I have this sense that we are doomed.

[Savannahmann]

37. My friend, you are where I was a week ago.

We are approaching the last day, with battling reports flying from Washington. One "senior GOP aide" says a deal has been reached. The next release is that nope, no deal, no vote. Then another Senior GOP aide rushes out and swears a deal has been reached.

We have made a big mistake, and that is since 2010, we keep assuming that the Tea Party is a flash in the pan irrelevance. We look at them and we can't take them seriously with their ridiculous statements, and we ascribe their motivations to racism. I'll grant you that some of those are motivated by Racism, but most of them are not. Most of them are certain that we are on a path towards big government socialism, central control of everything. They see the militarized police, and they are certain it's a harbinger of the future.

They have not weakened and the thing is this. They are decentralized, with no spokesman, and no real leadership. Some listen to Limbaugh, others never do. Some read Freeperville nonsense, others read Coulter, Malkin, or whomever. Some read Alex Jones, or listen, but most don't. But they are all more or less united in an effort to oppose the perceived socialization of the nation.

Look past the rhetoric, look past the asinine comments of the microphone hogging idiots. Look at the average people in the crowd. Talk to them away from the crowd if you can, and you'll hear their fears, and the perhaps inaptly applied historical beliefs to support those concerns. Here is the last thing we've forgotten. They feel cornered, and they feel as though they've been pushed into that corner. When cornered, even a rat will turn and fight because it has no choice left. The corner need not be real or physical, it can be psychological, it is the most basic human instinct, fight or flight.

We have done nothing as a people to assuage those fears. We mocked them, and we watched while their numbers slowly grow, and instead we announce that this time was the last straw, obviously America has seen the light. It isn't about elections to them, it's about a fight for the soul of the nation, and they honestly believe that there is no time left, it's a line in the sand to them as well.

If you defeat them today, they'll be back tomorrow. And the day after, and the day after. Each time their prescription will be more extreme, because they've lost ground that must be made up. They are the core of the Republican party, and they are out of control of the money masters who had previously pulled the strings.

As far as they are concerned, they have nothing to lose. As we've seen, that is when an opponent is most dangerous. We need to take a little time and learn about them, and better understand them. Drop the labels, and try and see the world from their point of view, because only then can we start to assuage that fear, and make most of them see the vision of the world we hope to see, the one where the sick get cared for, the hungry get fed. But before you can talk a person into your point of view, you must understand where you are starting from. They aren't disgraced, and they aren't destroyed. They'll fight tomorrow too.