The Tea Party
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-12/tea-party
Diane hosts a conversation about the evolution of the Tea Party movement. We discuss it's goals, who belongs and how it’s shaking up the political establishment.
Guests
Kate Zernike
a national correspondent for The New York Times and member of the team that shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Her book, "Boiling Mad -Inside Tea Party America" will be published in September.
Matt Kibbe
president and CEO of FreedomWorks and co-author with Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of the forthcoming book, "Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto"
Diana Reimer
an organizer with Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots
Ryan Hecker
an attorney, a Houston Tea Party Society activist and an organizer of the Contract From America Project.
Comments
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Very good show.
These people's views don't sound too radical at all. I signed the Contract from America during the show.
Thanks,
Larry
Texas
I have 4 comments:
1) I don't hear the tea party being against defense spending or the funding of two wars.
2)I agree the deficit has to be controlled, but now is not the time in this great recession.
3)Like former president Bush, I am against bailing out institutions, but the recession would be a depression if they were allowed to fail. Bush made the right choice.
4)Most states require auto insurance, so what's the big deal about requiring health insurance by the Federal Government
One of the callers said that "we are the government". That's patently false and the entire point of the current discussion.
We kicked out the Republicans BECAUSE of runaway spending an got this current batch of politicians.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
The Tea Party has a Clear Allegiance: The Rich, Oil and Coal
The primary funding sources for the Tea Party Oil Industry Funded conservative groups:
“Americans for Prosperity”, “FreedomWorks”, “Cato Institute”, “American Enterprise institute” and the “Heritage foundation”.
which receive substantial funding from Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco and David Koch of Koch Industries, the largest privately-held energy company in the country, and the conservative Koch Family Foundations. Koch industries are responsible for hundreds of Oil spills spread over multiple states.
I agree. Usually, both sides of any controversial issue are present on the show. What happened??
I'm with you on some of that but point 4. The point of the health care bill isn't to ensure health care. It's to cause the expansion of gov't pools to the exclusion of private enterprise EXPRESSLY for the purpose of turning the system into single payer where we have no choice, and no freedom.
I don't have insurance, and I'm not trying to protect the status quo. I lament the erosion of our freedom so others can have security. Before long we'll have neither.
Long time listener to the show; first time commenter here.
I dislike that the "reply" button does not post the reply below the comment, but puts the reply in with all the comments, so it doesn't make sense as a stand alone.
Now I know to reference the original comment when I reply, but webmasters - can you fix it??
The Tea Party is fighting for what's best for Wall Street Criminals, for Oil and Coal Industry Criminal negligence resulting in Deaths and Pollution, and the Policies that allow them to continue doing so Without Oversight or Regulation. The Tea Party leaderships question is always; how can I pass Oil, Coal, and Gas Pollution and Poisons onto the Public without making the Polluters pay for it? How can I make believe there is no man made global warming?
Tea Party Crowd has little empathy for anyone else, yet is quick to ask for Federal Welfare when there is an Oil spill, Flood, Tornado, or Tropical Storm etc., in their Backyard as is happening right now in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Apparently Freedom Works need some education themselves: Thomas Jefferson was in favor of reviewing the Constitution and making sure it reflected the times.
The Tea Party is not populated by people who never participated. The Tea Party is populated by people who do not know much about history, civics and civility. The Tea Party is guided by savvy politicians who use the very dedicated and uneducated people to advance agendas long known to anyone who is informed in this Country politics.
The reason why I cannot bring myself to believe in what they say they are fighting for is: did they really believe the wars and the tax cuts that were never paid for and not even included in the budget would pay for themselves? If they never thought about that, well, sorry, but it only shows that there isn't a lot of thinking going on there and if they did and remained silent for all hte Bush years, they are just hypocrits.
The people that call themselves "tea Partiers" are not moved by reason or the Constitution. They are just pupets in the hands of politicians and organised policy makers that play with people's emotions
Like barefoot, but hate my Vibram. Takes forever to put on and doesn't make sense to put sleeves on toes.
Doesn't a basketball sneaker do the same, but adds a little cushion? Basketball sneakers do not elevate any part of the foot.
I know that the Scotch-Irish were horribly abused as a people, but I think it's time that we stop their (to generalise horribly) mistaking truculence for argument, and privileging the 'gut' over the brain. No-one with nukes should think that way.
(I see the teabaggers as Andrew Jackson's voters, looking for a new group to treat as the Cherokee.)
Poor choice of guests today, unfortunately.
The only information about the tea party movement came from emailers.
One very thoughtful e-mail observed that the tea partiers didn't complain until there was a DEMOCRATIC president. The "neutral" NYT reporter changed this to the charge that they opposed Obama because he is BLACK. The e-mail said ZERO about race, didn't even get close.
The NYT reporter's spin was so effective at missing the point that she might as well have been on the show as a tea party representative.
Need another show with guests that are allowed to evaluate the tea party movement honestly. (i.e. from a publication other than NYT, Wash Post, etc.)
Many Tea Party enthusiasts seem to be, like the caller who just became politically active for the "first time," newly reformed political freeloaders. Although many seem to be motivated by exaggerated fear and anger, it is a very good sign that they are beginning to pay attention. We need more citizens to get interested, get educated and get active in order to protect democracy from the plutocracy.
Why do most of the Tea Party Members I have talked to immediately start in on overthrowing the government along with throwing out all sorts of half truth information?
i find it interesting that so many tea party members are military or ex military. hello, the military is run and paid for by the government. these people are paid by the government, shop at government grocery stores, use government medical care and when they retire still receive money from the government. how can these people be screaming for less government when they are totally dependant on the military and the wars that we continue to get involved in at the expense of our nation. a lot of people work hard their whole life and don’t end up with what people who work for the government end up with. you can’t have it both ways, be anti government but make a living off the government. I think these people are a bunch of hypocrites.
The Tea Party thinks that they are "students of history" by reverting back to what they think the Constitution mandates, weak federal government and decentralized power. But the Constitution was written for precisely the OPPOSITE purpose. It was re-written to strengthen the federal government from the way it was instituted in the Articles of Confederation! If the Tea Party members stepped back and actually studied the philosophies that inspired the Constitution, i.e. Hobbes' "Leviathan," Locke, et al, and the problems with the anti-federalist philosophy of the Articles, maybe they would have more historically relevant views. One can't simply invoke historically-charged rhetoric and claim to be advocating what the Founders intended.
It took awhile for me to digest what was said on today's show. It would have been nice to have an opposing voice on the panel. The rhetoric that the Tea Party espouses is founded on what I like to call the "big lie" which the gentlemen from Texas alluded to. The "big lie" is that government should be be kept small and ineffective and out of the way of private business. This lie has been told so forcefully and so often during the past three decades that it has become conventional wisdom, even most Democrats have bought into it.
The purpose of effective government is to represent the public good in the face of disasters, invading armies, and out of control private interests. Now, more than ever, a strong, effective federal government is needed to keep us competitive in a global economy against other countries who have a clear national vision and are not suffering from the sort of self-identification angst that we go through every few decades. Are we going to move forward as a nation or are we going to devolve into a crazy-quilt of states with thier own agendas. If we choose the latter, the rest of the world is going to "eat our lunch".
Exactly! That quilt of states/local governments with their own agendas is exactly how the country was pre-Constitution (with the Articles)! And the reasons are exactly as you state them; with no single accountable power to address large competing interests, you have no clout or central policy. This is one problem the EU is having. A confederation of nations (or states, or cities, or households) with no overawing policy bound loosely by a currency is like herding cats...
While I understand the dislike of "big government", what puzzles me about this movement is the complete inability to reconcile all the disasters linked to deregulation (less government): increases in utility costs, the whole Enron thing, the housing market disaster and the financial crises. What better demonstration is necessary for people to understand that additional government oversight might have prevented some of these issues? And, while denouncing the entire concept of "bailouts", they fail to explain how America would be better off with even more people out of work and displaced from their homes, with their credit ruined and very slim chances of personal economic recovery in the near future. Should we all be allowed to fail as the price of so-called liberty?
Constitutional interpretation is obviously subjective. How does the tp stand on privacy, for example? Doesn't that split small government and constitutional conservatism?
How do you account for the explosion of the homeless population during and since the 1980s. I do know that a part of the homeless problem resulted from the deinstitutionalization of many mentally ill patients from, in some cases, their poor, and sometimes horrible care in those institutions. But Reagan and company's small government philosophy lead to a homeless problem that, while not as bad as the problem during the Great Depression, has been the worst since the Great Depression. Many of the victims here were not in mental institutions but in homes, including public housing.
Accounting is a wonderful thing creative accounting is another. Cutting taxes for the rich also cuts income for the government. Regan would cut taxes if there was a equal cut in spending. Bush and his thugs after cutting income spent like drunken sailors. Creative accounting kept it out of the budget fooling some people and paid for the war with allocations.
True conservatives are what the name implies and not supporters of a political self aggrandizing, and radical enriching of the political elite. The rich have gotten richer (a matter of public record ) while the middle class has been raped.
The reversal of Republicans is so dramatic that if Eisenhower or wwII vintage citizens were to try to identify the party by its message or voting they couldn't. The powers quietly usurped from citizens by the religious right are frightening and have been done with quiet compliance from the media.
At this rate our children will wake up to find the liberty there grandfathers fought for are gone ! It is being replaced by the ruling elite governing through multinational corporations who unleash there minions of lobbyists and spin doctors on a shell of a government. A government they used to fear with laws and anti monopoly legislation. A government that outlawed foreign and corporate interference with a government of the people. Sadly we are becoming a nation of the corporation for the corporation and by the corporation. The multinational corporations are buying our politicians.
Fear, war, and unemployment are there tools to divide the citizenry. Militarism and the economic consequences will bankrupt us. One might read a true Republicans fair well address were he warned of this impending danger. The last true Republican Eisenhower who saw the horrors of war and the impact on humanity.
Diane, listening to this show I can only assume that you are sympathetic to the Tea Party, or you were completely bamboozled by your guests. I expect better from you.
This show played like a 40 min commercial for the support of the TP. And the NYT reporter needs to get out more. She needs to get off TP Planet and come back to Earth.
I'm sure the TP feels they landed a huge PR victory by being on your show and getting absolutely no resistance to the outright lies and truth-twisting they just got away with.
Shameful.
Ted in NC
I wish someone had called out Mr. Kibbe on his claim that the financial reform bill will
result in future bailouts. To the contrary it is intended to make future bailouts
unnecessary. Here is an excerpt from the summary of the bill:
"Orderly Shutdown: Creates an orderly liquidation mechanism for the FDIC to unwind failing systemically significant financial companies. Shareholders and unsecured creditors will bear losses and management will be removed."
When confronted about racism by the NAACP (CNN report):
The Tea Party Express, a national Tea Party organization, is angry about the resolution.
"This is indeed the kettle calling the pot black," Mark Williams, national spokesman of the conservative grassroots group, told CNN.
"We're fighting the government programs that have emasculated the black family," Williams said.
He added: "It's the Obama administration that rolled back civil rights to a pre-civil rights era with 'Obamacare' in which they removed the concept of individual rights…it's the Obama administration that put a tax on white people with a tanning salon tax. I mean, this is the kind of stuff the Tea Party movement is fighting. We are fighting for the Constitution of this country, which, by definition, makes this a human rights movement – a civil rights movement."
"It's the 21st century and their rights as humans are absolutely at risk here. And the threat doesn't come from those people who love the Constitution. It comes from those people in power in Washington right now," Williams said.
====
"Obama ... put a tax on white people with a tanning salon tax"
Yeah, that's the kind of stuff the TP is fighting. And you gave them a great platform. Also, I find the term "Obamacare" offensive. Just speaking like that shows no respect for the President and is an inflammatory term. You should've called them out on it.
Diane, I think you did a great job today and I'm sure it wasn't easy for you. However, I learned a lot about this grassroots movement that is sweeping the country though not present where I live.
I think your show is alone in providing more perspectives than are available anywhere else. I think sometimes you divulge your position, or it is reflected in your tone or questions, but I give you a lot of credit for trying to get into these complicated issues in depth.
You'll get some knee-jerk criticism for this show because small-minded, prejudiced people are everywhere, but I really appreciate what you do. Moreover, I would rather hear the newsmakers unfiltered than the journalists that report on them and you and your producers are able to get them on your show. Count me a loyal listener and member.
I am amazed that you presented only one side of this crucial issue. This show was basically an hour long commercial for the Tea Party point of view. There was barely a mention of the alternative view that our current economic crisis is largely the result of too LITTLE government regulation and that the solution to the crisis is more short-term government spending a la the stimulus package, which is pretty much the only thing keeping us out of a full-fledged depression. It distresses me that your show, one of the only non-right wing shows on the air, is just towing the Tea Party line like the rest of the corporate-controlled media. Maybe you could do another show presenting the opposing view point.
these people are all over the spectrum of crazy. in the end rich ad men are selling they lawn signs and t shirts and whipping them into a frenzy to vote the straight wealthy ticket or else freedom loving children in _____ will die.
http://912katy.org/
extremely disappointed in your TP show. Mr.Kibbe compared the requirement that every resident of the US get minimum covergae to a corporation like McDonalds lobbying to have everyone eat a daily hamburger. You did not follow up with him on the stupidity of that analogy. Mr. Hecker said that the Federal govt. is flagrantly infringing on individual rights. Oh please, couldn't you have asked him to name one or two. The govt. took over GM & the Banks (Are the federal bureaucrats running the day to day operations?) It was a bitter pill necessary to prevent total economic collapse, and every sane person knows that in their hearts. Did not press them on the military or military spending, on the overt, crude racism shown by their crowds. The reason that the TP exists is that a black man is president. Once status quo is returned, these people would melt away like hyenas without a carcas. Diane, please do not compromise your principles. I am willing to listen to conservatives, debate them, take their valid points but not to give these extremists a pass either knowingly or because you were unprepared. The worts Diane Rehm show that I have listened to in 10 years.
I agree with elemgee. Although not a constitutional scholar, I have read it and also the federalist papers. These men were giants and tried to do the best for a time period that reflected the situation 200 years ago and some very forward looking. What I don't understand is that how can we now revert back verbatim to this 200 year old document. Assuming the world survives these fools, would we do that 500 years from now? would we not have to adjust and adapt (ammend, ammendments!).
Right to bear arms. What is an ARM? side arm? rocket? What if in a 100 years we develop something the size of a side arn with potential to kill a million people. would that be protected by the second ammendment. The foundrers would be turning in their graves knowing how much reverence is placed on their words, because if you read the federalist papers they did not revere or think too highly of any man.
thanks