The Tea Party made lots of noise and woke the neighbors, but precious few in-roads into the political system. True, Marc Rubio and Rand Paul were big winners but each benefited from some peculiar circumstances. Rubio won in a three way race punctuated by former spurned Repub Governor Crist’s independent bid along with a Democratic challenger who won just enough to split the vote of the rational and give Rubio the nod. Rand benefited from the strong conservative sentiment in Kentucky and what Mark Twain best described this way: “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky because it’s always twenty years behind the times.”
Other Party guests did not fair so well — even in a time of popular disenchantment with government and a bad economy. Unpopular Senator Harry Reid survived a bid from Sharon Angle of “there is no separation of church and state” fame. First Amendment scholar, former Wiccan, and Angle devotee, Christine O’Donnell, sank against Chris Coons by 18 points. Even in far off Alaska, Palin-approved candidate Joe Miller looks to be a loser in a three way race to a write-in candidate and incumbent, Lisa Murkowski.
How did that poster child for The Movement and likely 2012 Presidential candidate, Sarah Plain, do with her endorsements? Well, that sprinkling of Alaskan tea resulted in 33 loses and 27 wins. Not exactly the “Golden Touch.” All in all, the Tea Party can claim some measure of victory, but the win is less than satisfying. After the Party’s hangover, the realization will set in that “winning” requires “fixing” else-wise the fickle electorate will turn you out like yesterday’s newspaper. And that, my revolutionary friends, is the hardest tea to swallow of all.
–Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. “I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude.”
Here is the sentence in context:
“Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it’s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” – Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787[1]
Pearls before swine, learn if you can.
Tautology,
See you in two years and not to worry … when the masses start marching through the streets someone will direct them to …..
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!”
ekeyra,
yep
… I miss the idealism which was all probably an illusion anyway … but that was my generation’s form of the teabagger movement
This one goes out to all the jackbooted Neocons trolls and their corporatist masters:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iNv1YxcwPI&fs=1&hl=en_US]
We’re coming whether you like it or not, would be oppressors.
This one goes out to all progressives, better luck next time:
ekeyra:
Good analysis. Who benefits most from government largesse? The myriad of government contractors, vendors, and business entities who provide goods and services. That’s the legacy of Bush’s massive outsourcing programs. The Repubs know which side of the budgetary bread their butter is spread on and won’t move to cut that. Social programs are fair game, but as we’ll see, health care is backed by American industry struggling under the weight of the cost of these benefits. The Repub Revolution will fire plenty of cannon in the form of phony investigations, bold statements, and shameless demagoguery but those shots will be well over the heads of their constituency munching happily at the public trough.
You all act as if this voting thing changes anything.
To the republicans(teapartiers), dont get your hopes up as i have yet to hear one candidate mention a specific cut or reduction to any government program of any kind. Maybe they had good poker faces but my instincts tell me they know how the game is played, smash and grab while you can and hope the spoils are enough to keep your constituents distracted while you continue to rob them blind with taxes, entitlements, inflation, bailouts, unwinnable wars(dont get me wrong even if we could “win” the war on drugs or the war on terror doesnt mean they should be fought), and crippling public pensions. Its just a matter of having enough power to steer the flow of stolen money to the right people.
To the democrats, dont be too down in the dumps. Look the republicans are just as greedy, stupid and bloodthirsty as your party, theyre just tightasses when it comes to handing out money to people who arent in the business of killing other people. So dont fret about the economy coming to a halt because they’ll halt spending, they wont. Every dollar not being spent to encourage someone to buy a car they didnt need at a price they couldnt afford will be spent bombing brown people on the other side of the world and buying armored personel carriers for the police force of a town with a population of 500 to make sure noones smoking dope underneath the highschool bleachers. And that makes the world a better place.
Buckeye:
If what the people on the far right is saying comes to past,his fortunes are going to be falling like a inverted meteorite,the far right conservatives and the tea party people are saying they want no compromise on anything and if thats going to be the case for the next (2) years, well that is not what they were elected to do.
BTW: Here are the results of Boehner and his opponent Justin Coussoule:
John Boehner* 66% 139,254
Justin Coussoule 30% 63,593
100% in | projected winner incumbent
County resultsButler 100% in
rep John Boehner* 64% 67,674
dem Justin Coussoule 32% 34,312
Darke 100% in
rep John Boehner* 73% 13,472
dem Justin Coussoule 23% 4,176
Mercer 100% in
rep John Boehner* 74% 8,988
dem Justin Coussoule 22% 2,715
Miami 100% in
rep John Boehner* 70% 25,256
dem Justin Coussoule 26% 9,345
Montgomery 100% in
rep John Boehner* 58% 13,747
dem Justin Coussoule 38% 9,113
Preble 100% in
rep John Boehner* 68% 10,117
dem Justin Coussoule 26% 3,932
“Baby animals: Your election antidote”
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2010/11/03/baby_animal_slideshow/slideshow.html
eniobob
I think he meant while he was putting himself through college. I did the same thing and I didn’t like it any more than you did – and he may not have liked it either; that’s why he probably, like Scarlett, would say “As God is my witness…I’ll never be hungry again.”
I didn’t realize he was so lachrymose untill Keith Olbermann showed several tapes this evening. Maybe every so often it hits him just how far he’s come financially – and how it could all just disappear.
anon nurse,
Thanks for the correction. I did indeed mean Angle earlier, but hey, if I can hit two birds with one stone, it’s my lucky day. 🙂
http://my.firedoglake.com/jimwhite/2010/11/03/with-12-unemployment-dismal-property-values-and-solo-gop-rule-florida-ripe-for-new-depression/
Buckeye:
Nothing at all,I’m just wondering what he meant by that.In my younger days I worked some late night jobs and I hated it.
eniobob
What are you suggesting?
Welcome back Mike S! It’s great to again see you posting. I missed your wisdom and wit in the run-up to this election. Max did the yeoman work of keeping us informed even though she had (much) more pressing matters at hand and I appreciate her taking the time and making the effort. Welcome back!
—–
From posting:
“Rubio won in a three way race punctuated by former spurned Repub Governor Crist’s independent bid along with a Democratic challenger who won just enough to split the vote of the rational and give Rubio the nod.”
*
I view it differently, Crist split the ticket and won enough votes to ensure the Democratic candidate the voters picked in the primary didn’t have a chance at winning. I’m sick of these sore-loser, narcissistic politicians that lose the primary (of either party) going al rogue-y and running as independents in contravention of the voters preference.
I would never vote for someone that did that because obviously that person doesn’t give a fig what the voters in his/her own party or otherwise wants in a candidate. If they don’t care before the election and they win, they sure won’t care afterward. It may be a good tactic (for a number of desired outcomes) but it has no honor in my book.
Mike S
Welcome back on several levels.
Re: the elections:
I saw a piece at Huffington Post that suggested the President was signalling a willingness to compromise on the tax cut issue. Since he’s stated he insists on maintain the rates for the middle class, ANY compromise means keeping the top earners rate the same as well. That will unquestionably balloon the debt and the deficit. Is that why the teabaggers helped bring the GOP in, to benefit the wealthiest?
Buckeye:
“I had to wonder if Mr. Boehner’s tears at his acceptance speech was because 1. he can no longer “just say no” and 2. he now has to herd those crazy Tea Party cats. I’d be a bit morose myself.”
They just reran that speech and he said”I worked every night shift job I could find” What does that mean ???
BIL:
And like I said from**THEIR**own polling arm.
First, so very happy for you Mike S. You are a lucky guy and I’m sure you really deserve your good fortune. Your service to humanity has been rewarded. Hope your recovery is speedy.
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“The Tea Party made lots of noise and woke the neighbors, but precious few in-roads into the political system.”
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As usual, I’m missing something (nothing new 🙂 ). The Tea Party candidates won 118 out of 129 seats they were after. That’s something over 91%. I find it hard to find that any great failure and consider it to be quite a few inroads – which I expect will be expanded in 2012.
It’s true that three of the craziest, Mr Paladino, Ms. O’Donnell and Ms. Angle didn’t make the grade – I guess even the intense dislike of Reid couldn’t convince Nevadans to stomach Ms. Angle – but we still have Ms. Bachmann with us, which I consider extremely unfortunate.
I had to wonder if Mr. Boehner’s tears at his acceptance speech was because 1. he can no longer “just say no” and 2. he now has to herd those crazy Tea Party cats. I’d be a bit morose myself.
From the story eniobob linked to:
“[. . . ] 59% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is at least somewhat likely that most voters will be disappointed with Republicans in Congress before the next national elections. That includes 38% who say it is Very Likely.” [emphasis added]
Wow indeed.
Nice catch, eniobob.