The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: ABX on March 29, 2017, 10:43:10 pm
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The ultimate outsider candidate collaborates with the GOP establishment to marginalize the House Freedom Caucus and pivot toward centrist Democrats....
Have you seen the latest craze among Trump administration officials and their enablers in the Republican establishment? It's called Pin the Blame for Ryancare on the House Freedom Caucus....
http://reason.com/blog/2017/03/27/having-co-opted-the-tea-party-nationwide
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Trump just took advantage of what was already going on. He simply recognized what many of us warned of. When the tea party became an "organization" it took on leaders who could be bought. The tea party express became nothing more than a means of funding itself by hiding behind a few conservative speakers while inviting establishment politicians to come and speak and that was before Trump came along.
Anyone who really remembers the beginnings of the tea party remembers the strongly anti politician stance that we didn't want to hear from politicians. They were to shut up and listen to us.
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The tea party express became nothing more than a . . .
(http://c5.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/uploaded/Train%20Wreck%20One.gif)
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(http://c5.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/uploaded/Train%20Wreck%20One.gif)
My last argument with anyone from the tea party express was over their plan for a chartered cruise of the Alaska coastline with big name speakers (Herman Cain was the only one they named). I pointed out that people who can afford the $4 grand were not the people who created and made up the bulk of the tea party and that they shouldn't be doing things so wildly out of reach for most of us if they wanted to be taken seriously.
I don't think the cruise ever happened because I was right about the average tea partier like myself.
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My last argument with anyone from the tea party express was over their plan for a chartered cruise of the Alaska coastline with big name speakers (Herman Cain was the only one they named). I pointed out that people who can afford the $4 grand were not the people who created and made up the bulk of the tea party and that they shouldn't be doing things so wildly out of reach for most of us if they wanted to be taken seriously.
I don't think the cruise ever happened because I was right about the average tea partier like myself.
I think in the media, especially, the TEA party was the most misunderstood movement in history. Those of us who were scratching to get by and were fiscally responsible only demanded the same from those who represented us. It was a bottom up movement, and the second media started talking about the 'national' TEA Party organizations, it was already done, despite the best efforts of millions.
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Trump just took advantage of what was already going on. He simply recognized what many of us warned of. When the tea party became an "organization" it took on leaders who could be bought. The tea party express became nothing more than a means of funding itself by hiding behind a few conservative speakers while inviting establishment politicians to come and speak and that was before Trump came along.
Anyone who really remembers the beginnings of the tea party remembers the strongly anti politician stance that we didn't want to hear from politicians. They were to shut up and listen to us.
From my point of view, the groups and folks pushing for an Article V convention are the ones who've hewed most closely to the original intent of the tea party movement.
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Trump just took advantage of what was already going on. He simply recognized what many of us warned of. When the tea party became an "organization" it took on leaders who could be bought. The tea party express became nothing more than a means of funding itself by hiding behind a few conservative speakers while inviting establishment politicians to come and speak and that was before Trump came along.
Anyone who really remembers the beginnings of the tea party remembers the strongly anti politician stance that we didn't want to hear from politicians. They were to shut up and listen to us.
One of the major fallacies of the early tea party movement was that it could effect political change without participating fully in the political process. Without national leaders and without a broad organization (and I recall being told in no uncertain terms that the tea party movement needed neither) such a movement is mainly talk, simply through lack of organization.
There were a few politicians who were elected on explicitly tea party principles, and the FC is apparently all that remains of them.
Still, while you're probably correct about the failings of the "tea party express," you're not correct that Trump took advantage of the "leaders." Instead, he took advantage of the underlying anger and frustration that has informed the Tea Party movement since its inception. That he probably didn't mean it was obvious to a lot of us -- it's what demagogues do.