Tea Party is dead, huh? They're the only ones standing up to it!

[RobertNashville]

I don't vote for any of them. It's a useless act. I'll sit and wait. The Reps have to dilute them or the Dems will use them to steal the election. Just another "let's both whip it out and piss on the little kid" story. IMHO, hope for a responsible goobernut died loooooooooong ago. Ignorance allowed it to happen, will maintain it and secure it till the fats lady sings. And don't bother wastin' your typin' hand on bashin' me for not votin'. I maintain my right to "not" be a part of the problem so overlooked.

I am not at the point where I don't vote...in fact I believe I've only missed two elections in my whole life and those were primaries and while I was deployed.

 

That said...I'm finding fewer and fewer reasons to believe that there are enough good candidates who actually win to make a difference (assuming they even bother to keep to the principles they claim they have).

[Guest Bonedaddy]

There lies the problem. There hasn't been anyone good to elect in many, many moons. People keep electin' politicians. They don't/won't work for our country as it's supposed to be. Greed and avarice is all that has mattered for centuries, now. Even "if" you found one, he/she still couldn't dent the status quo and one never will be able to. Libertarian is closer to my idealogy but they have nothin' to offer, if just for sh*ts and giggles, either. Rand....doubtful. Much rather it be Ron but he might lock up and fall over before he made another feel good speech. Ask some KT folks what they think of Rand that aren't on his political bandwagon.

[Worriedman]

suggest that the Tea Party would be better served joining with an established political party that shares their values instead of affiliating with the Republicans in an effort to change them.

 

And just who would that be? 

 

Are you seriously suggesting that the Libertarians are an "established political party"? How many elected representatives at any level identify with the "Libertarian Party"?

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Instead of attempting to find a way to merge thoughts, Wes tells the Tea Party crowd they are so blindly in hatred

of Obama that they see no wrong with Republicans. He should have just come out and call them idiots, like he thinks

of them. The one recent group that has gotten candidates in the arena and elected, some good and others not, and

he calls them idiots. Oh, my!

 

I guess reason and logic is out of the question, then. The clock will run down and arrogance will keep it the way it is.

I'm sorry to hear that. Someone could use another handler.

 

I think the only way to libertarianism will be societal destruction if you don't get to the playing field.

[Guest Bonedaddy]

Yep. Death of it all is how I see it, too. "If" it were possible, these daze and it's not, you could pull a Hitler with the right intentions on their butts but power tends to corrupt even the most well intended, almost as bad as money does.

[East_TN_Patriot]

And just who would that be? 

 

Are you seriously suggesting that the Libertarians are an "established political party"? How many elected representatives at any level identify with the "Libertarian Party"?

Yes, I am seriously suggesting that the Libertarians are an "established political party".  They have been officially in existence since 1971, they have put a candidate on the presidential ballot during every election cycle, and Gary Johnson garnered the most votes of any third party during the last election.  Considering polls of Tea Party supporters in 2010 showed that around 40 percent of the movement considered themselves libertarians, I think your understanding of what the movement is - or at least what it was - is inaccurate.  

The LP reports 139 Libertarians currently hold office in various state and local offices, but only compiles the list as people submit information to the national party.  

How's your Tea Party working out?  Many that were elected in 2010 are no longer in office and those that are still in office have effectively been shunned by the Republican Party or have turned into statist Republicans including the Tea Party poster child Marco Rubio (it was only a couple years ago all the Tea Partiers were begging him to run for POTUS).  None of their policy proposals have gotten any traction.  Their fringe issues, like the Obama birth certificate silliness, these absurd "citizen's grand jury" indictments, and calls for "nullification" of federal laws, and has alienated many supporters and has been blamed for Republican losses in many elections including the loss of the Republican majority in the New Hampshire state house.  Tack on the reality that Tea Party candidates are backed by the same big-money corporate interests that the populist element of the Tea Party claims to eschew, it's obvious why the movement is largely irrelevant.

As I see it, the majority of Tea Party supporters in this country are simply Republicans who are bent out of shape over Obama (rightly so) and don't really have any intentions or plans to reform anything.  They just want to elect politicians who will yell loudly about how crappy Obama is whether they are qualified to hold office or have any viable policy ideas or not.  They still want to fight wars all over the globe, still want to pour tax dollars into an over-funded military, still want to pour billions of dollars into the drug war, still want to use government to dictate to people how to live, still want to use government to suppress political dissent, and still want to use government to support programs and businesses they agree with.  The Tea Party supporters who are genuinely for smaller government abandoned the movement a couple of years ago when they saw it was going to be the same old neocon BS, especially the kind we saw in the late 1980s-1990s when the Republicans were in bed with the Christian Coalition.  

The Libertarian plan is to take over the world and leave you alone.  

Speaking of Rubio, I'll just share this little gem:

Midterms 2010: Tea Party 'Crown Prince’ Marco Rubio wins The Republicans’ Cuban-American rising star has been elected Senator for Florida, and tipped as a future US president.

[RobertNashville]

Yes, the Libertarian Party is an established political party; and a pretty ineffective one overall. 139 Libertarians holding office is good but out of how many available (I've heard of estimates as high as 500,000)?

 

The "Tea Party" is not and I hope never becomes an established political party...they don't need to be...that isn't their purpose. Since they aren't a political party comparing them to the Libertarian, Democrat, or Republican party is a fairly worthless comparison.

 

As to Rubio, he's a disaster but is it the Tea Party's fault that he  turned out to be a liar? Perhaps rather than citing old stories about Rubio you might want to look for stories about how those who identify themselves as members of the Tea Party (like me) feal about the SOB now.

Surely there have been Libertarians who promised one thing and then showed their real stripes later hasn't there????  Rand Paul is no better...he was supporting the Immigration Bill too and he's made it pretty clear that he is on board with something similar to what was passed so as far as I'm concerned, Paul is just as bad and as tarnished as Rubio at this point and I'll never vote for him (which is sad because I was really liking him then).

Edited July 9, 2013 by RobertNashville

[Worriedman]

I can not remember when I was able to vote "for" anyone on a national level, I have been voting "against" the worst candidate, hoping to forestall the inevitable I suppose.

 

I do not see that getting any better in the near future.
 

I will never again donate time and money to a national party, I will choose the individual and work for those I can, and against those that I have to.

[tnguy]

I think the tea party was a good idea when it was just about taxes. But it was obvious that it was going to get subverted within a short period of time. And it has been. A couple of weeks ago there was an ad on the radio from (a) tea party talking about guns and the second amendment for heavens sake. That's *NOT* a tax issue.