Comments on: Making the teabaggers a political albatross

By: rwrjr

rwrjr — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:56:51 +0000

I should proofread before I post. I meant I no longer use the term… in the post above.

By: rwrjr

rwrjr — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:55:36 +0000

I know use the phrase “the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party.’ That’s because the lunatics are no longer on the fringe.

By: Barry

Barry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:35:24 +0000

Brett, adding on to Henry’s words, we’ve seen this before. People who supported Reagan suddenly discovered ‘I love my country but fear my government’ during the Clinton administration, and then wholeheartedly supported Bushian authoritarianism, and then turned back to ‘freedom loving’ antigovernment protesters in January, 2009. And we’re seeing the same sort of right-wing lie campaigns which were used in the 1990’s. ‘Deja Vu’ isn’t strong enough a word

When one goes A, not A, A, not A in perfect sync with the changing administrations, what is not being said is far, far stronger than what is being said.

By: Brett Bellmore

Brett Bellmore — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:22:24 +0000

You know, I’m used to this, it’s been going on for years, but it still gets tiresome. Arguments being “fixed”. Outrage over unspoken words. Liberals reacting to what they assume you’d say, rather than what you DID say. Do you really think that inserting the word black into a sentence that didn’t originally contain it, proves that the person who didn’t say it is a racist? Rather than constituting evidence that you’re race obsessed?

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:40:57 +0000

It seems that 50,000 (or however many) showed up in Washington yesterday because they fear that universal health coverage will take away their freedoms and is the equivalent of Nazism or Communism.

They’re a bunch of old people (seriously – look at the demographics on those least likely to support Obama, and not the pictures from the rallies) who are still scared of the “Red Menace”, and many of whom are scared that changing health care will reduce support for Medicare.

Can there be that many loony people?

It’s a big country. Plus, the crazies are just a lot more visible than they were back when their main method of communication with each other was only by newsletter – and they have the help of a political party that likes to keep them around for political purposes, as well as a major television network that seems determined to create a conservative counter-movement.

Her fear seemed genuine. She may unconsciously have been feeling, “That black man is going to rape my child,” but that was not conscious on her part, whereas the segregationists’ goal was racial.

More likely it was a mix of things – fear of the Big, Scary [black] liberal who consorted with [black] radicals. Did I mention that he’s a [black] liberal? In other words, they’re terrified mostly of difference, and Obama strikes them as not being One of Us.

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:10:06 +0000

What likeness to the segregationist movement do you see? The teabaggers, to the extent they are consciously racist, know better than to say so. I saw a woman on YouTube who broke into tears at the thought that her child might be exposed at school to Obama’s speech urging students to work hard. Her fear seemed genuine. She may unconsciously have been feeling, “That black man is going to rape my child,” but that was not conscious on her part, whereas the segregationists’ goal was racial.

By: Senorita Bonita

Senorita Bonita — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:03:09 +0000

What Republicans and Re-thuglicans are ignoring (and I find that remarkable) is the link between this type of anti-reform-Obama protest and its likeness to the segregationist movement of the 50’s and 60’s.

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:42:22 +0000

The John Birch Society, as far as I remember, was a political organization with an agenda, whereas the teabaggers appear to be just a group of paranoiacs. It seems that 50,000 (or however many) showed up in Washington yesterday because they fear that universal health coverage will take away their freedoms and is the equivalent of Nazism or Communism. Yet they were not concerned that their freedom might be limited by Bush’s exercise, with Congress’s complicity, of the power to pull American citizens off the street, imprison them indefinitely without a trial, and torture them to the point of insanity or death. Can there be that many loony people? Although racism is no doubt a strong element in their motivation, I doubt if it is conscious on the part of many. What else is making them tick? I don’t think that it is a political agenda.