NewsBusters (blog) | MSNBC Hopes Women's March is Left's Tea Party NewsBusters (blog) Their guest, Nancy Gibbs, editor in chief of Time magazine, spoke about the cover this week, which focused on the Women's March and how it will materialize into a movement. During the discussion, there was frequent mentioning of the Tea Party movement ... |
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MSNBC Hopes Women's March is Left's Tea Party - NewsBusters (blog)
Angry Facebook posts. People wielding signs in the city square indicating their displeasure with the president. Voters show up at town hall meetings with their members of Congress demanding to know what will happen to their health insurance and to say, "Hands off my Medicare!"
Everything that is old becomes new again. Liberals once rolled their eyes at these things when they were associated with the Tea Party Right. Now there is a Tea Party brewing on the Left.
In fact, the Washington Examiner reported on a progressive campaign to "resist" President Trump's agenda that is explicitly based on the lessons of the Tea Party.
The powdered wigs have been repealed and replaced with pink knit hats. Quotes from the Founding Fathers are still displayed on signs, but not as often as mentions to the part of the female anatomy the new president referenced in his notorious chat with Billy Bush.
That vulgar "Access Hollywood" tape has played a bigger role in radicalizing opposition to Trump than the Jeremiah Wright sermons and the "bitter clingers" tape combined did in hardening attitudes against President Obama.
FEMA camps. Muslim registries. Gun-grabbing and pussy-grabbing. The memes were dark.
Anti-Obama conservatives felt Obama was rejecting the country's founding principles and transforming it into something it was never meant to be. Anti-Trump liberals believe Trump also rejects core American political values and is reviving the racism they were once convinced would die with their Tea Party forebears.
In both cases, you saw people who were previously apolitical suddenly actively sharing political content hostile to the sitting president on social media and people who were mildly political becoming committed activists.
You also saw the occasional person who had spent their whole adult lives on the opposite side of the political divide suddenly deciding the current president was the last straw for them.
Also from the Washington Examiner
"Turns out you're just like all the rest selfish and spineless."
01/26/17 11:13 PM
Conservative and progressive groups that had long predated either the Tea Party or the self-styled anti-Trump resistance quickly sprang into action to organize and to capitalize. The antiwar and civil libertarian progressive groups that have been moribund since George W. Bush left town will be resurrected.
Liberals are even rediscovering the virtues of state and local governments standing up to Washington, the need to limit executive power, adhering to the Constitution and longstanding political norms.
The president isn't always going to be a person who shares your values or even necessarily a particularly nice person. Therefore, you might want to avoid giving him a massive surveillance apparatus or allowing him to compile a secret, extrajudicial kill list. It might be good to make him or her go to Congress before sending the country to war.
One imagines most liberals regret diluting the filibuster the point that executive branch appointees and most federal judges can be approved by the Senate by simple majority rule. With 48 seats, under the old rules the Democrats could have blocked any Trump Cabinet pick they wanted. Now they may not be able to block any.
Another similarity with the Tea Party: We could see liberals turn against Democrats who don't share their anger with Trump and the system, much as conservatives rejected Republicans who weren't sufficiently outraged by Obama.
Also from the Washington Examiner
"How can you vet somebody when you don't know anything about them and you have no papers?"
01/26/17 10:44 PM
This hasn't taken the form of many primary challenges yet. But it was a factor in Bernie Sanders' campaign against Hillary Clinton last year. It's part of what's driving Keith Ellison's bid for Democratic National Committee chair right now.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has so far voted for every Trump Cabinet pick the Senate has confirmed. That can't stand for long.
Progressives no longer believe it is inherently bad to want to see a president fail or be limited to just one term. Trump is saying he wants to do many of the same things Obama promised: bring back jobs, stimulate the economy and help fix healthcare.
If you don't think a president's policies will achieve those goals at least not at a cost future generations can endure it's hardly unpatriotic to oppose the president.
Then again, we've seen this movie before. On questions of executive power, foreign policy and civil liberties, there is very little partisan consistency. With the exception of a few bold backbenchers, we see the two parties trade places on these issues every four to eight years.
A difference this time is that there is a subset of conservatives who oppose Trump with whom the resistance could make common cause or who could be pushed into Trump's arms by unchecked left-wing hysteria. Not a huge subset, but more numerous than anti-Bush conservatives and certainly anti-Obama liberals.
That's another bit of continuity: dating back to at least Bill Clinton, a substantial portion of the country has spent much of its free time trying to convince the rest of the population that the president is the devil.
No matter how sincerely these views were held, they often did more to convince people that the opposition was unhinged. It became too hard for the voters who didn't already share their passion to separate the legitimate criticisms from what was unfair or over the top.
Fortunately for those outraged by Trump, detractors of Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama all managed to take control of Congress at these presidents' low points. But all three of those presidents got to serve two full terms.
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A month into 2017 and Republicans haven't repealed Obamacare and Koskinen still has his job.
01/26/17 5:01 PM
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Liberal anger at Trump is starting to resemble the Tea Party - Washington Examiner (blog)
A prediction: America, and the world, will miss the Obamas.
While we wish new President Donald J. Trump and his family well, we will miss the calm and serious stewardship, and dignity, that Barack and Michelle Obama brought to the White House.
Sure, there's plenty of room for disagreement on things like our degree of involvement in Syria, the details of Obama's signature Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, his arms-length relationship with Congress and lots more. But on balance the good of the Obamas' tenure far outweighed the not-so-good.
While Obama helped almost 20 million Americans without health insurance to get it, that battle early in his tenure also helped fuel the discontent that cost the Democrats control of the House and Senate, 13 additional governorships, and more than 900 state legislative seats.
Obama, in fact, has made it part of his post-presidential plan to help rebuild the party, starting with attempts to temper the partisan gerrymandering by state legislators that has helped fuel gridlock in Congress by drawing districts designed to help the party in power.
As he left office, Obama indicated he's most likely done with politics as a candidate though he left room to change his mind if he sees institutional unfairness taking hold.
"There's a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake," he told reporters at his final press conference.
"I put in that category if I saw systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion," Obama said. "I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise.
"I'd put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press," he said. "And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them someplace else, when they love this country."
Indivisible: Progressive Democrats should copy tea party ... A game plan on how progressives can influence Congress should learn from the tea party's blooming back in 2009, according to former congressional staffers.
Three of them, all former staffers for Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin, decided to channel their disappointment at the election of Donald Trump as president by copying the tea party's grassroots effort to confront Barack Obama.
The three former Doggett staffers are Ezra Levin, Sarah Dohl, and Jeremy Haile, plus Levin's wife Leah Greenberg, another former congressional staffer.
They personally witnessed and experienced the impact tea party advocates made on influencing their local members of Congress on opposing Obama's health care initiative.
The effort's name Indivisible, Levin told the Austin American-Statesman, was suggested by his wife Greenberg.
"She said, 'Hey, what do you think of Indivisible?' And immediately it felt right," Levin said. "We have to treat an attack on one as an attack on all."
In a column in The New York Times just after New Year's Day, Levin, Greenberg and another former congressional staffer, Angel Padillajan, outlined the tactics tea party advocates used to try to influence members of congress in their home districts.
"In Austin and in congressional districts across the country the tea partyers chanted what became their battle cry: 'Just say no!'
"Their tactics weren't fancy: They just showed up on their own home turf and they just said no.
Here's the crazy thing: It worked," the former staffers wrote.
"The tea party's ideas were wrong, and their often racist rhetoric and physical threats were unacceptable. But they understood how to wield political power and made two critical strategic decisions. First, they organized locally, focusing on their own members of Congress. Second, they played defense, sticking together to aggressively resist anything with President Obama's support."
Through the Times and other news coverage, Indivisible has rapidly gained national attention. The former staffers say they have been stunned at how their ideas have taken off, with thousands of local groups organizing almost immediately.
Their website had more than 7 million hits by late last week, and they are getting feedback that the movement already has well more than 100,000 followers and several thousand local organizations.
It will be interesting to see if this effort takes hold, and what impact it may have both on Congress during the next two years and in the 2018 mid-term election.
Dave McNeely, an Austin-based columnist who covers Texas politics, appears Thursday.
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McNeely: Adios, Obamas; Indivisible copies tea party - Longview ... - Longview News-Journal
A Tea Party activist elected as Kentuckys first African-American lieutenant governor told students at a Baptist university that Christians fearful of the Trump administration are getting a taste of how many conservatives felt under eight years of President Obama.
I was in the half of America that was frightened by the previous president, Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton said in achapel service Jan. 25 at Campbellsville University.
Jeanan Hampton
Hampton, a member of Eleventh Street Missionary Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Ky., said that fear motivated her both spiritually and politically. Number one, it drove me to Christ, she said. And, number two, it took me out of my apathy and got me involved, and here I am as lieutenant governor.
I think maybe Gods trying to tell us something, Hampton said. Maybe its the other half of the countrys turn, and I hope they will harness that fear instead of going out and destroying things.
Hampton, the first African Americanto be elected to statewide office in Kentucky and one of just a handful of black women on the national level to identify with the Tea Party movement, condemned acts of violence in protests surrounding Trumps inauguration.
As a Tea Party activist, I want to point out that we never destroyed property, she said. We never burned anything. In fact, we cleaned up after ourselves.
Hampton said political dissent is inevitable no matter which party is in control. We dont march in lockstep, she said. Nobody does. No group of people does, no matter what others will say, but I would say to the other side what do you do with disagreement is the question.
I hope they will harness their fear, as I did, and recognize that, again, theres no need to be fearful if you have God in your life, she said.
Her message to the protestors who engaged in violence and vandalism on Inauguration Day: I understand, because I was fearful, too, once upon a time, but I learned theres nothing to fear. There really isnt. Gods in charge. Gods got this.
Hampton, a military veteran who worked 19 years in the corrugated packaging industry before running for office for the first time in 2014, said she believes God had a hand in her selection as Gov. Matt Bevins running mate.
Hampton said she had planned to support another candidate in the Republican primary and was going to announce it at a scheduled fundraiser, but she couldnt attend because she got a cold and lost her voice.
I completely lost my voice, and I still remember how mad I was that I could not go to that fundraiser and pledge my support to Jamie Comer, she recalled. It was shortly after that when Matt Bevin called and asked me to be his running mate. I think when I lost my voice that was God saying: Would you just slow down, Missy? Ive got other plans for you.
I know Im not here of my own volition, Hampton said.
Founded by Baptists in 1906, Campbellsville University was affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention until 2014. In 2015 the school formalized a partnership with theAmerican Baptist Churches of Indiana/Kentucky.
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Tea Party politician tells Trump opponents to 'harness their fear' - Baptist News Global
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Posted: Jan 26, 2017 12:01 AM
The post-Inauguration freak show that descended on Washington was a far cry from the festival of flags and tri-corner hats of the Tea Party revolt by Americas normals. Instead of a Norman Rockwell painting about democracy come to life, it looked like the parking lot sale at the offices of Dr. Fred Skeeve, the Discount Gynecologist.
Now, normal people would typically react with alarm and disgust at this kind of bizarre pageant, assuming they cared enough to pay attention to it. In the off chance they happened to encounter it while flipping channels, they would likely lunge for the remote so as not to poison innocent ears with puffy former starlet Ashely Judds anatomically incorrect slam poetry. Never have so many hotness-challenged crones so vehemently rejected being grabbed while simultaneously being at so little risk of it.
Its a testament to the effectiveness of the liberal bubble that these loons expected that regular folks would see a bunch of grown women parading about in genital suits and think, Yeah, these are the kind of mature, sensible people who really get where Im coming from as a suburban mom. Especially that bunch over there in costumes that bring to mind what I suspect would be the chorus line climax at Hot Bodz Gentlemens Club in Newark.
But while this baffling phenomena puzzled normal people, we still need to remember that 60 million-plus people did vote for Hillary Clinton, give or take a few million illegal aliens. And about one million of them marched around like idiots in the cold to protest that the election was illegitimate because they lost. Or something.
Though that is only about one in every 330 Americans, thats still a lot of people. The Tea Party movement also started small, but its impact was enormous. It is not too much to say that without the Tea Party, the GOP would likely still be floundering around in a sea of squish. Wed probably continue nominating soft boys like Jeb, who desperately seek the approval of femmy doofuses like David Brooks instead of actual voters and feel compelled to passively submit to every abuse, indignity, and defeat the Democrats heap upon them.
The Tea Party was a testosterone injection into the Low-T party. It gave the Republicans back their edge. It reminded a party that was born literally fighting Democrats on literal battlefields that it could fight and win on figurative ones. The Tea Party remade the GOP. It created a new generation of strong leaders, and it put some too-long absent righteous terror into some weak ones.
Did it always succeed? No. But was it a failure? Ask Speaker Boehner if you can catch him between sips and understand his bitter mumbling.
Now the question is whether the Democrats can pull off the same thing, because you know they want to sort of. Dont believe the comfortable lie liberals tell themselves the Tea Party was no astroturfed, community organized event. It was largely spontaneous, brought into being mainly by people who had learned their organizational skills running small businesses, churches, and community events. Sure, the charlatans came along later, but in its prime the Tea Party was just normal people pushing into politics as a way of pushing back against liberal intrusion into their lives.
Of course, that decentralization was what frustrated the GOP Establishment they could not control the beast. The Tea Party did its own thing, famously defying the bosses with various levels of success. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Marco Rubio: Good. That oddball who went on TV to deny being a witch: Not so good. And the Tea Party held the Establishments Gucci loafered feet to the fire instead of just going through the motions, now the GOP had to start performing. Thats happened with various levels of success, but just remember that Obamacare is going to be dead in the very near future. Revenge is a dish best served cold think iced tea.
Now, can this collection of leftist strange-os and commies, feminists and femboys, do the same? Can they build an independent movement that revitalizes their party and makes it win again? Doubtful, but that doesnt mean the left isnt dangerous. After all, they do have something the Tea Party never had: Every single major cultural institution except the U.S. military and the Country Music Hall of Fame in their corner.
A leftist Tea Party will be very different in structure. The Tea Party was decentralized; the leftist version will be highly centralized and highly community organized. Look at the march George Soros was pouring money into some 50 of the groups putting it on. Tea Party rallies never had that many sponsors, and they sure as hell had no single sugar daddy funding them.
Centralization means control. The Tea Party was totally out of the establishments control; it gave the establishment fits, but eventually broke the establishments will. The Democrats are not going to make that mistake. Remember how the Tea Party spent half its time fighting its own party? Now, look at the march and try to find one single policy where the march and the Democratic Party were not in perfect, absolute synch? There isnt one.
But it still might be dangerous, especially with the media slobbering all over it. You can bet that any time three or more lunatics in their naughty bit hats gather together therell be a CNN Breaking News Alert on Americas overwhelming rejection of President Trump. But there are things we can do to complicate their plan to make America ungovernable remember, their goal is to tire America out with constant crises such that normals give up on self-government and cede power to Team Nasty.
One is to keep the pressure on the GOP to perform. At the end of the day, President Trump succeeds if he keeps his promises to kill our enemies, build a wall, deep six O-care and, most of all, get the economy going for everyone, not just hipsters and tech titans. There are fewer GOP squishes than there were, but Hatch, McCain and Little Lord Lindsey arent facing election for awhile so we can expect antics. Keep the pressure on, because we keep power only if the GOP keeps its promises.
Another is to fight the cultural battle. Reject the Hollywood hacks who reject you make the sacrifice of not watching that next Meryl Streep movie. Dont patronize the lying left wing media. And make sure your non-political friends hear you mocking the idiocy of the left. A picture of the march, especially with those goofs cavorting around terrified kids, is worth a thousand shared articles on Facebook.
Do we enjoy having a hyper-politicized culture? No, but well enjoy having a hyper-politicized culture run by these man-hating, sharia-tolerating, abortion-loving, non-trash picking up bunch of pinko libfascists even less. Yeah, boycotts and stuff are unseemly so what? No more unilateral disarmament. They need to learn there is a price for political posturing that insults and disrespects us and that price must be pain. Its the only way they will learn.
Can the left pull off creating its own mass movement? Maybe. If it does, the Democrat Tea Party would not be another Tea Party, but simply a cohort of foot soldiers activated by the hyped up threat of Donald Trump. The left wants to use the current situation to pump up the enthusiasm of its base, while the Tea Party (and then, later, the GOP that it changed) expanded the base. Anyone involved in the Tea Party knows people who changed from liberal to conservative because of Obama. It seems unlikely that Donald Trump appointing Mad Dog Mattis, gutting Obamacare, freezing federal hiring, and approving Keystone is going to drive a lot of conservatives left. Well, maybe Evan McMullin. Maybe next time, he and Ashley Judd can mobilize the unshaven masses to even greater heights of Trump derangement with an inspiring rap duet about their urogenital tracts.
Liberals Shell Shocked Over Clinton Loss, Look To Form A Progressive Tea Party To Fight Trump
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Can Creepy Leftist Weirdos Create A Progressive Tea Party? - Townhall