Arianna Huffington

[capt. norm]

Apparently not too similar, because I'm still here after more than ten years, and you would be able to point to a specific fallacy instead of waving your fairy wand and pronouncing me "icky."

You're the perfect example of a "Dismisser":

The Dismisser — The ultimate arrogant commenter, this person never actually engages with the topic, but merely declares it beneath anyone’s interest, already resolved, or improperly stated - and thus hardly worth the bother. The Dismisser’s only real message is: "I’m smarter than you and you need to acknowledge that fact!"

The only thing the article was lacking is your picture.

By the way, you're not the only one who has been around here for over ten years, newbie.

[MHGinTN]

A. Sullivan identifies himself first and foremost a homosexual. All other things in his life are brought to bare on that reality for him. He has pretended to be a conservative for yeaqrs, in the hope that conservatives would somehow ‘relent’ and accept degenerate homosexuals as normal people. What degenerate minds cannot seem to comprehend is that God is turning His face away from sexual degenerates, yet Christians—in thier compassion for the lost—still try to bring the Gospel of Grace to these degenerate minds. Some few do awaken to His Grace.

[unixfox]

Look up wimp in the dictionary and his picture is there.

[GOPJ]

"Registered", designed a graphic that accomplished this. That's what this movement needs.

Can you bring "Registered" out of retirement and get him to come up with some tea party stuff?

That would be great.

You are right on this issue, BobJ, it can fall apart.

But I suspect it'll grow. It's a question of if the dems can destroy it - or in lieu of that, can they take it over ( destroy it in a different way) or can we nurture the movement until it can grow on it's own? We'll see.

[unixfox]

If not a tea party, then what would be your solution?

I can't answer for them but the tea parties are just the start if you ask me. Tar and feathers will be the next step IMO.

[papertyger]

It's called the satisfaction of taking a stand....

Yeah, I knew you would say something fuzzy and nebulous like that because it's become quite clear you lack the personal integrity to admit you are completely lacking any goal by which to be judged useful or useless.

I suppose now I'll have to read another one of your tiresome attempts to borrow someone else's cleverness by again inventing a similarity between myself and "the dissenter" or whatever it is.

I understand how proud you are of that shiney, new, rhetorical hammer of yours, but you don't earn yourself any credibility by acting as if every problem you have is a nail.

[capt. norm]

Yeah, I knew you would say something fuzzy and nebulous like that because it's become quite clear you lack the personal integrity to admit you are completely lacking any goal by which to be judged useful or useless.

And we all know it's your self-assumed mission to JUDGE.

Have fun sitting on your butt while making fun of people who believe in DOING, as opposed to your and Obama's hot air.

Thanks for the laugh!

[altura]

Well, I’m going to one, although it will be difficult.

I feel like if they are well attended it will get notice in the press.

If nothing else, it might wake up some diddlers in the current congress to the fact that much public sentiment is against them and they might want to be careful about following too closely in Obama’s footsteps.

It’s amazing how much attention someone can get who has nothing constructive to add to a thread but is simply negative and provocative.

[papertyger]

Thanks for the laugh!

Who do you think you're kidding? You have to hop around like a jumping bean to avoid answering my one and only question. And now you try the "judgmental" schtick, like a little girl that ran out of "it's not fair"s?

You see, that is what I meant about personal integrity. At this point, if I said the sky was blue, you couldn't rest till you found an exception.

[GOPJ]

Real movements create messages over time.?

Examples?

When Rosa Parks decided NOT to give up her seat on an Alabama bus - the modern civil rights movement was born. The "message" of social equality for all races has moved through time - you can see it all around you. Well, those of us who grew up in a time before Rosa Parks can see it. The country got better because of her action.

When the movement became active, everyone - almost everyone - in the black community was involved. By the '70's the movement had changed - and true community involvement stopped. I remember a friend called me up in the late 70's and ask me to go to an NAACP meeting with her. She said the press was going to be there and they needed people in the chairs to make it look like "people cared". Truth was - they didn't.

The civil rights issues that had brought the vast majority of people in, had been won.

After that people drifted away.

The modern civil rights movement ended ( in my opinion ) when Raines of the New York Times tried to gin up some big "civil rights" issue over wealthy blacks and some golf club thing - something waaaay past it's time.

I've often thought the MSM missed the civil rights movement at the beginning - when it was really cutting edge and exciting - and they kept wanting to go back and not miss it...

Martin Buber felt people needed power to accomplish good. But that when the good was accomplished, there would be people who wouldn't want to give up the power - and that's the point where power would be corrupted. When it's power for it's own sake - and not power to accomplish the goal. Jessee Jackson falls into that category for me. His "shake downs" are a symptom of the debasement.

It was the same with the women's movement. It started out with women from all walks of life fighting for things like equal pay - and ended up as hard core lesbians fighting to fight - keeping the power.

It's kind of how movements work. If the tea parties are successful - and our country becomes financially more responsible, in 20 years you'll have power brokers with established "organizations" spending great effort to accomplish limited new "financial responsibility"....

FreeRepublic is another example of a natural movement. Early members knew there was some risk involved with standing up to the Clintons - things could have turned out differently if the "vast right wing conspiracy" hadn't been exposed as the joke it was. And this site was instrumental in that. That idea has come down to our time and safeguards us even now. There are others - but I've already written too long - and I think you see what I'm talking about...

[papertyger]

It’s amazing how much attention someone can get who has nothing constructive to add to a thread but is simply negative and provocative.

Yeah, when you're the only one that won't bow to the idol, that happens.

The really smart guy on this thread is the one that said don't bother him till you're ready to march.

[Tucker822]

I believe the underlying, overall message these tea parties are trying to convey is simply, “Don’t tread on me.”

It encompasses all that is wrong with government.

[papertyger]

Well I won’t argue with you, but I don’t see how any of those things show “real” movements are some kind of existential lightning strike.

The “choice” movement was damn sure real, and that was orchestrated from day one.

[Syncro]

Great quote, thanks.

[papertyger]

I believe the underlying, overall message these tea parties are trying to convey is simply, “Don’t tread on me.”

I believe you are absolutely correct. I also believe our government will not hesitate for one instant to "call" on that bid.

[capt. norm]

Yeah, I knew you would say something fuzzy and nebulous like that because it's become quite clear you lack the personal integrity to admit you are completely lacking any goal by which to be judged useful or useless.

You can (and probably will) say the same thing about what I'm doing tomorrow.

I'm going to church....and not for any goal that I can be judged o by you.

The real goal of the Tea Parties is to let people know that we're aware of what Obama is trying to do.

He thinks that bankrupting the country and taxing our families all the way down to great grandchildren yet to be born with huge debts, is something he can slip by us, unnoticed. That's why he is in such a huge hurry to get it done before it's too late to stop him.

The Tea Parties say "WE NOTICE" and if it results in no more than a few seconds of discomfort for him....mission accomplished!

Not doing so would make me his accomplice...you're either for what he's doing, or against it.

You might say that what one person does makes no difference....but the ones add up, just like in an election.

Secondly, other people seeing the Tea Parties might just stop and think...."hey he's gonna' be taxing my family to death too!"

You're theory that public demonstrations never work crashes when you consider how well it worked for the civil rights movement.

[Electric Graffiti]

LMAO....."It is always the stuck hog who squeels."

I guess Sullivan is a little irritated about having to don the catcher's outfit all the time.

[papertyger]

You're theory that public demonstrations never work crashes when...

I mentioned no such theory. I simply think THIS public demonstration isn't going to work.

"Why" you might ask? Because forty years of watching and being involved with the pro-life movement has me convinced as soon as skulls start getting cracked, and if there's any success they will, the vast majority will run home and claim their cowardice is actually avoiding the "wackos."

I know why the pro-lifers stayed peaceful to a fault: you guys will have no such excuse.

[capt. norm]

I know why the pro-lifers stayed peaceful to a fault: you guys will have no such excuse.

If we are doomed, I repeat my original (and so far, still unanswered) question to you: What is your, much better, plan?

Doing nothing is what got us here, so that's not a plan.

[RaceBannon]

Then you still need to wake up

People get motivated to act by first having a common cause. Then, they need to know they arent alone. Then, they need someone to step forward to take command and lead

Then, they need to follow.

NONE of that would happen if people did what you want. We would sit back on our collective asses and wait for some perfect plan.

There is no perfect plan. There is only action and inaction.

[papertyger]

...I repeat my original (and so far, still unanswered) question to you: What is your, much better, plan?

I answered your question. It just wasn't the answer you wanted. What part of "I don't need to have a plan (that I'll broadcast on the internet) to know YOURS won't work" do you not understand! Michelangelo, paint jobs, ring any bells?

[papertyger]

Then, they need to follow.

And that, most honorable FReeper, is where the plan will fall apart.

NONE of that would happen if people did what you want. We would sit back on our collective asses and wait for some perfect plan.

Incorrect, we would sit back on our collective asses until we found a way to maintain cohesion after the state brings its police powers to bear.

Do you really think Americans are capable of following tactical orders in pursuit of a strategic goal without some sort of bootcamp type process?

You wanna check who needs to "wake up" again?

[capt. norm]

Oh! It's the old "I've got a (secret) plan and as long as nobody knows what it is, they'll have to concede its excellence" trick!

Unlike you, I don't believe in ridiculing what other people, who are doing their best, want to try and I'll be joining them whether it works or not.

Heaven forbid if we all sat on our thumbs like you suggest.

[Caipirabob]

Uhng. Their tree is dead. How utterly appropriate.