The tea party is becoming the most influencial force in American politics because

[scentopine]

republicans aren't yelling at them to shut the fuck up.

To be fair, the democratic party is also shaped by a variety of influential voices:

- centrist ones explaining that torture is best decriminalized in order to move forward.

- pragmatic ones arguing that execution is OK even if guilt cannot be definitively established.

- sensible ones supporting bank deregulation and granting amnesty for Wall Street crimes.

- realistic ones who claim outsourcing millions of jobs to India and China is good for the economy.

- practical ones bravely proposing cuts to social security and medicare, while increasing retirement age

- empirical ones with blind faith in deep water drilling, fracking and nuclear power

- rational ones at peace with our three giant military campaigns, ready to rescue any oil rich region of the world.

- reasonable ones who believe PhRMA, GE, Microsoft and Citibank executives are the best qualified to advise on public health, jobs, education and economic policy.

- logical ones defending tax cuts, tax credits and tax rebates for corporations whose tax burden is at a historic low.

- moderate ones who argue that we can pollute our way out of a bad economy.

- analytical ones who know the mortgage crisis is caused by irresponsible home owners

While the tea party and republicans are yelling orders at Congress and the White House to move right, centrist democrats are telling liberals to shut the fuck up.

Bi-partisanship can best be described as both parties working together to eliminate any political opposition, one liberal at a time.

By denying liberals the policy input they deserve, democratic leadership is giving a giant screw you to a few million more votes from people who would otherwise stay home out of frustration and disgust.

That isn't sensible, it's stupid.

[Duer 157099]

1. +1 for effective use of a thesaurus

and the content, too. :thumbsup:

[Itchinjim]

2. 222

[Kennah]

3. Sometimes ya have to hit rock bottom and then start picking up the pieces

[defendandprotect]

4. Koch Bros. used DLC to move Dem Party to the right/now funding T-baggers to move Repugs further

to the right --

"Congress is controlled by the oil and coal industries" -- Al Gore/Rolling Stone --

Add it up -- this is fascism -- !!

[Scuba]

23. Bingo.

[Trajan]

5. A paper tiger ....

I would object to the premise, but your post is so well written I just have to shut up about the essential claim that they are the 'most influential force' ...

They are a bunch of greedy idiots .... They will not last another election cycle ...

[Dragonfli]

6. Best post I have read since the party and DU moved 90 degrees to the right /nt

[JDPriestly]

21. +10000

[tblue]

7. Who is "realistic"?

I've had people here tell me they're better than me because they are and I'm not "realistic." They disparage and taunt people with words like "pure," "idealistic," and wanting "a pony."

Seems they don't yet realize how really bad things are, that there are 1000 elephants in the living room that are not being confronted, and that moderation and patience in a time of acute crises is not a virtue. I don't think there's anything "realistic" or even helpful about that.

Good post. scentopune.!

[RickFromMN]

8. Most of us try to get along. It's easy for bullies to push us around. We need to fight back.

[Dragonfli]

10. Every time I give back what I get, I get deleted and their posts are left to stand so

there is that.

[Pavlo]

37. How do you fight astro turf?

Who are they? Where do they live? Who is their head? Questions for
a group that has no formal structure or financing. How do fight that?
Nothing so far has been deemed effective. They seemed to emerge at sunrise
and cannot be wished away by sunset.

[Luminous Animal]

9. Cute. What have you done to support the Occupy Wall Street protestors.

[Luminous Animal]

19. I take that back. Sorry for my knee jerk response. Excellent OP.

[scentopine]

35. Thanks and no worries. You motivated me to look into your question, link here...

http://nycga.cc/donate/

I will be making a donation, I'm much more cautious about donating to huge corporate affiliated political organizations.

We need to stop feeding the animals.

[begin_within]

11. "Oh, but would you rather have a President (insert Republican name) in the White House?!?!?!?!?!?"

[FrenchieCat]

14. Somebody's got to win.....

doh! :crazy:

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. "The Republican Party fears its base. The Democratic Party loathes its base." - David Frum

[FrenchieCat]

16. Great, Quoting David Frum....

Neato! :bounce:

That's so revolutionary and shit! :rofl:

[EmeraldCityGrl]

13. This piece is the best argument I have read so far for not voting.

I'm still struggling with how to continue being a Democrat when that means supporting a President
that is not who I thought he was. Whether that is his fault or mine for wanting to see so badly what
was never there I don't know. Doesn't change the record of his presidency. Just don't know if I can
participate in a system that is broke beyond repair. Maybe the entire system needs to collapse and
we start all over again.

http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2011/06/19/why-i-wont-vote-and-you-shouldnt-either/

[FrenchieCat]

15. So in otherwords,

you don't really give a shit...about all of those
poor folks that you "say" you are so concerned about...
remember the poor, and the homeless and shit?
No, not really, hey? Let them suffer even worse, right?
That will show them that they need to follow your banner....correct?

Folks like you want to make folks like me have to pay for what....
cause you think we need to have for a revolution?
I've got news for you--when we start all over again,
it ain't the liberals that have all of the guns. Where
do you think the conservative dumbasses are gonna go?
You think then they'll do what you tell them? :rofl:

[EmeraldCityGrl]

20. The last couple summers I (we)

have contributed several hundred pounds of veggies we've grown to the local mission.
That action does more for helping poor people than voting for Obama will ever do.

You are caught up in a myth and nothing anyone says will change your mind. good luck
with that.

[JDPriestly]

22. Until Obama gets rid of his Wall Street hangers-on, he is not

going to get anywhere in this country. They are dragging him down. We shall see what happens, but the problem is not liberals. The problem is the Wall Street parasites.

[FrenchieCat]

32. I think a lot of dragging down is taking place from all over.....

by the folks who promised he'd be a one-term,
who are using others as tools.

There are also some folks who just can't seem to do much more than criticize,
while piling-on and making sure to ignore everything good that he does.
and for all of that hard work, those folks may just get their way....but in the end,
they will be the ones to pay the price,
them and everyone else around them that they "said" they "cared" so much about.
Hope it will all be worth it.

[JDPriestly]

33. Sorry. Obama's new tax plan is good, but overall his economic

policy has been disastrous. With his call for a small tax increase on the very rich, Obama is, for really the first time, taking a side. I'm delighted that he has finally taken our side, but I think it is too little too late.

And we have Summers, Geithner and the Wall Street crew to thank for that.

The people you see as complainers, as negative voices, are just talking about reality. There is nothing either positive or negative about it. As Obama himself said, it's the math.

The Republicans are impossible, but they are not to blame for Obama's failure to choose and stick with a good economic team. Actually, Obama has received good advice from some great economists and had some of them like Elizabeth Warren on consumer affairs and others on his team. But in each case, he ignored them until they left or downright fired them. So, Obama himself is to blame.

[Selatius]

18. The only real argument that holds up to any scrutiny is voting Democratic to avoid another GWB.

Aside from that, I would say Obama really wasn't a game changer, and I was never deluded enough to think he was.

Avoiding another Republican in the White House is really the most enduring argument to voting for the Democratic Party that I've seen. If the party could get another FDR, they could run on something expansive and visionary beyond simply saying that the Republicans are even worse.

[dgibby]

29. Unless you are wealthy enough to buy a politician,

your vote hasn't counted since the SCOTUS gave us the Citizens United abomination.

[Selatius]

17. I would add the Tea Party's prominence is over-sized due to the corporate news media.

They intentionally give more air time to the Tea Party than to anti-war protesters and people protesting on Wall Street.

This is done because the Tea Party's views on taxation and deregulation fall in line with the views of institutional shareholders on Wall Street, who also happen to be major shareholders in news outlets like FOX News, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.

Aside from that, it does appear the left inside the Democratic Party is being told to shut the fuck up, while Republicans don't really do anything to their far-right cohorts except quietly egg them on.

[opihimoimoi]

24. The Baggers will go the route of Perry THEY WILL CRASH N BURN soon enough

as inept and lacking of substance

[scentopine]

25. However, the fact that Perry and Bachmann and Palin are candidates...

is forcing the democratic party to move hard right in an effort to "catch up". Palin still got almost 60 million votes. That's incredible considering she is bat shit crazy.

What most democrats don't understand is that republicans don't always have to win elections to be effective. Republicans and "centrists" on the hard right disagree mostly at fringe areas of policy and continue to control the political direction even when democrats are in the majority. For example, both parties believe teachers need to be held accountable for student performance (regardless of horrible family conditions caused by economic crisis), while Wall street shouldn't be held accountable for criminal activity that leads to global economic disaster. Or war.

Our time of economic crisis is caused by right wing policies designed to favor the rich (the default constituents of both parties), our government reacts by punishing the non-rich regardless of the party in power. This shows the effectiveness of the far right wing.

Democrats could also choose to exert pressure on candidates to fight for justice and equal representation, but the baggers have democrats quivering like jello. As a result, democrats aimlessly following republican and bagger leadership around Washington like little puppies looking for political direction. Democrats seek distinction at the margins and borders of republican policy.

It's not good enough for democrats to distinguish themselves as a more pragmatic evil.

[opihimoimoi]

30. Outstanding response...t/y.... The Dems gonna get the House Back and keep the Senate

The GOPers are Crashing ...lookit the debate last night

They were pathetic...

DEMs will reap the rewards of the GOPers folly in the 2012 General...

[OnionPatch]

26. Because they are backed by the same ruling elite we've always had.

In other words, nothing has changed.

[chill_wind]

27. Excellent OP. K & R.

[spanone]

28. because the media treats them as intellectual equivalents.

[samsingh]

31. we seem to fear ourselves

[scentopine]

36. agree- as FDR said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - many people think

FDR said that at the onset of WW2, however, he said that at his first inauguration in 1933. At that time America was in ruins from a different enemy than fascists in Germany and Japan, FDR was battling the fascists on Wall Street.

Democrats are following in the footsteps of republicans because it seems safe. We have non-stop media endorsement of right wing politics in spite of disasters these policies continue to cause. Right wing politics is all our current generation knows. I'm afraid this includes Obama who came to his political age in the time of Reagan. Because democrats are afraid to challenge the republicans on policy and principals we have no real political opposition to our accelerating destruction. Meanwhile, Wall Street is like a giant vulture picking at the bones of American industry.

The data is streaming in and the trend is unmistakable. We, as a nation, are heading in the wrong direction.

[Pacifist Patriot]

34. Interestingly, according to an article on September 13 by Amanda Marcotte...

"In a regular poll conducted by political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell on American political attitudes, atheists recently lost their spot as as the most disliked group in America to the Tea Party."

http://www.alternet.org/story/152395/10_myths_many_religious_people_hold_about_atheists%2C_debunked

[scentopine]

38. I can believe that, however, people hate congress too, but still vote for sames one...

over and over and over. As soon as anyone proposes anything like a third party they are executed. Tea party has more influence and gets more attention than any other movement I've seen in 35 years. Jesus, they got their own TV debate.

When they first started making noise in 2008, democrats boasted it was the best thing to happen to democrats. That is only true if you believe democrats should be more like tea baggers.

I don't think tea baggers are the best thing to happen to anyone. They are the worst. Democrats are foolishly dancing with the devil.

[rustydog]

39. It couldn't possibly be because they are KOCH-Funded

[scentopine]

40. I believe it is because we are not pressuring our leadership to fight back -nt