If the Tea Party Were Liberal (Guest Voice)
RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch
If the Tea Party Were Liberal
by Tina Dupuy
Just imagine there was a giant swarm of super-super liberal freshmen in Congress. They had given the President a “shellacking,” secured a large number of seats in the House of Representatives and had been on the job for eight months. Just a bunch of lockstep liberals clogging up the Capitol.
In that time, they’d done amazingly little work while cashing their government paychecks. Sure, they’re supposed to represent a nation still wounded from the worst economic disaster in two generations. Instead they spend all of their time debating and passing symbolic go-nowhere bills while going on television to blame the economy on the President. That’s when they’re not on recess. These freshmen hate Washington so much they’re almost never there.
Oh, and their battle cry while doing nothing which keeps the government from functioning? “Washington is broken!”
These imagined liberal freshmen are extremists. They’ve already signed a pledge with a liberal lobbyist saying that they will not — under any circumstances whatsoever — cut, alter or in any way change social safety nets. So whatever burning national issue of overriding importance comes up their only solution is to adhere to their lobbyist’s pledge.
The Smurfs use the word “smurf” for all verbs. As in: “I’m going to smurf you!” These extreme no-lawmakers use “social security.” As in: “We can social security our way out of this crisis.”
And they want to re-write the Constitution. Yes, they say it’s a great document (blah blah blah) but it would be much better if it were amended to suit their sole goal of bringing down the incumbent President. So since the last amendment took 203 years from proposal to ratification — they decide no one can do anything until we have another amendment.
Then the polls say that Congress’ approval rating is at an all time low. The margin of error looks more favorably on the Congress than the American public. As a direct result of the brazen incompetence and blind ideology – a rating agency downgrades the country’s Treasuries. The stock market tumbles. These liberal tea party-like folks are caught on video cheering at the news of the chaos they’ve caused.
If they were liberals – Fox News would run headlines: “Liberals Hate America.” Well, basically Fox News would say pretty much the same stuff, but in this case it would be warranted.
These liberal obstructionists would be called terrorists. Not just maybe once in a private off the record meeting with the VP — but on the record and all the time. Since these liberal freshmen would seem to have the same economic goals for the U.S. as Osama bin Laden — that would be pointed out repeatedly. They’d be accused of treason. Their loyalty would be questioned: “Are they upholding the Constitution or their pledge?” There would be calls to deport them. People would tell them to leave the country and go wreck some other economy. They’d be dubbed a hoard of Neros fiddling with their pledges while Rome burned.
If liberals were doing to their country what extremist tea party Republicans are doing to theirs — it would be called unpatriotic. A whole tsunami of sound bites would sweep the country calling for the sabotage to stop.
Liberal dissent is akin to a security breach but conservative economic calamity is given a pass. We’ve treated the tea party like they are our country’s kooky, graying, drunken uncle at Thanksgiving dinner spouting some non sequiturs he picked up on AM radio. When really they are well-funded economic saboteurs who refuse to participate in the democratic process. Their goal of causing the executive branch of government to fail means our entire country goes with it.
The media likes to pretend it treats the political spectrum as opposite equals. The right is the same as the left — the other side of the same argument. Politics is not symmetrical nor is the coverage of the partisans. Nothing makes this clearer than the coverage and tolerance of the brinksmanship-happy tea party.
If liberals did this to their own country they’d be called criminals. The tea party did do this to their own country and they are treated like avant-garde Civil War reenactors.
© Copyright 2011 TinaDupuy.com, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Her column is licensed to run on TMV in full. Tina Dupuy is an award-winning writer and fill-in host at The Young Turks. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com.
17 Responses to “If the Tea Party Were Liberal (Guest Voice)”
Well of course this is all true but we are all supposed to actively ignore this truth to prop up the myth of a “liberal media” still existing like it did back in the 80′s.
“Liberal dissent is akin to a security breach but conservative economic calamity is given a pass.”
Bingo.
For some, the belief that we already had the equivalent of the Tea Party Liberals in congress happened from 2008-2010. That’s when the Obamacare bill passed with no input allowed from the ultra liberals, Obama told McCain that the election was over and to get over it and the liberals passed everything on party line votes.
So now we have a group that were voted in by their constituents who knew up front that their candidate would vote against spending and tax increases and the left is screaming.
So, like Obama told McCain, the election of 2010 is history, the Tea Party won enough seats to cause a shift in the house due to the liberals railroading everything down the moderates and conservatives throats so GET OVER IT!!!
There is another election coming up in 15 months and let your voice be heard. If you do not like what happened in 2011, vote for someone else just like the voters did in 2010.
What hogwash. The Democrats in Congress are today exactly what this writer posits. Liberal statists who refuse to make any changes to SS or medicare.
The Tea Party in general does not think that all the social spending is constitutional. They have seen that every time taxes are raised that spending goes up more.
Every single day 10,000 citizens become eligible for SS and Medicare and it is going to increase. The economic zugzwang moment has been reached.
I guess this means all the “if this were Bush” complaints are OK now.
“For some, the belief that we already had the equivalent of the Tea Party Liberals in congress happened from 2008-2010.”
Belief does not equal reality ya know. It may have “felt” or “seemed” that way but now it actually is that way, happy now? The fun part comes if the left gets so angry and flipped out that they break out their own pledges and throw an equivalent punch or worse since that is how the game of one upsmanship is played. Moderates vote for what they think is a generic Dem that turns out to be a mirror image of the Teahadists equally willing to burn the nation to the ground if they do not get their way 100%.
The GOP has just taken a hit in the debt limit game that looks like after the Clinton impeachment, I would not be daring the left to reverse the 2010 election results when that is increasingly seeming rather likely.
DaGoat-I suppose though this is the first time I have seen the comparison of the TP to the extreme left while I have yet to see a week roll by without a “if this were Bush” story that is usually discussed on many right wing blogs and then in right wing media.
MSF you’re right, though I don’t see where the frequency of the complaint has any bearing on its legitimacy. Everybody uses the argument “if this were blah blah, then blah blah blah” including myself. It’s kind of a weak way to argue a point and I always feel a little guilty when I do. Kind of like complaining “it’s not fair!” to your parents and stomping off.
DaGoat-I actually think frequency matters a good deal. To often and it sounds shrill pitiful and full of “its not fair!!??!!” To be reminded every once and a while that parties and groups are treated differently and treated in manners that the general public seems to miss is what I call educational/interesting.
For instance in the 2008 contest I thought many examples of the Ron Paul double standard were interesting but eventually went into the realm of shrill.
If the Tea Party were liberal, the same things would be said, but by different people. Both parties would simply switch sides on rhetoric. For the talk about truth and principal, it all is just and excuse for partisan attacks.
Wonder what it would be like to live in a country where people were issue oriented instead of tribe oriented? Sure would be nice to find out. Some other lifetime I reckon..
I have to laugh, as the far left is the outlier and the extremist fact, spectacle, and problem.
Extremists in whatever stripe, color, creed or affiliation are a threat everywhere, whether local or foreign. When they win, America lose.
Since the editors or administrators have a problem with one comment I posted, which is in no way controversial or provocative (i.e., we distinguish between same and different, us versus them), maybe once more (I’ve linked to this before) this will help some.
http://www.amazon.com/Us-Them-Identity-David-Berreby/dp/0226044653/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227025149&sr=1-1
Hopefully this will indeed help (again).
DLS, it’s interesting you show concern for(or at least awareness of) the us and them “coding” that goes on (consciously or unconsciously) – and I share that concern and interest. That said, I respectfully suggest that it seems utterly unrelated to your ability or desire for objectivity – or even control over the extreme antipathy you so relentlessly exhibit toward anyone and anything you perceive as liberal. I’m probably not the only one here to find that dichotomy perplexing – and frustrating.
It’s an imperfect world, Spence, and no doubt others also err in such or in a similar way.
That’s about the most glib way of passing off accountability I could imagine.