Wishful Thinking On The Left

Posted on | July 26, 2011 | 18 Comments

by Smitty

William over at Alan Colmes’ joint has a magic chart culled from Think Progress that shows Tea Party activity is down in 2011. From Think Progress:

This study only looked at events organized by Americans for Prosperity or Tea Party Patriots and their affiliates — other Tea Party groups’ event numbers were not readily available. The two groups, however, serve as complimentary proxies for the overall movement.

Meanwhile, via Director Blue, we have a Ushanka post about Tea Partiers rallying outside of Speaker Boehner’s office.
My excuse for less activism this year is that I’ve been ‘cooling’ my heels in Afghanistan. I figure the bulk of the the fellow Right Wing Extremists out there have been (a) engaging in other forms of activism than holding rallies, and (b) girding their loins for 2012 which is when we absolutely have to ‘bring it’.
What say ye?

Update: Tea Party DC is awaiting a permit for a 27 July rally, noon to 1PM. I’m going to plead the fact that I’m writing this from the Labor and Delivery ward of the hospital. Dunno when the World’s Youngest Blogger is going to arrive, but his early commitment to McCainism (the systematic refusal to adhere to a schedule) is strangely admirable.

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Comments

18 Responses to “Wishful Thinking On The Left”

ThePaganTemple
July 26th, 2011 @ 4:37 pm

I agree, and I supported Christine O’Donnell. I also criticized the RINOs, like Karl Rove, for their actions against her. I posted about it and followed up after the election, for example when she was very recently cleared of ethics charges, here-

http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/2011/06/christine-odonnell-cleared-of-ethics.html

By the same token, if Castle had won that primary, I would have supported him over Chris Cooms. Let’s face facts here. Whether Cooms had run against Castle or O’Donnell, a vote for either one of them would have been a vote against Harry Reid. There’s that big picture thing I was talking about.
Anonymous
July 26th, 2011 @ 4:38 pm

I would guess that a lot of Tea Party people are waiting for Sarah Palin to enter the race or are quietly organizing for Palin locally. Keeping our powder dry, so to speak.
JM Hanes
July 26th, 2011 @ 4:49 pm

I wouldn’t call them complimentary proxies. I wouldn’t call them complementary proxies either. If Think Progress wants to believe that eventing is what the Tea Party is all about, all the better for the folks whose sights are set on reforming the system from the ground up and whose energies are now being devoted to that end. Folks on the left, having well nigh completed their long march through our institutions, seem to have completely forgotten what insurgency looks like (whether political or military!).

Democrats are also convinced that they can drive a wedge between tea party “extremists” and traditional Republicans. They’d love to see a lot of tea party primary challengers stirring the 2012 pot — but will complacently reassure themselves yet again, if the tea party doesn’t field a lot of its own designees. It’s amazing how far astray the left can go when they fall for their own elastic narratives.

There are splits on both right and left, but tea party dissension is looking a lot more productive to me right now, and conservatives, not liberals, appear to be pulling the country in the direction it actually wants to go. I suspect that public attitudes have hardened more than the Democrats realize or that recent polling — which seems to have an oddly generic quality to me — suggests. I also think that the right sees the 2012 elections as far more fundamentally consequential that the left does.

I could be falling for my own narratives, of course, but one of the most interesting findings in Jonathon Haidt’s notable psychological surveys is that conservatives actually understand liberals a lot better than vice versa.
Anonymous
July 26th, 2011 @ 5:07 pm

The rallies of 09 and 2010 galvanized conservatives and demonstrated that we were not alone. These rallies also gave the GOP some backbone. In the end rallies don’t effect change unless followed up by other political action. That’s what many of the Tea Partiers are doing now. The GOP as constituted presently is incapable of solving our problems and must be reformed from the bottom up or replaced. Let the left believe the Tea Party has faded away, time will tell.
Anonymous
July 26th, 2011 @ 6:01 pm

Hey Pagon…the problem with voting for the rino is it encourages more rinoism and the DC GOP counti8ng on conservatives voting for their guy the rino.
Sorry but forfiet the seat for the long ranch goal of culling the herd.
McGehee
July 26th, 2011 @ 6:01 pm

While the netroot types still think rallies with giant papier-mache heads and exposed mammaries are the evidence of influence and support, the Tea Party groups have moved on (heh) to the next stage of the mission: Getting $#!+ Done.
DaveO
July 26th, 2011 @ 6:25 pm

In building, whether its a structure or a road, first you have to prepare the ground.

While Obama’s out and about teasing La Raza and his other constituencies with talk of dictatorship, TEA Partiers are leveling the field, installing the rough plumbing of financing, and going through the punch list of policies being enacted at local and state level.

While Obama prepares his base for one-man rule from afar, the TEA Party is preparing for a democratic republic in which the individual citizen of king/queen of the self.
Bob Belvedere
July 26th, 2011 @ 6:50 pm

Godspeed to Mrs. Smitty and The World’s Youngest Blogger.
ThePaganTemple
July 26th, 2011 @ 6:52 pm

Thanks for the advice. Now I know how best to get the weeds out of my garden. I’ll just quit watering the damn thing.

Or better yet, maybe instead of thinking we’re going to sweep all the RINOs out overnight, maybe we should try to build more support over time and accept we’re going to have to put up with a few RINOs from certain places (howdy Massachusetts) and that while that might not be ideal, a Scott Brown is infinitely better than a Ted Kennedy and count our blessings.

Then maybe as our support grows over the years, our wing of the GOP will as well, until we are hopefully a strong, firm majority in the party, and in the country.

But that’s going to take time, and doing things like, you know, stepping out of the echo chambers and actually educating people about our beliefs.

It’s going to take time. But let’s not cut off our dicks just because we can’t date the prom queen yet.
Bob Belvedere
July 26th, 2011 @ 8:57 pm

It’s always better to be underestimated.
Adjoran
July 27th, 2011 @ 10:24 am

It’s best to be misunderestimated.
Adjoran
July 27th, 2011 @ 10:26 am

Gee, it’s been 100+ heat index all summer, it would be suicidal to hold rallies like that.

The leftists missed that point because they’ve already been out in the hot sun too long.