My take on it is that is basically a phatic, therapeutic thing for conservatives mourning that Obama won and the GOP got snubbed big-time in the elections. It is their therapy session to express grief, but they have to cloak it in something that seems patriotic, because ... they are just like that.
Otherwise it is a vague kind of "anti-socialist," free floating anti-this and -that sort of display, not very pointed or targeted at anything specific.
On talk radio the other day someone who was supporting the tea parties explained that the lack of representation comes from legislative oversight and formation being delegated to committees (as opposed to individual representative upholding each task enumerated in the constitution, I suppose?) as well as the involvement of special interests and the 'backroom deals' that tend to come from that. And then there's also the b'awwwwing about Pelosi running a one-party congress. But hey, it's not her fault that the Republican congress was fail and were thus voted out rather decisively by their constituents. That's just Democracy :)
By that logic Dems would have been justified holding 'tea parties' since the GOP had majorities congressionally. They are stretching it a WEEEE bit.
I liked someone else's comparison of this to the 'Whiskey Rebellion" -- that was an anti-tax rebellion that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other venerated founding fathers crushed, basically citizens petulantly pissed that the legitimate new federal government had raised taxes on whiskey, so George Washington trotted out the old Revolutionary Army to get them to stand down.
I would laugh my ass off if much of these conservatives faced something similar today. Becaue they are acting like they are disenfranchised, but they probably all voted. It's just their guy didn't win.
By that logic Dems would have been justified holding 'tea parties' since the GOP had majorities congressionally
Well, to be fair I think the tea parties were initially supposed to be bipartisan? I do recall that woman cawing THIIS IS BIPAAAAARTINSAN to that libertarian in the video of that meeting that was posted here. Obviously this isn't how they've turned out, but it's hardly surprising. The losers are the unhappiest, who'd have thought???
And yeah, I agree, that would be a much more apt comparison XD
Well yeah but it is like Glenn Beck saying his "9/12 Project" is for "everyone across the political spectrum" - give me a break. Basically it means "come convert to my point of view, please." Also Beck recently said "we voted for you [Obama] because we wanted an END TO THE GAMES!" So Beck includes himself in the "we" that voted for Obama. I doubt he did. Everyone wants their protest to be "non-partisan," no matter what it is.
I know, I'm just saying that at least they're not trying to sell it as 'only Republicans have the right to be angry about the state of our congress'. That would be more honest, certainly, but the audacity of it would be even more infuriating for me.
I liked someone else's comparison of this to the 'Whiskey Rebellion"
I wonder if it was a L Neil Smith fan? Because during my (thankfully relatively brief) teenage anarchist/libertarian phase I used to eat up his alternate history novels like crack-laced popcorn and the whole Whiskey Rebellion was the butterfly moment for said alternate world, which had things like talking gorillas and dolphins and bouncy pastel sidewalks and alt!Nixon the cat burgler and did I mention THE ALT!RED BARON FIGHTING FOR THE EVIL FORCES OF FEDERALISM AND IN THE NAME OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON?
(Those books were on the most insane crack and the politics were the sort that sound good in theory but in RL make for the kind of douche bags that vote Ron Paul. But damn were they fun.)
My idiot husband supported Ron Paul and I cannot figure out why, because it doesn't jibe with his personality at all. The only thing I can figure is that since we don't have cable he managed to hear one thing he liked and never heard anything else. John's definitely not a douche bag, but he *is* amazingly dumb at times.
Well, actually, I am a 'fan' of anarchism, but not the "pot smoking Republican"/US Libertarian Party type stuff, which is peculiarly American; rather, the left-anarchism of folks like Noam Chomsky, Murray Bookchin, Rudolf Rocker, Sam Dolgoff, the IWW, etc. This type of anarchism errs on he side of the left, whilst the Ayn Rand/US Libertarian Party 'anarchism' errs on the Republican side. Which is an actual error.
In any event, folks who think "the US Founding Fathers" are a monolith, are mistaken. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were definitely the right wing of that group, the authors of the Federalist Papers. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine were on the left side.
This makes it all the more galling that Glenn Beck is choosing to use Thomas Paine as his jumping off point for his comedy tour. :(
Paine at one point said folks who privatize land from the common domain owe a wage to those from whom the previously commonly-owned stock was taken. Nowadays we call that communism.
The Whiskey Rebellion = George Washington, Jefferson, other founders quashing an anti-tax revolt, because, hey, you have representation now, there is no sense in this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_rebellion
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My take on it is that is basically a phatic, therapeutic thing for conservatives mourning that Obama won and the GOP got snubbed big-time in the elections. It is their therapy session to express grief, but they have to cloak it in something that seems patriotic, because ... they are just like that.
Otherwise it is a vague kind of "anti-socialist," free floating anti-this and -that sort of display, not very pointed or targeted at anything specific.
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I liked someone else's comparison of this to the 'Whiskey Rebellion" -- that was an anti-tax rebellion that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other venerated founding fathers crushed, basically citizens petulantly pissed that the legitimate new federal government had raised taxes on whiskey, so George Washington trotted out the old Revolutionary Army to get them to stand down.
I would laugh my ass off if much of these conservatives faced something similar today. Becaue they are acting like they are disenfranchised, but they probably all voted. It's just their guy didn't win.
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Well, to be fair I think the tea parties were initially supposed to be bipartisan? I do recall that woman cawing THIIS IS BIPAAAAARTINSAN to that libertarian in the video of that meeting that was posted here. Obviously this isn't how they've turned out, but it's hardly surprising. The losers are the unhappiest, who'd have thought???
And yeah, I agree, that would be a much more apt comparison XD
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I wonder if it was a L Neil Smith fan? Because during my (thankfully relatively brief) teenage anarchist/libertarian phase I used to eat up his alternate history novels like crack-laced popcorn and the whole Whiskey Rebellion was the butterfly moment for said alternate world, which had things like talking gorillas and dolphins and bouncy pastel sidewalks and alt!Nixon the cat burgler and did I mention THE ALT!RED BARON FIGHTING FOR THE EVIL FORCES OF FEDERALISM AND IN THE NAME OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON?
(Those books were on the most insane crack and the politics were the sort that sound good in theory but in RL make for the kind of douche bags that vote Ron Paul. But damn were they fun.)
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In any event, folks who think "the US Founding Fathers" are a monolith, are mistaken. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were definitely the right wing of that group, the authors of the Federalist Papers. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine were on the left side.
This makes it all the more galling that Glenn Beck is choosing to use Thomas Paine as his jumping off point for his comedy tour. :(
Paine at one point said folks who privatize land from the common domain owe a wage to those from whom the previously commonly-owned stock was taken. Nowadays we call that communism.
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