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You are here: Home / Slow Learners

Slow Learners

by John Cole|  October 6, 20105:00 pm| 36 Comments

This post is in: Bring on the Brawndo!, Teabagger Stupidity

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Another day, another poll pointing out that teahadists are not anything new, but wingnuts with a new label.

No shit.

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Previous Post: « Open Thread: Operation Menu
Next Post: Decline and fall »

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Bob L

    October 6, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    A single tear rolls down a socially centrist, fiscally conservative, atheist blogger’s cheek… [T]he tea party has in part simply been a way for conservative Republicans to rebrand themselves after souring on the GOP

    Considering how the Tea Party has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in several contests that gambit paid off well for the GOP. But since the alternatives are candidates like Carolly Fiona the GOP’s options are pretty slim.

  2. 2.

    Punchy

    October 6, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    A link to Sullivan! How…….expected.

    This would not qualify as a diary on DKos. Just saying.

    Teatards give retards a bad name.

  3. 3.

    SpotWeld

    October 6, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    Stuff you will never hear noted on the Sunday talking head shows

    1) The Teapartyers are Rublicans. It’s not The TEA Party. Is a subset of the GOP.

    2) The Tea Party movement is a visible obvious case of the factionalization of the GOP. This isn’t a subgroup that want’s to be part of the big tent (Like Log Cabin Republicans).

    3) The Tea Party votes against it’s own self interest (Net Neutraility being the most obvious example)

    4) The money behind the Tea Party represents a small but powerful group of lobbiest who want to bypass the actual politicians in the GOP.

    The GOP is being made irrellevant by it’s own backers. We’re witnessing the transition.

  4. 4.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    October 6, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    @Bob L: And yet the three remaining principled conservatives will continue to vote for “Republicans.”

    At least EDK has realized he’s no longer a Modern Conservative (an oxymoron).

  5. 5.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    October 6, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    Based on this:

    Like Allahpundit, I wish there were a Tory party in America – socially centrist, fiscally badass. But there isn’t.

    I’d say Sullivan is the slowest learner of all. Here’s a clue: there is such a party and they are called the Democratic Party.

  6. 6.

    AnotherBruce

    October 6, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    Libertarians live in a very special place. I think it’s called “Denial”.

  7. 7.

    gex

    October 6, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    @Comrade Javamanphil: Nope. As long as the Dems represent the “liberal” in this binary system, he can’t abide by that. He’s pretty sure we’re all DFH fifth-columnists.

  8. 8.

    GregB

    October 6, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    The GOPea Party.

  9. 9.

    Joshua

    October 6, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    If the teabags get some victories, this is what will happen: they will flame out in predictably Gingrinchian fashion. Then all the talking heads on TV will go up there and say, of course they had no new ideas, they were peddling the same stuff the CWA-era GOP was, everyone knew that, of course they couldn’t govern just as the Bush-era Congress couldn’t govern.

    And they will all nod sagely, in awe of each other’s wisdom, right before their attention is pulled towards a new force in American politics, a group of activists and politicians pushing for smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulation!

  10. 10.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    October 6, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    So Sully’s point is … libertarians are big assholes but at least they’re not teabagging assholes.

  11. 11.

    Short Bus Bully

    October 6, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    Maybe the Dems should come up with some porn inspired nickname for a subset of a subset of crazies within their own party and then primary their own. Wouldn’t that just be awesome?

  12. 12.

    geg6

    October 6, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    @Joshua:

    This.

    And I must say that it’s all quite wearying to watch the same film clip over and over and over and over and over and over.

    For the last 40 goddam years.

  13. 13.

    TooManyJens

    October 6, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    WTF does “fiscally badass” mean?

    Fiscally fucking badass!

    …no, doesn’t work.

  14. 14.

    geg6

    October 6, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    @TooManyJens:

    With Sully, it always means gutting Social Security.

    Nothing give Sully a bigger woody than gutting SS.

    ETA: Except, perhaps, the idea of John Cole with a beard. John Cole = Bear = Sully doing something Christine O’Donnell would outlaw.

  15. 15.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    October 6, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    @gex: What do we want? A modicum of change and improvement! When do we want it? At some point in the hopefully not too distant future!

  16. 16.

    Chuck Butcher

    October 6, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    And so, another NEWSFLASH.

  17. 17.

    Dennis SGMM

    October 6, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    Does anyone besides me remember the John Birch Society? For those who aren’t at least as old as the hills that was another far right fringe movement devoted to purifying government. Now the Birchers are, at best, a footnote – as the Tea Party will soon be.

  18. 18.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    October 6, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    @geg6: Curse you to hell for that mental image. Forever.

  19. 19.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    October 6, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    @geg6: My impression is that, bearded or not, all of us on this board have likely done at least one thing that O’Donnell would outlaw.

  20. 20.

    Sentient Puddle

    October 6, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    @Comrade Javamanphil: Since when would anybody reasonably describe the Democratic party as “badass” about anything?

    This, of course, leaving aside the absurdity of the phrase “fiscally badass.”

  21. 21.

    geg6

    October 6, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    Oh, come on. You know you love it. ;-)

  22. 22.

    TooManyJens

    October 6, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    @Comrade Javamanphil: If that’s not a Rally to Restore Sanity sign, it should be.

  23. 23.

    geg6

    October 6, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:

    Well, yes. On THIS board. Now at Red State…

  24. 24.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    October 6, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    @Sentient Puddle: Yes, I know. Fiscally badass is as stupid as saying Democrats are badass (now bad ass as in bad Symbol of Democratic party you could make a solid case for.) In any case, I think the point was Sullivan wants socially centrist (sadly, current Democratic party) and fiscally conservative (sadly, current Democratic party.) He just can’t bring himself to leave his tribe.

  25. 25.

    Mark S.

    October 6, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    socially centrist, fiscally badass.

    Which the GOP hasn’t remotely been for the past three decades, but Sully is still on the fence. I’m so glad we import all these Brits to analyze our political system.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    October 6, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    @Dennis SGMM: The Koch family founded the John Birch society. Now the sons are footing the bill for the Tea Party. Like father, like sons.

  27. 27.

    Alwhite

    October 6, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Ah yes, but the damage they did lives on. The teabaggers will be gone but not forgotten

  28. 28.

    eemom

    October 6, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    these teabagger=republican “revelations” keep making me think of the old joke about the caveman Ug.

    Ug: Hmm. Look like shit.
    Smell like shit.
    Taste like shit.
    Must be shit. Good thing Ug not step in it.

  29. 29.

    Mark S.

    October 6, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    Interesting article on the oral arguments in the Westboro case.

  30. 30.

    slag

    October 6, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: And if we haven’t yet, we should definitely put it on our To Do lists.

  31. 31.

    Zifnab

    October 6, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    So far the Tea Party candidates have cost Republicans a Delaware Senate seat, completely knee capped their chance at a Nevada Senate seat, turned bright red Kentucky into a horse race, changed an Alaska guarantee into an ugly three-way with the incumbent running as a write-in, turned Florida from gimme into a three-way race, publicly embarrassed McCain by forcing him to fight for his own primary, and turned the 17th Amendment into a conservative wedge issue.

    I honestly don’t see how this benefits the GOP as a whole. They cost themselves the Senate, just so DeMint becomes minority leader. And if he throws a Gingrich style government shut down hissy-fit, he’s not going to do his party any favors in 2012.

    The Tea Party has been a magnanimous blessing for the Democrats and done a lot to scare independents away from the rotting husk of the GOP. At this point, I’m a lot less scared of GOoPer Teahadists than I am of Blue Dogs and Corporate Dems. Ben Nelson and Joe Sestak have been bigger thorns in the Dem side than Tom Coburn and John Boehner.

  32. 32.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    October 6, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    @geg6: At Red State they’ve done it while looking at a photoshop of O’Donnell and Palin making out….

    @slag: That’s exactly so! Hmmmm…. Which to pick, which to pick?

  33. 33.

    b-psycho

    October 6, 2010 at 8:54 pm

    Y’know what kind of party I’d like to see catch on? A socially flamingly-capital-L Liberal party.

  34. 34.

    Triassic Sands

    October 6, 2010 at 8:57 pm

    George W. Bush should probably be considered the Father of the Tea Party. His reign of ruin made it necessary for conservatives and Republicans to look for a way to re-brand themselves. Without Bush’s total incompetence, the GOP would probably be chugging along still devoid of ideas — except that government is bad, a woman’s body belongs to the state, and guns, as many as possible, will make everything run smoothly.

  35. 35.

    cmorenc

    October 6, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    What splendid irony that the advert appearing immediately below John’s initial post kicking off this thread is for “Lawson for Congress” (he’s running for North Carolina’s Fourth Congressional seat as a Libertarian against Democratic incumbent David Price). Lawson is a classic Glibertarian, albeit more in the Ron Paul mode than that of son Rand Paul. As such, he’s not quite as lethally toxic as a bona fide peak wingnut teahadist candidate, but nonetheless Ayn Rand would be proud of Lawson were she alive today.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    October 6, 2010 at 9:05 pm

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:

    I’m the most plain-vanilla, repressed former Catholic you can imagine and even I have done things O’Donnell wants to have outlawed. That’s how low her bar is set.

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