Tea Party to fête candidates

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Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:11:49 +0100

PhilNdeBlanc: Who would not support lower taxes, less government & support of our unique Constitution in the historical annals of mankind! The question is, How much taxation is adequate for maintenance of the Common Good? How much government is too little or too much? And which Constitution do you support? [The present one or the original Constitution?] Under these sophomoronic slogans a great deal of evil lurks! - Gaius Cilnius Maecenas

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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:35:22 +0100

As a TEA Party member, I find all these ludicrous assertions amazing. Please remember that the TEA parties stand for 3 things. 1. lower taxes. 2. smaller government. 3. support the Constitution. anything else is incidental and outside the purview. as for racism, the first TEA party rally I attended had two black, veteran, speakers. many of the attendees were former military, most attendees worked or were retired, most had pretty good educations, including retired teachers. interestingly, as a group TEA party members are amazingly polite and reserved. even when troublemakers, armed with megaphones showed up, there were no problems. when the troublemakers were invited to stop ranting, and take their turn at speaking coherently, even though we disagreed with the troublemakers, we ground our teeth and kept our lips closed. you can tell where a TEA party event had been held. there is not one scrap of trash to be found anywhere. and the police don't bother to send extra patrolmen, because they have never had any violence. that includes the event at the Washington Mall a while back. there was no violence, people hauled trash bags and stacked them neatly for the garbage pickup. now, Festival Internationale, NGO's, Horse Farm, those are different issues. NGO's have good and bad sides. Festivale Internationale generates enough taxes to be self supporting. I've attended many times. I support the Horse Farm. Those aren't issues specific to TEA parties. So while y'all engage in demagoguery and villification, just remember you are irritating a hard working group of people who have made their own living with their own hands, who believe in lower taxes, smaller government, and support the Constitution. - PhilNdeBlanc

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Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:51:16 +0100

Gaius -- "Few traits of totalitarian regimes are at the same time so confusing to the superficial observer and yet so characteristic of the whole intellectual climate as the complete perversion of language, the change of meaning of the words by which the ideals of the new regimes are expressed" Almost every time you post something here, you include a deliberate attempt to contort the meaning of a word. I personally have never seen anything like it, but Eastern Europeans immediately recognize it for exactly what it is, and well remember the practice from the Old Country... Na zdorovye, eh comrade? :) - ragin_cajun

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Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:34:26 +0100

[R]agin_cajun: Pay attention to what I did in my post: Latin etymology & discussion of what the concept means. You are up to your usual shenanigans---slash & burn tactics. There is a carelessness and sloppiness in your postings. Study Latin morphology, then you do not have to speak inane comments to this readership! Words undergo semantic shifts. The dolts in the Tea Party's "bizarro world" have contaminated the correct notion of political conservatism---both Democratic and Republican affiliations. Don't forget, you don't want to be around people like yourself. Selfishness and greed destroys a community; in fact, you cannot even have a polite society with such types. - Gaius Cilnius Maecenas

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Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:29:44 +0100

"the word 'conservative' means "fellow slave" in Latin. " No, it doesn't. It may possibly come FROM a Latin word that means fellow slave, but that is not the same thing as to say that is the meaning of the word today. Gaius has once again confused the ORIGIN of a word with MEANING of a word. Those are two very different things. - ragin_cajun

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Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:22:51 +0100

Adding to This On-Going, Fluid Discussion: The word 'liberal' means "free" in Latin; the word 'conservative' means "fellow slave" in Latin. Since our presumed 'conservatives' here do not really know what constitutes 'Conservatism' [rhetorical-psychological stance rooted in religious ideology, militarism (flag-flappers, essentially), maintenance of the status quo, nostalia for the past, and false historical revision propaganda], it rewards mental sloth, greed and vanity! It represents a retreat into a private space of "autism." Google 'French Economic Autism' for a working knowledge of what that last observation means. To change the subject here, I saw on "The Last Word" MSNBC last night Lawrence's interview with Professor Allan Lichtman who predicts Obama will win re-election. He has forecasted correctly since 1984 who would win the White House, using his model (actually based on the intelligence of the majority of the American people, which he emphasized several times during this interview) of 13 keys, Obama has 9 keys in his favor. One needs at least six keys to win election or re-election. Obama is well-positioned to win the White House again. His book is "The Keys to the White House." To be a 'liberal' you actually have to know something, and be able to read learned books in higher mathematics, humane scholarship and cultivate refinement in your sensibility. In other words, it requires effort (plenty of self-discipline & work). To be a 'conservative' merely requires a capacity to spout mindless, trite cliches, vacuous content, and meaningless slogans! - Gaius Cilnius Maecenas

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Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:42:24 +0100

Hmmmmmm....... Just wondering if the Tea Party has more integration than: Walter's Face Book Friends list? The Independent's Staff? The Art Walk on a Saturday night? (And no, you can't include the Karma crowd) Just wondering...... - Compassionate One

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:54:45 +0100

I'm not exactly sure when the "tea party" officially started. I do remember there being a "tea party" money bomb for Ron Paul during the '08 Primary. So you are right about that, Walter. The tea party, despite what Ron Paul haters within the GOP like to deny, the idea did originate from his followers. I vaguely remember the Santelli rant, and personally liking it. I believe the first tea party rally in Lafayette area was back in early 2009. That is the one rally I've attended, as I was very curious. Believe it or not, there were quite a few people mad at Republicans as well. I remember one from the crowd shouting how Rep. Boustany sold conservatives out by voting for TARP. I just believe to call the entire tea party movement racist is either being ignorant or dishonest. Of course, there are going to be many more whites than blacks within the movement. But if you look at voting trends amongst black population, that is not surprising. The vast majority vote Democrat. I can say this, President Obama and the Democrats pushing the drilling moratorium in the Gulf caused a few blacks, in the oil & gas industry, to change their voter affiliation. I don't know if they changed to Republican or Independent, likely IND since both parties have been failures as of late, but they told me they shed the Democrat label specifically because of the anti-oil & gas industry policies of the current administration and those Democrats in control of Congress at the time. - RCajunrunner

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:41:39 +0100

I'm dubious, RCajunrunner. The "movement" had its origins in Ron Paul's 2008 presidential bid, yes, but it didn't explode -- and get funded and co-opted by FreedomWorks and the Koch brothers -- until after Rick Santelli's rant on the floor of Chicago Mercantile in the spring of 2009. Or something close to that... And it is overwhelmingly populated by white, middle-aged conservatives. Not entirely, as you correctly point out, but overwhelmingly. - Walter Pierce

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:34:54 +0100

"The Tea Party is many things, and racist and ignorant are certainly among them. Is it a coincidence that the conservative, white, middle-aged demographic that overwhelmingly comprises the TP movement yawned through eight years of Bush's exploding deficits/national debt and only woke up to the "problem" when a black man was elected president?" Congressman Alan West, Herman Cain and J.C. Watts must hate themselves. Elbert Guillory too. While I would never mistake Sen. Guillory for a true fiscal conservative, he has definitely been a friend to the local tea party group. I would not call myself a tea partier, as I've only been to one meeting and one rally in the 4 or so years since the movement began, I will say that several who I know involved in the movement in Louisiana were, in fact, very critical of the Bush era spending policies and promotion of big government programs. However, unfortunately, PARTISAN, not racial politics played a big role in those critical of the Bush-Rove big government policies being told to sit down and shut up. Trust me, if John Kerry had been elected President in 2008 and began with Stimulus and movement to government healthcare, no doubt the opposing voices would be just as loud. - RCajunrunner

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:28:52 +0100

Um, yes you did, ragin. That would be fair to say. ;) - Walter Pierce

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:17:38 +0100

Did I strike a nerve there, Walter? - ragin_cajun

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:57:19 +0100

Oh please, ragin! When it suits your rhetorical purposes the "Tea Party" is a principled, monolithic movement and when it doesn't it's non-centralized. The Tea Party is many things, and racist and ignorant are certainly among them. Is it a coincidence that the conservative, white, middle-aged demographic overwhelmingly comprises the TP movement yawned through eight years of Bush's exploding deficits/national debt and only woke up to the "problem" when a black man was elected president? You're not that naive. And if the way you frame your bottom line -- leeches versus producers -- isn't the epitome of the Fox News-right wing talking point/scare tactic, I don't know what is. Beware, ragin_cajun, the poor people are coming to get you! - Walter Pierce

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:33:05 +0100

The Tea Party wants less government. That's the extent of it. Less spending, no new taxes. That's it. With the US running annual deficits of almost $2 Trillion, I think that's responsible and reasonable. For you to look at that call it racist, compare it to the Klan, and call it a disease on American Politics is vile demagoguery. Yet YOU accuse ME of hate speech? You can pout and stomp your feet all you want, Gaius. The fact will not change. People who produce and pay for all these "government services" are throwing off the yoke. The adults in the room are finally starting to stand up and tell the spoiled brats in this country -- "No. You can't have that. It costs too much money". That is what is at the bottom of all this. Those who leech are scared to death that those who produce who will turn off the spigot. That, my friend, what YOU object to. - ragin_cajun

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:25:15 +0100

[R]agin_cajun: I share the viewpoint of the vast majority of the American people in my denunciation of the Tea Party. I have watched more than a few television programs highlighting the presumed 'Tea Party' members and their financial backers, nationally, state & local. It is a disease that has attacked our political culture, especially, the Republican Party! I am old enough to remember when Republicans were honorable, intelligent and sincere members of our communities. The party is now disreputable! The Tea Party will destroy the Republican Party; it will go the route of the Whig Party in the Nineteenth Century. Think back to the 1920's and 1930's when the KKK was a political force in this country. I see a great deal of similarities between these two sociological phenomena. It has been revealed more than once by several different academic studies that the people who identify themselves as Tea Party advocates are merely extreme Republicans who have been hiding out in the Republican Party since the 1960s. St. Paul expressed it well in 2 Corinthians 11:14, "Satan disguises himself as an Angel of Light." In deference to your lovely wife, I will dispense with my usual practice to quote the actual Koine Greek text of St. Paul. To the larger group of readers here, I remind the group that the Principle of Negation is the property of Satan in our literary Western tradition. So when you here that the Republican Party is the Party of NO, just think of Satan! This is how political officers actually destroy the lives of their constituents. Not everyone can be successful at theivery without impunity as the Republican Party on the National stage. As the ancient Roman poet, Juvenal, asserted: "If you commit the crime, endure the censure!" What you object to is my moral censure of the Tea Party! - Gaius Cilnius Maecenas

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:00:07 +0100

"When you think Tea Party, just think Ku Klux Klan! They have the same sort of dolts. " Wow, Gaius. That's really well thought out. You have certainly elevated the public discourse here today. - ragin_cajun

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:45:21 +0100

To the Group: I forced myself to read through all these postings here twice. Once one dismisses our local ill-tempered scoundrels who post here regularly, this community really does have many sensible, well-intentioned and intelligent citizens posting here. I view the nonsensical sociological phenomenon 'Tea Party' as an abberation in our poltical culture. I saw on television the other day that an academic study asserts that the American people revile the Tea Party more than atheists! The question to be asked is how do these silly Tea Party people even get elected? Here two political science treatises come to mind: "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America" by John Sperling, Suzanne Helburn, Samuel George, John Morris & Carl Hunt (PoliPoint Press, 2004) 272 pp. and "Off Center: The Republican Revolution & the Erosion of American Democracy" by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson (Yale University Press, 2005) 261 pp. When you think Tea Party, just think Ku Klux Klan! They have the same sort of dolts. The purpose of the Tea Party is to steal government funds for corporate interests. Cut off government services, while one is still raking in the same amount of cash out of the tax base, and give this cash to one's worthless cronies who puffed one up in the first place. At its heart is thievery! While you bitch about government, live off of it---pretty good scam, don't you think? P.S. Heather Miller, I am coming to enjoy your articles as much as Walter's articles weekly and on-line. You have an excellent prose style! Some of your arm-chair critics here do not know what journalism is. [Journalism < Middle French, "Journal" ("daily") < Latin, "diurnus" ("of the day") < Latin, "dies" ("day"); record of the current transactions] There is a reason why the term "journalese" was coined in 1882 meaning "a style of writing held to be characteristic of newspapers." And both you and Walter are excellent at it! - Gaius Cilnius Maecenas

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:58:45 +0100

ragin, If my glove don't fit, I must acquit. - Walter Pierce

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:40:50 +0100

"rich racist Nazis who want to destroy America as we know it" Dude, wake up. Rich racist nazis have been destroying America for decades. How do you think we ended up with so much debt? Oh yea, I suppose you can blame the poor people who mostly don't vote and have zero voice in congress. Yea they're the ones. Some people are so blind. - resident

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Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:27:22 +0100

From Resident: "I don't know how much the other candidates expressly identify with the "TEA Party," but I certainly won't be voting for Joan Beduze. Yikes. FreedomWorks, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann...all prominent figures in co-opting the real, grassroots TEA Party into the fold of of the Republican Establishment." To Resident: Have you checked out the incumbent's Facebook page since Beduze's liking of Sarah Palin scares you? Don Bertrand lists "likes" of Sarah Palin as well, along with David Vitter (close ally of Jeff Landry) and GLENN BECK! - RCajunrunner