Here’s an interesting link to the TeaPartyDay website. The page is a national map with pins showing locations of all the parties registered for July 4. There are 442 sites already:
Whatever this phenomenon is, whether it’s a flash-in-the-pan or it’s the true beginning of a groundswell movement – which I believe it is — I bet you dollars to doughnuts the current occupiers of the White House are watching with trepidation…
Originally posted at STORMBRINGER.
14 responses so far
1 VA Shepherd // Apr 24, 2009 at 5:31 am
It’s up to 456 sites now. Has anyone seen any reports on this in the news? I hope the Department of Homeland Security is keeping tabs on this anti-tax movement. These agitators are a real menace to the American way of life.
2 krove // Apr 24, 2009 at 5:44 am
I am thinking these will be just a much a failure as the last embarrassment To only get 300,000 people nationwide to celebrate their tax cut was a disappointment.
The birthers and Paulists made up 200,000 of those.
3 mlindroo // Apr 24, 2009 at 5:56 am
> I bet you dollars to doughnuts the current occupiers of
> the White House are watching with trepidation
Trepidation? If I were Obama, I would be worried if the Dems were losing special elections such as NY-20 by a wide margin, if his approval numbers were abysmal and if the opposition had talented, well-organized leaders and a coherent message.
In 1993, all these factors were already apparent.
The 2009 movement seems more focused on small government libertarian ideas; there is even some (justifiable!) anger about poor GOP leadership and out-of-control spending in 2001-2006.
Does anyone here think the Dems will be a minority in the House and/or Senate after the 2010 midterms?
MARCU$
4 ottovbvs // Apr 24, 2009 at 6:02 am
Linnane should read about that discussion between Steve Schmidt and Plouffe at Harvard. Schmidt told it how it really was and is and it sounds as if it was really interesting event. In summary he called it the Lord of the Flies period for the GOP. It’s a shrinking party nearly extinct in the NE and on the West Coast and clinging to life in the mountain west, mid west and south west. It’s remaining strength is with the I love Lucy generation and southerners. This is reality however many silly maps like this are produced.
Here we have a president basically getting appros in the low to mid sixties and disappros in the 25-30% range (coincidentally that’s about where Bush appros were when he left office….I wonder if there’s a connection) and for the first time for five years….five years…..right direction/wrong direction is starting to swing positive. Against this background the tea parties are an irrelevance. The only thing that is going to seriously change this picture is if the economy isn’t turning by next spring. Personally I think the overwhelming odds are it will be and this means more Dem gains in 2010. I saw an interview with Cornyn a couple of days ago virtually conceding more senate gains for the Dems. Instead of nonsenses like tea parties the GOP needs a period of quiet reflection and debate while it figures out what direction it’s going in. There’s no sign this is going to happen so I suppose it will get put of until after November 2010 when the size of the problem is reconfirmed.
5 Churl // Apr 24, 2009 at 6:33 am
ottobvbs, forget for a moment current polling and the insider slang thereunto appertaining. The economic situation is changing dramatically for the worse and the political landscape will be disrupted accordingly. Conservatives have always been long on theory mongers and short on committed activists. This period of quiet and reflection of which you speak will be yet another opportunity for pontificating windbags to jabber about stuff irrelevant to the lives of normal people. The “tea parties” have produced a ready made nucleus of activists with good communication links among them. These folks seem to support the general conservative principles of limited government and moderate taxation. It would make sense to begin connecting with them rather than dismissing them as irrelevant. Take some time off from watching talking heads on TV (Cornyn? Huh?) and spend some time listening to real people about their concerns and ideas.
6 krove // Apr 24, 2009 at 7:35 am
Just wait till the anti torture day that is planned soon. 36 million marched worldwide against the Iraq war. There will be millions here in the USA demonstrating for action on the Bush torture regime.
That’s how you make a statement not a few thousand nutters screaming. Muslim, Birth certificate, and all the other BS from the teabagging party
7 mlindroo // Apr 24, 2009 at 7:51 am
> The “tea parties” have produced a ready made nucleus
> of activists with good communication links among them.
> These folks seem to support the general conservative
> principles of limited government and moderate taxation. It
> would make sense to begin connecting with them rather
> than dismissing them as irrelevant.
Even if the demand for libertarian-leaning policies is as great as you think, one has to wonder whether this particular voting bloc will have anywhere to go. Once again, the confusion of the GW Bush years is coming back to haunt the GOP, which hasn’t exactly been a paragon of spending restraint and limited government (two expensive wars plus additional government intrusion thanks to anti-terrorism warrantless wiretapping laws etc.) during the past eight years..
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/22/politics/otherpeoplesmoney/main4961950.shtml
The Republican Party Has Lost Its Way
(Tea Party Protests Were Welcome Sign Against Big Government Spending) by Declan McCullagh
[...]
It was the Bush administration that bailed out AIG; it bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; it bailed out Citigroup; it bailed out Bear Stearns. And it was the Bush administration that pressed Congress to bail out Detroit automakers. [...] Mr. Bush kicked off far larger deficit spending programs including the whopping Medicare prescription drug benefit while signing bills with billions more in domestic spending than he had requested from Congress. [...] the GOP doubled the size of the federal debt [...] it was the Republicans who raised taxes every year by increasing the amount of income subject to Social Security taxes [...]
MARCU$
8 ModerateGal // Apr 24, 2009 at 11:21 am
I would be more impressed with tea bag days if I really thought that the people attending them knew what they were there for. There were a number who seemed to be protesting paying taxes at all. I don’t think that they seemed to grasp the whole picture.
9 Jeffryw // Apr 24, 2009 at 1:21 pm
My Moderategirl, what a positively CONDESCENDING thing to say! Tell me then, which rally did YOU attend to give you this impression?
I was at one that had over a thousand people and most of them were peaceful folk who were protesting wnot taxation but taxation to support government waste and what they perceive to be out of control spending on BOTH sides of the aisle. If your sole source is the mainstream media (if they even bothered to cover them at all of course) then you got a highly biased and liberally charged take on them.
Can you imagine for a moment if this was a map of “Global Warming Awareness” rallies how much the media would be absolutely gushing over the sublime expression of free soeech rights on display and the power of a message to draw so many to meet at once??
Sure you can.
By the way, ANY public gathering will attract its share of nuts. Unless you think that anarchists represent the modern day “peace movement” as they usually tend to show up at such left wing gatherings. It is the representation of a fringe factor as the mainstream that allows the media to belie the credibility of meetings whose political message they find out of line with their own.
See CNN’s coverage.
Anyhoo, back to my question. I am assuming you ATTENDED a rally to make such a blanket dismissal, otherwise you would be a fool or a media pawn, so please tell me which one you attended??
10 ModerateGal // Apr 24, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Well, Jeffryw, I don’t have to have met you to know that you are an incredibly defensive and self-righteous person. So I don’t know why I am not allowed to post what my impression of the tea bag parties was. What should my impression have been? I don’t have to go to a lot of different events to have gathered impressions of them, so why would this gathering be any different?
If the the poor Republican party is such a victim of the media, then they should do better publicizing themselves.
And if you are trying to draw more people to vote for the Republican party, you are doing a rather poor job of it. I think it is because of people like you that David Frum created this site.
Oh, the melodrama.
11 Bulldoglover100 // Apr 24, 2009 at 3:25 pm
The tea baggers hurt us more than people like you will ever realize. David..why do you allow this??? 95% of the idiots protesting got tax cuts! How stupid do you think that made us look? Oh heck just listen to the news or read the paper. We are a laughing stock.
12 Realist // Apr 26, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Good grief, when will this embarassment end? Now a Texas politician is suggesting the state break up into 5 states (unconstitutional, of course) to get more conservative senators. Is there no responsible adult available to speak up sensibly for conservative values these days? RIght now it seems the College Republicans are in charge.
13 mlindroo // Apr 27, 2009 at 7:34 am
At least so far (ref. Nate Silver’s analysis over at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com), it seems the majority of “tea baggers” are libertarian leaning citizens. The level of participation is not that great, though — e.g. the 2006 immigration reform demonstrations involved far more people as did the Iraq war rallies.
—
Silver also concludes that the only politicians who generate real grassroots enthusiasm among GOP voters are Ron Paul and Sarah Palin … too bad for the GOP that those two voting blocks probably are not very compatible!
MARCU$
14 treen // Apr 27, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Aww, Realist, you do the College Republicans a disservice. I’d take them any day over those yahoos in Congress, and I’m thankful I don’t live in Texas!
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