The New Tea Party

[I_LIKE_CAKE]

I hope we find out, CAKE.

Now I'm really curious.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

I hope we find out, CAKE.

Now I'm really curious.

Hehe. Imagination is the limit, but I meant to imply that I do not know exactly what an appropriate "step farther" would look like, and hope to be shown by example. However, I am pretty radical. I am happy to see that things like secession and instituting the rule of law as established by the Constitution have at least reentered public discussion. That kind of talk is almost... American.

 

[Anomynous 167]

The ignorance in this thread is unreal. Fox is covering the tea parties because people are tired of the govt. spending trillions during a recession and making BS taxes.

Where was this populist fiscal conservativism when George W. Bush was spending money like it was going out of style? (To be fair, considering how the Dollar was trading against the Euro for a while there, it looked like it WAS.)

Um... They didn't need to?
If the whole of the media is reporting a story except for a few sources, there is obviously a good reason... Why bother? Everyone knows X is doing Y, the conservative media doesn't need to cover it since, the rest of the media is already covering it.
Another reason something aint covered no matter how important something is, is that it is old news.
When was the last time the 9/11 attacks got the front page? ABOUT EIGHT YEARS AGO! People don't want to here the same thing over and over again. Unless of coarse it's a topic of intrest and you like listening to things you want to here. As a listener to Brian Whilshire or 2GB, I know how repetitive some people can be.
And to some up what Brian Whilshire has been saying on the radio for over 40 years, THE COMMUNISTS ARE COMING!!! GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX! "Alright that's enough Hanky Panky, and it's time for our Wensday Night Free For All." "I've been trying to get Peter Costello on this station for 9 years", "Let's take the polies out to lunch", "Food for thought" "Hello Brian", "... Leave it to our panel of expert listeners"
As you can plainly see. The first two quotes was just my idea of him in a nut shell and the rest he pretty much says on a daily basis. Except for "Hello Brian" which I just found funny, and since it is a talk back radio show, it sounded bad out of context.

Edit: Woops, I was looking at two topics at once (The one on Glenn Beck and this) so I was a bit wacky in my reply

 

[ZZ-Tops89]

This entire issue is crap. I have said it before, and I just have to say it again because people need to understand that TAXES ARE IMPORTANT. If we were to reduce the already reduced taxes, we could not afford to have government-funded services.

The tea-partiers neither need nor want government-funded services, hence the disgust with the taxes, and the stupid fire emergency scenario panic thing is pathetic. I can think of a thousand services and goods that people need a LOT more frequently and urgently than a fire response team and those are all provided with great skill and efficiency by what remains of the free market. If you don't understand how a free market actually works, then at least have the grace not to publicly embarrass yourself by shouting your ignorance from the rooftops.

My main concern with the Tea Party protests is that they are ideologically scattered--they're pretty definite about what they're *against* but they aren't really *for* anything at this point. It isn't good enough to be against something because it provides no long-term guidance as to what direction to go in. You have to be *for* something if you want to accomplish anything.

Fortunately a lot of my online friends are working hard to provide these protests with direction by distributing fliers, pamphlets, and even books. I look forward to the planned July 4th protests with at least some hope.

I see the conservative movement right now as in shock over having lost their majority position much like the left in early 2001 all the way almost to 2005; they don't have a clear position, since theirs was just beaten, so they've defined themselves as the diametric opposite of the ruling party. The republican party that will emerge from this is likely going to be closer to the libertarian party than it was before now (which I wholeheartedly approve).

As for the tea parties themselves, I feel that there are legitimate concerns over the size, scope, and lack of accountability in the US federal government right now. I feel that Obama has exacerbated a crisis of accountability in that he has chosen to avoid discussions of accountability since gaining his office and has simply decided to expand programs willy-nilly. In trying to solve one problem he's running headlong into a brick wall where every brick is Pandora's Box.

 

[Zephirius]

The only proper functions of government are the police, military, and court system, and those are cheap and can be funded by various means OTHER than base extortion. Taxes are unnecessary and there is nothing to be gained by leaving the government as a legalized version of a criminal agency. At present, there is zero difference between the U.S. government and the Mafia. Both are thugs demanding protection money--the only difference is that the Mafia doesn't take it upon itself to dictate every other aspect of your life to boot.

Erm..Doesn't "protection" money to the mafia mostly just protect you from what they'd do otherwise? Though that's not very important. I got one biggy for you that needs government funding.. You like your roads? Or would you prefer having toll booths for every strip of road owned by a different person/company 'cause they got make that investment back somehow.
Roads are also not exempt of maintenance, so it goes for existing ones too. You could say they wouldn't necessarily use toll, but other than mass advertising I don't see many other ways.

The Monty Python "What'd they ever do for us" skit comes to mind..