What IS the Tea Party anyway?

Now, I know what you're thinking: Conservative whack-jobs, right?

Well, I've been hearing other interpretations as of late, to throw that into doubt. Namely, that they're far more varied than most would say, and that said whack-jobs are only a portion of their number. Further, that they are composed of different groups, all wanting reform in their own way.

So, tell me, what are they?

Careful.

Thats..a complicated answer.

The short version is that the tea party is a lot of disparate conservative elements with differing ideologies but an overall focus on the economy (along with what a lot of liberals like me perceive as a dire lack of actual economic knowledge)

^^Yes sir.

Lemme add an addendum: I happen to know one, very reasonable, very friendly, very smart.

^ Good. I'd hoped it'd be one.

edited 22nd Feb '12 9:42:59 PM by Colonial1.1

{Deleted for being overtly hostile and not conducive to anything except starting a fight. —Madrugada}

edited 22nd Feb '12 11:03:11 PM by Madrugada

Flyboy: ... Modify that post, or get out.

You asked, I answered.

As a political movement/phenomenon, it started out semi-reasonable enough. And then they were bought and become another arm of the machine. Interestingly, it appears the establishment bit off more than it could chew with them, though, as there are enough zealots among them that the establishment couldn't quite get them under its jackboot. So you have a strange sense of schizophrenia in the Republican Party right now. On the one hand, the establishment wants its regular blow job. On the other hand, the Tea Party core and faithful are still demanding that the banks pay, which is contrary to the conventional Republican message.

Of course, that's simply another reason they'll be inevitably crushed, but...

To be a bit more long winded. The Tea party is a combination (at least from my vantage point as a liberal, mind) of Libertarians, disaffected evangelicals, and other elements of conservative thought that generally united under a belief that the democratic leadership of Barack Obama and the Congressional Supermajority, as well as the traitional friends of the reublican party in Wall Street was dangerous to the economy and their moral codes.

And then Fox news and big name republican donors got involved, and a lot of what the Tea party was got co-opted into a voicebox for some of the more extreme right wing opinions like Santorum and Bachmann.

Basically, at least in my viewas. Theyre a decent attempt by conservatives to uprise against the party line that somehow got taken over by even more extreme right wing opinions at some point, and the result has been a party thats hilariously easy to demonize.

edited 22nd Feb '12 9:49:16 PM by Midgetsnowman

^^ ^ Better answers, thank you.

Any other answers or ideas provided are to be devoid of insults and hyperbole, please.

edited 22nd Feb '12 9:50:32 PM by Colonial1.1

A group of anarcho-capitalists, (A prefix and suffix which should never, ever appear together,) who somehow believe that the solution to our economic woes is to reward the people responsible. They are not noted for their knowledge of economics.

e: removed the hyperbole

edited 22nd Feb '12 9:51:37 PM by setnakhte

Well, in theory, the Tea Party wants to attack those elements.

The problem is, their strategies actually aid them. And they dont seem to know enough about economics to understand that their policies play right into the hands of the Banks and Wall Street Firms they supposedly dislike.

Explain, please. And you defined them as a single ideological category.

{Deleted for being overtly hostile and not conducive to anything except starting a fight. Flyboy, if you think you're going to get this thread locked by trying to be as insulting as possible, I am officially warning you right now that you are much more likely to get yourself banned or OTC-blocked for that behavior. —Madrugada}

Though, talking about "the Tea Party" and talking about "individuals who subscribe to the Tea Party ideas" are in fact different things. But, as with all other voters in America, the individuals within the Tea Party movement are irrelevant, politically.

edited 22nd Feb '12 11:06:20 PM by Madrugada

basically, the Tea party supports massive amounts of deregulation and across the board tax cutting and spending cuts to balance the budgetary concetrns of the nation and grow the job market.

The problems with this.

1: Lack of funding harms government agencies and private agencies that get government funding, possibly forcing job cuts to stay solvent.

2: Deregulating companies and giving them tax breaks doesnt actually make them hire more people. Numerous studies say so.

3: You cannot balance a national budget via spending cuts if you also remove further funding while doing it. Its like trying to pay down a credit card bill while also pissing away more of your money weekly on beer to celebrate your fiscal responsibility.

edited 22nd Feb '12 9:55:05 PM by Midgetsnowman

The Tea Party is a movement that gets its name from a famous act of government protest. That same party is highly disapproving of modern protesters, many calling them socialists and hippies. The Tea Party claims to hold the philosophy that the government should stay out of the lives of citizens. Most Tea Partiers, while touting this view, simultaneously oppose gay marriage.

Yeah, if we're talking about the members, then it's a bunch of misinformed but ultimately well-meaning people who have been corrupted by the 1% into serving their interests. I was describing the movement as a whole.

Go on? Aren't there more sensible elements?

Flyboy: Kindly do not test me, alright?

I cant say I've met any sensible elements, but thats because my ideal of sensible morals is so alien to theirs. I think they mean well. I just think theyre sabotaging their own interests with bad information and a perseverance in the idea that compromise is a bad thing.

Generally, the Tea Party want tax, budget, and spending reforms, for government to uphold the ideals of the Constitution more, and are against 'Obamacare.' They are mostly Republican so they have typical conservative views outside of that. However, their focus had been generally for economic reforms, hence the name.

Really, neither the Tea Party movement nor the more liberal Occupy movement have had much of an impact on the real problems the United States is having economically.

You know what's confusing?

There's the Tea PARTY, and then there's the Tea Party Movement.

So make sure you don't have them confused when you've heard about the "Tea Party".

You asked an open-ended question based on the idea that the common liberal assumptions about the Tea Party are false. I'm saying that you're partially right, but predominantly wrong. The Tea Party as a whole is, in fact, made up of conservative whack-jobs. When you can say that Obama is a socialist with a straight face to TIME Magazine, you are in fact off your rocker.

Individual Tea Party members may in fact be much more sane and reasonable, as follows via the law of averages. They, however, haven't been relevant to directing the movement's flow for some time now—in fact, not since it was bought and paid for by people like Murdoch.

Better. You could have worded it with less causticity, though.

Abstract: Oh? Do they have members outside Boston?

It's not about Boston. It's a split of the Libertarian Party.

Out of curiosity, what is this thread's purpose?

edited 22nd Feb '12 10:10:13 PM by setnakhte