Lindsey Graham: The Tea Party Movement 'Will Die Out'

step 1) take back country
step 2) ???
step 3) profit

 

There's NO WAY such a grassroots movement will EVER die. The Tea Party will live on forever.

Sincerely,

Spoiler

 

I agree with him.

 

That's a great article - we need more Lindsey Grahams. He seems to be the proper definition of the "loyal opposition".

 

I guess they're on his ****list after a state leader called him out on his lisp.

 

All third party movements die out in the fire of a two-party system. The impact a third party has before then is what is important.

 

I never really liked Graham, but that article puts him in a light that I can respect.

A good read overall.

 

Actually I am mildly optimistic about the Tea Party and its role in American politics . It is true that it will disappear. It was started by corporate GOP types like Dick Armey to harass Obama and redirect the economic suffering many of the followers have experienced away from the corporate elite.

Hopefully many of the followers may discover that the GOP and leaders like oily Grahm do not have the interests of people at their income level at heart. Maybe more populist Democrats can get their message out to these people. There will be a portion of the Tea Party that will spin off to more extreme right wing hate groups and so forth. Of course many of the Tea Partiers have always been GOP loyalists and will remain so.

There is virtually no opposition to the wealthy corporate agenda in the GOP, but in the Democratic Party it is very contested with Obama going back and forth and trying to appease both wings. It is hard to know which way Obama would go if given a choice, but he tends to be afraid of the corporate elite and not very trusting of the populist inpulses of the American people to win against that elite. Of course Obama has spent virtually his whole adult life among that elite.

Hopefully the more aware Tea Partiers who are actually oposed to elite domination can redirect their anger toward work in the Democratic Party and tilt the balance toward a more populist Democratic Party responsive to the economic interests of poor and middle income Americans. In the past and in many other countries labor unions are the vehicle for getting such folks to direct their concerns to the folks who are responsible for their economic plight.

 

The populist idea worked exceedingly well in Greece.

 

Actually it has worked fairly well. Many Greeks have a good standard of living and style of life-- a healthy diet and relaxation etc despite having a GDP per person less than many Americans. Of course also lower income Greeks probably have more benefits and better health care than poor Americans.

I suppose if you limit yourself in a simplistic fashion to the current crisis or are primarly concerened with the bond market or the fate of uper income folks you have a point.

 

That's certainly true. It's because they are bankrupt. If I was able to borrow a few million dollars, I could have a pretty nice lifestyle too until someone actually made me pay up. Unfortunately for your lower income Greeks, that day finally arrived. Those benefits are going away and they are going to be left to suffer.

If you think the upper income folks are the ones that are going to suffer here, you're delusional. Populist Greeks demanded lots of services, low taxes, and had no underlying way to pay for any of it. They the the ones that are going to suffer when reality strikes.

 

First, my apologies is this sounds condescending -- it is not meant to be. However, IMO, this is your most lucid and valid observation that you have made in a great many weeks. Neither side realizes how much they are pawns of the George Soros / Hollywood / liberal elite types on one side and the Wall Streeters on the other. The rich of the left and right are looting our pocketbooks while we try to gut each other over partisan politics.

 

Graham likely has no viable presidential aspirations. He's also a senior Senator from a decidely red state where the opposition unwittingly nominates people who stare vacantly into the camera like the psychotic black felony pornographers they are. That's probably why he can afford to speak his mind vis-a-vis the Tea Party.

 

They just need to hang around long enough to split the GOP vote in Nov and then again in 2012.

 

He's actually got a pretty good record of calling his "own side" out when he thinks it's necessary. The following is from a few months ago at the height of the debate over healthcare, when he calls out his own party members, saying "Obama is a good father and a role model, and an American liberal, not a socialist or the n-word":

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In that video, he comes very close to calling out Chuck Schumer to his face. I have a whole lot of respect for the man, even though I disagree with 99% of what he says. Graham is an honest and good human being, and it isn't just a one-time deal. I don't like his politics, but he is honest and genuine enough that I would loan him money with no fear. That isn't something I'd say about many people in the Senate on either side.

And I forget the exact details, but I do remember that when I saw this video, I was reminded of a couple of similar previous incidents which, in viewing, I was led to believe that it was a pattern, not an isolated thing.

Furthermore, this civility is especially notable to me given the long history of @sshole legislators from South Carolina.

 

I understand that you are morally outraged and wish to punish the Greeks for being bad boys and girls.

It is true that the elite will try to take it out on the poorer Greeks and will have the support of folks like you who see unions as being unruly populists. Perhaps following conventional wisdom you support the international bond traders who push for the more painful ways of dealing with the Greek deficit. I do agree with you that Greece will have to pull back a bit, but I don't share your moral outrage.

Many of the conservative tax hating elite are nearly gleeful about the momentary Greek debt problem and are hoping to use the example as a way to gut Euro vacation and other social benefits and keep such personal sloth and irrepsponsibility from spreading to the potentially lazy US working class who are becoming more aware of their lack of such comforts. The local variant of the tax hating bond trader elite are also hoping to use the Greek example in their near perpetual drive to cut social security and other public benefits and redirect such funds to their hedge funds and insure that GOP tax cuts on the wealthy remain permanent or can even be increased.

Hopefully you are just morally outraged, are not down with the whole anti-tax hating bond elites and are extrapolating from your thoughts on household budgets, where perhaps I join you in being conservative.

 

I love any thread that gives me an excuse to talk about how cute that lady is!

 

Ignoring all the attempts for you to project your "everyone who disagrees with me is an ignorant elitist-lover" nonsense, let's figure out what exactly you're arguing here.

So, just to be clear, you are arguing that borrowing beyond your means and going into bankruptcy is good, solid governance, and it's what the rest of the world should emulate?

 

No, but I guess this is just your own understated way of trying to say anyone who disagrees with you is just ignorant.

PS I think your original non sequitur in which you tried to conflate the Greece debt problem into an attack on populism was telling.