Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Tea Tantrum Movement
The Atlantic ^ | April 10, 2009 | Andrew Sullivan

Posted on 04/11/2009 3:21:50 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: communist; democrats; economy; idiotalert; leftists; liberalhate; liberalnazis; liberals; nancyboy; socialist; spending; stuckonstupid; tantrum; taxes; teaparty; teatantrum
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 221-229 next last
To: Zakeet

Sullivan is ignorant of the history of this country. It was just such “adolescent tantrums” by groups like the Son’s of Liberty who took their disgust with King George’s heavy handed taxation to extremes and started the revolution that founded this republic. Note at the time these groups through out the colonies were having these adolescent tantrums people like Benjamin Franklin were trying to negotiate a settlement of our differences in Parliament and with the King all without success.


41 posted on 04/11/2009 4:26:03 AM PDT by The Great RJ (chain.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet
Here, watch Leslie Marshall use the very same arguments on Cavuto.

Watch to the end. You'll Cavuto shaking with frustration.

42 posted on 04/11/2009 4:30:02 AM PDT by raybbr (It's going to get a lot worse now that the anchor babies are voting!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
I agree it’s a tantrum. I think these tea parties will accomplish exactly nothing.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

43 posted on 04/11/2009 4:30:19 AM PDT by paulycy (BEWARE the LIBERAL/MEDIA Complex)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: papertyger; Nickname

If not a tea party, then what would be your solution? I’m sure we’re all open to anything that would help.


44 posted on 04/11/2009 4:31:33 AM PDT by bgill (The evidence simply does not support the official position of the Obama administration)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 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.

Your ignorance is your problem. The Tea Parties are exactly what they are. Americans disgusted at having elected officials act and behave not like Americans. Americans disgusted that we have leaders who turn their backs on the Constitution and the founding principles of our Nation. Americans who today are saying that they are fast approaching the same point of no return that those who were Americans so long ago in Boston had reached when they had their Tea Party.
But maybe you are not that ignorant. Maybe you just are to afraid to see the truth. Maybe because you are part of the problem.


45 posted on 04/11/2009 4:34:34 AM PDT by SECURE AMERICA (Coming to You From the Front Lines of Occupied America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nickname
HeÂ’s just being cute.
Sums it up for me.
46 posted on 04/11/2009 4:34:52 AM PDT by carumba (The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. Groucho)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: papertyger

Might I suggest that tea party folks are the folks Republicans broke their promises to and now they realize they need to take things into their own hands? Country before party.

The Republican party will never be rebuilt. There might be a Jeffersonian Party some day.


47 posted on 04/11/2009 4:34:56 AM PDT by Puddleglum (Obama's just another word for nothin' left to lose)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet
Having absorbed about as much of the literature as I can, I have to say I'm still befuddled.

Good!! That will make it easier to purge socialists from office if they are confused people want to enforce the Constitution.
48 posted on 04/11/2009 4:37:34 AM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve; afnamvet; AirForceMom; Alcibiades; alice_in_bubbaland; Amityschild; arbee4bush; ...

PINGING THE COMRADES.............tea party TANTRUMS?????


49 posted on 04/11/2009 4:47:35 AM PDT by rockabyebaby (We are soooooooooooooooooooooooo screwed!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 09Patriot; Baron OBeef Dip; BellStar; b4its2late; Blue Turtle; BootsOfEscaping; Brad's Gramma; ...

PINGING THE INFIDELS..........tea party TANTRUMS????


50 posted on 04/11/2009 4:49:13 AM PDT by rockabyebaby (We are soooooooooooooooooooooooo screwed!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: broken_arrow1

While on one hand I applaud you (does that equal silence?) I back your taking away the privileges that have corrupted our leadership.

The way I read it you are correct that HR450 should be adhered to. It’s most unfortunate that we can not return to the gold standard after our politicians have indebted us for several generations on the promise of repayment.

We could empty out Ft. Knox right now and not equalize our financial debts. We’ve come to this through sacrificing manufacturing for money management. How’s that going for you?

A country, any country, needs a solid base where it can provide most everything it needs so long as mankind, by the lowest definition, adheres to warfare, deceptions and lies.

The United States has given the latter two options up by spreading it’s illusionary wealth too far and wide while allowing its manufacturing ability to wither.

We do not birth financial geniuses - we birth people of great or limited abilities. If we don’t get back to utilizing them (as opposed to kicking them to the curb) our nation will be subject to an idiocracy where the idiots have no choice but to resort to criminality or revolt. (insert Mel Brookes joke here).

Seriously though, we must re-alter the direction our country has been taking. We’ve seen for ourselves in the time we’ve lived that cranked up borrowed money doesn’t help the nation as a whole. It degrades it - and shames while most of that debt is carried by our ideological enemy China.

China’s in a weird position where it can’t reinvest the massive money because all the entities that used to manufacture no longer do so. We’ve totally f*cked up the natural order and have only ourselves to blame - allowing money managers to dictate national policy.

We must reorient ourselves to a manufacturing society immediately while the machinery is still here and usable. This ability forestalls all debt as it is what made America great in the first place. We have a load of ready citizens crying for hard work to do.


51 posted on 04/11/2009 4:51:11 AM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

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

If it were not so indicative of the level of stupidity held by far too many Americans, this would be funny.

Of course, the Eeeeevil power companies and "big" oil will get blamed for the rate and price hikes which come as a result of 'cap and trade' and carbon taxes levied to solve a problem we do not have.

And then there is the deficit run wild, part of it off the books.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

52 posted on 04/11/2009 4:51:42 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet

Andrew Sullivan is so not in!


53 posted on 04/11/2009 4:57:04 AM PDT by BellStar (Buy Gold/lead and head for the hills please God give us another chance!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet

The more publicity our tea parties get, the better.


54 posted on 04/11/2009 4:57:21 AM PDT by nobama08
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: papertyger

I’ve got a feeling you wouldn’t be welcome at a tea party since we are expecting infiltrators from ACORN and Huffington Post. So don’t worry about it.


55 posted on 04/11/2009 5:01:33 AM PDT by antisocial (Texas SCV - Deo Vindice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet

Poor Mr. Sullivan. It must be excruciating to go through life with a perfectly defective mind.


56 posted on 04/11/2009 5:02:56 AM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (The only time I want a Republican reaching across the aisle is to smack a liberal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: papertyger

Then stay home. Plenty of us will be there, though. I doubt you will be missed.


57 posted on 04/11/2009 5:03:15 AM PDT by nobama08
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: raybbr
If so, why are you here on FR?

Because eventually people just like you are going to figure out there is no silver bullet. This problem is a knot, and you ain't gonna untie it by protests, phone calls, or strongly worded letters.

The only way we are going to untie it is by finding people to actually put their hands on it. And they are not going to be the type of people that will put their nose up your bung-hole for you to grant them the opportunity to do so.

I just pray they are "founding fathers" and not Bolsheviks.

58 posted on 04/11/2009 5:03:57 AM PDT by papertyger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet

This from a man who all but did Regan-MacNeil-like head spins over whether Trig Palin was really Sarah’s son.

You know, Andrew, for a (supposedly distinguished) product of Oxford and Harvard, there seem to be a lot of things you’re befuddled by. Now go have another constitutional-law argument with Hugh Hewitt (who teaches it). If the last one was anything to go by, it’s fun when you lose. Not that you ever actually admit losing, of course.


59 posted on 04/11/2009 5:08:04 AM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
Because eventually people just like you are going to figure out there is no silver bullet. This problem is a knot, and you ain't gonna untie it by protests, phone calls, or strongly worded letters.

Are you one of those people that looks at a knot and says, "It's too complicated so I won't bother to try!"?

Untying a knot requires someplace to start. No one here is claiming that the tea parties are a silver bullet. But. It is a strand and a place to start. Again, I ask, why are you here? Simply to criticize? Are you planning on doing nothing? That's okay if you are. Just stop looking at the rest of us a doing something worthless. It's simply not true.

60 posted on 04/11/2009 5:10:32 AM PDT by raybbr (It's going to get a lot worse now that the anchor babies are voting!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 221-229 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson