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TOPIC: "Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty" (MotherJones, 8/3/10)


Diamond

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"Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty" (MotherJones, 8/3/10)
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Read @ MotherJones.com

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

BobInglis300x200.jpg

GOP Rep. Bob Inglis slams Republican demagoguery, bemoans anti-Semitic tea party conspiracy nonsense, decries Sarah Palin’s ignorance, and looks for a job.

— By David Corn

Tue Aug. 3, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

It was the middle of a tough primary contest, and Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) had convened a small meeting with donors who had contributed thousands of dollars to his previous campaigns. But this year, as Inglis faced a challenge from tea party-backed Republican candidates claiming Inglis wasn't sufficiently conservative, these donors hadn't ponied up. Inglis' task: Get them back on the team. "They were upset with me," Inglis recalls. "They are all Glenn Beck watchers." About 90 minutes into the meeting, as he remembers it, "They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'" Inglis didn't know how to respond.

As he tells this story, the veteran lawmaker is sitting in his congressional office, which he will have to vacate in a few months. On June 22, he was defeated in the primary runoff by Spartanburg County 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy, who had assailed Inglis for supposedly straying from his conservative roots, pointing to his vote for the bank bailout and against George W. Bush's surge in Iraq. Inglis, who served six years in Congress during the 1990s as a conservative firebrand before being reelected to the House in 2004, had also ticked off right-wingers in the state's 4th Congressional District by urging tea-party activists to "turn Glenn Beck off" and by calling on Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) to apologize for shouting "You lie!" at Obama during the president's State of the Union address. For this, Inglis, who boasts (literally) a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, received the wrath of the tea party, losing to Gowdy 71 to 29 percent. In the weeks since, Inglis has criticized Republican House leaders for acquiescing to a poisonous, tea party-driven "demagoguery" that he believes will undermine the GOP's long-term credibility. And he's freely recounting his frustrating interactions with tea party types, while noting that Republican leaders are pushing rhetoric tainted with racism, that conservative activists are dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense, and that Sarah Palin celebrates ignorance.

The week after that meeting with his past funders—whom he failed to bring back into the fold—Inglis asked House Republican leader John Boehner what he would have told this group of Obama-bashers. Inglis recalls what happened:

[Boehner] said, "I would have told them that it's not quite that bad. We disagree with him on the issues." I said, "Hold on Boehner, that doesn't work. Let me tell you, I tried that and it did not work." I said [to Boehner], "If you're going to lead these people and the fearful stampede to the cliff that they're heading to, you have to turn around and say over your shoulder, 'Hey, you don't know the half of it.'"

In other words, feed and fuel the anger and paranoia of the right.

Full article @ MotherJones.com

======================================

This 2-page article is worth reading with some real seriousness.

Bob Inglis is a center-right moderate.  Yes, he lost and I bet there was a lot to his loss than just Tea Party. That said, there are a lot of honest down-home truths in that article that made me sit back and re-read it.

I concluded that Tea Party's blind and ignorant conservatism is not good for the country in a two-party system where the "Independent" portrays itself as more conservative than the Republican party, it is a real mistake to think of Tea Party as group that Moderates belong to.   Yes, there is a huge overlap between Moderates and Independents, but no, Tea Party is not a movement of the Moderates.

If we get a major Repub victory in Gov, Senate and House races, we are going to end up with Repub party being swung to the far right and a nation where the rich become richer by bigger margins and a larger portion of the middle class slides down as the poor become poorer (as you consider the Cost of Living impact).  Besides, you have social agenda impact to consider which is really big.

I am honestly quite concerned about the upcoming elections.  I hope people look at every candidate on the slate and make good considered decision based on everything about the candidate and their platform, their history of INDIVIDUAL performance with respect to their constituency before deciding.


[corrected title]

-- Edited by Sanders on Friday 6th of August 2010 01:24:39 PM

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Democracy is more than just elections - SOS Hillary Clinton, Oct 28, 2010

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Platinum

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RE: " =Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty" (MotherJones, 8/3/10)
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Sanders, this is sour grapes on his part....especially coming from Mother Jones.  That said, I told off a Michelle Buchanan caller a few weeks ago, too.

I think the Tea Party has been hijacked by the conservatives, but if they can reclaim their ORIGINAL intent...get the feds off our backs and out of our wallets...I would again support them.  I was pretty impressed with the Tea Party last summer when they proved they knew more about the healthcare bill than the folks that voted for it.

But the way they have toe-dipped into the social issues because of the conservative take-over, they have lost my support.

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I'm with you, VotedHillary. The Tea Party should stick to fiscal issues. They also need to do a better job of vetting the candidates they support (Sharron Angle, anybody?) and keep the racists, the homophobes, the paranoid schizophrenics, and the rest of the lunatic fringe on the, well, fringe.

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Amen to the above. Initially, the Tea Party was against the stimulus. Fine - many of us were. But, to go so far to the right is just reactionary and opportunistic. When the Tea Party movement began, moderates of both parties could identify. That's no longer the case.

If the Pubs were smart, they'd stay in the center. By doing so, they would continue to attract Indys - which both parties need in order to win. But, they never can resist the urge to go bat sh** crazy. The right wing nuts always take over.

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Diamond

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RE: "Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty" (MotherJones, 8/3/10)
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freespirit wrote:

Amen to the above. Initially, the Tea Party was against the stimulus. Fine - many of us were. But, to go so far to the right is just reactionary and opportunistic. When the Tea Party movement began, moderates of both parties could identify. That's no longer the case.

If the Pubs were smart, they'd stay in the center. By doing so, they would continue to attract Indys - which both parties need in order to win. But, they never can resist the urge to go bat sh** crazy. The right wing nuts always take over.


Yep, I agree.   As Dems have shifted further leftward, Pubs are shifting rightward with Tea Party and have really lost the center.  It is really nutty to think they dont understand strategy!

 



__________________
Democracy needs defending - SOS Hillary Clinton, Sept 8, 2010
Democracy is more than just elections - SOS Hillary Clinton, Oct 28, 2010

Madam Secretary Blog at ForeignPolicy.com
Project Vote Smart - Stay informed and engaged!
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