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Today's Top News
Tea Party Fireworks: Speaker Rips McCain, Obama, 'Cult of Multiculturalism'
Ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo Suggests 'Civics, Literacy Test' Would Have Foiled Obama's Election; High-Priced National 'Tea Party' Convention Stirs Debate Among Factions
The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
The opening night speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama." (ABC news image)
The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo,
R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that
in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in
the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."
Tancredo did not stop at the Democratic president -- ripping McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for shaping up to be a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2."
"Thank God John McCain lost the election," he said, voicing his belief that McCain would have presided over big budgets and lacked a tough stand against immigration.
Tancredo served 10 years in the House of Representatives and made a name for himself with his ardent opposition to immigration. He believes the 2008 election served to galvanize the right.
"This is our country," he told the crowd. "Let's take it back."
Tancredo's speech received enthusiastic applause at times, but the crowd did not fill the large ballroom at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.
Rancor Among Tea Party Factions?
As opponents of big government converged on what has been billed as the first national tea party convention, organizers hoped the event would further "galvanize" the populist movement and help it gather momentum after a string of recent conservative electoral victories.
But some wondered what gave organizers the right to hold the event in the first place, never mind to charge hundreds of dollars for admission.
"Nobody really is entitled to stand up and say, 'This is the National Tea Party anything,'" conservative blogger Dan Riehl said of the three-day convention being put on by a Nashville-based defense attorney, Judson Phillips, and his wife.
Phillips told ABC News that he put the convention together to try to harness the political power of the tea party movement, which helped fuel rallies and marches last summer, and helped mobilize support for Scott Brown last month in Massachusetts.
Organizers said some 600 attendees have paid $549 for access to two full days of events that culminate Saturday evening in a keynote speech by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at a banquet that reportedly will feature a lobster-and-steak dinner.
While the convention itself is sold out, tickets to the banquet only were still on sale late Wednesday for $349. So far, organizers said, more than 500 banquet-only tickets have been sold.
The high price of entry to an event that celebrates grass roots, open-air activism has offended many in the Tea Party tent.
In fact, some tea party factions are furious.
"When somebody steps up and says their purpose in putting on a convention like this is to make a profit, that's really the antithesis of a grass roots movement," said Mark Meckler, of the Tea Party Patriots faction.
In a mid-January post on his blog, "Riehl World View," Riehl questioned whether Phillips "wants to be a tea party millionaire."
"[Tea party activists] generally are not the type of people who would gravitate to some very expensive hotel to dine on lobster and steak and listen to someone speak," Riehl said in an interview Wednesday.
Convention spokesman Mark Skoda acknowledged Wednesday that Phillips and his wife, Sherry Phillips, founders of the for-profit Tea Party Nation Inc., will "make a few bucks" on the event. But Skoda questioned why that should be anyone's concern.
"Have we gone so far in the Obama-socialist view of the nation that 'profit' is a bad word -- in particular, if we're using it to advance the conservative cause?" Skoda asked.
The convention plans to feature a lecture called, "Correlations Between the Current Administration and Marxist dictators in Latin America."
Who Owns This Weekend's The Tea Party Convention?
The spokesman said the proceeds would be used to fund upcoming Tea Party nation events.
Politico reported last month that the former Alaska governor would receive as much as $100,000 to address the convention.
But Palin wrote in a USA Today op-ed article Wednesday that she would "not benefit financially" from the event, pledging to throw any compensation she would receive "right back to the cause."
As she no longer serves in office, Palin is free to accept the speaking fee without encountering any legal issues. But two sitting members of congress, Rep. Michelle Bachman R-Minn., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn R-Tenn., pulled out of the event late last month citing concern over House ethics rules.
While initially restricting access to the convention to a select number of news organizations, like Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and World Net Daily, organizers announced this week that Palin's speech would be aired on cable and the Internet, allowing a broader audience to hear the former governor's address.
"We will have transparency that, frankly, is surprising to many people," Skoda said.
Palin addressed the controversy surrounding the convention in her USA Today piece.
"As with all grass roots efforts, the nature of this movement means that sometimes the debates are loud and the organization is messier than that of a polished, controlled machine," she wrote, saying she "thought long and hard about my participation," before deciding to honor her commitment to attend.
Ahead of Palin's speech, several breakout sessions are planned for Friday, under titles such as "Technology in the Tea Party Movement," "Defeating Liberalism Via the Primary Process" and "Why Christians Must Engage."
"This convention is a way to galvanize the conservative movement in a way that the general rallies do not," Skoda said. "We have seen a maturing of the movement to the point of moving protests into activism. And that activism is starting to drive results in elections."
On Saturday morning, Skoda will take part in a panel discussion entitled, "Where the Tea Party Movement Goes From Here."
That title poses a good question. Despite the fact that the Phillipses are hosting an event that nominally claims to be "the" national Tea Party convention, there is still no national organization, nor any head of the movement. It claims to have several founders.
Dale Robertson, for instance, said he's been leading the Tea Party effort "longer than anybody else," having created the Web site teaparty.org a year before the first anti-stimulus Tea Parties began in 2009.
Still, he doesn't begrudge the Phillipses for claiming that his Nashville event is a national affair.
"I mean, a name is just a name. It's just a marketing thing," Robertson said Wednesday from his home in East Texas.
The out-of-work engineer won't be attending the convention this weekend. He said he simply can't make the trip, but he will be there in spirit.
Robertson does, however, have a major problem with the keynote speaker.
"She hasn't been a part of this movement at all and she doesn't seem to be suffering at all," he said, "as [have] many of these patriots who've been donating their time, their money and their resources."
To Palin's claim that she'll be returning any money she receives "to the cause," the founder of teaparty.org, who eschews the political establishment, scoffed.
"But she's giving money back to the machine, right?" he asked. "Republicans."
Delegate: 'We're Sick of Everyone'
While the political make-up of the convention is nearly universally conservative, there was some ire for both parties.
Delegate William Temple from Georgia, who was dressed in a kilt, said he wanted to work against "Republicans, Democrats and Independents who have been in Congress too many terms."
"We're sick of everyone," he said.
However, when pressed, Temple said he could not ever remember voting for a Democrat.
Jim and Julie Dam drove five hours from Indianapolis to be at the convention. They said their biggest fear is the spending that comes out of Washington. But they said they wanted to work within the Republican Party to reach their aims.
"I'm not interested in a third party," Julie Dam said. "My husband isn't either."
"We want conservative Republicans," Jim Dam said.
ABC News' Andy Fies contributed to this report.
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47 Comments so far
Show AllLiteracy test? Why not bring back the poll tax, but make it a minimum of $50,000. That way, only Wall Street bankers could afford to vote.
But wait. We seem to have that now, what with all of the money Wall Street spends lobbying.
They better watch out, the tea party may soon backfire on the elite and their organizers. When these yahoos get hungry, they'll start scavenging for food with the rest of us.
I think the "Tea Party" movement is going to hurt politics big time. I think honest people who want to go into politics to change things for the better will look at this sad lot of puppets and their corrupt puppeteers, and think why should I spend my life's energy trying to make the lives better for people like this. They are ill informed, irrational, and will fight against their own interests at every opportunity they get. They will do whatever they can to bring me down as I try to help their lot in life.
On the other hand corrupt politicians looking to exploit the system will rush in thinking they cant miss an opportunity to exploit a situation like this for their own corrupt purposes. As these politicians screw the "Tea Partiers" over, the screwees will cheer their screwers on as their heros and saviors. A very sad situation indeed...
Where is the anger at destroying the Bill of Rights? At murdering American citizens for what they MIGHT do? To a bloated Pentagon budget?
Instead we want to get Christians involved even MORE in politics, which is code for right-wing churches to step up their selection of candidates and support for their kooky issues.
This movement is going split apart I suspect before it has more than a token effect upon the Republicans and doesn't have the gas to become a significant third party.
But I could be wrong. It has happened before.
Gary
""Meanwhile, Eric Erickson of RedState.com, a leading conservative blog, posted an item calling the entire convention, quote, "scammy." And his was not the only blog to condemn the event. Mark Meckler co-founded the national TeaPartyPatriots.org. He has described the event as a user/patient of a grassroots movement."
NPR's Don Gonyea http://tinyurl.com/yaeyxlq
They will get Republicans elected. They won't get what they think they want.
Good comment, and words of warning to everyone.
"Have we gone so far in the Obama-socialist view of the nation that 'shearing the sheep' has a negative connotation -- in particular, if we're using it to squeeze the last nickels out of rubes to advance the cause of corporatism?"
Just what we need, a mass gathering of idiots.
I like the idea of a Literacy Test as long as we make it retroactive to 2000. There is no way G.W. Bush could pass such as test and this would nullify the elections of 2000 and 2004. All decisions of the illegitimate government are recalled!!
I am all for the candidates being required to pass difficult tests on civics and other subjects. That would be a great idea.
From the posts I have been reading lately it seems that the left is waking up (thank you Obama). A lot less anger at, a lot less holier than thou attitude in regards to the teaparty movement. Seriously a lot of these people are intelligent, disciplined individuals who see through the government facade, do not support the bushies at all, get it when it comes the false left right paradigm.
Spread the Word
Tom Tancredo should be real careful about suggesting a "Civics Literacy Test," because it is real conceivable that the ones who would fail it would him & his ilk.
NateW
"Civics Literacy Test," because it is real conceivable that the ones who would fail it would him & his ilk."
Quite true. They might very well fail it. Tancredo represents the segment thast just really don't want immigrants, legal or illegal. They don't care that the illegals are exploited, they aren't that interested in American citizens keeping their jobs.
I'm not even sure they care about the violence spilling over the border or the bastards that are selling (women and even kids I hear) people down there.
They don't represent the vast majority of Americans that simply want our laws enforced, that no one be rewarded for criminal conduct, that only legal immigrants be welcomed.
Maybe it would be a good idea for progressives to join the teabaggers and change their agenda. I agree with Mr. Tancredo's statement: " This is our country, lets take it back". If it could be changed from an astroturf movement of the Republican party to a real grass roots movement across the political spectrum, like the Viet nam protests of the 60's which was demonized as treasonus by the whore media, until too many Americans joined in across political lines, then maybe we could have a REAL teaparty!
This "National Tea Party" convention no more represents what most of these folks are about than Pelosi or Reid represents progressives or liberals.
Palin and Tancredo are not representative of what I hear over and over.
Keep thinking this is "Astroturf", keep thinking is sponsored by republicans or elite conservatives, keep buying the democratic propaganda that they are fruitcakes, keep buying the arrogant denigration of them presented by the Lords and Masters. Watch the elections going forward. Watch Rubio defeat the Republican establishments candidate in Florida.
I don't believe this is anything like the convention folks or the propaganda claims. It seems different, it feels different and it sounds different. They may eat the Republican Party, not the other way around.
Of course, I could be wrong.
I agree. as I have spoke with teabaggers that are not ignorant, racists, but are intelligent, angry Americans that do not support the paradigm of the MSM. Yes, they may eat the Republican party and you could be wrong,but I would not bet on it!
Wolves party as sheep complain they've been fleeced.
'I'm a progressive and I can make common cause with many of these people. It's exactly what we should do.'
I am right (no pun intended) there with you Jill. I am currently actively involved with a 'tea party' type group in my neighborhood. There are some things that I disagree on but there is a lot of common ground, on the war, on tranparency in the government, on the growing police state, etc. etc.
Really you could just stop at the opposition to the war(s) and I would be on board. A libertarian style non-interventionist foreign policy is the antithesis of empire building. Even more so than a bleeding heart 'save the children' policy. Just read todays article on the IMF for an example of neoliberal wolf in sheeps clothing empire building.
The powers that be thrive on a divided population. We need to quit squabbling about CNNs issue of the day and focus on what's really important. The left right paradigm is a distraction and it's later than you might think....
So, which of the below, if any, will the Tea Party Support:
1. End the so-called "war on terror". Dismantle foreign bases, issue apologies and reparations as needed to those we harmed?
1. Free, tax-funded healthcare for all, funded by dismantling the US military to a level needed fordefense of theborders?
2. A living minimum wage - $15 per hour, like Eurpoeans enjoy?
3. Free Univeristy Education, like Europeans ehjoy.
4. Mandatory paid, extended family and maternity leave and sick leave like Europeans enjoy.
5. Mandated 4 weeks of vacation like Europeans enjoy.
6. Repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, aiong with the passage of an unamended Employee Free Choice Act.
7. Massive public ivestment in a low-or no-carbon energy infrastructure, including reconstruction of cities on the livable, car-free transit-oriented model?
8. Reigning in and breaking up local and national monopolies of all sorts, from Microsoft to Wal-Mart.
9. Citizen control, on the national and local levels, of business decisions that impact their lives and the natural environment in their regions.
If not, why should I or other democratic socialist - including most of the readership here, support your so-called non-partisan movement?
pjd412
Seems a bit straw man to me. A sort of "do you beat your wife on Tuesday or Thursday list".
For example: "Repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, aiong with the passage of an unamended Employee Free Choice Act"
Whats your objection to Davis-Bacon? Obviously there is no possibility of racist content at this point, so I don't see your objecction? And I don't see TP's favoring removing it.
Of course they wouldn't favor "Employee Free Choice Act" I don't myself. Its nothing but a way for Unions to unionize a business and bypass both the employer and the employee's. I read the bill and its quite apparent what its for. Anything that short citcuits a secret ballot is not a good thing.
A lot of those questions are not simplr at all.
oops!!!!
I meant Taft-Hartley Act!!!
Of course I support the existing Davis-Bacon (Fed govt.funded contracts must be prevailing wage - typically union wage) Act.
You utterly missed my point! The previous poster was claiming that"left" and "right" were no longer important, and that the US left should find common ground with the Tea Party. So, I simply listed some of the specific legislative demands that would be on any US leftist's fundamental wish-list. If the Tea partyers don't support them, then what, for crying out loud, is our common ground? Of course both we and the TPers hate much of current US govt policy. The Nazi's and socialist Italian or Yugoslav partisans also also both hated Stalin. But was this a basis for common ground?
Finding common ground with them? You haven't been to the rallies I've been to, then... because to the tp'ers I've been around, Liberals and Progressives are THE enemy, Democrats are another, and while they say they don't like Republicans either, they sure as hell love to repeat their talking points and attack mantras.... and vote for them... and give them cover.
I hear a lot of the "We hate both sides" but where the rubber meets the road, they ARE the wingnut wing of the wingnut party, and the 99.99% of them who are totally batshit insane are giving the other five guys a bad name...
You are replying to someone else?
My whole point of this thread is that we don't have common ground with the Tea Party, and the idea that left and right no longer have meaning is absurd. That was the point of my list.
In the future please sentences from beginning to end.
Oh, as as far as EFCA, there is a card-signature check, so a majority of workers must want a union before one is organized.
The "secret ballot" stuff is a red herring. It is the MLRB secret ballot process, and the delays it entails, that allows the employer to harass and often fire workers, and hold special meetings where the employees are threatened and harangued. At one workplace I was doing consulting engineer work for, specifically, the Transcraft semi-trailer plant in Mt. Sterling KY where workers did dirty dangerous work for 7.50 to 8.50 per hour, there were big signs at the entrance to the lunchroom stating: "Want your job to go to a Mexico? Join a union!" I'm not making this up.
Of course, the employer should have ZERO say, and in as absolutely none of their fucking business, how the workers organize themselves for collective bargaining with the employer. If the boss as much as opens his mouth on the matter in the workplace, he should be face charges for violating a workers right to organize.
So, do we still have common ground with you neo-fascist fucks?
Some of today's posts have tried to paint the Tea Party ferment as potentially progressive. These posts are notably lacking in any show of objective proof for this claim.
There are at least three lines of proof to remove this question from the conjectural realm of wishful thinking. (1) What the Tea Party spokespersons say about their political orientation. The above article cites one luminary, "'This convention is a way to galvanize the conservative movement in a way that the general rallies do not,' Skoda said." The anti-"big government" talk is also a conservative standard.
(2) What the Tea Party rank-and-file say and do at their commotions is another piece of evidence. Some bring semi-automatic weapons. Some tote xenophobic (racist) signs. Most betray clear signs of extreme nationalism, which in the USA signifies imperialism. (Tea Party folk call it patriotism.) Many proclaim their superstition (Christianity) and confusion generally (equating Obama with fascism and socialism). Their reactionary nisus is epitomized in the oft-heard desire to "take America back"--which bears close comparison with two of the themes of classic fascism--the "stab in the back" (betrayal) and the demand to "turn the clock back" (the good old days with a vengeance). Virtually all of the demonstrators are white.
(3) The class basis of this movement is crucial for assessing its political potential; and seems to be unequivocally petty bourgeois (middle or lower-middle class)--the precise stratum that historically provides what scholarship calls the "mass basis of fascism."
Finally, even if the above considerations are rejected, proponents of co-opting the Tea Party ferment to progressive ends forget that even to make this effort presupposes a coherent progressive movement, capable of formulating appropriate demands and providing leadership to win the Tea Party rank-and-file from the crowd of political leaders (such as Palin, Tancredo, and the GOP leadership generally) wooing the movement. There is, alas, no such progressive movement either in existence or in prospect. (And before wishful thinking kicks in on this issue, please recall that progressive impotence was the premise of so acute an observer as Ralph Nader in his last, bittersweet fantasy book, "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us.")
soloduff
"Tea Party rank-and-file from the crowd of political leaders (such as Palin, Tancredo"
In the first place, these are NOT leaders of the Tea Party, nor is Beck or Limbaugh. In the second place there is not a hope in hell that the Tea Party movement or the vast number of folks that they are framed to represent would ever be remotely progressive. There are many liberals among them, but I would fall over dead if a progressive was there.
1. Anti-big government talk is representative of any group that wants to pay their bills. I would tell you not to make too much of this "convention"
2. You bought the democratic propaganda hook, line and sinker. The description is absurd. One guy...ONE...brought an m-15 hooked over his shoulder and I saw two Nazi signs and I've seen a greater number of those and racist signs at leftist rallies.
Because you have a superstition about no Gods, don't attribute your own views to others. Are you suggesting that any group has to have a racial balance? That you are required to have other races? Aside from which, if you look at the videos you'll see all sorts of races represented, but of course the majority are white. The majority of our country is white.
The idea that Nationalism equals Imperialism is almost too absurd to address. Does that mean any one that favors their own nation, practice's nationalism is "imperialistic"? That would mean the rest of the world is imperialistic because they are practicing nationalism just as hard as they can.
3. I guess you educated elite folks are in trouble, huh?
Obviously progressive's can't get a coherent movement together. And the reasons are obvious.
Caligula: You are culpable of either dishonesty in the shape of willfully misquoting my post; or a failure of reading comprehension, or both. The very first sentence of your post misquotes me to suggest that I claimed that Palin, et al., were "leaders of the Tea Party." In fact my clause in point (above) distinguished the Tea Party grassroots from its would-be leaders; I quote myself for your benefit, ". . . to win the Tea Party rank-and-file from the crowd of political leaders (such as Palin, Tancredo, and the GOP leadership generally) wooing the movement."
Your second claim (your number 2)--"You bought the democratic propaganda hook, line and sinker. The description is absurd. One guy...ONE...brought an m-15 hooked over his shoulder and I saw two Nazi signs and I've seen a greater number of those and racist signs at leftist rallies"--is groundless. I provided independent evidence for my position; nothing that I provided relies upon "democratic propaganda," by which you presumably mean propaganda of the Democratic Party. (The Democratic Party has no monopoly on political analysis of protofascist movements.) And by the way: If you think Leftists brandish Nazi and racist signs, I suggest you review the meaning, and history, of Left politics.
The paragraph following your item 2 equates my atheism with superstition. I suggest that you consult a good dictionary as to the accepted meanings of these terms.
You then falsely claim that I advanced "[t]he idea that Nationalism equals Imperialism." In fact my claim was qualified to refer to extreme nationalism in the USA. (I said, "Most betray clear signs of extreme nationalism, which in the USA signifies imperialism.")
Your closing crack--"I guess you educated elite folks are in trouble, huh?"--would qualify as irony if you were capable of same. Presumably you have not noticed that all humanity is "in trouble" in these times.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Sarah Palin this very day is the keynote speaker at the inaugural National "Tea Party" Convention in Nashville, TN. Of all the great thinkers and potential leaders the Tea Party morons could have chosen from across the country to be their inaugural Convention's keynote speaker they chose Sarah 'Tundra Hillbilly' Palin. They're going to pay that whackjob $100,000 to speak.
Pardon e' moi, but wasn't Palin the Republican Party's candidate for Vice President of the United States? The astro-turf Tea-Bagger movement was always a Republican funnel movement to schlep these illiterate bigots back into the GOP come election time. They don't have the brains or cohesiveness to organize a true independent movement on a national scale. Unfortunately, apparently neither do American progressives.
All the self-described "libertarian" trolls who cruise this site should read both Tom Tancredo's and Sarah Palin's remarks at this ninny Convention and cease and desist trying to convince the rest of us who post in this site that they are anything besides politically confused, semi- to illiterate, self-centered, greed-headed bigots and/or right-wing rant-radio addicted pinheads.
Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck both hosted a key Tea Bagger rally in my State and it was Newt's lieutenant Dick Army whose PR firm helped get this astro-turf BS McMovement rolling. It's a false movement for GOP teat suckers who don't want to accept the full ramifications of whose teat they are dependent upon so they look the other way until election time and then come a-runnin' to the GOP's Newtzi/neo-con Pavlovian conditioning.
You are simply wrong.
metal
Just because these folks you mention show up at "official" functions, you make a mistake in thinking that they lead anyone.
I fail to see myself as a "libetarian troll" or any knid of "troll" for that matter. I assume you are referring to me since you are posting below my post.
If thats the case, you should give a lot of thought to how valuable being in an echo chamber is.
I post what I think, what I see, what I analyse, if someone wants to disagree, fine, but name calling is beneath you and I'm surprised.
They aren't moron's and its a mistake to think that.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Yep. They walk like ducks and quack like ducks. They are moronic ducks.
"Your closing crack--"I guess you educated elite folks are in trouble, huh?"--would qualify as irony if you were capable of same. Presumably you have not noticed that all humanity is "in trouble" in these times."
Its not a crack. Its a summation of your posting. Obviously accurate.
"to win the Tea Party rank-and-file from the crowd of political leaders (such as Palin, Tancredo"
Personally it seems quite apparent that you said exactly that. "Woo them from" would be construed in what other way I ponder?
If you wish to be atheistic, be my guest of course, but don't you think its bad manners if not downright rude to comment on other's belief's?
"If you think Leftists brandish Nazi and racist signs, I suggest you review the meaning, and history, of Left politics."
Friend, I suggest you go to You-Tube and look up a few rallies from the last eight years. If you then want to say that swastica's mean somerthing else when carried at a leftist or progressive ralley, you can explain it to me. Try some of the leftist amnesty rallies if you want to see some real racist signs.
In referring to extreme nationalsim as opposed to garden varierty nationalism and democratic party as if you didn't know what I was referring to considering the context, parse words all you like. Then you have to define "extreme".
I ignored your initial insults .
Petit-bourgeois is correct, but to be clear, I would place most of the Tea Party well up there in the upper middle class. Here in Pittsburgh, they hail from the outer belts of multi-$100K homes. Those from the 5-digit home neighborhoods within the city limits or closer-in older suburbs have few Tea Partiers among them.
Unfortunately, they are so exhausted from hard work and worry, real financial difficulty, and sometimes facing consequent drug, alcohol or other afflictions of the working class, that they are in a state of learned, apolitical helplessness.
"Petty bourgeois" is equally correct; and, I have found, more intelligible to nonspecialists.
Your point re "upper middle class" Tea Party followers is well taken. Many years ago, conducting power structure research a la Wm. Domhoff, I learned that this country is so very rich and so very class-stratified that strata well below the plutocracy, but well above the standard petty bourgeoisie, exhibit a close political affinity with the petty bourgeoisie of yore (the grouping that has such a starring role in classic fascist movements). Their political mentality exhibits the travails of the "ownership society" as filtered through their special class prism: These folks are quite bourgeois, but feel themselves squeezed (as you observe) by acute capitalist crisis. They feel that they should not have to suffer in the way that their class inferiors suffer; hence their indignation, confusion and rage.
The only thing substantively questionable in your comment is your last clause--"...they are in a state of learned, apolitical helplessness . . . ."--while the first sentence of your post makes it clear that you are referring to Tea Party activists (the topic of my post). Do you intend to characterize activists as "apolitical"?
'Petty bourgeois' is equally correct..."
I wasn't correcting your spelling. I was expressing agreement with you. I didn't even notice how you spelled it; But, since you brought it up, it is a French phrase, so it should be spelled "petit" (English "little").
As far as you last question, by "learned apolitical helplessness", I was referring to the people in the 5-digit-valued house neighborhoods (of Pittsburgh) where the the genuine lower middle class and poor live, not the Tea Partiers. The Tea Partiers live in the better off 6-digit suburban areas. I was comparing and contrasting. Apparently I did a poor writing job here. I do not consider the Tea Party activists "sqeezed" or suffering hardship at all. However they are so full of a sense of spoiled-child-like privilege that even the smallest financial setbacks lead them to want to lash out at a scapegoat.
The petit bourgeois in their modern form have been referred by some like Znet's Michael Albert and other Parecon theorists as the "coordinator class".
pjd412: Your 10;16 AM post 2/6/10 is helpful, but you neglected to mention the class basis of fascism. Scholarship on classic fascism describes a "marriage of classes," whereby in times of acute capitalist crisis the big bourgeoisie try to co-opt the petty bourgeois confusion and discontent manifesting the crisis. We have already seen early exemplars of this in the USA, when last summer it came out that there was corporate stealth financing of some of the Tea Party events, esp. on health care. The petty bourgeois component of fascism provides the "mass basis of fascism"--hence "populism" in the sloppy vernacular.
Let's lay the linguistic issue to rest. Concerning "petty bourgeois," you write,". . . it is a French phrase, so it should be spelled 'petit' (English 'little')." My point stands; as any sampling of relevant political literature would show. Either usage is correct. I am surprised that you seem unaware that French terms have English translations that are commonly incorporated appropriately, as in the term in question. I am even more surprised that you feel the need to instruct me as to the French correlate of "petty"--at the risk of a pun, let's not be so petty.
I am not familiar with Michael Albert on this topic. Why would he call the petty bourgeoisie the "coordinator class"? As you are probably aware, one of the historical characteristics of the petty bourgeoisie in late capitalism is its lack of cohesiveness and capacity for self-organization, which renders it easy pickings for co-optation by the big bourgeoisie.
"Coordinators" are the well-paid people in the professional occupations. They are still largely "wage earners" rather than earners of wealth from capital, but at the same time, they align their interests with the capitalists who pay them well. So Mr. Albert and Prof. Hahnel decided when formulating their Parecon model of alternate economics, to use this term instead of "petit-bourgeois."
And out of respect for the people who formulated the term, I prefer to use their language.
For example, nothing grated on me more than when I was working in Venezuela as when they called the big US city "Nueva York". And, I have never figured out why English speakers insist on calling the German city Koln "Cologne" or the storied Czech river Vltava the "Moldau". Seems disrespectful to me.
Go to Z Net for more information. Z Net is the oldest and most well established facility for leftist ideas on the internet.
we oppose NAFTA, like Obama said he did. And I support anyone's right to vote, well AMERICAN CITIZENS anyway.
Jill--presumably you are being ironic. Your very own post, today's date 1:54pm, is a proof of my statement, which you quote (above), and which I repeat: "Some of today's posts have tried to paint the Tea Party ferment as potentially progressive. These posts are notably lacking in any show of objective proof for this claim.". As you re-read your own post, you will see that you also cite another post (Paul Revere, 12:42 pm) affirming the progressive potential of the Tea Party movement--without objective proof, of course.
Perhaps it would be easier to just suggest that the conventioon, the out front, look at me types are not the real "Tea Party"
They are more like the obnoxious uncle that sometimes comes to dinner. You are polite to him, you let him eat, but he never attends family conferances where real business is done.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
There is no "real" Tea Party just as there is no such thing as a "free market" and never has been.
Let's just review a little bit of recent history, OK. The tea party "movement" "spontenaeously" sprang up all around the country at the same time. hmm... Put that together with today's article about how money gets funnelled to advocacy groups with no scrutiny and I'd be willing to bet whatever funding was used to get organized came from conservative REPUBLICAN groups.
The fact that idiot Tancredo doesn't want third parties either ??? WTF is the tea party if not a third party? Or am I being too obvious?
To mirror a phrase: it is the conservative wing of the Republican party.
What bullshit. Completely contrived and contemptuous of those it would enlist in its "cause."
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Where are these illustrious Tea Baggers on energy policy? The late 1800s, that's where.
You know why the Tea Bagger movement isn't a true populist movement? Because they don't have any populist energy policy ideas. They are hard-core slash, burn, mine & drill, large-scale corporate resource extraction all the way and most of them have nothing but contempt for global warming, biodiversity and what's left of the natural environment. Too many religious fanatic nut-jobs and scientific illiterates circulating "pass it on" emails for Jesus that promise blessings for forwarding this junk to annoyed friends and complete strangers.
There is zero regard for new geo-thermal technologies or large wind & solar arrays in their regressive idiotology because while those renewables produce clean, cheap energy the big energy companies don't want to see a nation of small land owners generating surplus energy back into a modernized grid and getting paid for it, and therefore the Chin-Baggers can't earn substantial stock dividends from it--so the corps, the Baggers, and their media & political class echo chamber pretend those renewables are irrelevant.
A system such as Germany's where the government subsidizes the investments of small land owners in wind and solar arrays and has a modernized electricity grid capable of efficiently buying and distributing surplus electricity would be true energy progressive populism which is an anathema in America where intelligent government investment in truly clean energy would be screeched at and dragged down by Piss-Baggers and their fascist heroes as "big government socialism!!" American energy entrepreneurs had to go to Denmark to find a government that would invest in their plan to build a national system of electrical car recharging stations powered by clean wind power. China, India, the EU and Japan are leaving the U.S. in the dust in terms of R&D and scheduled development of renewable energy systems because of these ass-backwards right-wing fools.
Fascism takes different forms at different times, and therefore is like pornography. It is hard to define, but one know's it when one sees it. It simply has a flavor and smell to it
But I can try to define it. The Tea party stinks to high heaven of fascism because of:
1. The nationalism - not America-the-Beautiful nationalism, but a thuggish, swaggering, exceptionalist, Star-Spangled-Banner style nationalism (the melody was from an old British drinking song)
2. The nativism and calls for cultural and linguistic purity.
3. A form of populism that appeals, not to brotherhood and solidarity, but to selfishness, and indignation borne of a sense of bourgeois privilege.
pjd412: Your remarks are quite accurate, but you neglected to mention the class basis of fascism. Please see my 2/6/10 1:33 PM reply to an earlier post of yours, below.