The American Spectator

Liberal Reader| 8.19.09 @ 2:36PM

Hell, Mr. Antle.

We on the other side would be satisfied if we thought it were primarily more than just an anti-black president movement.

1/3 of the stimulus signed into law by Obama -- billions of dollars -- went to giving tea partiers a TAX CUT. They were protesting BUSH era taxation, but their signs were of Obama's totalitarian plan to destroy America.

Andrew B| 8.19.09 @ 2:52PM

I cannot speak for other tea-party attenders, but I can speak for myself. I did not attend to protest President Obama's skin color. I also cannot be bought off with an alleged tax cut. My conscience isn't for sale, and if it were, it would go for far more than the rate Liberal Reader offers, since only 10% of the stimulus has been spent yet. That would mean that I should put my opinions on the shelf for 1/3 of 10 percent, which isn't much of an offer.

I attended my local protest rally because President Obama seems unacquainted with our Constitution. He is hiring and firing CEO's of private companies, unilaterally abrogating contracts between private individuals and is now speaking about deciding what is just compensation for labor in private industry.

You could give me a 99% tax cut and I would not support a president who does those things. A president who can set my wages is a tyrant.

Liberal Reader| 8.19.09 @ 3:15PM

Andrew B --

1. Obama forced the firing of one CEO of a company taking millions of tax dollars. That company had it's hand out; Obama had a responsibility to see to it the tax payers' money was not wasted.

2. In bailing out the American auto-industry (run into the ground in part by medical costs), Obama was working to save millions of jobs. That interest -- the economy simply could not take so much unemployment -- simply outweighed those concerns you mention. Government, from time to time, does this sort of thing. And by the way? The Constitution is not CLEAR about the limits of federal authority to take these actions: that's why we have COURTS. So far, his actions have been upheld and GM is still in business.

The government interferes with "compensation" all the time. Taxation itself is a form of such interference. Obama inherited the worst recession in decades -- already a year in progress. The economy was shedding three quarters of a million jobs a MONTH when he took office, and this after a Bush era economy that mostly added low paying service industry jobs.

Now I wake up in a country that is still a democracy. Where are the jack-booted thugs? Where are the concentration camps? Where are the ovens?

Tea partiers were mad because they lost the election, and clearly many were disconcerted that white privilege no longer attaches to the White House.

History will remember them, if it does at all, as a sort of mini-Mcarthyite mob: ill-informed, brazenly obtuse, hostile, pugnacious and pointless.

Tim| 8.19.09 @ 3:19PM

There's no shortage of pols and wanna be pols willing to jump on whatever they perceive to be the fastest path to power.
A month ago "Big Tent" was the catch phrase and we were getting lectured on the need to be throwing out the the pro lifers, the Palin supporters. etc.
If Obamanism continues to tank, a year from now those same voices will be bragging about their red meat partisanship and conservative principles.
Who knows, even Arlen Specter may switch back.

Tim| 8.19.09 @ 3:33PM

Lib
-1. Obama forced the firing of one CEO of a company -PRECEDENT :IT ONLY TAKES ONE

-2. In bailing out the American auto-industry, Obama was working to save millions of jobs.
AND FAILED.

-The Constitution is not CLEAR
(ROLLS EYES) IF I HAD A DOLLAR...

-So far, his actions have been upheld and GM is still in business.
SEE #1 ABOVE

-and this after a Bush era economy...
PALIN, WE ATTACK PALIN NOW, DIDN'T YOU GET THE MEMO?

-Now I wake up in a country that is still a democracy. Where are the jack-booted thugs?
BE PATIENT.

-History will remember them, if it does at all, as a sort of mini-Mcarthyite mob: ill-informed, brazenly obtuse, hostile, pugnacious and pointless.
MAYBE YOU GUYS OTTA OPEN THE CAMPS

Ran| 8.19.09 @ 3:36PM

Mr. Antle,
"For the tea partiers to have any real success fighting the growth of government, they have to be more than an anti-Obama, anti-Democrat movement." More... more how?

Perhaps I'm missing it, but I'm seeing protesting for more inter-state competition, tort reform - and various aspects of expanded liberty and shrunken government.

Thanks.

Andrew B| 8.19.09 @ 3:57PM

Liberal Reader--

"Now I wake up in a country that is still a democracy. Where are the jack-booted thugs? Where are the concentration camps? Where are the ovens? "

Very simple answer--they are nowhere to be found, at least not in America. Does that mean that we cannot be subject to tyranny? King George III didn't put anyone in an oven, but he was still widely considered a tyrant. Tyranny takes many forms, not all of them gory or lurid. Saying that, because we don't have death camps, nothing the president does can be tyrannical is plain silly. I would bet that you could, if you were honest enough, rattle off a dozen or so policies or actions of Republican presidents that you consider tyrannical.

You say that people who are opposed to some of President Obama's policies are a "mini-McCarthyite mob." Aside from being a baseless slander (or can you interpret the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of people by remote viewing?), it exposes another flaw in your reasoning. What was McCarthy in the liberal mind but a would-be tyrant? Yet where were his jackbooted thugs.

Finally, when you close with your slur, that I and millions of conservatives are "ill-informed, brazenly obtuse, hostile, pugnacious and pointless", you expose the greatest flaw of your line of argument. I think you are intelligent, but misguided. You think that I am evil.

Which one of us is hostile, pugnacious and pointless?

Liberal Reader| 8.19.09 @ 4:38PM

I do NOT think that you are "evil," and frankly, you will have noticed that word only occurs in my posts when I'm talking about people who talk on cell phones near me in coffee shops.

Perhaps you were at a tea party unlike those I saw videos of.

The ones I saw featured people carrying swastikas -- swastikas! -- and claiming that Obama is a "nazi." Others proclaimed him not to be a citizen of this country.

Others were simply ill informed. They claimed to be protesting tax increases that were never even proposed by Obama, for example.

If you think I'm misguided, you're probably right. I do not think you're evil, and don't make it my business to peer into other men's souls.

Johnno| 8.19.09 @ 4:47PM

LibReader/Jeremiah, you're such a liar. You know damn well you're a storm-trooper in Obama's Thought Police Force.

You specialize in fascist liberal propaganda puppetry. You're just another liberal whore and unfortunately, your numbers are legion.

Blow it up your arse, goon.

Liberal Reader| 8.19.09 @ 4:53PM

Johnno --

I'm a "storm trooper" in "Obama's Thought Police Force"?

What are you, 12 years old?

"Fascist liberal" is an oxymoron.

You, on the other hand, are just a moron.

Johnno| 8.19.09 @ 5:03PM

I should hurl an F-Bomb at you, Jeremiah; just like you do when you're ticked off. That would be so MATURE, right? Hypocrite.

Buzz off, clown.

Jocon307| 8.19.09 @ 9:06PM

I think this post makes some good points. And Cindy Sheehan is to be admired for showing more consistency than many, many people. But I think what is happening is that Obama has truly over-reached in the context of the massive bailouts having done pretty much nothing for the economy, the likelihood that the auto makers will come crying for dough in not too long a time, and the realization that WE the American tax payers will be on the hook for all this.

And let's not overlook another big aspect of this. Obama was a shiny new thing, who was hyped by the American media in a way unprecedented in my memory anyway (I only remember JFK being killed, I was 4 at the time, I know he had celeb cred even in life, but was it like the big O?) and that I certainly hope never to see again for any candidate for any office, much less the presidency. A complete dereliction of duty on the media's part. (Present venue, et al of course excepted). So I think many on our side don't appreciate the level of disillusionment that is happening with this man.

I hope that people stay involved, and get more involved, and I hope the contempt shown for the American public by the Dems in power underscores to us the need to constantly remind these people that THEY WORK FOR US.