The Hatfields vs. The McCoys: The Teabagger Civil War

[marmar]

via AlterNet's PEEK:



Tea Party Split Between Libertarian Faction and Religious Right?

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 4:00 AM on January 8, 2010.

This tension matters a great deal -- the former wants smaller government; the latter wants bigger government to discriminate against people they don't like.




After a series of bizarre, and often offensive, rallies in D.C., the Teabaggers are apparently going to get together in about a month for a convention.

The Tea Party Nation is gearing up for its first ever convention, to be held at the famed Opryland Hotel in Nashville next month. It's a confab designed to help the tea parties from across the country organize, with an agenda that sounds a lot like an attempt to form an official third party.

Organizers ask for local groups to "select their best to meet with their peers from across the nation" and who "have the most desire to move this process of organizing to the next level."

They'll have a workshop about "the importance of becoming Precinct Committee Chairs."

"Please join us, make and form strong bonds, network, and make plans for action. We are doing what we could not do alone, to preserve that which we value," organizers write.

The three-day event scheduled for the first weekend in February is already rubbing some conservative activists the wrong way -- the Tea Party Nation gathering is charging $549 per person. That's significantly more expensive than tickets to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) -- traditionally the biggest right-wing event of the year -- which will be held two weeks later just outside D.C.

Of course, one explanation for the steep costs is Sarah Palin -- the former half-term governor will reportedly receive as much as $100,000 to speak to Tea Party Nation, while CPAC does not pay any of its speakers. (Palin was invited to appear at CPAC, but declined, perhaps because there was no money in it.)

And speaking of Palin, the guest list for Tea Party Nation is what drives home just how radical a group we're talking about here. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/145022/tea_party_split_between_libertarian_faction_and_religious_right/

[dmallind]

1. Oh the irony of comments

The very first comment gleefully notes this right wing split - and then goes on to suggest that the socialists/greens do the same thing. Which would of course render them just as irrelevant as these loons.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. $549 for THIS lineup?! LOL

In addition to Palin, attendees will hear from, among others:

* World Net Daily's Joseph Farah

* Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.)

* Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore

* Religious right leader Rick Scarborough

This is not a group of mainstream Americans. Farah's conspiracy-driven website has taken the lead in peddling Birther nonsense; Bachmann is mad as a hatter; Moore is a theocrat who doesn't believe the Bill of Rights applies to the states and was removed from office for ignoring federal court orders he didn't like; and Scarborough is a radical preacher best known for being a Jerry Falwell acolyte, writing a book called Liberalism Kills Kids, and trying to establish his own mini-theocracy in Texas several years ago.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. LOL!

:rofl:

[Dr.Phool]

4. The Opryland Hotel.....Reminds me of the old joke.....

What has 400 arms, 400 legs, and 15 teeth?

A)The first 4 rows at the Grand Ole Opry.

[Tanuki]

5. Please rethink your gratuitous insults and tired stereotypes of

the "Other," whom you deem to be your inferior. Bigotry sucks, regardless of whom it is directed against.

[Warpy]

6. This is why I give the convention a 50-50 chance

of devolving into a donnybrook. If the loonytarian faction can reconcile with the Jesus jumpers at all, though, we'll see a third party emerge with Palin the likely candidate.

The GOP is almost gleeful at the prospect. Unable to muster the will to eject the problematic elements Reagan brought in and unwilling to turn the party over to them, they're hoping they just leave quietly.

It's the only way the GOP can survive, long term, unless they let the lunatics take over.

That's the problem with making a deal with the devil. The devil always wants to run things eventually.