Quote:
Originally Posted by FuglyStick
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 ----------
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.
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It is different here, I grew up in New England and the difference between right and left in both places is staggering...Dems are conservative, Reps are liberal, its like watching CNN on shrooms.
Anyway I agree. Whats always turned me off about the GOP is the fundies, extremists, racists, bigots and everything else. Its like voting for a fiscally conservative govt means you have to sign up for being pro-life, anti-gay, hardcore christian...well you get the picture. I looked long and hard at Ron Paul (like he was going to win anyway) last elections but you know, for all the good ideas he has so much of his platform is just impractical and too outside of the mainstream. I don't think it would really work. There is a lot to be said for a streamlined, well managed, fiscally conservative govt but for god sakes can we leave the BS out of it for once?
EDIT: FoolThemAll, thats what I was wondering earlier in the thread. I think for a lot of people involved with the Tea Party they just don't place a high value on those issues and would rather leave them vague. I agree it would be refreshing.