The Tea Party, A-Z
In the Daily Beast this morning, Tunku Varadarajan defines the Tea Party from A-Z. Some highlights:
A is for anger, the jet-fuel of a movement that Nancy Pelosi, in a rare moment of wit, pooh-poohed as Astroturf (i.e., not grassroots). Tell that to Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate nominee seeking to unseat Pelosi’s confrere, Harry Reid. She is the archetypal Tea Party insurgent: she checks all the ideological boxes, but would you have her home to dinner with the kids?
B is for Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart, the two gaudiest Tea Partiers in the American media, and for Scott Brown, the Massachusetts senator whose astonishing election to Ted Kennedy’s seat in February was the earliest indication that the Tea Party amounted to more than just a rabble of birthers (although it does, to be sure, have in its ranks more than a few who believe that the president’s birth-certificate is an immaculate deception).
C is for caricatures, which deride the tea-partiers as any or all of the following: racists, homophobes, Nazis, fascists, misanthropes, polygamists, Bible-thumpers, rubes and rednecks.
...
E is for the two things that get every Tea Partier’s blood pressure up: elites and the establishment. The former are, in the movement’s telling, a bunch of unpatriotic, snobbish pantywaists who tend to reside on the East or the West coast; the latter is the source of all political evil, to wit, bailouts, deficits, and the like.
...
G is for Government, which can never be small enough for a Tea Partier, and Tim Geithner, Lord North to Obama’s King George in the eyes of the movement many of whose members believe (erroneously) that the Treasury Secretary has links to the diabolical Goldman Sachs. (Tea partiers’ loathing for Big Government is matched only by their detestation of Wall Street.)
...
P is for Palin, primaries and political purity. Sarah Palin has reigned over the Tea Party like an ideological empress, dictating the course of numerous Republican primaries by giving her imprimatur only to those candidates who meet the terms of her political checklist. Did you vote for bailouts? Thwack. Cap-and-trade? Pow. Without doubt the most charismatic politician on the right, she is also the most polarizing figure in American politics (yes, even more so than Obama).
Q is for quo, status: “The status quo has got to go” (a sign at a Tea Party rally).
...
Z is for the zeitgeist, which in our unhappy nation at present happens to mean, alas—on both left and right—zero tolerance for views with which we disagree
Does he get it right?
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Jul '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
Did they feature pictures of Burt and Ernie, Elmo and Big bird?
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Personally I think they are just projecting once again. Since they embrace all of those principles in their own rent a crowd moments, they assume that the other side MUST do the same thing.
Edited on Sep 20, 2010 at 5:41amMay '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
I think he meant these things as insults, right? Small government ... what's wrong with these people?
Sep '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
I'm amazed how all the leftist talking points converge at one time. Journolist still exists somewhere.
May '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
D is for the disdain evident in the snide tone of every article written about the movement. And it's fully evident here. But that said, having read the whole list, heavy-handed tone aside, I think he gets it about right. Because the movement is so amorphous, it makes many people plugged into the status quo very uncomfortable.
BTW Logo -- Any chance of getting Rick Santelli to guest-blog on this site. (Maybe his day job prevents him...?)
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
For what it's worth, Varadarajan has written in defense of the tea partiers before:
Jun '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
It is, on the whole, a sign of maturity to be able to make fun of one’s’ self. Maturity is good and also quite long in coming...and it is also the lagging virtue that one most hopes to find –eventually— amongst those taking tea these days. It may be that we will need less affected sanctity and bit more light-humor when taking the measure of the Tea Party, if only to treat them as adults instead of Les Enfants Terribles.
Tunku Varadarajan in capturing that certain something is, for me, one of the livelier and most mature voices speaking out in the vast empty spaces between the right-edge and the center.
May '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
Tunku is generally on our side, folks. When he mocks the birthers among us, it is because there are birthers among us, and they sap credibility from the Right, just as Truthers harm the Left.
The first thing we all need is to develop a thicker skin, then think before reacting. In particular, ask ourselves if something stings a little because he is right or because he is wrong.
But grown-ups don't take bait as though they are Daily Kos reactionaries.
Edited on Sep 20, 2010 at 10:08amRe: The Tea Party, A-Z
Duane Oyen:
The first thing we all need is to develop a thicker skin, then think before reacting. In particular, ask ourselves if something stings a little because he is right or because he is wrong.
But grown-ups don't take bait as though they are Daily Kos reactionaries. · Sep 20 at 10:07am
Edited on Sep 20 at 10:08 am
Great post -- I couldn't have said it better myself! In fact, I've been trying to make this point, but falling short. Thanks Duane.
Jul '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
On the whole, I found Tunku's guide funny. It certainly hits closer to the mark than most coverage. He is aware of the limited amount of objective data available concerning Tea Partiers (e.g., demographics). If Glenn Beck can wear an Uncle Sam costume, we all ought to be able to giggle a little bit. If Delaware picks an odd duck in its Republican primary, we all ought to be able to shrug and say, "That's federalism!" while deploring Bill Maher's low-class threats. As Tea Partiers, we don't have to support everything labeled "Tea Party."
More pointedly, we can continue to turn the tables on oh-so-serious progressive liberals by sharpening our joke sticks to poke them in the ribs!
May '10
Re: The Tea Party, A-Z
cehwiedel: On the whole, I found Tunku's guide funny. It certainly hits closer to the mark than most coverage. He is aware of the limited amount of objective data available concerning Tea Partiers (e.g., demographics). If Glenn Beck can wear an Uncle Sam costume, we all ought to be able to giggle a little bit. If Delaware picks an odd duck in its Republican primary, we all ought to be able to shrug and say, "That's federalism!" while deploring Bill Maher's low-class threats. As Tea Partiers, we don't have to support everything labeled "Tea Party."
More pointedly, we can continue to turn the tables on oh-so-serious progressive liberals by sharpening our joke sticks to poke them in the ribs! · Sep 20 at 11:01am
YES!