Posted on 06/30/2014 8:03:30 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Christopher Hitchens got a chance to analyze the Tea Party in 2011, the same year cancer took his life. In a Vanity Fair article titled "Tea'd Off," the great polemicist explains that populist movements like the Tea Party are a reaction to social and political change. Hitchens writes that before the Revolutionary War costumes, America had seen a somewhat similar phenomenon with the John Birch Society:
The John Birch Society possessed such a mainstream message--the existence of a Communist world system with tentacles in the United States--that it had a potent influence over whole sections of the Republican Party. It managed this even after its leader and founder, Robert Welch, had denounced President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a "dedicated, conscious agent" of that same Communist apparatus. Right up to the defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and despite the efforts of such conservatives as William F. Buckley Jr. to dislodge them, the Birchers were a feature of conservative politics well beyond the crackpot fringe...
... A large, volatile constituency has been created that believes darkly in betrayal and conspiracy. A mass "literature" has been disseminated, to push the mad ideas of exploded crackpots and bigots.
... Some of the gun brandishing next time might be for real. There was no need for this offense to come, but woe all the same to those by whom it came, and woe above all to those who whitewashed and rationalized it.
Would staunch conservatives in this day and age ever accuse Eisenhower of being Communist? Probably not, but the rhetoric from Tea Party politicians bemoaning everything from Obamacare to gay marriage indicates that America is moving more to the left than to the right. While William F. Buckley Jr. was prescient enough to know that the John Birch Society wasn't good for Republicans....
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
Let me get this straight - the rise of the Tea Party and conservatives in general means ‘the country is becoming more liberal.’ ???????????????? There’s logic for you/ not.
I think the argument here is that these groups popping up and being vocal are a backlash to the liberal trends and movement in society and government.
I would agree with that.
HA Goodman is delirious.
Articles like this makes my second amendment itch.
The “tea party” was something largely created by folks like Cantor and the GOPe as astroturf to help the GOP sweep the 2010 elections using anger over Obamacare to gain power so they could try to “repeal and replace” Obamacare with their more business-friendly version (Romneycare).
The liberals and liberal media decided to label every conservative and or GOPe adversary as the “extremist tea party to gin up their base of voters and justify the political operations (IRS etc.) against “tea party”
AS A CONSERVATIVE, I HAVE NO SPECIAL ATTACHMENT FOR THE MEDIA’S ‘TEA PARTY” LABEL, I EXPECT NEW NAMES FOR AUTHENTIC CONSERVATIVES IN THE FUTURE THAT REFLECT MY PRINCIPLES AND VALUES.
Actually, everything the John Birch Society said was going to happen has or is happening.
Yes, but I would disagree with the characterization of progressive elitists controlling the media, government and academia as ‘America’.
There’s no question about it, from all I’ve seen in the last 50 years. America has become more liberal. And just as certainly ... opposing groups have popped up in an effort to counter that.
Regardless of what people think..Cruz and the Tea Party are the best we have.....I don’t put a lot of weight into the few instances where it might appear they are leaning liberal at times pre-election. It’s still the only thing we got to move the mountains that need moving.
This is so but the reason that JBS is being mentioned is that the Left was highly successful in marginalizing JBS as kooks. They want to bind that meme to the Tea Party thus reliving one of their great propaganda successes.
who are they trying to convince, us or themselves?
LOL ... you sound like you’re drawing lines around the geography of the country and saying whomever is on this side of the street is an American, but if you’re on “that side of the street” you’re not an American. I think that’s what they do in drawing lines for Congressional districts.
The bottom line here is if you’re in the country and living here, and spend money and voice opinions, you’re part of that entire network that causes the country as a whole to move one way or another, no matter how you want to define the word “American”.
Amused at the headline....
The Authoritarians (aka the Liberals/Leftist) love to label anyone that does not agree with them as “angry”.
They literally have the political mentality of an 8 year old.
The Authoritarians think everyone should be in 100% agreement on everything all the time. Just like North Korea and if not then your “Angry”.
THAT is their 8 year political mentality.
I would describe them as highly naive, extremity gullible and all they do is parrot leftist talking points.
We’ll, I’ll tell you that they don’t have to convince me that the country as a whole is more liberal. I can see that fir myself from the last 50+ years of observation.
Obviously, if we were still the land of the free and the home of the brave (instead of the land of the fleeced and the home of the enslaved) we wouldn't need a Tea Party.
The mere fact that Obama was elected TWICE makes it pretty evident that 100 years of Progressive leftism has succeeded in destroying what's left of what used to be core American values.
Who could possibly disagree with this assertion?
The fact that it's true is why there is a Tea Party movement, and why it's important that it succeed in taking our country back from those who seek to enslave us permanently under the yoke of unlimited government power.
Proves the Politicians, illigals,& media are becoming more liberal!
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