Friday, July 29, 2011

Holding the Line

It's not in the way you look
Or the things that you'll say that you'll do
--Toto

Some of the earliests posts about the Tea Party on these pages suggested that Tea Party philosophy was not a good fit w/ old school Republicans. This is because at its heart, today's Republican Party is Big Government, thereby placing it near the Democrat Party on the political landscape.

Old school Republicans made friends with Tea Party types at the time because, in true the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend fashion, they saw an opportunity to ride the coat tails of a growing social movement to oust some Democrats last November.

Predictably, Tea Party electee pledges not to be co-opted by the Old Guard have increasingly drawn fire from the Old Guard, probably because veteran Republicans figured that they could get the incomers to cross over by now.

By and large, however, Tea Party people in Congress have stood pretty fast. Currently, they are spoiling House Speaker John Boehner's sprint toward a Big Government solution to the debt ceiling issue. And old school Republicans are voicing frustrations of the Tea Partier's failure to fall in line.

Should the Tea Partiers somehow resist the intensifying political pressure and successfully thwart a debt ceiling increase, then they will have facilitated two heroic outcomes: 1) a course reversal away from squalor and toward prosperity, and 2) waning influence of old school Republicans.

11 comments:

dgeorge12358 said...

The Republicans’ goal is to reduce the public role in the lives of the American people.
~Nancy Pelosi, July 29, 2011

fordmw said...

If that were only true...

katie ford hall said...

Just wanted to point out (again) that referring to "The Democrat Party" is a Rush Limbaugh-style pedagogical trick. It's the "Democratic Party."

fordmw said...

Enlighten me. Why is this a 'trick?'

katie ford hall said...

I think if you can explain why you have (more than once) called them "The Democrat Party" instead of by their actual name, you could answer that question.

fordmw said...

It simply appeals to my desire for parallel form...more consistent with what we call the individual members in each group (Democrats and Republicans).

Would I be more politically correct (!) if I ditched the caps?

katie ford hall said...

You could just as easily have chosen another way of defining consistency. After all, the English language is a pretty disjointed system.

In the interest of consistency, instead of renaming the Democratic Party, you could have renamed Republicans "Republics."

But you didn't. You chose to rename the party that you most disagree with (!) according to a random naming convention. Why is that?

What on earth does political correctness (whatever that means) have to do with calling a group of people by the name they have chosen?

If you meet someone who calls herself Sally, but you think it makes more sense to call her Janet, is that appropriate? Is that what you perceive "political correctness" to be?

It pretty well known that shysters on the right try to use that term to belittle Democrats by trying to remove any association between the Democratic Party and democracy. That way, it's easier to call them names and accuse them of hating America.

And, by the way, deflecting legitimate questions by trying to label them under the mysterious "political correctness" label is the name thing.

I think it's beneath you to stoop to such silliness.

katie ford hall said...

Here's a pretty comprehensive wiki on the subject:

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(phrase)[/url]


If you chose to continue to use the incorrect party name, I think that you lose credibility if you chose to call those who govern us childish.

katie ford hall said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
katie ford hall said...

User error on the link...

Link

fordmw said...

Hey, however you want to play it kid...

I do have to chuckle, however, given the evolving thoughtstream on this site related to democracy.

http://mindandmarket.blogspot.com/search/label/democracy