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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The tea partiers get a NYTimes article

The NYTimes runs a piece claiming that the teapartiers are trying to take over the GOP from the precincts up.

We'll see....

6 Comments:

  • That's how the creationists and Fundies did it with public school boards...

    By Blogger -epm, at 6:49 AM  

  • Yeah, but that was pretty much their top achievement. School boards weren't just a stepping stone to higher influence. Here, they will face establishment pressure from the top down.

    Also, regarding school boards. Houston has dozens of little districts and we were one of the first places they really pushed into the school boards.

    However, they're mostly gone now, as the megachurches and other folks started Christian private schools, alot of the crazy oparents moved their kids and went with them.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:19 AM  

  • Yeah, but look at the Republican's in Congress... Deniers of evolution, human contribution to climate change... Calling embryo's "children" and ranting against stem cell research, let alone abortion. So these may not be the same fundi individuals who were on those school boards, but they're their kindred spirits.

    And these Republicans and Teabaggers can't create their own private schools (though some talked of secession early on) their only hope is revolution... And their not all that troubled by this whole "democracy" thing getting in their way either.

    I may be putting too fine a point on it, but there is something very visceral -- and very wrong -- going on here.

    By Blogger -epm, at 9:07 AM  

  • Oh yeah. I'm definitely not trying to deny they're having influence.

    What I'm arguing is that a direct coordinated effort to take over the GOP will run into alot of entrenched power with alot of tools built over time to help them stay in power that won't yield easily.

    I certainly think they influence. There's no denying that, but their influence is more a matter of ballot box, propaganda, and noise than an ability to "take over" the party.

    (Important. I'm talking about the outsider "tea party" folks, not conservatives or conservative ideology. The conservatives are clearly at the table/in the driving seat. The tea partiers are another level outside.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:17 AM  

  • I haven't read this article yet but I imagine the attention the NY Times is paying to this is probably related to David Brooks' recently-expressed conviction that the tea-baggers are going to be a force. I usually agree with Brooks but this opinion disappoints me. Since their power is related to their publicity, predicting that they will be influential is adding to the probability that they will be that.
    MC

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:32 AM  

  • I think they'll be influential, but I'm not sure they can be coordinated enough to channel into one commandable bloc. I think they'll definitely play a role in primaries and be able to influence platform stuff, I'm just not sure they can coordinate into one machine. I mean, they haven't even been able to coordinate into one "tea party" group.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:00 PM  

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