Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Forgive me for being blunt. Those of us who feel particularly betrayed (not surprised, just betrayed) by the House's series of unforced errors and undignified retreats in 2011, by the sneering disdain of the Republican establishment and our masters and betters in the consulting/analysis/campaign/media business are still Mad As Hell. We are not in a mood to go along to get along, and are not about to accept continued spiralling levels of spending and the attendant hand-wringing about difficult changes and so forth.
We are not dead, not sleeping, and not distracted. We have exhausted friendly non-violent means of opposing the worst excesses of our government, and have been shown that with rare exception, we have no friends in Washington whom we did not place there. Fine. Unfriendly non-violent means it is then, such as primary opposition to big-spending Republicans like sixteen-term Representative Hal "Prince of Pork" Rogers (current head of House Appropriations) and leadership challenges to the feckless and IMHO dishonest "negotiate with progressives to hold off conservatives" leaders like John Boehner.
We recall the flowery speeches made by McConnell and Boehner in late 2010, which show by contrast just how poorly served we have been by our own side.
We don't smash windows and we don't infest public spaces. We are conservatives, not anarchists. We know that part of supporting small government is supporting government itself. By resisting efforts to sharply curb spending in Washington, the gravy-train GOP is hazarding government as well as the citizenry.
I have no comment-baiting tag question.
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May '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Yeah baby.
Dec '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Haakon Dahl: ...
I have no comment-baiting tag question. ·
Ohh, I feel yer pain, friend, and I enjoyed your post, but this was my favorite line.
What do you say to the idea I heard floated today that the House GOP suffered sabotage at the hands of Mitch McConnell and the feckless Senate Republicans? That John Boehner would be a better House leader with a change of GOP leadership in the Senate? Somehow, I get the feeling you'll have an opinion.
Nov '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Saw your last line and I just had to comment ... not sure why ... and ... uh ... I guess I didn't really have anything to say.
'cept I'm with you (except, being a Canadian, I'm more like a mere Tea Party Cheerleader; "Only in Canader, eh?")
Apr '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
The Republican establishment wants Mitt. They don't care what you or any other Tea Party group thinks. The establishment wants big government to reward cronies, just like the Democratic establishment. The only difference is which cronies get the payoffs.
The Republican establishment can't be bargained with. There's too much money at play. You're not going to convince them. They want big money from big government for big interests. If you want small government and limited government, you'll have to take over the party.
It's an ideological war not a gentlemanly negotiation. Better get your head around that, if you want to win.
Sep '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Jeff Younger: The Republican establishment wants Mitt. They don't care what you or any other Tea Party group thinks. The establishment wants big government to reward cronies, just like the Democratic establishment. The only difference is which cronies get the payoffs.
The Republican establishment can't be bargained with. There's too much money at play. You're not going to convince them. They want big money from big government for big interests. If you want small government and limited government, you'll have to take over the party.
It's an ideological war not a gentlemanly negotiation. Better get your head around that, if you want to win. ·
I agree entirely up till the last sentance. My quibble is that it's an ideological war for us, but not for them.Their ideology is more malleable, based on their personal interests yet they pretend to have a kind of ideology when convenient, a "centrist" or "pragmatic" approach. That's one reason we talk past each other. That's why they call us "purists" and "ideologues". We call them "squishy" or "wimpy" - they aren't at all squishy or wimpy when their cash cows are threatened.
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
I don't have an answer to the question you didn't ask. But I think you nailed it perfectly and succinctly.
Aug '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
I couldn't agree more with your assessment of establishment Republicans. However, while I still maintain a "sneering disdain of the Republican establishment," I have also developed a sneering disdain of the Tea Party. I have unsubscribed to Tea Party mailing lists, Yahoo Groups and message boards. I'm tired of reading a constant barrage of conspiracy theories, anti-immigrant rants, and Ron Paul cheerleading. I've jumped off that crazy train. The Tea Party doesn't own me any more than the establishment Republicans do.
Sep '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
I frankly never could understand the GOP establishment. Romney is their man. Romney has been running for at least 6 years and is willing to spend a good deal of his money to win. Yet he leaves several million parked in Cayman Island accounts. This guy has got to be the most tone deaf candidate of all time and yet the GOP establishment endorses him. Could someone please explain! If I were writing a book on how not to get elected this would certainly be a chapter in it. I see this election as having the potential of destroying the GOP.
Mar '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
I agree, the only reason I am still a registered republican is there are still some decent people and everyone once in while good people who run as Republicans. If Florida had open primaries like Louisiana, I would change my registration in a heartbeat.
The Republican party is a moderately left party with a small minority wing of real Conservatives and libertarians that bring it tendency back to the center. Yes big spending is a moderate position because the moderate position in America is spend money on me but not everyone else. Then again I am part of that really small weird group that consider myself more of a Federalist/Whig than a conservative.
Edited on Jan 19 at 6:48amJan '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Me too.
Jul '10
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Neither quiet nor patient, there is an ongoing explosion in self-identified Tea Party voices available on the web, of Tea Party voluntarism on phone banks, at speaking events, at planning meetings, and at conservative training opportunities like the Leadership Institute. The lack of a central leadership is a strength and a weakness, both, but it has made the Tea Party unco-optable. To the great lament of the Parties of Washington.
May '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Another perfect example of Republican tone-deafness is Orin Hatch. He was for SOPA until yesterday. He stuck his finger in the wind and flopped.
The problem is his natural tendency toward big government and more rules not that he flopped on this issue.
McConnell, McCain, Boehner, etc. can't understand that the first question to be asked when considering legislation is, "What can we get rid of?"
I have been saying this for a year now.
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
One of the things I admired about the Tea Partiers last cycle was not that they protested in an attempt to get Congress to listen to them, although that was cool. I admired how -- when Congress failed to listen to them -- they calmly, patiently waited until November and voted overwhelmingly for their vision.
Jun '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Great post... a few points:
Nov '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
I believe another way tea partiers are rebelling is shown by the support of RPaul, and now Gingrich, are getting. Many times it's not that they are our candidate, but not-Romney (on whatever individual level of support). It is not really known just how mad we were about McCain, and Romney is the same. The base is fighting back in a very acceptable manner. Also the Rep. should notice that these people are not necessarily going to Santorum. In other words the social con fight is over to a large extent- mostly alive in the media. I am an Evangelical Christian and have fully realized that legislating morality can go the other way too and that less government and bureaucracy (short-hand) is the real fight. In other words if it's known a group will vote the party line no matter what, why would they pay attention to you? Of course most think 'we' are too stupid/uninformed to entertain such an idea, but this base aren't the tools of OWS and want real results even if limited right now.
Apr '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
When you're setting up funds (as I have done, as a lawyer), you need to deal with a tremendous amount of paperwork and abide by a ton of regulations. For a lot of funds, that paperwork can be dramatically reduced by basing the fund in an economically free jurisdiction. This is particularly the case if owners are going to come from multiple jurisdictions. Also, for territorial rather than national tax payers (ie. not Americans), low tax jurisdictions are helpful, too. Mitt had a share in many of his firm's funds. The money is not "parked" in Cayman. Cayman is part of the structure it works through.
It's highly likely that most of the people on Ricochet have, via their savings, invested in vehicles invested in Cayman.
Mar '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Indeed.
Jul '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Damn Skippy! Stay fired up.
Jun '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
Excellent post, Haakon.
In Tea Party spirit, how about one of our candidates announce that if elected, the inauguration will be held quietly and cheaply, in an office with appropriate witnesses as a matter of record? No extravagant parties, no lavish gowns and balls. If you want to make a little speech on television, great but otherwise, cut the crap.
We could care less about your "historic" moment.
We're sick of it and we're long past the point where we have admiration for our "noble" public servants.
However, these ego-driven creatures would never be content to settle for a simple swearing in followed afterwards by a nice, quiet meal with family. Hmmmm...I wonder if Madonna is available for the "INAUGURATION 2013 EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!!"
Nov '11
Re: Tea Party Still Furious, Waiting Politely
I am in no way any kind of 'joiner' and also want to get rid of some of my tea party spam (I just said Ev. Christ. in a post as an identifier). I agree its strength and weakness is in being vague, unaffiliated, etc. But if asked, 'do you support the tea party?' I would say yes (at least they're doing more than blogging and the left hates them). I am also sick of being sneeringly called a populist (by the right), a conspiracy theorist or radical for saying the word 'socialist' (by the right and left), and refuse to qualify anymore, by 'I am really not a racist/homophobe/whatever'. That is why all liked Newt's speech- offense not defense and sticking to the basics.