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Conservative Republican Tea Party Pourback?
Could some of the images risk turning off independent voters?
12 Responses to “Conservative Republican Tea Party Pourback?”
“Cons[ervatives are] finding out why I generally don't like protests on my side,” Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsos said in a post-tea party tweet. “[T]hey bring out the wackos.”
Funny though, I don't remember a lot of moderates feeling that they could never support the ideals of leftist protestors because the wackos were involved.
I'm pretty sure heavy circulation of that would turn off a lot of independents. HuffPo tells us the Repubs and all of those tea partiers are crazies. On the other hand, the Right responds with this:
http://race42008.com/2009/04/17/one-of-the-most…
So let me get this straight. Independents are going to leave one group of crazies for another group of crazies? No wonder why so many people are cynics.
If one of these two parties could just stop demonizing the other then maybe they would actually start to attract independents. The way it is now, these two parties only seem to attract the independents who are just more disgusted with the other party.
Funny though, I don't remember a lot of moderates feeling that they could never support the ideals of leftist protestors because the wackos were involved.
CStanley now you're engaging in the “your side did it too!” argument.
I agree with you though that crazies are part of all demonstrations, and the argument that they may turn people off will always apply.
So, I'm making a bogus argument but you basically agree with it?
If I thought that the crazies weren't being pointed out for a specific intent, I'd let it go without comment, but it's pretty transparent whenever someone on either side hypes the fringe elements of a movement. I've said before and I'll repeat that people like Michelle Malkin do this all of the time- focusing her readers on the fringe left lunatics. I just hope that moderates can see that the extremists on the right are the mirror of those on the left, so it doesn't really make sense to reject a movement on that basis.
So unless someone has some evidence that the majority of the 250,000 who rallied on Wed were like those examples, why should we be seeing them paraded here?
to paraphrase and old actor/politician: “I didn't leave the republican party – they left me.”
Hmm. I replied via email to the Disqus notification and either the post is tied up or it didn't go through. My apologies in advance if this ends up as a double post.
Dagoat- so you're saying that my argument is bogus but you agree with it?
I wouldn't make the point at all if there was any legitimate reason to highlight the fringe elements at the rallies. But I see it as the mirror image of what people on the right like Michelle Malkin do constantly- trying to discredit her ideological opposition by ridicule or by painting them all with a broad brush of extremism.
I would hope that moderates can see that that's not the case in a right wing demonstration (despite the usual suspects taking part) any more than it is for left wing demonstrations. If moderates who opposed the war felt comfortable demonstrating alongside Code Pink or Cindy Sheehan, then I don't see why it matters at all that a minority of the Tea party protesters were kooks. I presume no one is trying to make the case that the majority of the 250,000 were like those examples.
And right on cue, my other comment shows up. Like washing your car before a rainstorm.
Yeah – I found it pretty amusing that HotAir.com (a Malkin site) got up in arms about CNN focusing on right-wing wackos when they do it all the time for left-wing wackos.
(That said, the CNN report was lousy. It was just hard to take seriously the hypocritical HotAir complaints about it.)
Ah hell CStanley I don't know what I meant, it seemed to make sense at the time. I think it's more that I agree with you on the position but am tired of the endless partisan haggling that I thought your “Funny though” comment was drifting towards. Reading it again I don't think that's what you were trying to do.
I do agree there are always kooks at the demonstrations and they are hopefully not representative of most demonstrators. Both “sides” like to spotlight the kooks to discredit the other.
Could a constant drumbeat of biased reporting from supposedly centrist sources also be turning off real moderate readers?
If an independent voter trusted the objectiveness of the Huff Post, I put forth that that voter was never independent. Get the whole story not the one trumpted by the Huff Post or CNN without verification. Independents are generally better informed as a group, I doubt there will be much impact, Independents want issues not propaganda.
DaGoat- LOL, no problem, I was just giving you a hard time.