Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Remember in November

Good often comes from bad, as seems to be happening after the election of November, 2008. The left took over our federal government and started implementing their socialist agenda - driving America into bankruptcy and turning a recession into depression. Americans realized what the left wants: a huge central government controlling every aspect of our lives, and the backlash began. By April, 2009, what we know now as the “Tea Party” was born. It’s called the Tea Party by those of us favorable to it, but it’s called the “Tea Baggers” by those who hate it - a slang term denoting a kind of sexual practice I cannot describe in a family newspaper.

What the Tea Party actually is, most aren’t sure. It’s still amorphous, but if you look at their huge rallies in Washington, DC and cities across the country, you see ordinary people. Many wave or display American flags. They’re unhappy with what Republicans and Democrats have done to their country, but they’re especially mad at Democrats for tripling the national deficit since January of 2009 and expanding the power of government beyond what the Constitution intended. A few things about the Tea Party are becoming clear: they’re conservative, they see government as more a problem than a solution, and they’re unimpressed by those who consider themselves the “intellectual elite.”Their most recent gathering was last Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial. Some say 300,000 were there. Some say 500,000. Congresswoman Michelle Bachman said there were 1,000,000. Glenn Beck, organizer of the rally, was expecting 100,000. He told people to leave their political signs at home because “America today begins to turn back to God.” This is the kind of thing that scares the elites in media, academia, and politics. To them, anyone who seriously professes a religious faith must be a rube - one of those simpleton Americans President Obama said, “. . . get bitter and cling to guns or religion.” They’re the kind of Americans the New York Times’ Ross Douthat describes as: “middle-class white Christians--square, earnest, patriotic and religious.”

If you look at Beck’s crowd singing “Amazing Grace” to bagpipe accompaniment, you see average people - the kind who pay their taxes, volunteer in their communities, put money in the collection plate, bring their kids to scouts, aren’t ashamed to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and get a lump in their throat when they sing “America The Beautiful.”

Liberal TV networks played down the rally any way they could, describing it as “predominantly white” as if there were something wrong with that. That shouldn’t be a surprise considering almost 80% of the country is white and 90% of black Americans vote Democrat. It’s even more understandable when one considers what the Washington Examiner reported: that Obama and other Democrats got 88 percent of 2008 political contributions by TV network executives writers, and reporters. It’s what liberals do when they have no arguments to make, no facts to cite, no points to make - they cast aspersions of racism, homophobia, hate, bigotry, or some combination thereof. There’s clearly a huge disconnect between ordinary Americans and elitists in government, academia and the mainstream media. They’re in one world, and ordinary Americans live in another. No wonder the mainstream media is hemorrhaging money and viewers while Fox News and talk radio are thriving.

The “Reverend” Al Sharpton staged a counter rally at a nearby high school and got 3000 people. Representatives from from Code Pink and the SEIU (Service Employees International Union, whose thugs have been accused of assaulting Tea Party people at several congressional district town meetings) spoke, including Jaime Contreras president of the SEIU-32BJ local, who gave his own “I have a dream speech.” He said [about the Glenn Beck rally across town]: “Shame on them. We still have a dream. We are here to let those folks on the Mall know that they don't represent the dream. They sure as hell don't represent me. They represent hate-mongering and angry white people. The happy white people are here today. We will not let them stand in the way of the change we voted for!”Contreras’s local SEIU-32BJ, however, doesn’t even know how to spell American. They proudly carried posters on which it’s spelled “AMERCAN.”

President Obama was golfing on Martha’s Vineyard that day, and told NBC’s Brian Williams he ignored Beck’s rally. According to the Washington Examiner, however, his close friend and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan who spoke at Sharpton’s rally, sent an email to his employees three days before the event, saying: “ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march.”

I wonder if our Education Secretary noticed the misspellings. Be hard to miss in such a small gathering.

Mainstream media reports gave as much or more coverage to Sharpton’s rally though he got less than one-one hundredth the turnout Beck did. Rather than being annoyed though, I’m hoping the political/media elitists and public-employee-union parasites continue their arrogant condescension when referring to the Tea Party. I hope they keep it up right on into the first Tuesday in November, because that will drive even more patriotic Americans to the polls. “Remember in November” is one of their slogans.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Lord, Tom, you have really swallowed the kool-aid, haven't you?
Keep waving that flag and sneering at the "liberal elite" as long as that's what it takes to make you feel better about yourself.

Anonymous said...

The hate from both sides of this is what drives people away.
Mr Sharpton and his gang are irrelevant, and the Tea Party is going to shrivel up and die if they don't succeed in November or 2012. I am a fairly average retired middle class person who is afraid of both sides. Its too bad the other 50,000,000 who feel the way I do have to listen to this crap. Nobody is benefitting from it, except the ego driven talking heads. Be careful what you wish for I certainly try to..

Harry said...

Tom forgot to mention the most reliable estimates of the crowd showing that there were under 100,000 people at the rally.

see the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0830/Glenn-Beck-rally-attendance-calculating-how-many-really-showed-up

Tom must of just forgot because we all know he is not just a partisan sleezeball that will say anything that fits his agenda, truth be damned. Right?

Oh, and to the Anon, remember - it is not the kool-aid he has drank, it is the tea.

I listened to much of Beck's speech myself, but for the first 5 minutes I really thought I was listening to a hilarious spoof! Great stuff, Beck is a true entertainer!

It must be nice for die-hard conservatives to hold on to this cute little tea-party fantasy, as if something big will really come of it.

Alex said...

Does anyone realize that one only ruins his argument by using unrelated personal attacks? If you are against the tea party for being close-minded and unintelligent, why do you resort to name-calling and similar close-mindedness? Use actual arguments and logic and you won't appear a hypocrite.

Bev said...

Great article Tom. But I was disappointed that you didn't mention that Martin Luther King's daughter, Alveda King, spoke at Beck's rally.

Tom McLaughlin said...

Good point Alex. What we're witnessing here and elsewhere in the marketplace of ideas is the left's last resort - ad hominem attacks. They don't have anything left and they know November will be a disaster for their agenda. They've had virtually complete power to use their "solutions" and they've only made the situation much worse than it was when they started.

Trouble is, the Republicans don't seem like much of an alternative. They had almost as much power during the first years of the George W Bush Administration and didn't help things very much, because they abandoned conservative principles of small government and free-market economics.

Laurie4rep.com said...

I was fortunate to attend the 8/28 rally. It was an incredible day filled w/ love and goodwill.At the opening (9:59am)there was a group of Canada geese that circled the WW11 Memorial and then flew down the center of the Reflecting Pool in perfect formation, an incredible example of divine intervention..one of many that took place that day. What progressives don't understand is that the event was driven by a much higher power than little ole Glenn Beck..he is but the vessel and everyone there understood that restoring honor is about each of us being accountable and responsible citizens and has little to do w/ Glenn. He puts his life on the line everyday to guide the quintessential message of what it means to be a constitutional American. God Bless America Thank You Tom for the discussion of 8/28

Anonymous said...

Here is a good comparison to Beck and MLK:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-beck-vs-king.htm


"Glenn Beck's rally was large (87,000), vague, moist, and undirected — the Waterworld of white self-pity."

—Christopher Hitchens

The rally is also being called "Whitestock"

Anthony Tiani said...

Look! Obama was eating a sandwich instead of attending a right-wing (I mean non-partisan) rally! It was probably a commie sandwich made by Mexicans who just left an abortion clinic.

Harry said...

Hey there spineless Tom - you STILL dodging the questions from your other goofy thread?

If you can't defend a lie, ignore it, eh?

Truely gutless.

Anonymous said...

Hey Tom: Isn't it wonderful in our great nation of Judeo- Christian values the libs can spew their vile rehtoric w/o worry of retribution. A one way ticket to the middle east is also an option.
All of your writings are so informative Tom. Keep up your great work. Jean D

Kevin said...

Now that aerial photos have verified the actual attendence at about 87,000 Tom must feel awfully silly saying that "some" claim there were 300,000, and "some" claim there were "500,000", etc while totally ignoring the actual evidence.

So we have established the fact that this event attracted almost the same size crowd as attends a single college football game at the Rose Bowl. And this is suppossed to "scare" people.

The fact that Beck is trying to get these lemmings to "turn to god" could be frightening if done successfully on a large scale - because people should actually be turning inward and having faith in themselves, not looking for some magical force in the sky to give them guidance - but done at Beck's level it is just kind of creepily funny.

Tom, can you be a bit more specific about "expanding the power of government beyond what the Constitution intended"?

Or is that just babble, kind of like Obama "apologizing", or drastically overstating attendance, or claiming that most illegal aliens are drug runners?

Diane from Kearsarge said...

Laurie4rep.com wrote:

"He puts his life on the line everyday to guide the quintessential message of what it means to be a constitutional American."

That is, if being a 'constitutional American' means supporting the likes of Rev. John Hagee (prominently sitting in the front row at Beck's Elmer Gantry moment); Rabbi Daniel Lapin (BFF of Jack Abramoff/Tom Delay/Ralph Reed, et.al.)also a front-row honoree, and - last but not least - the Koch Brothers whose multi-billion $ (per year) petroleum industry underwrites the Tea Party movement.

Yup. These - my friends - are the 'real Americans' we want at the helm.

...or not.

Anonymous said...

God doesn't care.

Anonymous said...

Here is a letter from the Boston Globe that does a great job summing up the Tea Party:

Pulling the wool over the Tea Party
September 5, 2010

One need look no further than the Koch brothers, the secretive billionaire oil magnates, to find a “unified field theory’’ behind the Tea Party movement.

They have paid for training groups all across the country for a number of years now, to the tune of millions of dollars, igniting what is essentially illiterate rage against foes of their anti-regulation pro-business politics.

Asking ordinary people who have been shafted by these very policies to stand up and shout at President Obama is both sad and not a little embarrassing, but it will probably work for a little while longer, at least, because it cynically taps into the dark underside of American racism and xenophobia.

Anonymous said...

Again...

Tom, can you be a bit more specific about "expanding the power of government beyond what the Constitution intended"?

Tom, what is up with your avoiding questions? Do you find it difficult typing your "columns" with that chicken beak of yours?

DAWN said...

"One need look no further than the Koch brothers, the secretive billionaire oil magnates, to find a “unified field theory’’ behind the Tea Party movement."

My friend, who is a Democrat, went to her monthly Democratic meeting last week and told me the whole meeting was devoted to the Koch brothers and how they fund the tea parties.

Two words for you...George Soros!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Dawn, Soros does indeed do a lot of good with his money. Nobody is trying to deny that, which is where the difference lies. Supporters of the Tea Party like to create an image of a grass roots movement with the people rising up on their own. They prefer not to think of themselves as big business stooges.

AJ Worcester said...

"Liberals love to pat themselves on the back for giving away other peoples money."

Republicans love to pat themselves on the back for borrowing peoples money and spending it, only to cover it up with a lower tax rate to make it seem like theyre not screwing everyone over.

As for every Conservative whose only arguement is that Obama's spending too much and burrowing us into debt, get a clue. Obama's doing what any Liberal Democrat would do, and it only seems like a big crime cuz we had 8 years of Bush's bullshit leaving us with no money to work with. No money equals debt.

Now, i`ll adress the Teabaggers. The ultimate goal of this movement is to bring taxes down to the absolute bare minimum that you can function with. No taxes sounds good, and if it worked, we'd all be Teabaggers. But it doesn't work, because where does the government get most of its money? Taxes. The difference between the Dems, Republicans, and Teabaggers is how they compensate for it. Liberals Tax higher, Conservatives tax lower but borrow money, and the Teabaggers have next to no taxes to work with, so whats left? "Radical Republicanism" as Bill Maher would call it. They would basically borrow everything from the citizens in order to stay out of bankruptcy. This is why they would fail as a government.

Lastly, i'll leave you all with this to think about. America is just stupid. Its obvious human nature to take the easiest road, but America does it more just because our population is generally fat lazy bastards. So what will we generally do? Ask for lower taxes, because it's easier. Thats just the whole structure of the Teabaggers, lazy right-wingers that don't understand how polotics work. The government must tax to get money. If they don't, they borrow it, and the more they do this, the more right wing you get.
Thats the reason the Republicans took the House yesterday. Because "The rent was too damn high." They were mad over higher taxes, but don't understand that theyre necessary.

So don't bitch about Obama spending so much money, because anyone who does, is a plain idiot.