Comments about ‘Robert Bennett: What is the future of the tea party?’

@MapleDon- you are confusing left wingedness with someone who was a life long moderate conservative tired of reading the never ending drivel of lies and misrepresentations. You don't have to be a liberal to dislike dishonesty and arguments made based on innuendo and half facts.

I don't find hate a family value - and I see that a good portion of the Republican party has become the party of anti anything, and any one, without a single positive solution. I personally see no value in voting over 20 times against ObamaCare, without a single alternative put on the table.

So if being against people who for party sake openly state their goal is to make our dually elected president fail - at the cost of every citizen of this nation - if that makes one a liberal... I guess I am a liberal.... what ever that means.

But I would then also be a liberal who helped the Republican party sweep into power in North Carolina this election by working on the McCory campaign. In my opinion, anytime you are all one way or another, you aren't doing too much thinking.

Just my opinion.

@Furry1993,

I could not have said it any better!

interesting that just about all these articles about how bad and radical the Tea Party might be they never seem actually to mention where the Tea Party stands on issues. I thought it was lower taxes, less regulation , fewer Federal workers, a balanced budget for starters. These positions do not seem too bad to me.

Upset about the bailouts?

I hate to break this to you, but they started before Obama was even elected:

**'Bush signs $700 billion bailout bill' - AP - Published by Denver Post - By Tom Raum - 10/03/08

Ask dick armey...

The tp'er who scored the $8,000,000 golden parachute.

The same tp people who moan about excessive spending spent $8,000,000 to make one of their grass-roots super-heroes go away...

tp'ers...

Please continue to do what you are doing.

Thank you!

Tucket is right. The tea party movement really began when Rick Santelli appeared on CNBC in February of 2009, broadcasting from Chicago, and suggested that there should be a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest the unwise government actions which had led to the housing collapse. It is interesting that no one, including Bailout Bob, has mentioned these origins.

Tea party protests are made up of ordinary, law-abiding people who go to work every day, who have come to the realization that someone needs to speak up in favor of Constitutionally limited government, responsible fiscal behavior, and lower taxes. That's all we are.

Much vitriol has been employed by the media to paint an ugly picture of us (parroted by ignorant people who claim to be open minded) but those are only smears. Tea party demonstrations are orderly and peaceful, and the people who attend them are your neighbors. We love America and care about our children and grandchildren just as you do.

What in Tucket?
Provo, UT
interesting that just about all these articles about how bad and radical the Tea Party might be they never seem actually to mention where the Tea Party stands on issues. I thought it was lower taxes, less regulation , fewer Federal workers, a balanced budget for starters. These positions do not seem too bad to me.

9:40 p.m. Feb. 11, 2013

============

And then they added:

Global Warming is a hoax,
The Eaarth is only 6,000 years old,
Cut spending on everything but the military, and increase it,
denying healthcare to those with pre-existing conditions,
Everyone should have an assault rifle w/ high capacity magazines - and NO background checks,
Drill Baby drill, Burn baby burn,
taking away Women's rights,
Hispanics are not equal,
the young people don't need expensive higher educations,
Obama's birth certificate,
4 deaths in Benghazi is a a HUGE mistake, while 7,000 deaths and $2 Trillions in the Bush wars isn't,

...shall I continue?...

Perhaps if they stuck to the core issues, they wouldn't seem so extreme - and might still be popular.

What in Tucket?,

"interesting that just about all these articles about how bad and radical the Tea Party might be they never seem actually to mention where the Tea Party stands on issues. I thought it was lower taxes, less regulation , fewer Federal workers, a balanced budget for starters. These positions do not seem too bad to me."
____________________

Sounds mainstream, doesn’t it? No espousal of racial and gay-bashing slurs that have been reported at their rallies where placards were displayed with caricatures of Barak Obama with a Hitler mustache. They insist they’re mainstream but they’re finding it increasingly difficult to get the public to buy what they’re trying to sell. Why do you suppose that is?

The Koch brothers new vehicle runs on tea and bitter vocal protestation.

Wow, reading the comments here, you can really see that liberals are bitter and angry.

Why do you liberals hate so much?

I have been told my many liberals that the liberal philosophy is to live-and-let-live, and that you accept everybody and their ideas. Reading the comments here it appears that if you are not liberal enough, you are considered evil and should be destroyed at all costs.

The irony here is that many of the same people who complain about Utah being dominated by Republicans are the very ones who complain the loudest about any group that opposes the liberals.

Are not tea parties known the world
over for their theme of WHIMSY?

And for that theme of whimsy are
very, very popular and appealing
to little girls and old ladies???

And yet there was one seat Jim Demint helped win, that of Senator Mike Lee.

@Craig Clark "...racial and gay-bashing slurs..."

These are serious accusations. Have you ever been eyewitness to a tea party event where they occurred? I haven't. I've never met a tea party activist who used such slurs. I'm inclined to believe that these accusations are an example of the Goebbels "Big Lie" tactic -- repeating the same falsehood over and over again until it becomes accepted as truth.

One example: an allegation was made that tea party protesters yelled racial epithets at the Congressional Black Caucus on the day of the health care vote. The allegation was reported as fact in the news media. Yet, when Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 to anyone providing a video of this occurrence, no one could do it. This, in the age of ubiquitous video coverage.

Usually tea party racism goes something like this:

TEA PARTIER: Obamacare is bad policy. It's too expensive, and it will foster dependency on government.

LEFTY: You are only saying this because you hate black people. You are a racist.

Who is the racist here? Who brought up race? And how do we have a rational conversation, when these kinds of tactics are being used?

@TParty
I'll say this. I've never been to a tea party rally. But i've been at thanksgiving dinner and heard about "our illegal (racist word for mixed race) president" or the "King N(fill in the rest of this word)". Or, how all of the (slur for hispanics) should leave the country, even if they are legal residents. I honestly believe that many of the people who call the tea party racist have heard from friends and family members, who really are racist, and cling to tea party ideals. I think the better question is why does the tea party attract this kind of element?

T. Party wrote an extended dialog between a TPartier and a "Lefty".

Wow! That Lefty Man was so full of straw it would make Ray Bolger envious!

Why can't the TP-ers wake up and realize that it is just this kind of absurd, superficial, misrepresented diatribe that completely undermines their credibility?

If you are going to take issue with the position of your opponent, the very least you can do is give the illusion of representing your opponents position with some semblance of integrity before you attack it.

But since you didn't, it reveals that both your mischaracterization as well as your own position is full of straw!

@redshirt.... what hate talk are youi referring to? I mean, what here is classified as "hate" where as the same language used the other way is what? Or is it that you accept hate talk from conservatives, it just surprised you that "liberals" used the same negative tones in their messages.

I even commented that I saw value in having the Tea Party having a seat at the table - even though I disagree with them, to which I was labelled a "Radical Leftie". If my position is "radical", I would hate to see what others opinopns are viewed as.

Disagreeing does not equate to "hate"... at least I hope not. And I don't think either side has a hold on the disagreeing part.

To "UtahBlueDevil" go back and read the comments made by many of the typical liberal commentors. They are not disagreeing with anything from the article or with any other commentor. They are attacking those who do not agree with their liberal ideology.

Again, if the liberal philosophy is to live-and-let-live, and accept everybody and their ideas, why do they attack those who they don't agree with. There is no acceptance in their attacks.

re: RedShirt

"Wow, reading the comments here, you can really see that liberals are bitter and angry."

And AM talk radio and Fox News is all sunshine & lollipops?

"The irony here is that many of the same people who complain about Utah being dominated by Republicans are the very ones who complain the loudest about any group that opposes the liberals."

The real, legitimate irony is that your comment about irony contradicts itself. Who wrote that last bit for you? Arnold Rimmer? Frank Burns?

To J Thompson 6:39 p.m. Feb. 12

The same tactics are used by Beck, Hannity, & Rushie.

Yet, you probably believe that they are valiant crusaders for all that is decent.

@Noodle "I think the better question is why does the tea party attract this kind of element?"

I think this is a great question, and that it has a couple of fairly simple answers. One is that tea party activists tend to read the Tenth Amendment literally, and believe it limits the size and power of the federal government. But historically, going back to pre-Civil-War times, there have been people who wrongly interpreted the Tenth Amendment as allowing slavery. (One of the code words for pro-slavery was "states rights.") Racist elements today often are not smart enough to see that we believe in one thing without believing in the other.

The other reason is that many tea party activists believe that the rule of law should apply to immigration policy, and this is interpreted both by racists and our political opponents to mean we're anti-immigration. We're not.

Racists are not welcome among us, but their presence makes it convenient for our opponents, who apply the label falsely as a means of shutting down discussion.

@Vanka "...straw man..."

Keep your eyes open. The illustration in my previous comment was not a far stretch.