Teabaggers are absolutely insane...

[rasputin1952]

they complain about "Big Government", yet demand that said government expand their power by denying others their inherent Rights and Privileges, even their own. They would sacrifice their Liberty, to ensure that the government they claim to despise clamps down even harder on Civil Liberties. The classic situation of demanding of the power in place become even more powerful under some abstract notion that "freedom" will result is literally insane.

We see the same thing with any kind of zealot fundamentalist, and the only thing that can change the groupthink, is the realization of the fact that they will inevitably lose, (on a personal level), if their demands are met. "No government health care!", should be met by a rational argument that Medicare will be cut. "No socialism in MY backyard!", should be met by the argument that states, "you will no longer receive your SS benefit. Everything you put into it, will just vanish, starting today". When people realize that actions they demand will impact them directly, they suddenly lose interest.

The vast majority of people who attend these "rallies", are either on, or very close to, the basic benefits of SS and Medicare. Tell them the facts, they will lose what they have, immediately, if they actually get what they demand. I did mention this to a guy in a store recently, while waiting in the checkout line. He was in his 70s, and had collected benefits for quite some time. I just told him, that if he got what he was demanding, there would be no deposit into his account next month, he would have to pay for his care out of his own pocket...and then he could reach that plateau of "responsibility" he demanded of everyone but himself. I had never seen that shade of gray before that crossed his face...and a couple of people in line actually nodded and 2 clapped.

Just let them know, they will lose, dramatically, if they get what they want. No more travel to "rallies", (they would not be able to afford it); no more healthcare; no more subsidies of any kind...(watch prices skyrocket, as everything is subsidized by government to some degree).

Want to see teabaggers go home...just tell them the truth...;)

[Vinca]

1. These bulbs are so dim they don't think the government has anything

to do with Social Security and Medicare.

[rasputin1952]

9. Remember...

no brains, no headaches...:D

[me b zola]

15. "don't be so open minded that your brains fall out"

That is what my rw mil told Mr Z when she found out that I am liberal/progressive. :rofl:

[rasputin1952]

17. That is funny...

:rofl:

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. I see it all too often in my extended family.

These people do not have a clue which side their bread is buttered on.

I'd love to know how many of these 'baggers are benefiting from the very programs they protest.

[rasputin1952]

8. Virtually all of them...

how else could they get around to these events?

They are not paying for this out of savings accounts...many are paid to attend, some w/cash, others w/transportation, food and a host of other amenities.

[greymattermom]

3. My suggestion

Is to tell them to burn their medicare and social security cards if they are serious. Just like the draft card thing in the Vietnam era.

[Peacetrain]

4. I like the way you think!

:hi:

[rasputin1952]

7. They would...

then just order new one's...they are not going to give up anything from their own wallets...only take from others...

[goclark]

10. Excellent idea!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. somebody needs to do a survey on them and play it back to them

where's my social security gone - oh I just voted against it duh!

[rasputin1952]

6. Absolutely none of them...

Reagan railed against SS, but never once returned a check.

I have never come across anyone who ever did such a thing, although one individual said he would...(yeah, right).

Here's an interesting tidbit as well...I know of a firefighter who is covered under a "different" plan. His rationale was that SS sucked. Upon furhter investigation I confronted him with a couple of things. When he worked prior to being a firefighter, he was covered under SS provisions, therefore, even though he railed against it, he stood to gain, (and after retirement, if he worked in another industry, he would again be covered under SS). His wife worked, and that made him eligible for benefits as well. Also, since he had worked previously on another job, if he were killed as a fire fighter, in the line of duty, or was killed in an accident, his children and wife would be eligible for survivor benefits. This guy was worth far more dead than alive...and he hadn't a clue how the system worked, all he was worried about was what "might" have come out of his pocket in FICA taxes.

Even after an explanation, he was adamant about "killing off the beast", to which I answered, "so if you were killed, you'd go to your grave knowing you most likely sent your family into abject poverty because of your own greed?"...He answered, "yes".

You cannot deal with idiots like that...they are so blinded, they will never accept something is good, even if it beats them over their mushy, pointed skulls...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. They need a new leader (an intelligent one) that will turn them round - baaa!

however, I suppose they serve their purpose if they line up candidates against the original GOP. Nice split votes.

[rasputin1952]

12. I had to chuckle...

(an intelligent one)...fat chance of that happening...they rifle through veggie bins looking for "leaders" and candidates...:D

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. LOL!

well yunno!

[ladjf]

13. The tea-baggers are mental light weights. But, unfortunately, there

might be enough of them come election time to do some serious damage to an already crippled political system. nt

[rasputin1952]

14. They will split the R's...

not too many D's have anything in common w/these clowns. Splitting the R's is fine by me...:D

[Froward69]

16. Excellent Post!!!

K&R 1000+

[NanceGreggs]

19. "Want to see teabaggers go home?

Just tell them the truth."

:fistbump:

[tcaudilllg]

20. Teabaggers responsible for IRS plane hit?

You bet your return on it! This is what rage brings to a country: death and ruin.

[freedom fighter jh]

21. Some of them are rational.

They include members who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer -- but they also include members with a reasonable, coherent approach.

Some say the problem with social security is that it gets collected in the first place. Most people pay 7.5% (or a tiny bit more) of their income to soc sec -- and their employers pay the same amount for them, a cost that is likely passed on it the form of lower salary. Independent people like me pay just over 15%. This tax makes it harder to save for retirement. Maybe that old man would not need social security if he had not had to pay for it all his working life. At this point, after decades of paying into it, of course he's going to want to keep collecting benefits.

What the teabaggers are saying is that we need to move to a whole different system, one in which people could afford important things for themselves that they cannot afford now because they would be taxed so much less.

For the most part I disagree with the teabaggers, because it seems to me that their utopia is based on a bunch of unproven hypotheticals (if only there were no regulation, the free market would take care of things in a way that would be best for everyone) and because everything seems to be predicated on property rights, which, taken to an extreme, are IMO an artificial kind of right, rather than a basic right like free expression. But at the same time I think some of their positions are pretty well thought out, even if some teabaggers don't express them very well.

Even these people have something positive to add to the discussion. If we dismiss them out of hand, we come across as just what the right accuses us as being: arrogant.

We'll do best if we take on their arguments one by one, even if that means agreeing with them some of the time.

[rasputin1952]

23. Same old stuff...

"Maybe that old man would not need social security if he had not had to pay for it all his working life."

The opposite of this argument is, who is to say they would have saved in the first place?

Not just that, but the benefits far outweigh the costs in this program. Generally speaking, the mean average that people have to "wait" until they recoup their input into SS is 2.4 years, after that, they have received back what they put in, and if they live to say 70, that's 3.6 years of receiving a check for more than what they put in...pretty good return!

"...one in which people could afford important things for themselves that they cannot afford now because they would be taxed so much less."

What could be more important than some form of "cushion" when one retires and more susceptible to illness and injury?

By saving 7.5-10% of the their income over the years, added to SS, they would be exceptionally well off. They didn't save that 7.5-10% because it was "too difficult", they simply spent the money, often on what many would deem "unnecessary", (do you really need a Lincoln, when a Taurus would do?).


What these people are, simply put, is greedy. They got theirs, and the hell w/everyone else. These are the same people who laugh at the Bell Ringer outside the mall before Christmas...as they go to purchase some item that will soon be in a cabinet collecting dust.

[mac56]

22. Like Harry Truman said, "I don't give my opponents hell.

I tell them the truth, and they think it's hell."

[rasputin1952]

24. Precisely...

For years, I've said that people constantly "demand" the truth, but when faced with it, they run as fast as they can. few people have the fortitude to see truth for what it is, they live in world of wild perceptions...:)

[CHelms]

25. The Teabaggers Don't Need To Make Sense

Making sense is not the point. The Teabaggers don't represent an organic political movement with an ideology. They're a loose confederation of middle aged, angry, almost exclusively white people who have been banded together into a vague, mushy political mass by the likes of Glenn Beck, FreedomWorks, Stormfront, the healthcare racket-I mean industry-and other right wing outfits like Fox "News," which likes to sponsor their rallies. It's apparently getting out of control because somebody sent Sarah Palin out to warn them against challenging Republican orthodoxy by fielding their own candidates. They're only supposed to be useful tools for getting garden variety plain old white bread Republicans elected. They are supposed to be servants, like libertarians, religious fundies, anti-abortion nuts, Constitutionalists and Birchers. They exist to have their votes harvested at election time, after which they are unceremoniously kicked to the curb until it's time for another election. But the Republicans are apparently having trouble keeping them in their place.

[rasputin1952]

26. Welcome to DU!...

The R's are having a problem even coming close anything that could be considered cohesion. They truly are the "Party of No", and are being defined by their extreme conservative views...views that 80% of the country does not relate to.

Teabaggers are little more than an obvious line as to where the GOP is headed. I do not expect the GOP to survive as it is after the Mid-terms.

[CHelms]

27. Thanks!

They've got a lot of problems, that's for sure. At some point they're going to have to admit that yes, they do indeed want something exactly like the Bush administration back in power. So far they've done nothing but whip up anger against the Obama administration without offering anything better as an alternative. Because they have nothing better. But they do have something much much worse and at some point I hope the Dems will get them to admit that they really do want a replay of the Bush years.

[Rozlee]

35. Welcome to DU. You've got a point about the demographics. Conservatives have given up

on African Americans pretty much since they've voted for Democratic presidents for several elections now. But, they've got to win some minorities over to their cause or they can't pull off as many wins as they need. Not for the long haul anyway. Minorities, especially we Hispanics, are growing in numbers and we voted for Obama in numbers over 75%. Sure, some idiotic ones might backslide, but there's less of a chance for that if Teabaggers keep talking the way they are. I have a sister that is the only Republican in our large family. She basically started as a one-issue Repug--anti-abortion. Then, she got pulled in by all the fanatic literature and spouted birther crap and even told me once that Obama's mother-in-law practised Voodoo in the White House! She's been following this Tea Party movement closely and racial/ethnic concerns have suddenly trumped all other ones for her. I don't think she'll vote Democrat anytime soon, but I consider it a victory if she plain just stays at home on election day. Repugs can't go it alone with just white voters. Not as minority voters grow in numbers.

[rasputin1952]

36. Voodoo in the WH!...

:rofl:

I am amazed people believe this type of stuff.

I recall once hearing about bush worshiping satan in the WH basement...the guy who told me that looked at me like I was nuts when I said, "who would bow down to cheney, even bush isn't that low?"

[ChucktownMillie]

28. bankrupt

social security expenses begin to exceed revenue in 2016. it was recently reported that this account will be bankrupt in 2037...down from previous estimates of 2041.

the medicare hospital insurance fund is projected to run out of money around 2019.

since im several decades short of being in my 70s and it appears that there will not be anything left to hand out from the accounts i paid into...would it be ok with you if i complain?

now that ive told you the truth, will you go home?

[rasputin1952]

32. Want the truth...

Since the Reagan years, the money has been pulled from the pot to cover all kinds of tax cuts, that you most likely never benefited from.

The "trickle Down Theory", was essentially "Gush Up"...the funds in SS were in the trillions, now they are adequate only to pay existing beneficiaries and a little more to ensure solubility. Thieves in Congress stole the money to cover tax cuts without any other form of reconciliation. This has been a GOP, (and some D), ploy for many years. bush, and his GOP cronies pushed it into a tailspin by cutting taxes...while in two unpaid for wars!

Unless you are exceptionally wealthy, all you got out of Republican duplicity is the very real possibility of losing virtually everything...to include any retirement your company may offer, and the funds in personal retirement accounts. To trust the GOP with even a dime, is disastrous. It is all about the upward movement of money and power, nothing the GOP, since Reagan, has come up with will benefit the American citizen...the object is to break said citizen down until we have "Landed Gentry", and everyone else.

[Rozlee]

34. When Clinton left office with a surplus, that surplus was supposed to have been

applied to shore up Social Security. But, George W. Bush turned that surplus into a deficit by immediately passing a 1.3 trillion dollar tax break for the richest Americans. Then, he started a war of choice with Iraq, which now has over a 1.5 trillion dollar tab and counting. Every president in history has always raised taxes to pay for a war, because just as there is no such thing as a free lunch; there is no such thing as a "free" war. As for Medicare, if we passed Medicare for all, that would keep the system from bankruptcy. The reason Medicare is in trouble, besides Repugs, is that any insurance company would be if all it's clients were exclusively sick and disabled. An infusion of premium cash from younger, healthier clients would save the system.

[julian09]

29. Teabaggers are really loose Tea

They escaped rational discussion and are on a path to self distruct.
They are probably on, welfare or unemployment working under the table and complaining just to
complain. Hoping to to see themselves with their outrageous signs on TV. Seems that is all the media
is looking for, especially cable media, showing one close up of one sign a thousand times, giving them
more publicity than is warranted. Calling for less Govt, but don't touch my Social Security, Medicare, Medicade,
Unemployment, Cobra etc.

[Bill219]

30. All you need to know about Teapublicans from twitter

RT @daveweigel: RT @mattklewis: RT @KuhnCNN Overheard at #CPAC10 by a college aged girl: "do you think Reagan is going to talk soon?

A teapublican that didn't know that one of the heroes of their party has been dead and buried for many years.

They are devoid of facts and real information and instead rely on being spoonfed lies and other disinformation on a daily basis from FAUX news and the GOP

Their tiny brains can only absorb bumper sticker mentality such as "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy" and other such garbage

[rasputin1952]

33. Reagan?...

Delusional, to say the least...:D

[sam sarrha]

31. they are the Bastard Child of the12th richest man in America, sent out to cut taxes for him...!!!

what do you expect? they dont know who they are or even what they are doing.. live'n large on a Lie, noth'n more