Tag Archives: tea party

So What Happens If The Republican Establishment Wins?

Posted on by
Reply

I haven’t heard it lately, but every so often someone comes along to tell us all that the Tea Party is dead.  The conservatives are going to ‘learn’ and be ‘realistic’ and ‘adult’ as we fall back into line with our betters.  The status quo returns where the Democrats do what they please and the Republicans go back to impersonating a real opposition party so they don’t have to do real work while they soak up the perks.  After all, they still get them even in second place.

So what happens if the Republican establishment wins against conservatives?  We don’t get our candidates as they manage to use their money advantages to short circuit us at every turn.  We’ll all fall back into line, right?

Possibly, but not enough of us.

Everyone can see it except the Stupid Party.  The Tea Parties formed because they weren’t doing their job.  Primaries are being contested because we can’t stand the usual candidates.  Romney can’t get the job done and get the nomination despite being the establishment pick and surrounded by opponents that are some combination of underfunded and underprepared.  This would have nailed it for him in the past but not today.  There’s not enough good will left for everyone to simply go back to the way things were.

If enough of us simply decide to let them fall, and the signs don’t look so good for our establishment betters, the Republicans go from second place to that place occupied by the Whigs.  Always room for one more in political oblivion.  Unless they suddenly start to rack up some major wins, enough people may conclude the effort to sustain them is not well spent and let the fall.

That Tea Party Isn’t So Dead After All

Posted on by
Reply

Would you like a better topic than the President’s State Of The Union speech?  On the off chance you’re curious about it, it can likely be summed up as ‘blah blah blah fairness blah blah Republican obstructionism blah blah green jobs blah blah I’m awesome.’   Instead, how about a few signs that the Tea Party isn’t quite as dead as its detractors would hope?

  • Governor Walker has $2.6 million cash on hand for the recall elections as of the end after last quarter, and raised $12 million since January 2011.  A good start considering how rabid his opponents are.  That whole ‘everything in Wisconsin is improving now that they’re not as influential’ thing isn’t sitting well with them and they’re still at it.  Still, it seems we have Walker’s back for now.
  • The Republican Senatorial nomination of Ted Cruz, DeMint’s pick for the seat to replace Kay Bailey Hutchinson has tied the fundraising of Dewhurst, the RINO Lieutenant Governor currently in the lead.  Cruz is gaining on him and Dewhurst’s support is dropping, but Dewhurst can self-fund heavily.  Cruz’ spike still shows strong growth and it wouldn’t be happening without Tea Party activism.
  • The Gingrich surge is more an expression of displeasure than anything else.  He’s not actually conservative lately despite some very strong past performance in that regard.  He is however fighting back, which is what the Tea Party and activists want.  The measurement here is that an establishment pick like Romney is on the verge of being thrashed heavily.  This doesn’t happen with weak conservative opposition.  People like the Bushes, Dole, and McCain make it through without much trouble, and we might just avoid a repeat.

Now for a more fun thought.  Perhaps the Tea Party isn’t dead.  Perhaps they just shifted to more practical activism from protests.  The ‘making noise’ part didn’t work for them, which would make the tactical shift a simple question of good sense.  Politicians may ignore protests, but threaten their jobs by ending other RINO tenures with primaries and they at least pretend to fall into line.

More smart, less loud, and definitely not dead.  Looking forward to a Tea Party 2012.

News link credit:  Hot Air

Remember Your Etiquette Wingnuts

Posted on by
Reply

Truly, the lack of civility in American political discourse today is pandemic.

Now, while we may have some legitimate disagreements with those terrorist, hostage-taking Tea Party cavemen, we would never resort to ad hominem attacks.  Furthermore, we would never stoop so low as to raise our voices in anger when they oppose us on climate change, even if they are as bad as Holocaust deniers while they’re using baby seals for target practice.  We understand that it may take a while for them to realize that carbon should be taxed by the gram and will happily show the slopeheaded imbeciles all the understanding they require while their tiny impaired brains catch up to our genius.

Still, we would admonish them to be more reasonable in their debate and not torment us with their tax cut withdrawal symptoms as the psychotic addicts that they are.  Just because our policies have never worked and that we’re borrowing more money than we can hope to repay is no reason some drooling horde of yellow-flag waving wingnuts should throw a childish hissy fit and oppose us.  They should follow McCain’s example of bipartisanship and epic campaign failure.

Now, be good little serfs and remember who your betters are while keeping your discourse civil.  Better still, keep your discourse nonexistent.  That way, we don’t have to remind you that strapping on your suicide bombs is a bad way to debate, you terrorist extremist racist bigoted homophobic Tea Party losers.

Time to Wait and See

Posted on by
Reply

It’s an unusual gesture to see from a Republican, but credit where credit is due.  Boehner responded to Reid’s threat to shut down the repeal of Obamacare with real nerve.  The letter shows uncharacteristic fight from the Republicans, and now it’s time to wait and see.

Wait and see for what?  Wait and see if Boehner is for real.  Wait and see if the Republicans use their one veto-proof power of “not appropriate” to shrink government and put us back on the path of sanity.

Then again, we can also wait and see if it’s business as usual.  If this letter was simply opposition theater.  Sound and fury for the benefit of the Tea Parties, believing that they’ll buy it if it’s not accompanied by real action.  If this is the case, there will be hell to pay for the Republicans come 2012.

So in the end, I’m not recommending we wait any longer than to see one way or the other.  Only a few months at most will tell the Republicans’ real direction.  Then we determine what to do from there.