Tea Parties are Unmasked as Republican attempt at Rebranding says Gallup

[stevenleser]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tea-Parties-are-Unmasked-a-by-Steven-Leser-100717-629.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 17, 2010

By Steven Leser


http://www.gallup.com/poll/141098/Tea-Party-Supporters-Overlap-Republican-Base.aspx

It has taken 15 months for this kind of analysis to be done but a major polling agency has validated my initial take on the Tea Party:

Some Republicans are mad they lost the election and they cannot get over it.

Gallup's analysis shows that there is no discernible daylight between the Tea Party and Republicanism. This immediately prompts the question,

If Republicans and Tea Partiers are one and the same, why bother to call these Tea Party rallies anything but Republican Rallies?


The answer is, people do not like what Republicans did with their last turn at governing. The folks at FreedomWorks and the other Republican think tanks who fund and organize the Tea Parties know this and came up with a scheme to try to rebuild the Republican Party without calling it "Republican". That is how and why the Tea Parties were born in the first place and they have not moved ideologically or any other way since then.


What would happen if the Republicans score a major victory in the 2010 elections? The answer is that the Tea Party would be disbanded. They would have served their purpose and they would have been exposed for what they are. There would be no point in continuing them.

Gallup had this to say about their findings:

The Tea Party movement has received considerable news coverage this year, in large part because it appears to represent a new and potentially powerful force on the American political scene. Whether Tea Party supporters are a voting segment that is unique and distinct from the more traditional Republican conservative base, however, appears questionable.
--------------------------------

Gallup is being generous in their commentary as their polling data makes it completely clear. On questions about Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, who they are going to vote for in November, and a host of other issues, there is little or no daylight between the two groups. Republicans and Tea Partiers are one and the same.

Will the Mainstream Media acknowledge this Unmasking of the Tea Parties?

Probably not. It is too exciting to continue to portray the Tea Parties as they have been attempting to sell themselves, i.e., something new, something grass roots and something unaligned. Regarding the Tea Parties, the truth seems to have become a casualty for which few are willing to fight.


This study by Gallup needs to be sent far and wide. People must be made to understand what the Republicans have done here. There has been a concerted attempt by Republicans and their media friends to sell, as I have put it, a sham and a fraud to the American people. Once this is well known, people need to take a look at the other meme's Republicans have tried to sell to the country. There has not been a single true assertion made by Republicans about Obama and Democrats since inauguration day. If Republicans want rebranding, we should give them a moniker that reflects who they are. "The Prevaricator Party" or PP for short.



Previous articles and appearances by me on the Tea Parties:

Tea Parties - Crackbrained right wing protests to occur on April 15th -

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tea-Parties--Crackbrained-by-Steven-Leser-090410-987.html


Appearance by me on Fox News' Your World to discuss the Tea Parties-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5K84qhvHo


Tea Parties are a Sham and a Fraud Part 3 -

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Tea-Parties-are-a-Sham-and-by-Steven-Leser-090414-111.html


Tea Parties Fail to Draw Anywhere Near Predicted Attendance -

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Tea-Parties-Fail-to-Draw-A-by-Steven-Leser-090416-110.html


Tea Parties Fail to Draw Anywhere Near Predicted Attendance -

http://www.opednews.com/articles/9-12-09---Another-day-A-by-Steven-Leser-090913-405.html

[niceypoo]

1. Rebranded as what, lunatics?

I say, go for it GOP!

[OHdem10]

2. Uh--Ohoooo. The curtain has been drawn and we really see

the fight in GOP. Conservatives are determined that
they believe it is their turn to run the show. They
have marched lock-step while the NeoCons ran things
in the party. Conservatives are tired of Neocon
policies. The TeaPartiers were able to make noise
for the Conservatives and push the RW Conservative
Positions. Of course they are Republicans. This
was an effort to illustrate ordinary Republicans
do not like Neocon Policies, without having to say
it. Tea Partiers are pushing classical Conservative
values. Be careful of all these foreign entanglements.
Having Troops all over the world is not exactly
Classical Conservative worldview. Is Gallop being
used to play down TeaPartiers---helping Neocons>
Just asking???

[PerpetuallyDazed]

12. Interesting theory, but are you considering the fight within the Tea Party itself?

Perhaps the originators of the modern Tea Party Movement (Ron Paulians) would agree with you, but today the majority of the movement behave more like current Republicans (i.e. Sarah Palin types). NeoCon ideologies are tied up in their worldview. These are the same folks who will lie to you and say they didn't vote for Dubya twice.

[Enthusiast]

23. Bush's base.

That is what they are.

[Hydra]

3. I know a few of these who got their marching orders

They'll swear up and down that they thought of it themselves, but the same line comes up- "Vote them all out!"

Works nicely, since the people voted out would mostly be Dems, if they got their way.

[Mister Ed]

4. It's the same people who supported Bush no_matter_what

I mean the very same individuals. Same shit, different name. There's nothing new there.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. Someone please tell the media. I am sick to death of hearing about these nutjobs.

Even my beloved NPR seems to have become obsessed with these idiots. These nuts were given two days last week, on two separate shows, to spew their propaganda. Most honest people have always known that they were nothing more than a media creation, and Republicans who were ashamed of the brand.

[defendandprotect]

7. T-baggers are run out of a PR firm . . . which gets them plenty of publicity ...

[Enthusiast]

24. Even NPR?

The R in NPR now stands for Republican.

[Tarheel_Dem]

43. Sadly, I'm afraid you might be right. I switched to NPR to get away

from the who's up & who's down of talk radio, and for awhile, it was a blessed relief. But lately, it seems they're going after a different audience.

[uponit7771]

59. +1

[defendandprotect]

6. After W . . . Republican was a dirty word and it still should be . . .

[quiet.american]

8. K&R nt

[MrModerate]

9. Here's the rub -- desperation marketing it may be . . .

But it may also work!

While it might seem as if a splinter party made up of the extra crazy would work against 'Lican interests, if it succeeds in getting fat asses off K-Mart couches and into polling booths -- while dems are dispirited because Obama turned out to be too "centrist" for their tastes, and so sit out the election . . .

Then the GOP kicks our butt and has another chance to run the country further into the ditch.

The only solution is to do everything possible to get sane people to the polls in November.

[howmad1]

36. On the other hand:

How about progressive dems coming up with an organization that is just as powerful as the Tea Party. Instead of pissing and moaning about how similar and bad the tea party and rethuglicans are, how about emulating them. You all may disagree, but the tea party is a powerful organization that will probably help the rethuglicans take the senate. We should be as effective. Yea, dream on.

[MrModerate]

41. There're a million reasons your proposal won't work. Here's one:

The distance from the centroid of public opinion to the centroid of Tea Party opinion is much greater than the equivalent distance to the centroid of progressive opinion. Which means progressivism sits in the dead middle of left-of-center politics. There's not enough difference between Obama and progressive dems (compared with the distance between sane people and Tea Partiers) for an organization to emerge. The fault lines just aren't that deep.

The Tea Party movement is mostly phony and will atomize, probably sooner than later. After the 'Licans have fucked America with their TP condom (2010, maybe 2012), they'll peel it off and trash it like you always do with a used scumbag. Besides, Palin will probably cause a major TP implosion whether she runs in 2012 or not.

A better approach (IMHO) is to get the message out (post-November, and regardless of what the result is) that dems take hits not when they are too radical, but when they are too timid. I think we have a better chance by strengthening the Democratic wing of the Democratic party than by engaging in schism.

[Duncan]

51. Exactly nt

[SpiralHawk]

10. "Smirk." - RepubliCorporatistas

"Move along. Nothing to see here. Please keep your toob tuned to Faux News (R) and Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)."

- RepubliCorporatistas

[eShirl]

11. why would they be ashamed to call themselves Republicans?

gee...

[Crystal Clarity]

13. Great Post!

:kick:

[DinahMoeHum]

14. IOW, Tea-baggers, just like their used-up namesakes. . .are expendable

for the GOP.

:evilfrown:

[ScottLand]

15. I worked the polls here in my state and a number of

voters asked to vote as "Independent" and a few wanted to know why the "Tea Party" was not a choice. They were all told they had to choose either "Democrat" or "Republican" in the Primary. EVERY one of these people chose "Republican". They aren't really independent at all; I believe it's from listening to talk radio people who insist they're independent as they spend all day bashing liberals.

[Divine Discontent]

16. Republicans & The New Tea Party - trying to win America for the Corporations election after election

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R

:thumbsup:

[stevenleser]

18. Shameless Self Kick

:kick:

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

19. There is no shame in self kicking this thread, Steven...

Great post! A must read.
KnR!

[HughMoran]

20. Yeah, we knew it but it's nice to have polling to verify it

K&R!

[NewJeffCT]

31. Didn't the tea party "movement" start in early 2008?

when it became apparent that the Republicans were in trouble in the general election? At least that is when they started registering the groups behind the tea party, if I recall? There would have been a tea party of angry Republicans if Hillary Clinton were president or John Edwards or anybody not a Republican. And, if Hillary had won the election, people on DU would have been saying the movement was because a woman was in the White House instead of a black man.

[stevenleser]

35. I cover this in a book I am writing, they were co-opted by Republicans in December of 2009

Originally begun by Libertarians back in 2006, when they lost the White House, Republicans, through Freedomworks and the other GOP think tanks, came up with the idea to take over the Libertarian tea parties and turn them into this Republican rebranding effort that would also serve to attack Obama and attempt to defeat his major proposals.

[jmowreader]

52. IIRC it started right after the inauguration

The first "official" Tea Party event was on Tax Day 2009--this is the one we all remember, where Rick Perry said he would like Texas to secede from the union.

Don't bullshit yourself. The "movement" (and when we call it that, I note we always abbreviate it by leaving off the prefix "bowel") is not about whether there is a black man in the White House. It is because there is a Democrat in the White House. There would be a Tea Party no matter who won...name the prominent Democrat and there would have been some sort of Republican organized opposition to him or her.

[Botany]

21. The grass roots nature of the tea party / bagger movement is a fake

In late Oct. / early November 2009 I drove from Ohio out to the Wisconsin / Minnesota area and
every single Fox radio station was promoting an anti health care reform / Michelle Bachmann
rally in D.C. The announcements which always followed the top of the hour news were the
same but w/ different people reading the scripts and different geographical regions .... Fox Valley
Patriots .... Central Indiana Freedom Fighters .... and so on. They gave web sites, charter bus
info, phone #s, and other information that would help get people to D.C. and at a cut rate too.

later on Fox T.V. tried to slip in some video from an earlier tea bagger so as to make the turn out
look bigger .... when caught red handed Fox said it was just an honest mistake and they were
not trying to deceive the viewers and they were sorry about the mistake.

Bottom line the tea baggers are old white people pissed off a black man won the Presidency
and in the past they voted for W and Ronald Reagan.

But what really pisses me off we have put 500,000 + people to protest the Iraq war or W's
theft of the white house in the streets and that got little attention .... 1,500 tea baggers in
D.C. leads the national news. I fear that we are being set up for the huge republican wins
in 2010 because people are so mad @ Obama, Reid, & Pelosi.

[Enthusiast]

25. You are exactly correct, Botany.

Yeah, those anti-Iraq War protests really got a lot of air time on the liberal media.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. K&R

for this excellent piece that adds to the suppressed information exposing the teabagger astroturf that their RW lunatic fringe M$M refuse to write about.

:kick:

[HughBeaumont]

26. Denial-icans.

These microwave Repubs are fooling NO one. Reaganites all the way.

[Odin2005]

33. That cartoon is awesome!

[BlueIdaho]

27. Tea Baggers = Racist Violent Republicans...

Nothing new here. Same shit different day.

[cleveramerican]

28. small goverment, low regulation are republican pillars

and when the tea party veers into Be-Sure-To-Bring-Your-Gun territory they hurt the republicans chances badly.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

29. About fucking time

This bullshit about "I'm a conservative, not a Republican" makes as much sense as me saying "I'm a fan of Pittsburgh baseball, not the Pirates".

[theaocp]

40. hahahaha +1 hahahahaha

[NNN0LHI]

30. Ralph Nader Rejoins the Tea Parties

http://washingtonindependent.com/71475/ralph-nader-rejoins-the-tea-parties

By David Weigel 12/18/09 11:59 AM

Benjamin Sarlin talks to Ralph Nader, who’s celebrating at least the 20th anniversary of his transition from interesting public advocate to self-defeating scold, about health care. Nader, predictably — and with a lack of understanding of congressional politics that must be willful — blames Barack Obama for selling out liberals. But one thing that separates Nader from other liberal critics of the health care compromise, like Howard Dean, is his alliance with the conservative activists who now lead the Tea Party movement.

In 2004, when Democrats — rather understandably — were trying to make it hard for Nader to make it onto state ballots, the candidate got unexpected help from Citizens for a Sound Economy — the group that would later split into FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. In Oregon, one of the states where Nader voters nearly helped throw the election to Bush in 2000, CSE enlisted its volunteers to collect signatures for Nader.

“We saw it as an obvious opportunity to split the liberal base in a swing state,” Matt Kibbe, CSE’s president and CEO told ABC News.

Kibbe said the effort to bolster Nader’s popularity is also part of a plan to force Kerry to compete for liberal votes, thus complicating any efforts to appear more moderate.

[Tarheel_Dem]

44. Bookmarking for future reference. Thanks for that. (nt)

[Odin2005]

32. This was predictable.

[TrollBuster9090]

34. I wouldn't say the Astroturfed Tea Party "movement" as an attempt to rebuild

the Republican party under another name. It's just an attempt re-brand the ATTACK WING of the Republican party as something other than the Republican party. The Tea Party movement is a SOCKPUPPET of the Republican Party that does all the dirty work of attacking Obama and the Dems WITHOUT DRAWING ATTENTION directly to the Republican party while they're doing it. If it was the GOP straight out attacking Obama, every time they opened their mouths people would be reminded that the people who are attacking Obama are the people who made the mess he's trying to clean up in the first place.

That's the upside for them. The fact that their attack dog is wearing a false flag.
The downside is that sane people could just as easily start to link ALL opponents of Obama with the racist nutcases you see in the Tea Party protests.

Republicans will spend as much effort as possible trying to break the link between the two, and Democrats will and should work to SHOW that link. This Gallup Poll works to establish the link.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. kick

great piece

[JBoy]

38. The Teabaggers are only two of the four pillars of the GOP.

Ignorant - CHECK
Racists - CHECK
Fundies - not part of the Tea Party
Greedy - not part of the Tea Party

[The Gunslinger]

45. They are greedy, and there are a lot of fundies in the movement as well.

[Bluzmann57]

39. File this one as "no shit sherlock"

And do not count on this fact being reported far and wide. We know it, the "alternative" press knows it, the blogosphere (mostly) knows it, and I suspect the tea partiers themselves know it, but it still won't be reported to the majority of the USA, which has grown weary of repukes.

[stevenleser]

47. Yes, we all knew it, but it is GREAT to have it empirically laid out like Gallup has done

Its more than I ever hoped would happen.

[pleah]

42. K&R

[Umbral]

46. It's obvious, but if you say it at HuffPo, they'll delete your post. nt

[4dsc]

48. Tea Party=GOP=Republicans

Whenever I am able to make this post I do. Republicans are living in shame of their own party so they have to rename themselves..

[lib2DaBone]

49. Republicans trying to avoid the stench of G.W. Bush .....

"Oh.. I'm not a Repuiblican... I'm a tea-bagger".... sure...

[donheld]

50. Bravo

[PatrynXX]

53. Besides, already knew it was just another term for KKK

Since the moment Obama won. Dad's told me and anyone who voted for him (mom) I'm going to hell. Yeah thats what they said in 2004 at many churches which is why I don't bother. Separation of church and state out the window there..

Only reason dad voted for McCain was that McCain would supposedly be dead in 6 months and Palin would be president. Hey McCain's still around and still can't find his keys. And unfortunately Palin can't seem to find her glasses. She keeps putting on the drunk glasses.

[newtothegame]

54. If Tea Party rallies are racist, obnoxious and poorly attended, why are we even worried about them?

Looking at DU's headlines, you would think the Tea Party is much stronger than it is.

[feslen]

55. I'm not too worried about these nut cases

As one author put it, "Evil turns upon itself..."

enough said.

[TNLib]

56. The tea baggers are basically they ubber nuts of the repuke party

They're the racist religious right, and ignorant wing of the repuke party. It will be interesting to see if this movement saves the republican party.

[Scurrilous]

57. Indeed. n/t

[MattBaggins]

58. Why is the Media playing this BS of trying to figure out who these people are?

Harriet Christian, the "He might be an Arab" lady and all the salivating whackos from the Palin/McCain rallies are the Tea Parties.

[SpiralHawk]

60. Republicorporatistas own the media, too

just like the sockpuppet TeaBaggers...

[uponit7771]

61. Even NPR plays along with it, it's disgusting