Old Rightwing Radicals are the New Rightwing Radicals.

[evildevil]

Tea Party radicalism is misunderstood: Meet the “Newest Right” Our sense of the force currently paralyzing the government is full of misconceptions -- including what to call it

Comments

[chaya]

Opinion piece tag?

[beoweasel]

For all its Jacksonian populist rhetoric, the Newest Right is no more a rebellion of the white working class than was the original faux-populist Jacksonian movement, led by rich slaveowners like Andrew Jackson

I don't think that's entirely fair to Andrew Jackson, unlike the people who run the Tea Party, Jackson wasn't born into wealth, he was the child of Irish Immigrants, his father died before his birth, and his mother passed away from Cholera when he was 14. He had a spotty education and for a time, worked in a saddle-making shop. Jackson didn't come into prosperity until he became a county lawyer.

So, while prosperous later on his life, he still knew what it was like to be poor and had a better understanding of the lower class than those born into privilege, and certainly better than the Tea Party assholes.

[tiddlywinks103]

Was he not still a rich slaveowner, though? And Middle class most of his life?

[beoweasel]

Given he lived until he was 78, then you could easily say he spent most of his life in the middle class and wealthy society, assuming he joined the middle class shortly after becoming a lawyer in 1787 (He would've been 20 at the time.)

However, I don't think that means he was ignorant of how the poor lived and the hardships they endured.

[corbyinoz]

This is fascinating. As an outsider, American politics challenges my understanding - so much seems indefensible in its ideological stance. If this article is accurate, it does help me make some (loathsome) sense.

[maynardsong]

At the moment that's my take on French politics. Although I can't imagine Marine LePen pulling a Boehner to fulfill her party's agenda.

[meadowphoenix]

I don't think this piece is wrong, I don't have an opinion one way or another, but there are several shitty assumptions here.

Populist does not and has not ever meant lower middle class. Caesar was a populist, and he was rich as fuck. It's a governing ideal. It's still misused by the tea party, since part of that governing ideal includes the people's social and financial concerns being a substantial part of the government agenda, but it doesn't mean not rich. There are some democrats that could be considered populists, and they are also wealthy.

Secondly, irrational does not mean uneducated. Ted Cruz is still irrational. Most tea party members are acting irrationally. By that I mean the arguments they publicly make are logically unsound, not that they don't have logical reasons for making them. Their education suggests that they should know better; it doesn't suggest that they do. This connection is actually the type of snobbery they article suggests is misplaced.

[beoweasel]

I completely agree with this.