17 thoughts on “The Obama Asteroid”

  2. Just as the Tea Party is damaging the name of conservatives. Which is good as the nation needs to stop listening to the radical extremes and start focusing on the moderates in the middle.

  3. Just as the Tea Party is damaging the name of conservatives.

    To see how right Thomas is, you need only compare the conservative movement’s stunning victory in 2008 with the moderate McCain, to their utter disaster in the Tea Party- driven election of 2010…

    What?

    …nevermind…

  4. These articles bring it home to me. The peculiar thing is how hidebound it is. It’s been talked about here before how “progressives” seem more conservative than many of the conservatives are. For example, the reduction of labor and employer relations and law to 19th Century terms. A similar thing goes on with modern environmentalism which argues contemporary policy based on what happened in the 50s and 60s.

    Then we have the case of the President who glibly uses terms like “Hope” and “Change” to describe his policies and goals, which would be more at home in the 1930s or perhaps the 1840s.

    Describing it as the author does in terms of dinosaurs and asteroids seems apt. But I suspect it still has a long life. The problem is that these ideas aren’t used to improve the world, but they are used (in large parts of the West) as a status signal. I don’t think people are going to stop believing just because their ideas don’t work. Blame will be transferred (say, to that conservative Obama who snuck in while we weren’t looking).

    I think the only real thing that will kill these touchie-feelie hopes off is a society that has radically changed from its 19th century image. Maybe you can’t tell the employer and employee apart. Maybe almost nobody works. Maybe the few surviving humans are put in a zoo by their machine masters. Maybe poverty no longer exists. Maybe the envious are no longer respected because it’s trivially easy to get what you want (the so-called “scarcity-free society”).

  5. Okay, Tommy- I’ll bite.
    We’ll stop going to Tea Pary rallies when y’all primary Obama, Pelosi, and Reid in favor of right-leaning (i.e. “Moderate”) Democrats and undo the damage they’ve done.

    Fair?

  7. On fiscal policy, being in the middle means slowing down the progression toward bankruptcy.

    This is where Congressional Republicans were for a long time – and one reason their numbers steadily dwindled. Supporters wanted those gutless weasels to shrink the government, not to simply slow its growth. Size really does matter – government jobs don’t produce anything, and as a government grows it takes more and more resources away from productive jobs.

  9. Those claiming the TEA party hurts conservatives talk about anything except what the TEA party stands for. The Theft-wing can’t afford for the TEA party message to get out and take root.

  10. DaveP.

    Given the recent rally turnouts it looks like most folks that were taken in by the Koch Brothers have already stopped going to Tea Party Rallies…

    http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/tea-party-express-rally-falls-short-of-early-billings/article_f26775ca-d0e9-11e0-9559-001cc4c002e0.html

    Tea Party Express rally falls short of early billings
    JAMES NOONAN Napa Valley Register
    Posted: Saturday, August 27, 2011 1:20 pm

    [[[On Saturday, roughly 600 people gathered on the sprawling carnival grounds of the Napa Valley Expo for the so-called “super rally” that would kick off the Tea Party Express’ “Reclaiming America” bus tour.

    The turnout was a far cry from the 4,000 to 5,000 people that representatives from Tea Party Express’ Sacramento office said they were expecting only days before the Napa rally.]]]

    The stop yesterday in Elko only drew only 75 attendees, in a conservative ranching/mining community of 30,000 even though we are in the midst of a Congressional election to fill Rep. Heller’s old seat.

    The Republican running, Mark Amodei, made sure not to show up, but then his disdain for the Tea Party is well known and he has already promised to fight against Rep. Ryan’s crazy budget. Yes, the Tea Party is over as an effective force in Nevada.

    And BTW I will be voting for Mark Amodei since he is a True Republican, not a JBS/TP who is pretending to be Republican.

  11. BTW, it looks New Hampshire is the latest state purging the Tea Party fringe.

    http://news.yahoo.com/nh-gop-chair-tea-party-activist-says-wont-164649281.html

    NH GOP chair, tea party activist, says won’t quit

    Like many posting here he is too dense to see the party is over and so will have to be given the boot…

    [[[Kimball held firm even as U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and a majority of the party’s executive board called for new leadership in a letter dated Wednesday. The board will vote Sept. 1 on whether to remove Kimball.]]]

    I predict the Republican candidates who see the writing on the wall and break from Tea Party control will do well in their primary. It would be nice to see Gov. Huntsman win.

  14. Ken,

    Keep thinking the Tea Party is something new, and not the Radical Religious Right in a new coat of paint, and you will never understand why America is rejecting it.

    BTW have you seen this latest Rep. Bachmann quote?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/michele-bachmann-hurricane-irene_n_940209.html

    Michele Bachmann Says Hurricane Irene And Earthquake Are Divine Warnings To Washington

    [[[Michele Bachmann told Floridians Sunday that Hurricane Irene and the earthquake felt along much of the East Coast last week were messages from God to warn “politicians” to start heeding divine guidance, which she suggested is being channeled through small government conservatives.

    “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?'”]]]

  15. Keep thinking the Tea Party is something new, and not the Radical Religious Right in a new coat of paint, and you will never understand why America is rejecting it.

    So what makes you think the Tea Party is just the religious right? Especially when there are $1.5 trillion deficits around? I think there’s an alternate theory with better explanatory power here.

  16. Granted, some members and leaders in the tea party lean socially conservative. But the unifying thread through the tea party is fiscal conservatism. Unlike their opposition they take seriously the threat high taxes and out of control spending presents to this country.

  17. Keep thinking the Tea Party is something new

    I don’t think it’s anything new at all Thomas. TP is just a name. Sure it includes some religious people. It includes many others as well.

    I’ll see ya in 2012.

Comments are closed.