Dean: Tea Partiers a Lot Like My Supporters

[Meeker Morgan]

Dean: Tea Partiers a Lot Like My Supporters
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/17/ftn/main6966855.shtml

Says Activists Share Distrust of Beltway Power and Corporate Funding of Campaigns With Liberals Who Backed His 2004 Run

(CBS) Howard Dean today said that there are similarities between Tea Party activists and the liberal activists who supported his 2004 run for the White House.

He also said that Republicans face trouble from Tea Partiers, especially those on the far right, suggesting that their agenda could doom the GOP's chances of attaining or keeping power.

Appearing on "Face the Nation" this morning, the former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee also denied that he'd said the Republicans had created a "monster" by supporting right-wing extremists, but did say that the GOP is "on a mission" that is outside of mainstream America.

(MORE)

I was a Dean supporter. Should I buy this? I don't think so.

Maybe he thinks he can win them over?

[mdmc]

1. YEARGH!

[Angry Dragon]

3. Yeah, Son of God

How is it going today??

Any chance to put a little fear of God into the "christians"??

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

7. Uhh.... that post wasn't Me.

But in answer to your question, how do I put fear of My Dad into those who refuse to listen to Me?

[Angry Dragon]

10. Me ...... Bad

[Darth_Kitten]

2. Well, not many people are going to come out and say....

that MOST teabaggers are deluded extremists.

He seems tactful.

[creon]

4. No

I do not think that tea partiers have anything in common with liberal/progressives.

Tea party folks do not even define the problems in the same terms as liberals. Even if they did, most of them would have real difficulty seeing any similarity.

[iamjoy]

12. Yes, They Do

They are both passionate and willing to act on their beliefs. They are perceived as being at the far (and yet opposite) end of the political spectrum while believing they represent mainstream American values and the majority. They are often educated, but called stupid. They are accused of using hyperbole to make their points. They feel members of their own party (or the political party to which they more closely align) has betrayed them in the name of compromise. Both have been called sore losers unable to accept the results of an election. Liberals claim Dubya (or his minions) stole it, Conservatives claim Obama wasn't really born here. And in both cases, many of the party leaders do what they can to separate themselves from the activists publicly while privately trying to use them to their advantage.

Both groups are mad at the way the country is going (or was going) and are trying to tap into the anger of ordinary Americans by blaming the other party, the other side.

Of course, as a Liberal I can see that in our case, the negative perceptions are false as we truly are educated, intelligent, patriotic and that our ideas are representative of the majority of this country. The tea baggers on the other hand...

[creon]

13. no

First, passion is not a good basis for action: "No man can, at the same time, serve his passions and his best interests".

Second, their defintion of the problems have very little in common with liberals.

Third, irrational claims about about declared "enemies" get no traction with me.

Fourth, negative perceptions are very difficult to verify.

[iamjoy]

15. Code Pink Wasn't Passionate

You don't think Code Pink was passionate about stopping the war? You don't think George Soros was passionate about his beliefs?

The problems tea baggers define is 180 degrees from the problems defined by liberal activists, but some of the actions are the same. Bush is Hitler. Obama is Hitler. See the parallel?

[alarimer]

17. They are 100% delusional and wrong.

Progressives, by and large, are correct in their assessment of problems and solutions. Teabaggers are lunatics completely divorced from reality. Also they are stupid or willfully ignorant and proud of it.

[handmade34]

5. Howard Dean is a pragmatist

I didn't like him much during his days in Vermont but came to appreciate the good he did and especially once he came onto the national scene...

[emulatorloo]

6. I want to know how he managed to be in the same room with LIZ CHENEY and still be civil

He is a bigger man than I am.

The article is interesting,

[bluestateguy]

8. And with due respect to him, look how his campaign fizzled out

nt

[janewin]

18. yes his campaign fizzled out

with help from the mainstream media, Robert Gibbs and his shadowy war mongering organization. Dean was a 1m times better than John Kerry and he would have shaken things up in Wahsington, he was not beholden to any special interest and if he had become president the wars would have ended and he would have attempted to pass a real health care reform and not the excuse for a healthcare reform we have right now.

Btw I never really cared for the scream or thought for 1s it was a career ender, but people like Chris Mathews did everything in their power to convince progressive that they should abandon ship and they did. Most of us will never forget what they did to Dean. Shame on you for bashing Howard Dean

[SharonAnn]

20. AAfter he publicly siad he'd break up media monopolies, the media turned against him.

Interesting timing, don't you think?

He went from "Superman" to a pariah.

[Cirque du So-What]

9. He's fucking with their heads

Howard Dean is a smart guy, so he knows all about corporate backing of the teabaggers. IMO he's trying to shake some sense into those who recognize what he's implying and perhaps vote against the collection of fucknozzles who are running under the aegis of 'Tea Party.'

[Ozymanithrax]

11. Were you an anti-government populist angry at the way government was acting...

and desiring to elect an outsider like Dean. Just because there are similarites does not make them the same.

[bemildred]

14. Mr Dean is a very perceptive man.

I find this idea a bit too facile, but I do know what he means: outside and insurgent political movements of the left and the right do have much in common, in the same way that established and incumbent political parties do.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

16. Dr. Dean doesn't seem to understand that this is a PHONY movement!!!

That's the bottom line. These people are fake. They were 100% missing during the Bush/Republican congress.

I'm sorry, Howard. You are wrong on this. These people are disgruntled Republicans. They have no credibility at all! NONE!!!

Stop giving these people credence. They make up a very small segment of the American electorate!!

[Alcibiades]

24. It's not all fake

Freedomworks and the Dick Armey part of the TPM are undeniably fake: a late-arriving effort to rebrand the GOP. The "authentic" tea party movement arose mainly from Ron Paul's supporters, which does, indeed, share something in common in the netroots approach to politics. But there are very few of them, and many more Palin and Beck types who have adopted the "Tea Party" banner without any hint of any policies that are anything other than the GOP orthodoxy.

[txlibdem]

19. We'll match their "2nd Amendment remedies" with.... What?

Equating Dean supporters with the racist hate-mongers and deluded zombies on the fringe of the right wing is pure fantasy.

[Meeker Morgan]

21. If anybody other than Dean himself had said it, I'd just shrug it off. n/t

[txlibdem]

22. Maybe he meant in terms of their passion or level of activism?

I'm just trying to see the positive slant to such a comparison.

And, as I've said a number of times here on DU, Dean is my preferred candidate in 2012.

[DFW]

23. I doubt Howard has either interest or illusions about winning them over

He's merely making the observation that the fired-up Teabaggers are making the establishment Republicans
uncomfortable, just as his "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" made the Democratic Party mainstream
uncomfortable in 2003/2004.

Howard still makes them uncomfortable. Good for him.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Hard to say that followers of Murdoch's Beck and Palin 'distrust corporate funding of campaigns'

In fact, I can't work out how Dean says that with a straight face. Teabaggers also lap up what the Chamber of Commerce says. "Tea Party activists share Democrats' outrage at the Chamber of Commerce's political efforts" just looks like a wrong statement.

Perhaps he meant "teabaggers ought to distrust corporate funding", if they opened their eyes, thought about what's happening, and realised that Armey and the Koch brothers are driving the corporate funding of the Tea Party for commericial gain.