by SallyLightfoot » Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:50 am
[quote][i]Originally posted by neilatthecross[/i]
<br>Marie3,why are you sooooooo far left ?? Zulu Obama is fucking up this country & it's about time to stop blaming Bush.
I know it's hard to blame your fucking Zulu Messiah Obama for where he's leading the country.....
Let's hope the Tea Party puts us back on track...[/quote][i]Specifically[/i] how is Obama fucking up this country?
Anyone who thinks the Tea Party movement is going to produce a viable 3rd party candidate is living in fantasy-land. What unifies tea-partiers is <a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/17/rel4b.pdf" target="_new3">demographics</a>, not issues.<ul><li>80% are white (with 8% not responding to the question)</li><li>60% are male</li><li>77% label themselves conservative</li><li>96% are Republican-Independent</li><li>87% say they will vote Republican for U.S. House of Reps</li></ul>These are rural conservative white men, aka "angry white guys", which includes militia-dudes, conspiracy theorists, Timothy McVeigh types, the aryan nation, and political hacks who are trying to co-opt all of the above. They never supported Obama from day one, so I don't think the Tea Party demographic represents a new coalition of voters. As far as issues are concerned, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1102a3TeaPartyandPalin.pdf" target="news">many adherents don't really know what the Tea Party principles are</a> (other than cutting taxes and voting incumbents out). For example (from the ABC poll link), read this staggering finding of the unfocused principles of Tea Partiers:<blockquote>While the Tea Party promotes limited government, some of its supporters have different views on government health care mandates. [b]Sixty-two percent of those who say they agree at least somewhat with Tea Party positions also say the government should require businesses to provide health insurance for employees[/b].
Even more, [b]71 percent, say government should require insurance companies to sell coverage to people regardless of pre-existing conditions[/b]. And while shy of a majority, [b]a substantial share of Tea Party supporters, 43 percent, say government should require all Americans to have health insurance, from their employer or another source, with financial assistance for those who need it[/b].</blockquote>In the end, these disenchanted tea party conservatives may be pissed at the GOP, but [i]they are still going to vote for GOP candidates[/i] because there is no real alternative. Sarah Palin and FOX News are all over this movement; they know they need to give them an outlet to let off steam before they unveil a GOP candidate with the right mix of bonafides to woo this group (and so far, it's Sarah Palin). The Tea Party is (unwittingly) serving as a political focus group to help Roger Ailes and FOX News recast the GOP as a new breed of populists.