Tea Party in Short?

[cbzdel]

What is the short of the Tea Party movement? I am new to politics only becoming interested in about the past year.

From what I hear is that they are considered "new age republicans" who want less taxes and a smaller government. I am sure there is more to it than that though. Do certain candidates represent them or what exactly is it?

Is it the devil or do they actually have potential? Not looking for a book about them as I could go online for that, just looking for the short on them.

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[Trlsmn]

They are people with a common goal of telling the government that we refuse to let you take more of our hard earned money. That's all it is.

 

[cbzdel]

They are people with a common goal of telling the government that we refuse to let you take more of our hard earned money. That's all it is.

When you put it like that, how could one not be interested?

Whats the downside to it? Guessing the government not being able to control their spending and out national debt continuing to uncontrollably climb?

 

[Trlsmn]

When you put it like that, how could one not be interested?

Whats the downside to it?

There really is no downside to protesting in favor of your beliefs. There will be people that will ridicule them, but their goal is to silence our right to speak up for our beliefs and to discourage others from speaking up, which in itself is pretty danged un-American.

The opposition will do anything and say anything to try to label and discredit and marginalize these people who in the end are just that average American Joe that only want's to pull the governments hand out of their back pocket.

Guessing the government not being able to control their spending and out national debt continuing to uncontrollably climb?

When you give someone a pot of money to dip into it doesn't mean near as much as money that had to be earned so it's very easy for the government to spend unearned money.

I don't look at this as a partisan issue the Republicans are just as happy to spend free money as the Democrats. It's the people vs the Republicans and the Democrats. Unfortunately weaker minded people tend to swallow either the left pill or the right pill instead of neither pill

 

[Jamie6.5]

<snip>people who in the end are just that average American Joe that only want's to pull the goverments hand out of their back pocket.

Right-O!
TEA=Taxed Enough Already.

And enough is too much in some cases!

 

[Trlsmn]

Right-O!
TEA=Taxed Enough Already.

And enough is too much in some cases!

Exactly it's not some nefarious secret plot like some would like to portray it as. It's no more insidious than any average Joe picking up a piece of cardboard and righting on it with a sharpie!

 

[cbzdel]

Ok I get it.. But let me ask this.. If its not directly a party and more of a protest, what do the people gain. Again I am new to politics so bear with me.. You have a couple thousand people chanting lower my taxes, and the government just says shut up. Say the movement gains major popularity and a huge percentage of the population goes along with it, what stops the government from still saying shut up it is not gonna happen? What happens next, is this when it would become more of a party than a protest and someone actually tries to run and get into office and start making changes?

 

[Cougfan2]

Exactly it's not some nefarious secret plot like some would like to portray it as. It's no more insidious than any average Joe picking up a piece of cardboard and righting on it with a sharpie!

Careful. Talk like that will get you a seat on the Group W bench.

 

[Sodbuster]

Careful. Talk like that will get you a seat on the Group W bench.

Yeah, but that's the FUN bench! (we get to play with the pencils).

Sod

 

[Trlsmn]

Ok I get it.. But let me ask this.. If its not directly a party and more of a protest, what do the people gain. Again I am new to politics so bear with me.. You have a couple thousand people chanting lower my taxes, and the government just says shut up. Say the movement gains major popularity and a huge percentage of the population goes along with it, what stops the government from still saying shut up it is not gonna happen? What happens next, is this when it would become more of a party than a protest and someone actually tries to run and get into office and start making changes?

That's a good question, the largest gain would be to create a voice for people to be heard about how they feel about their hard earned money going to government waist and to wealth redistribution schemes.

I honestly feel a 3rd party candidate offered up by the Tea party now would actually be a problem in that it would split the conservative vote and almost surely lead to a second term for Obama.

The ultimate thing I would like to see is a cleansing of or politicos of the entrenched Democrats and Republicans and bring in some Leaders that have the peoples wishes at heart.

The thing is regardless of promises and sound bites both the Republican and the Democrats work for the rich elite not for we the people.

Back to the original question the Tea party goals are really in the end to send a message that they strongly wish the politicos to know that they are not asking but demanding that the government stop treating our personal hard earned money as a cookie jar they can just dip into at will.

 

[Gunner3456]

Please understand that the Tea Party isn't really a party in the sense that the Republican Party or the Democratic Party are.

"Tea Party" is a take-off on the Boston Tea Party. Tea Party gatherings are protests, but come election time those people are apt to get behind a particular candidate, probably in the Republican Party starting with the primaries.

If they unify in that, they may well be able to get someone elected as a Republican who shares their ideals. They are working at all levels - local to national.

A recent poll shows that 47% of Americans agree more with the Tea Party than with congress, and only 26% agree more with congress. 48% agree more with the Tea Party than with Obama, with 44% agree more with Obama. That's mainstream, not a fringe as the MSM would have us believe. Link

 

[usmc0311]

I honestly feel a 3rd party candidate offered up by the Tea party now would actually be a problem in that it would split the conservative vote and almost surely lead to a second term for Obama.

The ultimate thing I would like to see is a cleansing of or politicos of the entrenched Democrats and Republicans and bring in some Leaders that have the peoples wishes at heart.

This sounds pretty contradictory to me. If it's not a Left v. Right thing, then why not split the conservative vote with a (viable?) 3rd party? This is what puts me off of Tea Party stuff (here on this board at least). I was excited at first about them because of their Libertarian thoughts, but I hear way too much of libtard this and socialist that. It's pretty polarizing no matter how you look at it.

I'd like to hear more of something along the lines of lets organize a viable 3rd party that's not Left OR Right, but rather represents the people. Focus more on what we want and how to get it, and not complaining about what we don't like. IMO, replacing Obama with a Republican doesn't do that, it just maintains the status quo.

 

[MountainBear]

I agree with the Tea Party principles for the most part. I also agreed with the protesting of the health care monstrosity (and we know how that went, screw you, we're doing it anyway).

Its very easy to get discouraged as the government seems to ignore when a majority of the populace tells them not to do something and they do it anyway. Unless we vote ALL the incumbents out of office, it'll be business as usual and all the tea partying will be rendered useless. That would be too bad.

Remember the tea partying on election day or risk it being all for not.

 

[Trlsmn]

This sounds pretty contradictory to me. If it's not a Left v. Right thing, then why not split the conservative vote with a (viable?) 3rd party? This is what puts me off of Tea Party stuff (here on this board at least). I was excited at first about them because of their Libertarian thoughts, but I hear way too much of libtard this and socialist that. It's pretty polarizing no matter how you look at it.

I'd like to hear more of something along the lines of lets organize a viable 3rd party that's not Left OR Right, but rather represents the people. Focus more on what we want and how to get it, and not complaining about what we don't like. IMO, replacing Obama with a Republican doesn't do that, it just maintains the status quo.

You will often find contradiction between Realty of a thing and Idealism, I chose to be a realist.

I would also like to see a third party but realty is that a third party would just be the "Ross Perot" effect all over again as was the case with Perot, Dole, Clinton in 1996. The 2012 elections is just too soon for a 3rd party to be anything but a favor to the Democrats.

 

[Gunner3456]

This sounds pretty contradictory to me. If it's not a Left v. Right thing, then why not split the conservative vote with a (viable?) 3rd party? This is what puts me off of Tea Party stuff (here on this board at least). I was excited at first about them because of their Libertarian thoughts, but I hear way too much of libtard this and socialist that. It's pretty polarizing no matter how you look at it.

I'd like to hear more of something along the lines of lets organize a viable 3rd party that's not Left OR Right, but rather represents the people. Focus more on what we want and how to get it, and not complaining about what we don't like. IMO, replacing Obama with a Republican doesn't do that, it just maintains the status quo.

The goal of the Tea Party is to reform the Republic party from the ground up. They intend to support candidates who are unlike many current Republican leaders and, you might say, overwhelm the Republican leaders.

They are on record as saying that a third political party would just split the vote.

 

[Jamie6.5]

Unless a left contingent puts forth an additional, but somewhat viable candidate also.
If the green party for instance, were to put up a candidate that splits the left vote also, a TEA Party backed candidate could indeed do well.
All in all I think a race like that would be good for the entrenched parties as well as the country and us, the people!

 

[Cougfan2]

The goal of the Tea Party is to reform the Republic party from the ground up. They intend to support candidates who are unlike many current Republican leaders and, you might say, overwhelm the Republican leaders.

They are on record as saying that a third political party would just split the vote.

I agree. The real battle will be in the primaries. Look for some incumbent republicans and democrats to lose some primary battles. Look at what's happening in Florida with Crist and Rubio.

 

[usmc0311]

You will often find contradiction between Realty of a thing and Idealism, I chose to be a realist.

I would also like to see a third party but realty is that a third party would just be the "Ross Perot" effect all over again as was the case with Perot, Dole, Clinton. The 2012 elections is just too soon for a 3rd party to be anything but a favor to the Democrats.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I'd say that not having a 3rd party is nothing but a favor to Republicans. I personally think that the reality of the situation is that while the healthcare bill would not have passed with a Republican as President, the massive spending would still be there. The Republicans consistently count on Libertarians as part of their support because of the lesser of two evils argument.

I'd rather support neither of the two evils...screw 'em! But that's just me.

 

[8ball]

Personally I'm having trouble understanding exactly what the Tea Party stands for.

As noted above, the Tea Party aren't running their own candidates in most races, so they aren't actually a third party. It looks like in November, voting Tea Party essentially means voting Republican. The FreedomWorks group which appears to be running most of the Tea Party PR looks like it is run by the GOP.

The Tea Party say they want lower taxes and a lower deficit, which is great. Taxes are at a 20 year low and the deficit is high. To make up the difference, we'd need to massively cut military, medicare and social security spending, but I don't hear the Tea Party folks proposing that. Asking for 'balanced budgets' is fine but doesn't do much. Exactly what spending do they want to cut?

The only thing I do like is that they've left social issues off their agenda and stuck to economic issues, just like the Republicans used to do. Of course, if all that effort ends up with them asking me to vote the Republican agenda (with all of their issues) in November, it's a waste of effort.

 

[willseeker]

Well spoken all! Our country as it should be. Not left or right...not blue or red.
If the media can refrain from slanting it as such, we may be able to come together as a nation of what we are...hard working, industrious and the best!

You're right T, both parties are currently beholden to the elitists..the banksters in wall street...these, the one and the same that have pilfered our moneys to bail them out. Let them sink or swim on their own...isn't that what capitalism is about?

Good to hear your views also, USMC0311. It's shouldn't be watered down to one party or the other. It's getting our government to respond and serve us, the people of this country.

And by the way, welcome to the camp Goldman Sachs! There's a cell next to Madoffs with your name on it.

Will