Misplaced Allegiance-- Why Teabaggers Are Republicans... And Why The Rest Of Us Aren't

[Donnachaidh]

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/10/misplaced-allegiance-why-teabaggers-are.html



Earlier today, in researching a post about corporate shill Artur Davis, I recalled how, when growing up, I first grappled with the idea that poor and middle class people-- and it was Southerners I was thinking about at the time-- could make common cause with conservative politicians and right-wing parties. Conservative parties are-- over and above everything else-- reactions against any semblance of equality for poor and middle class people. That's the raison d'etre for conservatism to begin with. In the case of Southerners-- who were at the time massively abandoning the Democratic party and moving to a the "new" GOP of Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, the tendency was to chalk it up to naked racism. But naked racism was just part of it. Just like naked racism is just part of the misplaced allegiance of the teabaggers to the Republican Party today. Last week, Digby addressed this for Al Jazeera in a brilliant analysis: Tea Partiers: the self-hating 99 per cent.

I suppose it was inevitable that the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street movement would be compared with the Tea Party, but the level of misunderstanding and myth surrounding the latter's "populist" bona fides is surprising to even the most cynical observer.

There may be surface similarities between the two uprisings, but they actually represent two opposing populist worldviews, whose only philosophical resemblance to one another is their belief that they speak for "the people" against the elites. While both movements are mainly concerned with economic issues, their beliefs about the causes and solutions they propose couldn't be more different.

... was never about corporate greed, but was about the usual right wing resentment at the government spending their tax money on people they don't think have earned it. These are not billionaire bankers - they are the people on the lower rungs of the ladder. Unsurprisingly, this attitude turned out to be useful to corporate interests looking to allay any real populist impulses among the citizenry, and they soon moved in through various means to help the "movement" organise itself.

More at the link --

[SomethingFishy]

1. Some people are just more easily manipulated than others..

Not as well educated, can't see the forest for the trees, missing the big picture...

[AmBlue]

2. Today I was listening to Chuck Todd...

And his pretty little Barbie and Ken reporter friends examining in great detail whether this or that candidate would be perceived as a "nice guy" and how HERMAN CAIN in particular would have a neat yard and be a great neighbor, and how IMPORTANT all that is to people picking presidential candidates. Now, see?? There you go! That is why HERMAN CAIN is doing so well!!

The volume and intensity of the pure bullshit he was feeding his listeners, all dumbed down so that even the brain-dead among us could make the RIGHT decision.... I just wanted to vomit. Always playing to the lowest common denominator these guys. They certainly know their audience, too. As billions continue to be cut from education the message might have to be simplified even further. You know, fer us dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks Amurkins....

:eyes:

[JustAnotherGen]

3. We all need to read that blog! Kick and rec

[applegrove]

4. And the right wing talking heads are trying to attach ACORN (poor people) to the OWS movement.

It is racist. It is dispicable. But it does show how desperate the GOP are as 43% of Americans support OWS, 27% hate OWS and 30% don't know. Some of those 30% are teabaggers. The GOP has to frame OWS as wanting equality to go to the poorest african americans to keep those 30% in their fold.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Teapartiers and OWS share a common frustration with the economic

conditions in this country. Where they diverge dramatically is on the solution to the problem.

OWS wants government to do more to deal with a system that is gamed to favor the wealthiest in this society, by taxing the rich, supporting broadbased programs like SS and healthcare, and creating jobs that will fix the infrastructure.

The TP solution is fundamentally incoherent. They want lower taxes, less government (except for when it comes to issues of sex and immigration)...and they want less regulation. Precisely the things that have created the conditions that they find themselves in.

The entrenched interests don't really take these people seriously, but they are certainly willing to help them succeed in promoting solutions that are against their best long term interests. The OWS, OTOH, is a very real threat and that's why we're seeing the system trying to break this movement.