Quote:
Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth
Indeed they do (despite what I'm saying here, some of the stuff I've seen around me lately is boarderline scary), but seperating from the "God and Country" crowd could be what gives them an identity amongst more grounded conservatives and thrusts them from side show to mainstream. But it really depends on which ideology wins out in the end, will they reject the Palins and Becks or turn into GOP part II?
But again as long as they center their identity around "Obama sucks" its really hard to tell what direction the whole thing moves.
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IF the Tea Party separated itself from the doomsday fundamentalists, racist elements, and xenophobes, I would welcome the Tea Party, or GOP II, or whatever it became known as. (I feel I have to interject--I don't believe being a Tea Party member makes you a fundamentalist, racist or xenophobe; if you ARE a fundamentalist, racist, or xenophobe, though, chances are you are a Tea Party member.) There is nothing wrong with fiscal conservatism; I consider myself a shade to the left of the line, but I can respect the conservative's pragmatism. But if the Tea Party TRULY hopes to make some noise in the elections in November, they have to show WHERE THEY STAND. As you say, "Obama sucks" doesn't cut it. When they define their politics better than that, though, they're going to find a lot of people jumping off the ship, I believe. It's easy to rally people around "I'm pissed"--that's very generic and fits nicely on a sign. It's harder to keep them when you start getting into specifics. And specifics are what is going to be required from the Tea Party come the elections.
---------- Post added at 08:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by FoolThemAll
For what it's worth - and I know, not a whole lot... about as much as the other anecdotal appraisals in this thread - every tea partier I've met in my area has been at least apathetic about religion, if not hostile.
(Which is not to say that they've been pro-choice. If that confuses you, then you don't have a very good handle on the issue.)
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The picture is much, much different here on the buckle of the Bible belt, trust me. A fine example of the discrepancies in the Tea Party's message.