Friday, April 16, 2010

Tea Partying Questions

NBC reported Thursday evening that 18% of the public in a poll identified with the Tea Party.

And let's be honest: their rallies are not drawing huge crowds.

So why are media paying so much attention to every rally?

Angry tea partiers say they want their country back: Why didn't we hear these complaints when Pres. George Bush ran up the deficit with two wars paid for on credit, or when the Medicare drug program - - a new and costly government entitlement - - was instituted, or when the bank bailout (TARP) was created, or when the housing crisis blew up?

Why the anger now?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you didn't hear the complaints you weren't listening. Everybody realizes the Bush administration took a financial nose dive. What really set it off was the current administration having control of the house and senate and deciding to make it exponentially worse. The "What about Bush?" argument was used alot at the rally on Thursday. I had no idea the liberals were so concerned about overspending. If they had put together a rally, I would have been there. All I recall was anti war demonstrations which have disappeared now that Mr. Obama is in office. The war is still going on , isn't it? So the real question is not where the tea party was, but where is the left now? Are they happy?

Anon Jim said...

James – being a progressive, especially a fiscal progressive, one realizes you are not going to understand the Tea Party. You were probably even 'amused" by the rallies of the last week like President Obama was.

Having said that you should at least remember recent history, in that the Tea Party movement has been in existence for over a year now and was in response to the series of fiscal events starting with the housing crisis (I.E. Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac failing thank you Chris Dodd and Barney Frank), the bank bailouts, the GM/Chrysler bailout, and the cherry on top - the $800B non-stimulus package.

An orgy of debt, bailouts, and reckless spending.

So you might ask "Why still the anger?", but to think that this is only a current phenomenon makes you sound clueless.

As far as why the Tea Party is getting so much media attention, according to the NYT/CBS poll that 18% trends (1) older, (2) higher educated, and (3) higher income.

In other words people who vote in droves.

One other trend is most actually work for a living and are unable to attend a rally on Thursday in April.

I know I wasn’t able to even though I would have liked to.

STM/BFTG