Community | February 07, 2010 | 22 comments

Glenn Greenwald---so-called Tea Party 'movement' simply repackaged GOP

source: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/07/palin

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SleepDirt
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Though it's not true for all of its supporters, the "tea party movement" itself is just a Republican movement -- the standard-issue type that blindly cheered Bush and Cheney. It's all the same nationalistic militarism and warmongering, Wall Street-subservient economics, and religion-based policy-making that has defined the GOP forever. There's nothing new here. If anything, it represents a demand for even greater allegiance to the Bush/Cheney mindset, for a more purist and even less restrained version of the national security insanity, civil liberties assaults, massive increases in the rich-poor gap, control of Americans' lives through "social issues," and endless wars which the Republican Party has long rhetorically claimed to embody. Other than a Medicare prescription plan here and an immigration reform plan there, from what Bush/Cheney orthodoxies do they dissent? None.

This movement is nothing more than the Republican Party masquerading as a grass-roots phenomenon. In 2000, the GOP found a cowboy-hat-wearing, swaggering, "likable" Regular Guy spouting "compassion" in domestic policy and "humility" in foreign policy to re-brand itself in the wake of the Gingrich-led branding disaster. Sarah Palin and the "tea party movement" are just the updated versions of that, the re-branding in the wake of the Bush/Cheney-led image disaster. They're every bit as extremist, radical and dangerous as the last decade revealed standard right-wing Republicans to be, but the one thing they're not is new or innovative.

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http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/07/palin
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22 comments // Glenn Greenwald---so-called Tea Party 'movement' simply repackaged GOP

  • RickLD
    • +1
      RickLD  

    • as must as they proclaimed to be, the Bush White House was not on the right.. Expanded government, reduction in privacy rights. I'd put them a bit left of center.
      One thing i see often on here and for some unknown reason it gets under my skin. The name people are using for the Tea Party movement. Anyone using the slang names... i consider an idiot, and uneducated. I am, by far. no where near in agreement with most the people on this site, and their political views. But, if you have an argument. State your claim, Show some proof for your reasoning, and leave out the name calling.
      There are probably some good points, and decent arguments, but i refuse to read them, or take the authors of those articles seriously, when they're acting childish by namecalling.

      Oh, and the Tea Party Movement, is just that. a "Movement" they have no set values, no person that i've heard of who is running in any election under the Tea Party flag. I disagree with the RNC and the DNC. But, i'm not so stupid as to jump on a train, when i dont know where its going..

    • 2 years ago
  • AmericanStandard
    • 0
      AmericanStandard  

    • Actually there are many people involved in this movement, including the guy who started it, that are very upset that the GOP is attempting to take credit for the tea party. Many of these people are GOP rightists, but that doesn't mean that we should write the entire movement off based on this. Regardless of party affiliation these people should command at least a shred of respect simply based on the fact that they are willing to actually get up and do something. The real fact remains that these people realize that the system we have is failing and they want change. I think the departure from apathy on behalf of any American citizen is refreshing.

    • 2 years ago
  • crob80227
    • +1
      crob80227  
    • AmericanStandard:

      "Regardless of party affiliation these people should command at least a shred of respect simply based on the fact that they are willing to actually get up and do something."

      Except they aren't actually PROPOSING any action. They are merely bitching.

      They hate gay marriage.

      They hate "government".

      They hate....a lot of things. But there is no serious legislation or vision. It's just a bunch of angry white Christians who hate them thar damn minorities and that thar Afro President (insert sound of chewing tabacco hitting a spitton)

      There is no "there" there. It's just white men who are "angry" and they aren't going to "take it" anymore!

      Much like when a 2 year old gets "angry" and throws a tantrum. This is why most people write them off as a joke.

    • 2 years ago
  • Progresshiv
    • 0
      Progresshiv  

    • In the past I've advocated for a general strike where all workers for large businesses simply refuse to go to work for a day or two, in order to shut down the wheels of production. I pushed this idea because it seems the only thing political leaders truly care abut is cash. Of course, whenever I've suggested such a move, several people have immediately listed reasons why it could not possibly work. I've come to the conclusion that liberal Americans are a tame lot, thoroughly domesticated and neutered. The reason movements like the Tea Party get off the ground is because their people walk the walk.

      It is one thing to attempt to win a philosophical debate with the Right; it would be quite another to take the silver spoon out of their mouths.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • Progresshiv:

      Good point. Us liberals need to put up and, if not, shut up. Flogging our keyboards and $2.50 will get us a ride on the bus.
      One decent demonstration is not too much to ask. Although....it seems whenever there is a meaningful progressive demonstration, out come the SWAT teams and riot police and agents provocateurs, but when the teabaggers and the other right-wing groups demonstrate, the cops stand down and it's all good.
      I suspect fear of violence and incarceration for people with families at home is a very real factor.

    • 2 years ago
  • treewolf39
    • 0
      treewolf39  
    • Progresshiv:

      I like the strike idea. It seems that by breaking the unions the rest of the country was broken as well. The public need something to get behind. Dam-it Gandhi is the hero that comes to mind. I was hoping for someone who is alive.

    • 2 years ago
  • blackheartman
    • 0
      blackheartman  
    • Progresshiv:

      Action is necessary, I agree. But let me ask you this, progresshiv. (and no disrespect intended) With unemployment numbers so high (just the way ceo's and owner's like it) and so many people looking for work, why wouldn't the majority of workplaces just use a general strike as a good excuse to get rid of everyone they don't want around anymore? Sure, there will be some irreplaceable personnel who will always keep their jobs. But for the most part, the companies can simply switch out the largest part of their workforce with some of the many (and equally qualified) unemployed.

      I think there are lots of us who are willing and ready to take some kind of action against this farce called government, but as bad as things are right now, they would be much worse if I had no income.

    • 2 years ago
  • Progresshiv
    • 0
      Progresshiv  
    • blackheartman:

      No disrespect to you, either, blackheartman, but your reply is almost identical to replies I've gotten to my suggestion in the past. There are innumerable reasons for workers not to assert their rights, but only one reason to do so: bosses do not respect talk; they only respect action. No corporation can exist without workers, and unless and until workers are willing to forgo income and comfort, the bosses will hold all the power. I do not expect the workers of the United States to stand up for their rights; they have been domesticated and neutered.

    • 2 years ago
  • bike10
  • SleepDirt
  • crob80227
  • SleepDirt
    • +3
      SleepDirt  

    • "I think it was clear from the start that the populist and anti-Beltway rage fueling these gatherings was being diverted (absurdly) into standard Republican dogma, by the same party that ran the country with virtually no restraints for the last decade. And a large faction of this movement from the beginning was driven by the same ugly nationalism, Christian fanaticism, and Limbaughian hatreds that have long shaped the American GOP Right. There's a reason why the Bush-revering Fox News embraced it from the beginning. But whatever else is true -- whatever authentic elements once existed here -- it is now nothing more than a vehicle for rejuvenating the standard GOP, draped with even more neoconservative extremism and religious fervor than drove it for the last ten years. That's why Sarah Palin is their most beloved leader."

    • 2 years ago
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  
    • SleepDirt:

      Perfectly explained SleepDirt, the only question I have what will these non thinkers do now that their name (Tea bagger) has been hijacked by the very evil that got them so pissed off.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • kennymotown
  • treewolf39
  • SleepDirt
  • SleepDirt
    • +1
      SleepDirt  
    • kennymotown:

      Which is about the size of their block today. It's not likely to grow significantly.
      The turnout at the teabagger rally, starring the Whore of Wasilla, was an unimpressive 600 by all accounts.
      It will be 1.6 million on Glenn Beck tomorrow supported by aerial photos from Obama's inauguration.

    • 2 years ago
  • treewolf39
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • I can truly believe that's all it is, especially with the finding out early the tea bagger movement was financed by big corporations. The Democratic party is going to have too ween themselves off this corporate money if they want to change anything in D.C. Don't think that will happen, it's time to get medieval!

    • 2 years ago
  • treewolf39
    • 0
      treewolf39  
    • kennymotown:

      Kenny, I might be mistaken but the democrats in power are not very likely to vote away their corporate supporters. It is up to the American people to vote in responsible representation.

    • 2 years ago
  • kennymotown
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