Media Myths That Just Won't Die - The Tea Party Isn't The Republican Party Edition

Charles P. Pierce picks apart yet another piece in Politic-ho embedding the myth that the tea party and Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ White Man Party are distinct entities, then he moves to the general observation which we heartily, though sadly, endorse:

The persistence of this myth among our elite political press owes its salience to the reluctance of the elite political press to admit that one of our two political parties has gone insane, that the prion disease it acquired when it first ate the monkeybrains 30 years ago finally has eaten away the party's higher functions. It also owes its salience to the reluctance of the elite political press to admit that there is a deep and abiding affection among a huge portion of the American people to vote for the crazy and against its own interests, that the political Id is still the best campaign manager you can find, and that, out in the states, the legislatures are designing a system that will make that situation permanent. It is very hard to admit all this. It shakes the comfort zone. It makes condescending bedtime stories about the greatness of the system and the wisdom of the people sound childish and silly. After a while, it becomes harder and harder to admit that the horse race you so love to cover is fixed from the starter's bell.

One of the biggest political story of the past 25 years, if not the biggest, has been the extreme radicalization of the Republican Party.  It's a story the mainstream political press has declined to identify, much less cover and analyze.  So instead you get the both- sides- do- it,  look- the- other- way, "they're being more reasonable now" styles of reportage, because they don't want to get caught having an opinion that might offend the crackpot caucus out there.

BONUS:  Maybe "journalists" should take Jorge Ramos' advice.

"We Have Met The Tea Party And It Is Us"

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(Jim Morin, The Miami Herald)

(Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Following this week's primaries in various states, the "Republican Establishment is back!" narrative is being breathlessly flogged by the usual, lazy Beltway political analysts and Republican-wired reporters (curiously employed by the "liberal" once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle).  But as Charles P. Pierce aptly puts it:

The basic lesson of last night's primary elections in several states is not to nominate morons. It is decidedly not the comeback of the "Establishment Republicans" because that myth depends vitally on two assertions that are demonstrably unproven in this political era: a) that "Establishment" somehow means "moderate," and b) that there is any such thing as a Republican establishment, or as a formal Republican party, for that matter. What happened in Kentucky, and in various other places where GOP statewide races were contested, was that one group of very conservative, very wealthy, very powerful people sponsored candidates who beat other candidates who were sponsored by other groups of very conservative, very wealthy, very powerful people. (our emphasis)

Jon Stewart, who has more political savvy and insight than most of the hacks employed by the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle =cough= Cillizza =cough= Balz =cough=, had a great line about the win of human-turtle hybrid Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell (Reptile-KY) over a tea bagger:

"Doesn't seem like the Tea Party so much lost, as found a new host."

When comedians and political cartoonists have it figured out and the beard-stroking punditry hasn't,  it tells you something about why the biggest political story of the last 25 years -- the radicalization of the Republican Party -- has gone largely unreported.

Monday Reading

Steve Coll in The New Yorker, on the Tea Party, Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell (Weasel-KY) and Republican decline:

The Tea Party’s anti-intellectualism reflects a longer, deeper decline in the Republican Party’s ability to tolerate a diversity of ideas and public-policy strategies, and to adapt to American multiculturalism. Mitt Romney’s poor showing among Latino voters in 2012 helped insure Barack Obama’s reëlection. Republican leaders, chastened and without any other obvious way to increase their vote base before 2016, pledged earlier this year to revive a comprehensive immigration-reform bill. Yet party leaders, in part because they have been tied down since July by the debt confrontation, haven’t found a way to move legislation past the nativist caucus in the House.

In line with Coll's premise above, read Steve Benen at MaddowBlog on Sen. Marco "Polo!" Rubio (Craven-FL) and prospects for immigration reform with the New Confederate Party in charge in the House:

It was only a matter of time before Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) abandoned the immigration reform legislation he ostensibly helped write, and as of this morning, the transition is complete. A top spokesperson for the Florida Republican told TPM Rubio believes the House should consider “a series of individual bills,” instead of the comprehensive approach that enjoyed bipartisan support in the Senate, and which would probably pass the House in an up-or-down vote.

Finally, E.J. Dionne, Jr., talks about not repeating damaging policy mistakes foisted on us by the New Confederate Party and their tea bagger base:

Here’s the mistake made by President Obama and the Democrats that nobody is talking about: They have been too fearful of confronting our country’s three-year obsession with the wrong problem.

And here is the tea party’s greatest victory: It has made the wrong problem the center of policymaking.

(Spoiler alert:  Dionne's talking about Republicans rolling back Democratic low- and- middle class benefit programs in the guise of "deficit reduction" -- a.k.a.,  budget cuts for thee, tax breaks for me.)

Hey, Who Invited These Clowns?

Jon Stewart on the "extreme takeover" of the Republican Party by the tea baggers, and the hacks who facilitated it (after the ad):

Quotable Quotes

The Teathuglicans have tarnished their party so badly that, despite cynical and transparent photo ops by Sen. "Tailgunner" Ted Cruz and Winky Palin, the public knows who is to blame for this manufactured crisis (74% oppose the Stupid Party's tactics).  Savor the humiliation of the teabaggers as the vote in the House today is expected to accept the Senate bill to re-open the Government and lift the debt limit.  Some thoughts from some nominally sane Rethugs:

"Nothing positive will be achieved by prolonging this shutdown any longer, or crossing the debt limit threshold.  It’s time for my colleagues to face reality." -- Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA)

"This party is going nuts.  So many people I run into who are normal people -- and I hate to use that term -- they just can't understand what's going on. On this one they can't even see both sides. They just think Republicans are crazy. That's it. They see no justification for any of this."  -- Rep. Peter King (NY)

“Republicans have to understand we have lost this battle, as I predicted weeks ago, that we would not be able to win because we were demanding something that was not achievable.”  -- Sen. John McCain (AZ)

The only regret is that the 2014 mid-term elections aren't this November, because many Americans (cough low-information voters cough) have a short memory.

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party - Government Shutdown Edition

This Very Special Three-Part Episode of "...Dispatches..." is brought to you by every furloughed government employee, their families, creditors, and businesses dependent on the employees' receiving, you know, a salary.

Part I -  The Prideful Yet Confused:

"We're not going to be disrespected," Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) told The Washington Examiner. "We have to get something out of this.  And I don't know what that even is."   (our emphasis)

A hard kick in the ass or punch in the mouth would be what we'd like you to get out of it, Snarlin' Marlin, but we'd settle for an early retirement.

Part II -  The Confused Yet Nasty:

But Mark Segraves, reporting for NBC News' Washington affiliate, managed to capture the howler highlight of the Great World War II Memorial Bleat-n-Repeat -- Rep. Randy Neugebauer's (R-Tex.) Wednesday confrontation of a poor park ranger on the scene -- who was doing nothing more than her job -- blaming her for the closure he voted for and telling her that she should be ashamed of herself.  (our emphasis)

No, no, no, Noogie.  It wasn't the poor lady Park Ranger who shut the memorial down.  Walk a few hundred yards over to the Reflecting Pool and look into it's waters and you'll see who's responsible, you dumbass.

Part III - And Last, The Cowardly:

“Listen,” [Rep. Greg]Walden [R-OR] said, according to several people present. “We have to do this because of the Tea Party. If we don’t, these guys are going to get primaried and they are going to lose their primary.”  (our emphasis)

Capitol Police are still looking for Rep. Walden's nutsack, which was recently reported missing.

Isn't this a proud moment in American democracy?!

Tea Party Loonie Toons of the Day

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(top, Mike Luckovich, bottom, Ben Sargent, via Gocomics.com)

Boehner's Leadership Fail

David Ignatius writes today about the weakness of Speaker Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner in the once great Washington Post  Bezos Bugle:

We are seeing the consequences of a leaderless House in the GOP’s renewed threat of a government shutdown or debt-ceiling default. These reckless actions are part of a grandstand play to reverse the Affordable Care Act, more parts of which begin to take effect in October, but they’ve assumed an illogic of their own. The House Republicans seem almost to enjoy holding the country hostage. Their version of Russian roulette has become so familiar that we forget just how outrageous it is.

Boehner surely knows this course is folly. Legislation to defund Obamacare won’t pass Congress. And the GOP’s brinkmanship, however popular with the right wing, is damaging the party nationally. Boehner this week struggled to find an alternative strategy — to avoid a shutdown by delaying Obamacare a year, or by attaching the defunding plan to the debt-ceiling extension. Both were seriously bad ideas, but even these extreme proposals were rejected by his caucus.

Ignatius also mentions the sleazy backroom role of unfaithful lieutenant and Rethug Majority Leader Eric "Cancer" Cantor in undermining attempts by Boehner to rein in his Crackpot Caucus.   Frankly, we can't remember a time when a Speaker has been so unable or unwilling to control his members.  But, then again, we can't remember a time when members included such dolts and extremists as Louie Gohmert, Steve King, Michele Bachmann, and their entire teatard cohort.

(Image:  It takes a strong man to cry... except in John Boehner's case.)

Saturday Cartoon and Reading

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(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press, via gocomics.com)

Companion reading, from the New York Times op/ed page:

Charles Blow, on the Crackpot Caucus' abuse of democratic institutions:

Set aside the fact that the [Affordable Care Act] law cannot yet be deemed a failure because its provisions are still being phased in and those that have gone into effect seem to be working.

Focus instead on the fundamental disagreement here: The president is saying that he won’t negotiate over a stunt that would destroy our economy and the world’s, while Republicans are saying they are willing to risk it all in order to derail him.

This is not responsible. This is not principled. This is not high-minded. This is personal and dangerous. This is an abuse of instruments of power in pursuit of reprisal.

Gail Collins, on the Crackpot Caucus' 2012 Republican platform wish-list:

This week the House Republican leaders were looking at a long, long list of must-haves that also included changes in regulations relating to coal ash, reduction in Civil Service pensions, restrictions on malpractice suits and an end to some greenhouse gas regulations.

And their members found that list too restrictive. Behind-the-scenes discussion continued about more things the Republicans could demand. A ban on late-term abortions? A trillion-dollar budget cut? Bring back the gold standard? Bring back the bustle? It’s 2013 and anything is possible.

So, what do you think is wrong with these people? Thanks to gerrymandered Congressional districts and the Tea Party, we do seem to have a surprising number of elected officials who actually don’t believe that raising the debt limit so the government can pay its bills is a good plan.

 But, as we all know, elections don't have consequences if they're won by Democrats.

Today's Cartoon - Cruz Control

... that would be tea party darling- of- the- month Sen. "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz (R-Canada heehee), leader of the latest Rethuglican suicide mission.

(Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle, via gocomics.com)

Saturday Reading - Tea Party Edition

There's a really thoughtful piece over by Kim Messick over at Salon concerning the "paranoid aesthetic" of the Tea Party and its archetypal freak, Glenn "Boo Hoo" Beck.  It's worth the read. Here's a small fragment:

The Tea Party’s paranoid narcissism helps us explain another important feature of its politics: an intransigent dismissal of the necessity, even the morality, of compromise. In 2011, Democrats and many Republicans looked on in horror as the Tea Party caucus in the House of Representatives pushed the country to the brink of its first ever default; only when it had exacted punishing concessions from President Obama did it agree, sullenly, to accede to an increase in the debt limit. A similar debacle may play itself out in connection with immigration reform.

The piece is a detailed analysis of the movement and it's historical (hysterical?) underpinnings, tracing the "aesthetic" of victimization and umbrage through all it's manifestations.  That this noisy  faction of a minority is driving the agenda in so many respects is just appalling.

Sunday Book Reviews

In today's Kaplan Daily, Jonathan Yardley reviews two books on the devolution of the Rethuglican Party, and consequent paralysis of the American political system, thanks in large part to the radicalism of the tea baggers and their plutocrat string-pullers.

The books are "Rule and Ruin," by Geoffrey Kabaservice (Oxford Univ. Press) and "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism," by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson (Oxford Univ. Press). The Kabaservice book takes more of an historical look at the devolution, starting with the post-war Eisenhower years, through the Civil Rights movement, into the "Southern strategy," Reagan years and emergence of the right-wing noise machine (Fox "News," hate radio, radical right think tanks, etc.). Here's a snippet of Yardley's commentary on the tea bagger movement that Skocpol and Williamson document:

"It isn’t clear to what extent the tea partyers realize that they are being used as cat’s-paws by organizations such as the Club for Growth and by professional loudmouths such as those in the employ of Fox News, but at this stage in their evolution they aren’t the independent, grass-roots force they may have been at the beginning. They are, as Skocpol and Williamson amply document, 'overwhelmingly older white citizens, relatively well educated and economically comfortable compared to Americans in general.' They 'are more likely to be evangelical Protestants than mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, or nonbelievers.' More of them are men than women, and many are 'small business owners, often in fields like construction, remodeling, or repair,' endeavors that have been hit hard in the present economic climate. They speak angrily about big government and budget deficits, but cherish their Social Security and Medicare benefits and do not want them diminished or stopped. They believe these are benefits they have earned, as opposed to social support programs extended to the 'undeserving' needy who have not, in their view, earned such benefits. And they absolutely loathe President Obama.

"They are people with passionate political views who are, in many respects, just like the other ordinary Americans whose views they so detest. Skocpol and Williamson found many of them to be likable and hospitable. But they also are privy to some pretty wild fantasies — that what they call 'ObamaCare' includes 'both death panels and the abolition of Medicare' or that 'the Obama administration plans to seize all 401k savings to pay off the deficit' — and they are absolutely opposed to compromise in any form. Given that what remains of the Republican establishment is scared to death of them, and that moderate Republicans have gone underground, this explains why Capitol Hill is in what is beginning to look like terminal deadlock. The tea party seems to believe that the best way to save the nation is to destroy its government, an interesting notion to say the least."

Weak Tea

Kaplan Daily columnist E.J. Dionne takes a look at the upset victory by Democrat Kathy Hochul in the deeply Rethuglican NY 26th Congressional District today. He also smacks those that wanted to believe the Tea Party was the wave of the future:

"From the beginning, too many Republicans (and too many in the media) saw the Tea Party as a broadly based movement whose extreme anti-government views reflected the popular will. This was never true. The Tea Party consisted of citizens on the right end of politics who were always there but got angrier and better organized after Obama was elected. They crowded the polling places on Nov. 2 while progressives found other things to do."

We can recall the crowing by Rethug leaders after the 2010 elections, claiming to have "heard the voice of the people." (Odd they didn't hear it in 2008, isn't it?) No, they are only listening to their hard core right wing activists who stormed the polls. Now, as the teahadist agenda is biting them in the buttocks, Rethugs are looking at the broader electorate and beginning to realize the public's not drinking the tea.