Help me understand the tea party

[BadBeast]

For a long time, I think the American "2 Party" political system has been detrimental to society, by dint of it's propensity to polarise people into oppositionally diametric camps. Without getting bogged down in policy, or rhetoric, a triumverate is a far more workable system, and I hope this new dynamic of the tea party will yield real, beneficial results. A bit of a simplistic view, I know, and there are a lot of other factors at play but that's how I see it.

[Elder Iptuous]

You're wrong on that point PMZ.
when i was involved with the Ron Paul campaign (spare me the crucifixion  ), the tea party movement had not yet been coopted by the religious right, and it was uniformly opposed to the TARP

The Koch brothers were setting up websites in 2006.

Just saying.

I have heard about that, and although i haven't read up on it, it wouldn't surprise me.  i would contend that, even though they may have set the stage to coopt the movement and steer it to their liking, the people involved in it at the beginning , who they were trying to quarantine or to steer, were uniformly against TARP.

Bad Beast, I don't see the Tea Party forming an actual third party ever.
our two party system is pretty ossified.

[East Coast Hustle]

For a long time, I think the American "2 Party" political system has been detrimental to society, by dint of it's propensity to polarise people into oppositionally diametric camps. Without getting bogged down in policy, or rhetoric, a triumverate is a far more workable system, and I hope this new dynamic of the tea party will yield real, beneficial results. A bit of a simplistic view, I know, and there are a lot of other factors at play but that's how I see it.

The tea pary is not an actual political party, nor will anything it does be beneficial for anyone. It would be the equivalent of saying that a 2 party system with the Tories and Labor would be improved by having the BNP become a major 3rd party.

[Doktor Howl]

For a long time, I think the American "2 Party" political system has been detrimental to society, by dint of it's propensity to polarise people into oppositionally diametric camps. Without getting bogged down in policy, or rhetoric, a triumverate is a far more workable system, and I hope this new dynamic of the tea party will yield real, beneficial results. A bit of a simplistic view, I know, and there are a lot of other factors at play but that's how I see it.

The tea pary is not an actual political party, nor will anything it does be beneficial for anyone. It would be the equivalent of saying that a 2 party system with the Tories and Labor would be improved by having the BNP become a major 3rd party.

Hey, the Friekorps worked out well for the Weimar Republic. 

Also, Duverger's Law:  No exceptions.

[Elder Iptuous]

Also, Duverger's Law:  No exceptions.

It's natural and automatic.
I was listening to this lecture once on the various voting systems that can be enacted, and they all have advantages and drawbacks....
but, just a straight plurality, with one person, one vote?  c'mon! there's better...

[Cramulus]

Mrs. Bachmann
110 2nd Street , Suite 232
Waite Park, MN 56387

To Mrs. Bachmann,

Allow me to start by saying that I have always been afervent member of the conservative movement and I am disgusted by the actions of the socialists in this country.

I am excited about your patriotic energy.

I am quite troubled about an issue that I pray you will warn others about.

My church group is being threatened by a group calling themselves the Church of Discord.

Amongst the things they have done:
They have repeatedly interrupted our gatherings with anarchist offensive slogans. They have vandalized our neighborhood with dangerous slogans. They have called us cabbages when we go outside. They have made efforts to start a national grassroots campaign to get same sex marriages and abortions approved in every state. They want us to have an open border with Mexico. They have worked to remove our Bible from  public libraries.

We humbly request that you take action against this disturbing threat to American values.

Please accept my gratitude in advance of your consideration of this important issue.

Kind regards

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Trying to figure out what I can do with this group as a mindfuck for Teabaggers. Been a fan of them since the 90s. They're considering selling their domain name apparently.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/teapartycom-could-make-a-rock-band-rich-09152011.html

[Disco Pickle]

Actually, while the Tea Party as a rule supports lower taxs for corporations and large employers (increasing their economic resources invariably increases their potential economic activity, which is more likely to produce jobs than putting people on welfare forever and ever without employment plans), it does not support handouts for corporations and banks, even though those handouts are less offensive than welfare, because it goes towards companies and groups which produce more wealth, which ultimately makes us all wealthier.

Regulations and minimum wage are a form of raising barriers to the possibility of employment, putting it beyond the means of some employers.  It also encourages inflation, by setting certain minimal standards of pay, whereas if pay were more flexible, prices would drop as production costs dropped and sellers sought to appeal to less high-earning buyers.

As for unions...don't you socialists ever learn from history?  Unions are nothing but fronts for corrupt mobsters and gangsters.  Their policies on minimum wage and other conditions also lead to what was described above.

http://www.people.vcu.edu/~lrazzolini/GR2010.pdf

Saw this earlier in the year and then lost the link.  It's loosely related to the bolded part.  Incidentally, I found it again through a CNN opinion piece on the subject of the minimum wage.  That piece is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/16/opinion/saltsman-minimum-wage/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9

[Doktor Howl]

Life was GREAT before the minimum wage laws!  It was an employee's paradise!

[Jenne]

ha!  Cram--did you really send that?  That's awesome.

[Cramulus]

We generated it using our new toy.

Check it out: http://principiadiscordia.com/to-the-bachmobile/bachmann.php

hit f5 for a new letter of outrage to send to your local tea party reps

[BadBeast]

For a long time, I think the American "2 Party" political system has been detrimental to society, by dint of it's propensity to polarise people into oppositionally diametric camps. Without getting bogged down in policy, or rhetoric, a triumverate is a far more workable system, and I hope this new dynamic of the tea party will yield real, beneficial results. A bit of a simplistic talking out me arse  view, I know, and there are a lot of other factors at play ((primarily, my lack of relevant facts)) but that's how I see imagined it.    (edited for accuracy)

The tea pary is not an actual political party, nor will anything it does be beneficial for anyone. It would be the equivalent of saying that a 2 party system with the Tories and Labor would be improved by having the BNP become a major 3rd party.

I really thought they were a proper political party for some reason.  (Probably the same reasons that British people think that Labour, the Lib Dems, and the Tories are  proper political parties) 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Yep. The teabaggers are basically the radical right fringe of the republican party. Except instead of calling themselves republicans, which apparently isn,'t what the cool kids call themselves, they use the name tea party to describe their movement. These republicans when pressed to identify their politics will say libertarian. Except as far as i know no teabagger is actually enrolled in the libertarian party (we do have third parties here but they often don't do well in a race where both a dem and a repub are running)" it would be akin to a democrat saying they were a key party patriot and when pressed say that they were a member of either the green or the socialist party.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Hmm. Perhaps this is exactly the reason that teabaggers think that democrats are socialists, much to the annoyance of both democrats and socialists.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Hmm. Perhaps this is exactly the reason that teabaggers think that democrats are socialists, much to the annoyance of both democrats and socialists.

Teabaggers think democrats are socialists because they have no clue what the word "socialism" means.  To them it's just a generic term that means any government spending that they don't agree with.  I have argued with them about it, and they don't hear what I'm saying.  If I say that Obama is not a socialist because socialism means public ownership of the means of production and Obama supports private ownership of the means of production, then they tell me that I am only saying that because I must support his policies.  When I say, no, I don't support his policies, they get confused.  They can't seem to understand why someone who is not in favor of Obama's policies would deny that Obama is a socialist.  So, they just write me off as an idiot and say things like, "Just goes to show you can't fix stupid."

I never considered posing as an actual socialist, denying that Obama and other democrats are socialists because I'm in favor of socialism.