Tea Party's Last Stand. Leading us "into a cul-de-sac."

Shutdown: The tea party’s last stand
By E.J. Dionne Jr,October 06, 2013

If the nation is lucky, this October will mark the beginning of the end of the tea party.

The movement is suffering from extreme miscalculation and a foolish misreading of its opponents’ intentions. This, in turn, has created a moment of enlightenment, an opening to see things that were once missed.

Many Republicans, of course, saw the disaster coming in advance of the shutdown. But they were terrified to take on a movement that is fortified by money, energy and the backing of a bloviating brigade of talk-show hosts. The assumption was that the tea party had become invincible inside the GOP.


People who knew better followed Sen. Ted Cruz down a path of confrontation over Obamacare. Yet even before the shutdown began, Republicans stopped talking about an outright repeal of Obamacare, as House Speaker John Boehner’s ever-changing demands demonstrated.

The extent of the rout was then underscored in the hot-microphone incident last week when Sen. Rand Paul was caught plotting strategy with Sen. Mitch McConnell. Paul’s words, spoken after he had finished a television interview, said more than he realized.


“I just did CNN. I just go over and over again: ‘We’re willing to compromise, we’re willing to negotiate,’ ” Paul said, adding this about the Democrats: “I don’t think they’ve poll-tested, ‘We won’t negotiate.’ ”

Tellingly, Paul described the new GOP line this way: “We wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now we’re willing to compromise on this.”

It’s revealing to hear a politician who is supposed to be all about principle mocking Democrats for failing to do enough poll-testing. It makes you wonder whether Paul poll-tests everything he says. But Paul’s statement raised a more important question: If just days after it began, a shutdown that was about repealing Obamacare is not about repealing Obamacare, then what is it about?

Actually, it’s what even conservatives are calling the Seinfeld Shutdown: It’s about absolutely nothing, at least where substance is concerned. Moreover, Paul and his friends need to explain why, if they are so devoted to “negotiation,” they didn’t negotiate long ago. Why did they relentlessly block negotiations over a Senate Democratic budget whose passage, according to a now-discarded pile of press releases, they once made a condition for discussions?

Only now can we fully grasp that politics on the right has been driven less by issues than by a series of gestures. And they give up on even these as soon as their foes try to take what they say seriously.



What the tea party and Boehner did not reckon with is that Obama and the Democrats are done being intimidated by the use of extra-constitutional means to extort concessions that the right cannot win through normal legislative and electoral methods.

Obama doesn’t just want to get past this crisis. He wants to win. And win he must, because victory is essential to re-establishing constitutional governance, a phrase that the tea party ought to understand.

Obama didn’t need to “poll-test” his position because the poll that matters, the 2012 election, showed that the tea party hit its peak long ago, in the summer of 2011, when it seemed to have the president on the defensive.

The slowly building revolt among Republicans against the tea party shutdown is one sign of how quickly the hard-right’s influence is fading. So is the very language they are being required to speak. Having talked incessantly about how useless and destructive government can be, House Republicans are now testifying to their reverence for what government does for veterans, health research, sick children and lovers of national parks, especially war memorials.

Appreciation for government rises when it’s no longer there. By pushing their ideology to its obvious conclusion, members of the Cruz-Paul right forced everyone else to race the other way.

Yes, the tea party will still have its Washington-based groups that raise money by bashing Washington, ginning up the faithful and threatening the less ideologically pure with primary challenges. But no Republican and no attentive citizen of any stripe will forget the mess these right-wing geniuses have left in their wake.

We now know that the tea party is primarily about postures aimed at undercutting sensible governance and premised on the delusion that Obama’s election victories were meaningless. Its leaders abandon these postures as soon as their adversaries stand strong and the poll-testers report their approach is failing. This will give pause to anyone ever again tempted to follow them into a cul-de-sac.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...ul-s-obamacare

Of course this is just one man's opinion. One that I share.

You did it to yourselves Tea Wipes. Didn't have to run off the edge of the cliff. But if you showed any sense, you wouldn't be the Tea party.

Republicans need to separate from these extremists.

Or you'll ALL burn in Hell... Or Oklahoma..

Shutdown: The tea party’s last stand
By E.J. Dionne Jr,October 06, 2013

If the nation is lucky, this October will mark the beginning of the end of the tea party.

The movement is suffering from extreme miscalculation and a foolish misreading of its opponents’ intentions. This, in turn, has created a moment of enlightenment, an opening to see things that were once missed.

Many Republicans, of course, saw the disaster coming in advance of the shutdown. But they were terrified to take on a movement that is fortified by money, energy and the backing of a bloviating brigade of talk-show hosts. The assumption was that the tea party had become invincible inside the GOP.


People who knew better followed Sen. Ted Cruz down a path of confrontation over Obamacare. Yet even before the shutdown began, Republicans stopped talking about an outright repeal of Obamacare, as House Speaker John Boehner’s ever-changing demands demonstrated.

The extent of the rout was then underscored in the hot-microphone incident last week when Sen. Rand Paul was caught plotting strategy with Sen. Mitch McConnell. Paul’s words, spoken after he had finished a television interview, said more than he realized.


“I just did CNN. I just go over and over again: ‘We’re willing to compromise, we’re willing to negotiate,’ ” Paul said, adding this about the Democrats: “I don’t think they’ve poll-tested, ‘We won’t negotiate.’ ”

Tellingly, Paul described the new GOP line this way: “We wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now we’re willing to compromise on this.”

It’s revealing to hear a politician who is supposed to be all about principle mocking Democrats for failing to do enough poll-testing. It makes you wonder whether Paul poll-tests everything he says. But Paul’s statement raised a more important question: If just days after it began, a shutdown that was about repealing Obamacare is not about repealing Obamacare, then what is it about?

Actually, it’s what even conservatives are calling the Seinfeld Shutdown: It’s about absolutely nothing, at least where substance is concerned. Moreover, Paul and his friends need to explain why, if they are so devoted to “negotiation,” they didn’t negotiate long ago. Why did they relentlessly block negotiations over a Senate Democratic budget whose passage, according to a now-discarded pile of press releases, they once made a condition for discussions?

Only now can we fully grasp that politics on the right has been driven less by issues than by a series of gestures. And they give up on even these as soon as their foes try to take what they say seriously.



What the tea party and Boehner did not reckon with is that Obama and the Democrats are done being intimidated by the use of extra-constitutional means to extort concessions that the right cannot win through normal legislative and electoral methods.

Obama doesn’t just want to get past this crisis. He wants to win. And win he must, because victory is essential to re-establishing constitutional governance, a phrase that the tea party ought to understand.

Obama didn’t need to “poll-test” his position because the poll that matters, the 2012 election, showed that the tea party hit its peak long ago, in the summer of 2011, when it seemed to have the president on the defensive.

The slowly building revolt among Republicans against the tea party shutdown is one sign of how quickly the hard-right’s influence is fading. So is the very language they are being required to speak. Having talked incessantly about how useless and destructive government can be, House Republicans are now testifying to their reverence for what government does for veterans, health research, sick children and lovers of national parks, especially war memorials.

Appreciation for government rises when it’s no longer there. By pushing their ideology to its obvious conclusion, members of the Cruz-Paul right forced everyone else to race the other way.

Yes, the tea party will still have its Washington-based groups that raise money by bashing Washington, ginning up the faithful and threatening the less ideologically pure with primary challenges. But no Republican and no attentive citizen of any stripe will forget the mess these right-wing geniuses have left in their wake.

We now know that the tea party is primarily about postures aimed at undercutting sensible governance and premised on the delusion that Obama’s election victories were meaningless. Its leaders abandon these postures as soon as their adversaries stand strong and the poll-testers report their approach is failing. This will give pause to anyone ever again tempted to follow them into a cul-de-sac.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...ul-s-obamacare

Of course this is just one man's opinion. One that I share.

You did it to yourselves Tea Wipes. Didn't have to run off the edge of the cliff. But if you showed any sense, you wouldn't be the Tea party.

Republicans need to separate from these extremists.

Or you'll ALL burn in Hell... Or Oklahoma.. Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Oklahoma after the Tea Party

Actually, that looks more like Oklahoma after last week's football game!

Actually, that looks more like Oklahoma after last week's football game! Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

that I enjoyed very much

Have read a couple of stories on different web pages today about Tea party funding drying up quickly

Have read a couple of stories on different web pages today about Tea party funding drying up quickly Originally Posted by BigLouie

maybe they'll get the idea of what would happen to the country if the debt ceiling gets thrown in the trash like they want it to.

Great response IFFYYYY. we can always count on you to keep the discussion intellectually challenged.

I used to think you were just a retard. Now I think you're a racist and a traitor, too!

Hope you change.

Oklahoma after the Tea Party

Originally Posted by CJ7

Hmmm! 1936, 1936 ... who was the president at that time? Wasn't it that dim-retard FDR?

BTW, CBJ7, that picture was taken in South Dakota ... not Oklahoma. ijs

I doubt seriously that the TEA party has made its last stand.
You libtards just do not realize what is going on in this nation. You are too busy watching the media doing the bidding of the regime.
The media lied during the whole shutdown and spread misinformation.
To believe that the goal of conservatives was to stop Obamacare in this round is to believe in the tooth fairy.
The goal to make this something that the people of this nation could focus on was met.
2014 is just around the corner.
The establishment politicians are revealed and will be primaried. Some will win and some will lose.
Even the Democrats are pissed at their own.
Of course the sheeple will continue to follow their leader bleating his praises as he continues to fuck them in the ass.
My how the libtraards love an elitist.

Chicago tribune poll had Democrats t2 to 1 for the blame.

The Republicans fucked up. All they need to do is abide by the wisdom of one of the party's original members: Abraham Lincoln -- "The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly."

Even the dim-retards seem to recognize that maxim, because it is evident in the way the allow their financial contributors to "opt out" of the mandates required by Odumbocare.

I doubt seriously that the TEA party has made its last stand.
You libtards just do not realize what is going on in this nation. You are too busy watching the media doing the bidding of the regime.
The media lied during the whole shutdown and spread misinformation.
To believe that the goal of conservatives was to stop Obamacare in this round is to believe in the tooth fairy.
The goal to make this something that the people of this nation could focus on was met.
2014 is just around the corner.
The establishment politicians are revealed and will be primaried. Some will win and some will lose.
Even the Democrats are pissed at their own.
Of course the sheeple will continue to follow their leader bleating his praises as he continues to fuck them in the ass.
My how the libtraards love an elitist.

Chicago tribune poll had Democrats t2 to 1 for the blame. Originally Posted by The2Dogs

How do you know about the media all you watch is fox. It is the lemmings station. Follow your savior (Ted) over the cliff.

Cruz ran his entire campaign for Senate on on the premise of repealing Obamacare. You Texans must have liked his message, and elected him.
So he goes to Washington and does exactly what he said he would do.
Now you Texans don't like it that he is not a typical politician?....that campaign promises are just a bunch of words. Whether is position is right or wrong at least he has some integrity about him and does what he says he's going to do. Thats pretty rare within the politician ranks.

78% of America does not like him.

I'll also mention that I did not vote for that loony tune. I just happen to live in the land of dipshits and Slunts.

Cruz ran his entire campaign for Senate on on the premise of repealing Obamacare. You Texans must have liked his message, and elected him.
. Originally Posted by Chica Chaser

He did not run on the premise of shutting down the government or defaulting on our debt.

You are mixing two different issues.

Be like wanting to fuck a Ms USA.

One way is to wine and dine her and the other is to rape her. Nobody in their right mind in Texas thought ole Teddy was going to try and rape her after the wining and dining didn't work.

Is that the Tea Party principals? Fuck her no matter what!