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 Oh, What a Tea Party!Posted on Aug 3, 2011
NEW YORK—In my experience, all institutional decisions are made for internal reasons, then are publicly presented as changes made for external reasons—for the customers, the clients, all the good people out there.
I saw a bit of how it worked when I was in the corporate world, Ingersoll Rand, then some large newspapers. But then, doing a book in the 1980s, I explored why companies moved their corporate headquarters—usually out of New York City in those days. "Experts," often from Dun & Bradstreet, were hired to check cost of living and living standards, local taxes, schools, medical facilities and labor costs, shipping distances to major markets. They handed in impressive binders filled with statistics and observations, and then recommended the town where the chief executive officer lived or wanted to live.
So, American Airlines, whose CEO was chairman of the commission trying to keep business in the city, went back home to Dallas. His counterpart, the CEO of what used to be Trans World Airlines, moved his company to Webster Groves, Mo., where his family was still living.
I recall that ancient history because it reminds me of what happened in Washington these last weeks. Whatever they tell us, the men and women who run the country are governing for themselves and by themselves. The nation was not particularly involved and certainly had no idea what happened—the same could be said of much of the Congress.
The big winners in the budget "deal" were the people who understood the least: the tea party folk, a minority, generally ignorant, who had a simple plan, easy to execute. They just did nothing but wave the pledges they had signed never to raise taxes, particularly on rich people. Their nominal party, the Republicans, could not bring them into the party—or the government, for that matter. Without knowing it, they were fulfilling the dream of William F. Buckley, that is, standing in the path of progress and shouting "Stop!" Of course, they would not understand Buckley, and I doubt he would have been seen in public with them.
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No. No. No. The know-nothing conservatives, the new members of the House, won a historic victory. The most intelligent commentary I heard was from Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Paraphrasing, he said: "We have changed the nature of government from spend, spend, spend to cut, cut, cut!" The new members drove the process.
A minority blackmailed their opponents (in both parties). Our way or the highway! If you remember, the debt ceiling came up as a procedural matter. There was no talk of such things as a "balanced budget amendment" and all the other ideas and misperceptions the tea party tagged on as the White House dithered under the illusion that Speaker of the House John Boehner actually ran the House. In fact, he was a prisoner of a small group of inmates who had filed their spoons into knives.
And President Obama went along with it. Presumably he believed Boehner could deal with the hostage-takers. He tried to disguise his actions in the cloak of disaster if the United States defaulted technically on its financial obligations. That was kind of scary, but it was never the issue. The issue was the role and size and duty of the government. As Alexander said, those things were changed during these chaotic weeks.
Yogi Berra famously said, "It ain’t over till it’s over." The 2012 elections are going to be critical in terms of which way the Republicans choose to go—compromise or go over the cliff. The ironic thing is that Obama, who screwed up on this—not a single new dime of revenue is in the bill he signed—will probably be re-elected rather easily. But the real question is whether the tea party know-nothings can convince the country it doesn’t need a government and can control the internal decision-making of the Congress—which they do now.
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Say ‘Hi-Ho!’ as They Strip-Search You
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By omygodnotagain, August 7, 2011 at 9:50 am Link to this comment
I can’t help thinking when I read about these so called political battles, what Lloyd George the British Prime Minister at the Treaty of Versailles, in 1918, to end WW1, wrote “there were more bankers than diplomats at the table”. I don’t think it matters WHO we vote for they don’t run anything, they just do what the money guys say.
Report thisBy omop, August 6, 2011 at 5:41 am Link to this comment
One can only judge others by the statements they make or the actions
they take or propound. A review of several statements made by the so
called Tea Partiers/Republicans are examplery:
Ms. Bachmann: “God will put a curse on America if it changes its policy
towards Israel”.
Rep. Eric Cantor is on record as guaranteeing that Israel’s interests will
be protected.
Herman Cain: ” I will hire homosexuals over Muslims in my
administration”.
R. Santorum: ” Abortion will in time kill Social Security”
Mike Huckabee: ” The best solution is move all the Palestinians to South
America”.
Sarah Palin: Last heard from she was off or on a bus visiting the 48.
Rick Perry: Praying as a Christian for political guidance.
J. Bolton: “its time we bombed Iran”.
Social Security and Medicare according to an anonymous Tea Partier
are the reason the country is going broke and the SP downgrade.
Enough said.
Report thisBy Maani, August 5, 2011 at 11:11 pm Link to this comment
There is a critical question worth asking: are the Tea Party politicians in Congress actually representing their alleged constituencies, or have they essentially “gone rogue?”
This question is worth asking because two separate polls since the debt deal have shown that a majority of those who self-proclaim as “Tea Party” supporters do NOT support what was done “in their name” by the elected TP politicians. In one poll, the number was as high as 68 percent of Tea Party supporters who did NOT support what the TP did, or how it did it.
Have the TP politicians in Dc become just as insulated from THEIR constituencies as all too many non-TP elected officials have become? Is this simply a (sad) function of being in the DC “echo chamber?”
If the majority of those who identify as Tea Party supporters are not happy with what is being done in their name, things may turn out VERY different than supposed in coming elections.
Report thisBy ruhullaha, August 5, 2011 at 9:42 pm Link to this comment
As the thinkers of this nation debate over the actions of the leadership in Washington; as those who contribute to the articles in Truthdig, and whose who comment to the wisely written words that appear in this newsletter should realize; it takes a brain to make the sustainable changes necessary to move this country forward and it has come to my attention recently that OZ is currently out.
When leadership can not govern beyond finite self-interest, when leadership can not understand that the collective needs of human society translates into that societies’ preservation, then inevitably, that society becomes regressive and fails.
Sad isn’t it, when something does not reach its potential? Sad isn’t it, that what once was, perhaps, never was, and now can no longer be?
Report thisBy Ralphie, August 5, 2011 at 3:04 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
You are so right about Norquist and if you pull a hundred people out of a crowd and ask then who he is, ninety-seven won’t be able to tell you. Like it or not, he tied the hands of many stupid republicans making them sign his pledge but I’m sure they don’t care, they have their Plutocracy.
Report thisBy James M. Martin, August 5, 2011 at 2:24 pm Link to this comment
Really perceptive. I think it might be added that unlike the D.C. of yesteryear, there is a dwindling handful of the genuine article: altruists.
Report thisBy Napolean DoneHisPart, August 5, 2011 at 5:34 am Link to this comment
FAA shenanigan, yet another WMD ( weapon of mass distraction ).
Did anyone catch the ‘super congress’ proposition?
Anyone catch the council of 13?
Six dems and six reps and the presidente?
Oh sorry, who wants to talk about what is really going on, oops.
Sorry, go back to sleep.
Report thisBy James, August 4, 2011 at 11:35 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I have 2 questions for the Republican Tea guys. Why maintain 2 George Bush wars if
Report thisyou have no money to pay for it? You want to put it on the back of the working poor?
End the damned wars and bring the troops home and that ought to save a lot of bucks.
Perpetual wars are not in our national interests if it leads to a bankrupt country. Obama
has his hands soiled with his Libyan adventure. Let’s not forget all those people we have
killed as collateral damage, all for the sake of taking out the head of state of that
country, which by the way is illegal. Who gave us the right to bomb and kill other people
just because we can? Why don’t we pick on somebody our own size to fight? Why do
we always bomb the little guys? Why not bomb Russia or China? No balls. Afraid they
might shoot back with real weapons. That shows we are just plain old bullies, nothing
more. We have been raised to be fair, to have an equal playing field, to respect law and
order. We are hypocrites. How tough Bush looked and sounded in the aircraft carrier
taunting the Arabs to “bring it on”. How stupid and worse, stupid and arrogant. Now
Obama and Clinton are doing the same in Libya. What stupid fools they are. Playing
soldier boys because they could. Abuse of power. I thought we got rid of Bush. It must
be the Kool-Aid at the White House. Our military is not really the best that they claim to
be because we ave not been tested against real opponents but weak ones from banana
republics. We only take on weak opponents. It’s like heavyweight George Foreman
(USA) going against welterweight Manny Pacquiao (Libya, Iraq, Grenada, Panama, etc.).
Talk about a level playing field. The results are very predictable. It’s a one-sided contest
so we should not gloat over winning such conflicts like Bush did. If the Republican
pukes insists on maintaining those wars, then eliminate all the Bush tax cuts and then
some to pay for it, and send their own children along with the children of all those
generals like David H. Petraeus and colonels and officer staff who likes to play war gods
and take Clinton’s and Obama’s girls as well. If both these clowns are willing to send
girls from other families and putting them in harm’s way for their crazy agendas, then it’s
only fair to send their own girls to their wars.
By CuriousYellow, August 4, 2011 at 3:03 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Screaming and aggression have always had first crack at EVERYthing. Cheats and liars and line-jumpers and brainless screamers always get ahead of everyone else.
For a while…..
The Tea Partiers are all Mad Hatters - they out-shouted all the other guests at party. So why bother sitting down at the table?
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, August 4, 2011 at 11:38 am Link to this comment
When you roll over, pull your tail in, and pee on yourself, the way submissive dogs do, it doesn’t matter if you do it because it’s part of an insidious “Plan” and you’re an actor, or because you really are beaten and roll over on your back and pee. The effect is the same…and two days after it the nit-wits on Wall Street have just figured out what a colossal fuck-over this “deal” is, and that we are speeding into a far worse recession.
Every time an administration cuts spending in a recession, especially if recovery is starting, it sets it off again. Ever hear of the “Depression within the Depression”? That’s what happened when federal spending was cut, trying to roll back FDR’s New Deal. But this is what they must want, because it’s much easier to control people when they are scared, and what’s scarier than the prospect of losing your job, your income, your house, your car, your health insurance, your retirement…and all of that is now at a greater risk than it was a week ago.
But before they could make this happen they had to kill or neutralize their most dangerous opponent: the Unions.
Think about it.
Report thisBy Reverend Unruh, August 4, 2011 at 7:05 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Re-elected easily? I don’t think so, you all must be drinking that insider cool-
aide. The Tea Party seems to have no leadership because it is my creation.
Currently Grover Norquist is in control. It is like I made a party and gave it to
them. Like giving them plenty of rope to hang themselves with. I didn’t realize
progressives would be so slow on the uptake.
I’m super liberal so smart people wonder why I did that. Why I created the Tea
Party. Stupid people just ignore me and my whole project.
I looked at our two party system and I realized it was all set up to keep us from
having any real regulatory power forever. I figured to change that we needed
new parties. What is hard to understand is why conservatives listen to me and
liberals don’t.
I suspect it is a holdover from me being hacked. I wasn’t allowed to answer
people I agreed with, only the trolls they argued with. So I’m guessing after
getting my arguments for a few years, the conservatives have gotten to know
me.
The fact they won last time on my arguments is a sign, but hey, Obama won on
Report thisthem the time before. I’m good at this because I was a dedicated girl scout
leader for a long time. I know how to speak to people’s values.
By tropicgirl, August 4, 2011 at 6:55 am Link to this comment
Richard, you are talking from an ancient time and no one understands what you are saying because you are not in the real world, or from a world of long ago.
Why is it that, over and over again, we are asked to accept people like you as true and caring liberals? When you watch this man in the White House continue to torture, lie, warmonger, topple foreign governments, and continue to make deals that hurt people?
Its pretty obvious that he is a Goldman-CIA creature-freak and we are all in hell now. That is what I mean about you not living in reality.
Of course Obama got the deal he wanted. He is a fake.
And if you think he didn’t take the second major step in destroying SS and Medicare, (the first being the health insurance bill), LOOK again…
One of the things that will be “triggered” is a huge cut in entitlements. Entitlements paid for by American taxpayers and stolen, by the crooks in Washington, to the tune of $9 Trillion, over the years. But the stupid fake left will march in step and vote for it. Watch it happen.
The globalist agenda is quite clear and well-documented:
Obama is out to destroy entitlements, labor unions, good medicine, peace, freedom and intelligence, and everything else good. It takes very little research to find these things out about him. For example, just Google “Obama Union Buster”, or “patient dumper”. It’s all there.
I don’t know ANYONE who is talking about ending the wars, not invading sovereign nations, keeping our freedoms and avoiding debt that threatens our own sovereignty, BUT THE TEA PARTY.
That makes you and your side totally and completely pathetic. And makes you less than honest. Sorry to be blunt, but we are out of time for jackassing around, now.
Report thisBy felicity, August 4, 2011 at 6:54 am Link to this comment
Got to wonder if the tea party types will wake up to
Report thisthe fact that they’ve been duped big time, have bought
the propaganda of the powers behind the ‘party’ that
they will prosper under a government controlled by the
their puppeteers when they find themselves in the
‘tank’ right along with the rest of us.
By prisnersdilema, August 4, 2011 at 6:33 am Link to this comment
OH it’s over, it was over a long time ago, you just didn’t see it, because there was no
announcement on T.V.
The tea party is just getting going, with Boner presiding as the Mad Hatter, they will be
plenty of nonsensical sound bites, and quips from their bag of peak delusions, to try and
sort through..
In the future if any…
Report thisBy blogdog, August 4, 2011 at 12:00 am Link to this comment
could this be overanalyzed any more? perhaps, how about this: the dupes who
Report thispulled this stunt - unconstitutional to begin with, vis-à-vis the 14th Amendment
and likewise at its outcome in forming a Super Congress (?!?!) - are, in fact so
unknowing, they qualify as genuine useful fools, carrying even more water than do
their comparatively brilliant DC colleagues, who also plod along mindlessly, like
dumb animals, bearing load after load of heavy H2O for the common nemesis of
all the under classes: the global finance oligarchy, which likes nothing better than
a senseless dustup like this - especially when it draws intense analysis from every
quarter, trying to figure out what went wrong - forget the heavy analysis - you
were all duped again