The Face Of A Tea Bagger: Pt II b/w Comment Response

Chase Whiteside again does the work that most media won't do



Before I get into why Chase's reporting is so revealing of what Tea Baggers really know, here's a reader comment I received earlier regarding Ron Paul and Palin's participation in the "movement".

You need to do some research on your history before you go running your mouth on a blog and make yourself out to look dumber than Palin.

Google:
- Ron Paul Tea Party 2007
- Neo-Con
- Tea Party Hijacked

Youtube:
- Palin lying

Your lack of understanding about how the ORIGINAL Tea Party was 100% in support of Ron Paul and his message, and the fact that he raise a WORLD RECORD for political contributions in a 24 hour period, $4.3 million is astonishing.

Furthermore, the neo-cons saw dollar signs when Ron Paul's Tea Party, but was already locked in with McCain and couldn't just up and leave that during 2008. So Palin quit her day job as Governor of Alaska in 2009, and now make 10 times that amount going to conventions and selling her stupid book. Now she is trying to redirect funds that should be going to Ron Paul into her own pocket.

PALIN is a greedy, lying, retarded puppet that will say or do anything to improve her ratings and profits.

Do your homework or you risk making yourself look like an ass....oops...too late.

RON PAUL REVOLUTION
RON PAUL 2012
FACE IT, RON IS THE ONLY LOGICAL CHOICE.

While this anonymous person has a point that Ron Paul supporters have been known to rally around their cause, it's a bit disingenuous to claim that they started the first Tea Bagger shoutfest. That seems more like latching onto what FreedomWorks has managed to accomplish within the last year.

Not only that, but one would think that a group that is so impassioned, so willing to rally around Ron Paul's every breath, that they would distance themselves from the Palin fanatics that make up a massive portion of the Tea Bagger movement.

The fundraising point is a bit odd as well. After all, Scott Brown raised well over $1million in about 24 hours and now look how he is viewed by conservatives. I think the phrase buyers remorse is quite apropos here.

The broader point of my piece, which was taking on the current incarnation of conservative protesters, was that they really have no clear goals or leadership. It was to that end that I tied in the Paulites and how the remainder of the Tea Baggers were quite incensed that he even be mentioned in the same breath as a person like Palin, Beck, or Limbaugh.

By and large, the Tea Baggers are simply reflexive in nature, regardless of who they are supporting. This is evidenced in Chase Whiteside's video. They see something that sounds "pretty" ( Obama's a commie-socialist-marxist that's going to take away your guns and Bible ) or someone that's "pretty" ( I guess Palin would be the only choice here, considering her Milf-ish exterior ) and they just run with it until something better comes along.

But what Chase does is something that no major news network is going to do - show these people for who they really are. Wasn't there a report out that showed how these people are somehow more educated and thereby more attune to what is going on in America? Doesn't appear that way does it. Particularly with the lady who's obviously a Ron Paul fan.

The Face Of A Tea Bagger

I've said multiple times that I believe the Tea Bagger movement really doesn't have any clear goals in mind, nor do they have any form of leadership. It is clear, however, that every shoutfest that erupts throughout the year is clearly orchestrated by people like FreedomWorks with the accompanying PR push from Fox"News".

Now, Edison Research has compiled polling data taken from last week's Tax Day Protest in Washington and come up with some revealing answers as to who the Tea Baggers look up to.

The survey, an exit poll conducted Thursday by Edison Research at the massive Tax Day protest on the National Mall, found that the attendees were largely hostile to President Barack Obama and the national Democratic Party — three-quarters believe the president “is pursuing a socialist agenda.”


Yet they aren’t enamored of the Republican Party as an alternative. Overall, three out of four tea party attendees said they were “scared about the direction” of the country and “want to send a message to both political parties.”


The results, however, suggest a distinct fault line that runs through the tea party activist base, characterized by two wings led by the politicians who ranked highest when respondents were asked who “best exemplifies the goals of the tea party movement” — former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a former GOP presidential candidate.

It's always been clear that animosity, hatred, and misplaced rage were part of the glue that kept this group in a semi-stable state, but it's only within the last few months that the Paulite's have been showing their true colors.

Anyone remember how conservatives reacted when Ron Paul won the straw poll at CPAC? It was at that moment, that you could tell that the nuttiest were starting to take over the nut house.

Palin has always been a "face" of the Tea Bagger clan, and is often referred to as a "leader" of the movement, though the spin has continuously been that since there is not an "elected" leader of the movement that THAT is what makes it organic and pure grass-roots. But Palin's status is actually no greater than the status of a movie star. Conservatives, by and large, prefer the gimmick over the substance, and Palin fits the former quite well. She's learned to be coached and to stay on message with some of the top conservative performers.

What was puzzling to me regarding this poll was that it made no mention of Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachman, or the Tea Bagger's former favorite politician Jim DeMint - and boy did he disappear fast after healthcare reform passed. This leads me to believe that, like all people that idolize a particular actor/actress/musician/author, the "idol" will become marginalized at some point when something louder, flashier, and with more pretty colors catches their attention.

The Paul-try Movement or Bye Bye Barbie

I was rather surprised to hear the results of the CPAC "straw poll" over the weekend that gave Ron Paul a substantial victory.

In a strong reflection of just how strong his standing remains within the die-hard conservative community, Texas Republican and 2008 presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll on Saturday, earning nearly one-third (31 percent) of the entire vote. The crowd, however, booed heavily when the results were announced.

Knowing that Ron Paul supporters have the ability to be more "grass-roots" than their Tea Bagger counterparts ( even though those same people ascribe of many of the ideals that Ron Paul espouses ) what was even more surprising was that Sarah Palin scored in the single digits - here's the breakdown:

Texas Rep. Ron Paul - 31 percent
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- 22 percent
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- 7 percent
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty - 6 percent
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - 4 percent
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- 4 percent
Indiana Rep. Mike Pence - 5 percent
South Dakota Sen. John Thune -- 2 percent
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels -- 2 percent
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum -- 2 percent
Mississippi Gov. Hailey Barbour - 1 percent
Other - 5 percent
Undecided - 6 percent

Nearly a quarter of those that voted did so AGAINST Sarah Palin. What's that all about? What happened to her stature as a conservative giant. The Caribou Barbie to Ronald Reagan's Cowboy Ken? What does this say about conservatives at CPAC and those at the Tea Bagger shout-fests?

Some will chalk this up to the "Paulites" ability to infest events such as this and turn the tide in their favor. Then again, not all of the alleged 10,000 people that attended this conference voted. A reported 2400 only took part in the straw poll.

Another interesting take-away from this is the fact that one rather prominent conservative blogger claims that the fact that 48% of those voting were students shows a lack of, well, adult responsibility.

Back to the number of those that voted, what does this say about the apparent 7600 people that DIDN'T think it necessary at all to vote. I mean, Sarah Palin was on the ticket for god sakes. If conservatives are all about the gimmick of Palin, why not take part in this gimmick? Has she lost some of her mojo, or is this a reflection of the way conservatives lack the ability to pay attention to what's going on around them unless some prominent figure is on stage or on Fox"News" filling their head full of piss and vinegar?

Who knows, really. None-the-less, CPAC10 was what it was intended to be - a red-meat Bacchanalia more concerned with creating the illusion that conservatives knew "what was happening" and not really providing any substance to the socio-political discourse within America.