"Tea Party is here to stay and will never go away"

[mick063]

Last edited Mon Nov 5, 2012, 08:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Says Tom Brokaw.


Perhaps......but their day in the sun was in 2010.

By the way, does the John Birch society still exist?

Maybe they morphed into a "new and improved" package called the Tea Party?

Regardless, there will always be an extreme right faction so in that regard, Brokaw is right. The Neo Cons, however, will once again need some fancy new packaging when the Tea Party becomes widely perceived as too extreme similar to how the John Birch society was in the 60s.

Listen up Brokaw. There are umpteen political parties out there that have never "gone away". Your statement would be much bolder if you had said, "The Tea Party will always be relevant".

They won't.

[Zoeisright]

1. They're dying off at a rapid pace.

Hopefully Brokaw is part of that group.

[get the red out]

2. He wishes

Sounds like he's a member.

[Zen Democrat]

4. Going to say the same thing. Brokaw needs to get to the Tea Party Rehab Center

for Alcohol and Political Abuse

[jorno67]

3. who's this "Tea Party" that you speak of?

Asks Me from the future...

[codjh9]

5. Yes, the John Birch society still exists - my wonderful 'little old lady' friend says her brother is

a member, and I heard about them meeting in El Paso (I live not too far from there).

But whether the Tea Party exists in name or not, there will always be idiots & assholes.

[Arkana]

6. "...until Dick Armey cuts off our funding."

[ladjf]

7. Never say never. nt

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

8. Brokaw is showing every day how much of a righty he is

He said Saturday he "talked to a number of conservative Republicans in congress" about something or another.

God, he's a tool.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. "Tea Party" sounds nicer than "Angry mob of racist homophobes."

Image seen on Facebook.

[Spazito]

10. Brokaw came across as a member of the Tea Party today, imo...

He was even more nauseating than he has been the past week or so and I thought he couldn't get worse, I was wrong.

[11 Bravo]

11. Kind of like herpes?

[Erose999]

12. Birchers are still around, they're the truthers/birthers/conspiracy nuts/Paulbots. The Teabaggers

will be like Ross Perot in '92 and '96. They were in the race and got overexposed by the media.... but they were ultimately irrelevant.

The corporate overlords will soon find a new brand for their useful idiots on the far right.

[democrat_patriot]

13. What the hell is a "Tea Party" - is this new?

Never heard of 'em.

[Rex]

14. Good, the damage they've done to traditional Republicans

and their organizations is vast and was something Dems could have never done themselves...so I say THANK YOU Tea Party! Keep destroying the GOP from the inside! Lord knows we could never do it!

THANK YOU!

[grantcart]

15. He sounded senile to me.

The Tea Party is getting stronger?

Their candidates are getting wiped out.

They handed the Senate to us.

I hope they do get stronger Tom. They are destroying the Republican Party.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Really, really, stupid people live longer??

[Vietnameravet]

21. Stupid people dont live longer..it only seems that way when you have to live with them!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Everything is relative my son..

Talking to a real dumbass for an hour just seems like a year.

[Dawson Leery]

17. Brokaw is a Republican partisan.

He is showing it.

[Vietnameravet]

18. They have always been a part of the Republican party but

in the past they were just a lunatic fringe.

In the past they insisted fluoride in the water was the first step to mind control, thought Sen McCarthy was wonderful, said "extremism was no vice and moderation no virtue" ( remember that Presidential convention?) and accused Roosevelt of selling the US out at Yalta, thought Eisenhower was a communist and wanted a nuclear showdown with Russia over Cuba..

They were portrayed perfectly in the movie Dr. Strangelove..On the way start a nuclear war by bombing the Rooskies, as they called them, the guy talks about the medals that await them when they get back..and in another scene a guy urging nuclear war is told there will be millions of casualties..to which he replies ( rough quote here) "Well we cant expect to attack and not get our hair mussed up!

And in one scene a guy is at a cocktail party and tells a group of women he is trying to impress that he has been thinking about who would control things after a nuclear war in which all civilization is destroyed.. They are all impressed and someone asks if he gets paid for thinking of those things..he replies, "no I just do it for the fun of it!""

Its been a long time since I have seen the movie but this is the best I can do as far as accuracy of my quotes..but you get the idea..


Now these clowns are running the GOP and what a hell of a show it is!!

[hifiguy]

23. William F. Buckley basically read the Birchers out

of the Republican party. Not that Buckley was any great prize in those days either, but he wasn't anti-intellectual. Then Palin let all of those orcs out of the attic and now they're in the middle of the Repukes' country-club dinner party guzzling the punch bowl, taking dumps on the fancy rug and shrieking their kookery to high heaven. Lotsa luck getting them back into the attic with crazy Aunt Lizzie. They will die off fairly soon, though, as will much of the rest of the Repuke base.

[KharmaTrain]

19. Until They No Longer Serve Their Masters Uses...

One hope is that election has been a very expensive one for the deep pocket right wing corportists who are trying to buy elections. I'm very hopeful that we'll see the Democrats hold the Senate and make some modest gains in the House along with President Obama's re-election; nearly one billion dollars spent against Democrats down the rathole. Maybe an Adelson will look at that hole in his pocket and realize it was squandered...and that those checkbooks won't be as open come 2014 and beyond.

Teabaggers are only as good as the puppetmasters and the money behind them. Yank the money and watch them become obsolete in short order...

[Javaman]

20. so tom shows his hand.

not really surprised.

[AlinPA]

22. They are not a "faction". The tea party is now the republican party. They are one and the same.

A better way to say it is that the tea party has morphed into a new GOP, after purging any old moderates.

[OmahaBlueDog]

30. If Rmoney loses tomorrow, they may return to being a faction.

or they may break away entirely....

Rmoney losing will be a signal that the era of Southern Strategy/wedge issue politics is now paying diminishing returns. Not dead, to be sure, but dying.

Still, there are many Americans -- including many independents and some conservative Democrats --who bristle at deficit spending and want a substantially smaller federal government. In order to get back on top, many in the Republican party will argue that the GOP will have to reach out to Latinos and re-think their rigid stances on immigration, marriage equality and access to legal abortion -- while still pushing econmic conservatism.That won't sit well with angry white evangelicals or the Jan Brewer/Sheriff Joe xenophobia crowd, and they are the backbone of the Tea Party movement.

[AlinPA]

32. I argue that the "many in the Republican party will argue that the GOP will have to reach out... "

that you refer to are of such low numbers that they will be drowned out by the core of the GOP (teabaggers, bigots, religious fundamentalists and other right wing conservatives). I would see Jim DeMint pushing out McConnell and Boehner being kicked out of his job by a far right teabagger type or Paul Ryan.

[OmahaBlueDog]

33. Assuming they lose, the argument will be whether they now need to go right or center

You may be correct that the Tea Party has completely co-opted the GOP. There will still be a robust argument between those who believe that Rmoney was too centrist, and that they'd have been better off with Santorum or Perry heading the ticket, and those who will assert that someone more like a John Huntsman had a much better shot.

Meanwhile, they've lost Republicas like Lugar, Bailey-Hutchison, and Snowe. Other former GOP members like Charlie Crist and Angus King have gone independent. They might ultimately go Dem; they might form some kind of third party or coalition. Dems like Joe Manchin might be ready to throw in their lot with such a third party or coalition if it comes to pass.

If the GOP does not retake the Senate (and this is a likely outcome), I agree with your analysis that McConnell is done and that DeMint is a likely sucessor (I wouldn't rule out John Cornyn or Rand Paul). I'm not sure about Boehner. Interesting questions remain about whether Ryan (assuming he's not VP-elect) or Cantor will still have their seats. Assuming they do, they might install Cantor as Speaker and Ryan as Majority Leader. However, they might (a la replacing Gingrich with Denny Hastert) go for someone with a lower profile who's a better deal maker.

I'm hoping your state turns royal blue very early in the proceedings, tomorrow.

[AlinPA]

35. Thank you. If they had any brains they would look to Huntsman, but that won't happen; he was

totally rejected by the GOP in the primaries.

[librechik]

24. branding name change due in 5, 4, 3....

sometime after the election.

[Bandit]

25. The John birch society is way too Liberal for today's Republican Party.

The Republican Party has moved so far to the Right the ONLY group that might be a slight bit more to the Right is the KKK....

[Care Acutely]

27. There will always be selfish idiots who vote against their own best interests

So I would say it is in that way at least, true. 20 years from now they'll have another name, but they'll be the same troupe of assholes.

[jillan]

28. What is he going to say when Bachmann is defeated?

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Oh Tom, oh Tom, they will be as relevant

As the last Koch creation, the John Birch Society, if the more moderates win the fight.

But you are right, they are here to stay.

[NoPasaran]

31. Meh. The Prohibition Party is still alive

Just barely, though. Six hundred and forty-three votes for President in 2008.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

34. It took Obama's election to drive the cockroaches out

of their hiding place. Obama turned on a light and shown it on the country.
I know who my enemy is and what they're capable of. But I will never
allow myself to be filled with vile hatred or resort to illegal tactics to
right the wrongs that are shamelessly occurring.

The world is watching!