Sensitive Tea Partiers Need to Stop Taking Criticism So Personally - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

Sensitive Tea Partiers Need to Stop Taking Criticism So Personally - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic:

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Characteristic of Fanatics

“The fanatic cannot be weaned away from his cause by an appeal to reason or his moral sense. He fears compromise and cannot be persuaded to qualify the certitude and righteousness of his holy cause.” (p. 85). 

~Eric Hoffer 

Sedition: Petition calls for arrest of shutdown-causing republicans

Wow.  Here's a quick definition of sedition from Google dictionary (I'll look up a better one later, promise).

Sedition:  Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch

The petition specifically calls for the Tea Party to be arrested and charged with sedition.

Tea Party Republicans could be charged with sedition under US law for holding America hostage.

Sedition: Petition calls for arrest of shutdown-causing republicans:

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TEA PARTIERS REACT WITH FURY TO WORLD THEY CAN'T CONTROL - Yahoo News

TEA PARTIERS REACT WITH FURY TO WORLD THEY CAN'T CONTROL - Yahoo News:
Commentary by Cynthia Tucker  (2007 Pulitzer Prize for commentary - visiting professor at the University of Georgia.)

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Tea party vs. old guard in GOP Senate rift - Yahoo News

Tea party vs. old guard in GOP Senate rift - Yahoo News:

A little background on the rifts in the GOP - from the Associated Press in May, 2013:

"A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and tea partyers broke into full view, with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of overplaying their hands and tempting Democrats to change Senate rules that protect the minority party.

Tactics for dealing with the government's budget and debt became the latest quarrel in a series of skirmishes between McCain —sometimes joined by other traditionalist Republicans —and tea party champions such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida."

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PolitiFact Virginia | McDonnell says U.S. Senate hasn't passed a budget in 4-1/2 years

PolitiFact Virginia | McDonnell says U.S. Senate hasn't passed a budget in 4-1/2 years:

Politifact Ruling:  False
In fact they did - this year!  But guess who refused to let it go to committee (where the real negotiations happen in Congress)....yep.  The Tea Party.  From the article:

". . . The Senate, on March 23 this year, passed a $3.7 trillion budget on a 50-49 vote that maintained entitlements -- such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare -- and discretionary domestic programs. It differed from a $3.5 trillion House budget, passed three days earlier, that significantly cut entitlement programs and deficits over the coming decade. 

Efforts to send the competing budgets to a conference committee have been unsuccessful, however. A group of Tea Party senators has blocked motions -- which need unanimous consent -- to advance the Senate’s spending plan. They have insisted on assurances that the budget negotiations would not lead to higher taxes and voiced concern that a conference committee could create momentum for procedures that thwart filibusters against increasing the nation's debt limit."

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Michele Bachmann: Obama ‘used to being George III’ – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Michele Bachmann: Obama ‘used to being George III’ – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

Bachmann = leader of the Tea Party Caucus.  Interesting return to violence flavored Revolution rhetoric of the early movement.  (Note to self:  See also Palin in Nashville, NCA Interview, and paper draft.)


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How the GOP Slowly Went Insane - Jon Lovett - The Atlantic

How the GOP Slowly Went Insane - Jon Lovett - The Atlantic:

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Public Opinion Toward Tea Party Hits Low Point : It's All Politics : NPR

Public Opinion Toward Tea Party Hits Low Point : It's All Politics : NPR:

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Poll: Rift forming between tea party, rest of GOP

Poll: Rift forming between tea party, rest of GOP:

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Tea party activists call bipartisan deal a capitulation, say they are unbowed - The Washington Post

Tea party activists call bipartisan deal a capitulation, say they are unbowed - The Washington Post:

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Tea party groups denounce Senate plan

Tea party groups denounce Senate plan:

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Harold Meyerson: A tea party purge among the GOP - The Washington Post

This is one of those articles (less prevalent now) that attempts to see some hidden rationality in what the Tea Party does and believes.  He still thinks they hate Obamacare because they mistakenly believe it's "socialist".

He does, however, provide a provacative and less common characterization of the Tea Party as distinctly white and southern and rebellious toward the federal government  (I assume he means Southern in attitude not geography because TP not concentrated in the South.)


Harold Meyerson: A tea party purge among the GOP - The Washington Post:

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Q&A: What’s the state of the debt-limit fight today? (UPDATED)

From the Washington Post today:

Q&A: What’s the state of the debt-limit fight today? (UPDATED):

 Question:  "Why did this take so long?

 Answer:  there are two answers to this question.

1. Democracy.
2. A group of conservative "tea party" Republicans in the House insisted on significant changes to Obama's health care law in order to keep the government functioning."

I love the first answer!  Well done.  

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Billboard Shows Obama As Hitler, Demands President's Impeachment

Oh, good grief!

Billboard Shows Obama As Hitler, Demands President's Impeachment:

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Shutdown Fight Is 'Personal' Against Obama (VIDEO)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Shutdown Fight Is 'Personal' Against Obama (VIDEO):

"Among the many reasons behind the government shutdown, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schutlz (D-Fla.) asserted that the Tea Party's motives were, in part, "personal" against President Barack Obama. 

"I think plenty of the Tea Partiers are hell-bent on doing everything they can to block President Obama from being successful, and they're willing to even harm the economy in order to do that. So, some of it is personal," she told HuffPost Live's Marc Lamont Hill."

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A New Jersey Farmer Blog: Where Democracy Lives: Surf's Up! The Right Wing's Gnarly Ride to a Wipeout

A New Jersey Farmer Blog: Where Democracy Lives: Surf's Up! The Right Wing's Gnarly Ride to a Wipeout:

 "The problem is not with both parties. It's with an increasingly reactionary Republican Party that will oppose anything Obama says, even if it means opposing its own interests."

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Shutdown Fight Is 'Personal' Against Obama (VIDEO)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Shutdown Fight Is 'Personal' Against Obama (VIDEO):

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Tea party wants to take America back -- to the 18th century - latimes.com

Tea party wants to take America back -- to the 18th century - latimes.com:

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To be clear . . .

I don't necessarily agree with everything I'm posting here nor is it necessarily going to become part of the final paper on fanatical rhetoric.  Right now (a lot of the time) I'm just dumping articles related to Tea Party fanacticism that I haven't had time to completely read or fact check or think/comment about yet.

It was a long time coming, but the media and pundits and blogosphere have begun to acknowledge and discuss the fanactism at play here.   As the Tea Party pushes the country to the brink of default in a manaical holy quest to defeat their devil Obama(care), it's kinda hard to ignore, right?

(And hey, it only took them 3+ years to get where we started).

So there's a lot to sift through and think about this week.  I'll write more later. . .


From Rhetoric Goat - February, 2010

This demonization rhetoric characteristic of True Believer movements intensified throughout the spring, reaching it's first peak and public organization with the Tea Party protests on April 15th [2009], once again prompting a "perspective by incongruity" from Jon Stewart on "Tea Party Tyranny". 

To make the President of the United States and the US Government into an Un-American rhetorical devil like this is the hallmark of True Believers and Mass Movements, ala Eric Hoffer. And it was this rhetoric - this increasingly vehement, vitriolic, vengeful and intensely political action - toward our constitutionally elected leaders in the spring of 2009 - that made me throw out the vogue but bland course syllabus and start seriously discussing rhetorical current events with my students again. We voted to scrap the group projects and read Eric Hoffer and take a closer, academic look at this rising mass movement against the POTUS and US Government as our real time rhetorical criticism for the remainder of the semester. 

The South’s “Lost Cause” Addiction » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

The South’s “Lost Cause” Addiction » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names:

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Obamacare - The Rest of the Story - NYTimes.com

Obamacare - The Rest of the Story - NYTimes.com:

The conclusion of Bill Keller's analysis questions whether the opposition to Obamacare is simply (fanatical) opposition to Obama:

 "The Democrats were passionately in favor of enrolling the uninsured, but many would have preferred a government-run program, or at least a public option. What Obamacare has wrought is the kind of market-driven reformation that Republicans pretend to believe in. Which makes you wonder how much of their opposition rests on the merits, and how much is just a loathing for anything associated with Barack Obama."  (Emphasis mine)

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Tell Boehner: Dump the Tea Party | LeftAction

Yeah, that's what I said.


Tell Boehner: Dump the Tea Party | LeftAction:

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The Republican Shutdown and Default Is Designed to Destroy the Legacy of Obama

The Republican Shutdown and Default Is Designed to Destroy the Legacy of Obama:

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Forward Progressives — Republican Senator Calls Out Ted Cruz and Tea Party for Not Being In Tune with the “Real World”

Forward Progressives — Republican Senator Calls Out Ted Cruz and Tea Party for Not Being In Tune with the “Real World”:

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Forward Progressives — Sarah Palin Shows Her Stupidity Once Again: Obama Risking “Impeachment” Over Debt Ceiling

Forward Progressives — Sarah Palin Shows Her Stupidity Once Again: Obama Risking “Impeachment” Over Debt Ceiling:

I'm not sure I would write Palin off as merely stupid.  She is a True Believer and for her Tea Party audience her rhetoric does not have to be logical, it only has to be certain.  (See Hoffer).  This is a great (i.e. classic) example of fanatical rhetoric.  

Here's part of what I wrote about Sarah Palin's rhetoric in February 2010 (after we saw her speak at The Tea Party convention in Nashville):

Much ado about Sarah's rhetoric . . . and why it matters.

 “. . . With that said, however, I will acknowledge that based on the evidence from our ongoing research, I do think Palin and the Tea Parties are rhetorically dangerous because of the fanaticism they breed toward the US Government, and in particular, the irrational hatred and fear they exploit and nurture toward out current President, Barack Obama. She clearly stated in Nashville that her motives are to start a revolution . . . The problem with Sarah Palin is that she herself is a True Believer . . . I honestly think she has no clue what she is doing, and I honestly think she believes she is doing a really great thing for America. (You betcha!) . . . someone with very little solid education about human history recklessly running strategy and calling rhetorical plays without full consideration or even awareness of the potential consequences. And wish as we might, she is not going away - indeed, her voice is getting bigger, thanks to Fox News.”

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Read This One Document If You Want To Understand Why Republicans Followed Ted Cruz Off A Cliff | ThinkProgress

Read This One Document If You Want To Understand Why Republicans Followed Ted Cruz Off A Cliff | ThinkProgress:

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Boehner to Tea Party: Shut Yourself Down - Bloomberg

Boehner to Tea Party: Shut Yourself Down - Bloomberg:

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Tea Partiers Swear They Are Not Racist, But Their Actions Beg To Differ - Occupy Democrats

Occupydemocracy via Twitter:

Tea Partiers Swear They Are Not Racist, But Their Actions Beg To Differ - Occupy Democrats:

Salvatore Aversa writes in this analysis of the Value Voters Summit:

"It is not often I will say somebody is being racist, simply because they disagree with President Obama.  Despite that, there are times when arguments become latent with racism.  It is becoming more and more apparent that the Republican Modus Operandi is complaining because there is a black guy in the White House.  We see it when teabaggers carry signs of President Obama with a bone in his nose.  We see it when Republicans put criticisms on President Obama, that never seemed to be an issue before, like the raising of the debt ceiling, or even simply keeping the government operating.

 This has never been more apparent than with Joe Wurzelbacher, who recently published on his website an article by an unattributed author.  In it, the article states that wanting a “white Republican President” does not “make you racist, it just makes you American.”

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Let's Just Allow the Tea Party to Take Over America | VICE United States

LOL

Let's Just Allow the Tea Party to Take Over America | VICE United States:

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GOP establishment assails tea party on shutdown - Tea Party

Another perspective: Here is the (a) Tea Party's response to the Tea Party and the GOP.  From the website:  www.teaparty.org

GOP establishment assails tea party on shutdown - Tea Party:

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Kochs and Other Conservatives Split Over Strategy on Health Law - NYTimes.com

More splintering . . .

Kochs and Other Conservatives Split Over Strategy on Health Law - NYTimes.com:

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911 call: Goats 'might bully me'

Goats.  Enough said.

Hilarious CNN video is here:
911 call: Goats 'might bully me':

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Political Twitter Wars

Twitter has played a significant role in the government shutdown dramas.  Both politicians and citizens are making their opinions and positions known via Twitter.  This has gone on as long as I've been on Twitter (since 2009) - not the politician part, the citizen part.  Politicians were slow to get on board, but once they did, they became part of the cacaphony of twitter politics.  The primary hashtags to follow for each side are: #tcot (top conservatives on twitter) and #p2 (progressives).

Today on Twitter: a message to the Tea Party from the POTUS:

Perhaps not surprisingly, #tcot is trending since this posted.




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Tea Party’s Ross Says Debt Worth Yielding on Obamacare - Bloomberg

Tea Party’s Ross Says Debt Worth Yielding on Obamacare - Bloomberg:

U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn’t include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight that has shut down the government for five days.

 Ross, ranked among the House’s most conservative members by both the Club for Growth and the American Conservative Union, said he shifted his position because the shutdown hasn’t resulted in changes to the Affordable Care Act, which started Oct. 1, the same day government funding ran out. The shutdown also could hurt the party, he said.

Enlarge imageU.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican. Photographer: Tom Williams/Roll Call via Getty Images
“We’ve lost the CR battle,” Ross, referring to the continuing resolution to authorize government spending, said in an interview. “We need to move on and take whatever we can find in the debt limit.” 

Other lawmakers backed by the limited-government Tea Partymovement, including Republican Representative Jim Jordan ofOhio, are refusing to budge. Republican House Speaker John Boehner said yesterday the way to end the government shutdown would be for Democrats to negotiate and accept changes that would produce “fairness” under President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law, also known as Obamacare.
Representative Raul Labrador, an Idaho Republican and leading voice in the fight against Obamacare, said a change to the law “has to be on the table.”

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More of this, please!

As I said earlier this week, what needs to happen rhetorically is for the GOP to start casting the Tea Party as the bad guys and the GOP and traditional Conservatives as the good guys.  As President Obama said October 1st, the Tea Party is "one faction of one party in one house".   The political right needs to run with that . . . and that appears to be finally beginning.   

Here is Scott Galupo from The American Conservative today:

Why are Republicans inflicting real, immediate, and tangible harm on the economy in order to accomplish the impossible (delay or defund Obamacare) address an abstract future threat (debt) or merely to save face? Why isn’t the majority of the House majority isolating its rightmost faction and ending this pointlessly asinine pissing match?

Contra the conventional wisdom, I maintain that no one in leadership will lose his job. The very nature of Tea Party opposition, whether it issues from the likes ofBazooka Ted and His Gang in the Senate or the unappeasable Jacobins in the House, is to throw weight without consequence. They evince no interest in actually wielding power from the inside, which would require restraint, conciliation, and moderation. They are hysterics on the brink of utter demoralization. The danger they pose to democratic norms, institutional comity, and political functionality is precisely why they can’t be bargained with; they must be marginalized.

 It’s time, Republicans: it’s time to throw the One Ring into Mount Doom. (emphasis mine)

Word.  More of this, please!!

"Insane, Catastrophic, Chaos"

From the Washington Post:

President Obama addressed the nation Tuesday regarding the government shutdown, telling Congress to take a vote on a continuing resolution to end the government shutdown.  Video and transcript are available here.

Specific comments about the Tea Party from President Obama's press conference today:

Now the last time that the tea party Republicans flirted with the idea of default, two years ago, markets plunged, business and consumer confidence plunged, America's credit rating was downgraded for the first time, and a decision to actually go through with it, to actually permit default, according to many CEOs and economists, would be -- and I'm quoting here -- "insane, catastrophic, chaos" -- these are some of the more polite words.… 

And I've continued to believe that Citizens United contributed to some of the problems we're having in Washington right now. You know, you have some ideological extremist who has a big bankroll, and they can entirely skew our politics.
And there are a whole bunch of members of Congress right now who privately will tell you, I know our positions are unreasonable, but we're scared that if we don't go along with the tea party agenda, or the -- some particularly extremist agenda, that we'll be challenged from the right. And the threats are very explicit. And so they toe the line. And that's part of why we've seen a breakdown of just normal routine business done here in Washington on behalf of the American people.And all of you know it. I mean, I'm not telling you anything you don't know because it's very explicit. You report on it. A big chunk of the Republican Party right now is -- are in gerrymandered districts where there's no competition and those folks are much more worried about a tea party challenger than they are about a general election where they've got to complete against a Democrat or go after independent votes. And in that environment, it's a lot harder for them to compromise. All right?

Transcript of President's remarks is available via the Washington Post.

“The Tea Party is better understood as a reactionary conservative force.”

“The Tea Party is better understood as a reactionary conservative force.”

University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker, a co-author of Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America:

"In our survey research, a list experiment also revealed how Tea Party conservatives think differently than other conservatives.  We randomly divided survey respondents into two groups and asked them how many of a list of statements — but not which statements — they agreed with.  The only thing that differed across the two groups was whether the list of statements included the proposition that “Obama is destroying the country.” The results showed a striking divergence: 71 percent of Tea-Party conservatives agreed with this statement but six percent of non-Tea Party conservatives did."  (Emphasis mine)

"We also explored the roots of identification with the Tea Party.  We found that, even after controlling a host of factors — including ideology and attitudes toward African-Americans — Tea Party identifiers were more common among those believing that Obama actively promotes socialism.  This again suggests motives more akin to reactionary conservatism."

Once again, we see the identification against a devil (Obama) as the primary basis of Tea Party membership and movement.  Parker calls them "reactionary".  We call them fanatical.  I'm going to tentatively suggest that being fanatical and being reactionary are not exactly the same.  In a fanactical group there is a specific rhetorical devil.  This is not necessarily the case in a reactionary movement.  Fanatical movements are motivated by fear - not necessarily so a reactionary m0vement.  This is a tentative conclusion - I'm still thinking about it...

Independent (Rhetoric Goat) Scholars

We wanted to take a moment to notify you that Eric and Commlong are no longer affilitated with MTSU.  Eric graduated (yay!) and Commlong's contract apparently became too expensive for them (boo!), so we are now independent scholars.

Which is probably just as well for a Rhetoric Goat blog.

"Goats are extremely curious and intelligent. . . They are also known for escaping their pens..."  (acc/Wikipedia)

USA Today - "The Tea Party shutdown"

From the October 2nd USA Today editorial clarifying that the government shutdown is not the result of both parties in Congress behaving badly; rather the shutdown is entirely attributable to the Tea Party "fringe".  The editorial board notes:

This shutdown, the first in 17 years, isn't the result of two parties acting equally irresponsibly. It is the product of an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, controlled by a disaffected base that demands legislative hostage-taking in an effort to get what it has not been able to attain by the usual means: winning elections. 

Call it the Tea Party shutdown. The group will wear the badge proudly.

Pressed by this uncompromising fringe, Republicans leaders in the House are making demands that are both preposterous and largely unrelated to budgetary matters in return for keeping government running. Most absurdly, they want President Obama to undermine the health care law that he ran on in 2008 and 2012, and now considers his signature domestic accomplishment.

No president of either party could accept that kind of badgering. No president should. (Emphasis mine).

More fanatical (as opposed to useful or practical) Tea Party opposition to the symbolic Obama devil - in this case "Obamacare".  And USA Today also points out that this is coming from the "disaffected base" of the party - which is a primary component of a fanatical movement (the disaffected audience) according to Eric Hoffer.

A reporter for MSNBC (find name) similarly noted last week that those in opposition are "True Believers" who really do believe Obamacare is dangerous - it is not merely a political strategy to oppose the Democrats.  

Which is even scarier - because as Hoffer so clearly outlines, fanatical movements cannot be persuaded by reason and logic because they are not concerned about the rational basis of a policy position. There can be no compromise for them because they are on a "holy quest" that is more important than any practical policy concern.  True Believers will sacrifice anything for their Holy Cause and for the Tea Party this is opposing "the devil" Obama and all of his works (e.g. Obamacare).

 So in this case, what gets sacrificed to the "holy cause" that Hoffer explains is the American budget and the entire functioning of the government.  Nevermind how much this hurts workers and citizens who are furloughed or denied access to federal landmarks because of the shutdown.  The Tea Party doesn't care:  we are just collateral damage in their holy quest to oppose their devil (i.e. Obama).

My 2 cents:

If Speaker Boehner is waiting for this disaffected base to come around and support a straight vote on the budget, it will never happen.  He'll have to take a stand and split the party into two distinguishable components:  The GOP (who cares about America and Americans) and The Tea Party (who care about nothing but their fanatical quest to oppose President Obama).  Perhaps faced with the choice of being part of the un-American Tea Party or part of an American GOP, there could be a shift for some into the "American" brotherhood.

Symbolically, rhetorically, that is the only solution to the fanatical Tea Party problem in the GOP and Congress.

Don't hold your breath.  Everytime Boehner has had a chance to jettison the Tea Party and elevate the GOP he has balked.  I can't help but wonder - what are they holding over his head that he is so paralyzed by their influence?  Is remaining Speaker of the House so important that he will collude and empower the fringe in order to assure his position - thus refusing to become part of the solution (the American GOP) and joining the problem (the anti-American Tea party).  Is he really that weak?

How does he not get that Americans love a hero more than they love House Speakers?  Directing his party to do a straight up and down vote on the budget and the debt ceiling for the good of America makes him a hero.  Not doing so just makes him a Tea Party tool.

The Shutdown Party: Our view - (USA Today Editorial)

USA Today editorial position - October 1st, 2013

The Shutdown Party: Our view:

As the government shutdown loomed, many Americans did what comes naturally in matters regarding Washington: They ignored it.Now that the shutdown has happened, many people are inclined toward a second default position: Blame everyone.

Both positions fit the dismally low view that Americans have of government in general, and Congress in particular.

In this case, however, the "they're all bums" reaction is off-base. This shutdown, the first in 17 years, isn't the result of two parties acting equally irresponsibly. It is the product of an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, controlled by a disaffected base that demands legislative hostage-taking in an effort to get what it has not been able to attain by the usual means: winning elections.

Call it the Tea Party shutdown. The group will wear the badge proudly. 

Pressed by this uncompromising fringe, Republicans leaders in the House are making demands that are both preposterous and largely unrelated to budgetary matters in return for keeping government running. Most absurdly, they want President Obama to undermine the health care law that he ran on in 2008 and 2012, and now considers his signature domestic accomplishment. 

No president of either party could accept that kind of badgering. No president should.

 (emphasis mine)

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