Here's a state that's quietly reversing the tea party's damage

[applegrove]

Here’s a state that’s quietly reversing the tea party’s damage

By Greg Sargent Opinion writer, The Plumb Line at the Washington Post

April 16, 2020 at 4:50 p.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/16/heres-state-thats-quietly-reversing-tea-partys-damage/?utm_source=reddit.com

"SNIP......

A decade ago, the tea party movement — remember them? — helped power a smashing Republican victory in the 2010 midterms, leading not just to GOP control of the House of Representatives, but also to a massive Republican takeover in state governments across the country.

But, while most of the national press corps has been focused elsewhere, one state just undid a bunch of the damage that the tea party movement wrought.

I’m talking about Virginia, where Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam just signed a host of bills that reversed many GOP initiatives of the last decade.

This is a watershed. Virginia may be the first state to reverse so many tea party-driven initiatives. And because Virginia sits at the nexus of many trends in national politics right now — shifting demographics, Democratic gains in the anti-Trump suburbs — this illustrates what those trends could end up meaning in policy terms.

......SNIP"

[jls4561]

1. Thank you for some good news!

[gratuitous]

2. Virginia's turnaround is very encouraging

There are little green shoots peeking out through the ash and slag of Republican Mordor in various places around the country. I think it's best to follow Virginia's model, which as I understand it, began with winning a lot of local races, and finally flipping the balance of power in the legislature. That paved the way for winning the governorship by a narrow margin, and now big changes are taking place.

Kentucky needs more Democrats in the legislature to buttress the governor. Wouldn't it be great to watch Kentucky's current Senators get served their walking papers?

[Jamastiene]

3. One state north, in Virginia,

and I could have access to healthcare. Too bad I cannot pick up my home and move there and say goodbye to NC forever.

[Dave in VA]

4. Yeah Virginia!

[Duppers]

5. My state!

There's a cure: getting the red out.

💃

[BComplex]

13. That's catchy! Hadn't heard that before! "Getting the red out!" What this country needs most.

Political visine.

[Duppers]

15. Thanks! I like yours too.

Combined:
Use political visine to heal our country: get the red out.

[Thekaspervote]

6. Kudos to all VA Dems!

[JudyM]

12. It was hard work (and shifting demog) but that one glorious moment when we turned bright purple with

the win for Obama in ‘08... there are no words for the sweetness of that heady glory. It was, even more than the win of the presidency, the standing up for a black candidate. Tears of joy and painful history everywhere.

[BComplex]

14. The scenes in the crowd that night, when the Obamas went out on the stage in Chicago, were epic

I'm white, but I was crying right along with everybody else who has ever fought for equality among the races. Jesse Jackson crying made me lose it. I sobbed. I remembered marching with him at the University of Texas in the early 70's (1970 or 1971). What a long, long journey. What a great family they were to represent that moment for all of us.

You notice the media doesn't play that moment very often, which they should. I've never felt that uplifted before, nor since.

[JudyM]

16. Yes, that moment was one for the ages, too. Justice, intelligence, sanity, beauty and hope.

[Stuart G]

7. Kick for exposure...K and R

[iluvtennis]

8. KnR. nt

[OMGWTF]

9. Thank Gawd! My USCG son and his family just moved to VA from WA -- Yay Democrats!!

[not fooled]

10. Not just tea party, however

which makes the crackpottery sound like a transient wingnut offshoot of the Grand Old Party. In reality, the radical extremist libertarianism behind the tea party is now the central ideology of the entire GOPee. So, Virginia is not just repudiating a particular narrow movement but rather modern-day republicanism.

And, good for Virginia.

[thenelm1]

11. Wasn't it already pretty much a given that there were big money entities funding that?

I mean, the press loved to focus on the raucous crowds and raving lunatics. (And from what I've gleaned from the current rabble-rouser BS, the big money is in play again.)

Other than the print press though, I don't recall the TV press, which is the most visible to the most of us, ever shining a light on the big money guys behind that "movement". These are the same a-holes pushing the current "anti-lock down" BS, yes? I guess it's what else are big money scumsuckers supposed to do with their huge tax break bucks? There was a reason the tax policies from the Eisenhauer era were put in place. Given the current circumstances, those policies weren't wrong.

The there's with the concept that money equals "free speech". That alone means that those with the money can drowned out the "free speech" of rest of us. Preaching to the choir I know, but I doubt that was the intention of the framers of the Constitution. They'll piss and moan until the cows come home, but the big money needs to be hit hard via taxes or whatever. Contrary to what they seem to think about themselves, their shite stinks as bad as it does for the rest of us.

[forgotmylogin]

17. Hit 'em while they're distracted.

That's been the rEpubZ playbook the whole time. Turnabout and all that.