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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Politico uses the "T" word
Posted by Jill | 5:36 PM
Politico isn't exactly known for using hyperbole where the right wing is concerned, so it's all the more amazing to see this over there:
The tea party's terrorist tactics

As we stumble closer to Aug. 2, it has become clear that many in the tea party are willing to inflict massive harm on the American people to obtain their political objective of a severely shrunken federal government. Their persistence in rejecting compromise, even as the economic effects of the phony crisis they have created mount, has taken their radicalism beyond tough negotiating, beyond even hostage-taking.


As markets fall in anticipation that there may not be a timely resolution; as credit agencies issue dire warnings that the U.S. political system has become so dysfunctional that a credit downgrade may be inevitable, and as America looks weakened in the eyes of the world, the tea party’s hostage-taking has evolved into the intentional infliction of harm on innocent Americans to achieve a political objective – terrorism.

Terrorism is a tough term, but, unfortunately, it describes tea party tactics precisely.

[snip]

Even in the absence of default, credit agencies would almost surely downgrade our credit worthiness, producing increases in interest rates that would slow the economy, increase unemployment and force families into foreclosure and bankruptcy.

As the markets dropped, families would watch their retirement and education savings and their dreams disappear.

Rather than reject the unthinkable, the tea party harnessed this potential harm as its weapon of mass destruction.

[snip]

The challenge for America is to stand firm in the face of terrorism, no matter the source.


So now we have Fareed Zakaria saying that teabag members of Congress will "blow up the country" if they don't get their way, and even Politico is getting nervous.

The press has no one to blame but itself for the inflated importance of a relatively small group of extremists. From the day Rick Santelli ranted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the 24-hour cable news cycle has treated a fringe bunch of lunatics as The Next Big Exciting Thing. Even Chris Matthews had a thrill of orange pekoe going up his leg at the thought of a big noisy even faux-populist effort. In Congress, the Not Quite So Insane caucus thought they could control the lunatic froth-mouthed minions that spout nonsense and are taken seriously by the frightened the the stupid. But the monster has been unleashed, and there may be no stopping it. It is a small monster, to be sure, but it is fierce and it has already caused much trepidation among the townspeople, who are too dispirited and confused now to go after it with pitchforks and torches and tar and feathers.

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3 Comments:
Anonymous mandt said...
"who are too dispirited and confused now to go after it with pitchforks and torches and tar and feathers.' That may be true, for it seems that the 'Third Way' or triangulation that has been utilized by both parties in transforming traditional Democracy into a corporate republic gets very little discussion in media kabuki. The great social welfare programs of the past are being slowly and surely privatized by both parties. Obama care is a perfect example.Who would have thought to see the day when a Democrat president was willing to make major cuts in Social Security and Medicare, or cut heating oil subsidies to the elderly and poor, or for that matter cuts in food subsidies for children. While Tea Bag Terrorists are certainly a legitimate meme, no one seems willing to acknowledge that the Obama phenom is not the Democrat Party of the past. The infatuation with the Obama narrative will in the end, be as destructive as the collapse of the Republican Party.
7/30/11, 6:50 PM  
Blogger jurassicpork said...
It's a classic murder/suicide pact.
7/30/11, 9:36 PM  
Blogger Pangolin said...
Another great paper from the University of No Shit Sherlock.

The Tea Party clowns are the same low-I.Q., white, xenophobes that have been trying to refight the Civil War for one hundred fifty years.

They can't do math above the sixth grade level. They don't understand or trust statistics and they think that any kind of science that isn't making weapons is lying to them.

It just doesn't bother them that reality hasn't rewarded their tax cuts with massive job growth to date. They just don't want to pay taxes. Or feed homeless people. Or provide medical care to anybody whose middle name they don't know.

They fuck up constantly in televised interviews because they're morons. Now the U.S. gets to find out what happens when you elect a quorum of idiots.
7/31/11, 3:43 AM  
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