* Speechwriter Gerson: Why the Tea Party is toxic for the GOP

[babylonsister]

Why the Tea Party is toxic for the GOP

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

snip//


In the normal course of events, political movements begin as intellectual arguments, often conducted for years in serious books and journals. To study the Tea Party movement, future scholars will sift through the collected tweets of Sarah Palin. Without a history of clarifying, refining debates, Republicans need to ask three questions of candidates rising on the Tea Party wave:

First, do you believe that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional? This seems to be the unguarded view of Colorado Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck and other Tea Party advocates of "constitutionalism." It reflects a conviction that the federal government has only those powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution -- which doesn't mention retirement insurance or health care.

This view is logically consistent -- as well as historically uninformed, morally irresponsible and politically disastrous. The Constitution, in contrast to the Articles of Confederation, granted broad power to the federal government to impose taxes and spend funds to "provide for . . . the general welfare" -- at least if Alexander Hamilton and a number of Supreme Court rulings are to be believed. In practice, Social Security abolition would push perhaps 13 million elderly Americans into destitution, blurring the line between conservative idealism and Social Darwinism.

This approach undermines a large conservative achievement. Despite early misgivings about Social Security and the Civil Rights Act, Ronald Reagan moved Republicans past Alf Landon's resistance to the New Deal and Barry Goldwater's opposition to federal civil rights law, focusing instead on economic growth and national strength. A consistent "constitutionalism" would entangle Republicans in an endless, unfolding political gaffe -- opposing, in moments of candor, unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, the federal highway system and the desegregation of lunch counters.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082405001.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Uben]

1. Ron White answered that already...........

....."You can't fix STUPID" !

[Skidmore]

11. It's more like " You can't fix greed or cravenness,"

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Of course Sarah Palin would gravitate to a contrived third party.

There was no place for her in the republican party, even the most rightwing fringe of it. She had no chance of "winning", money, and/or influence when competing with Mit Romney, Newt Gringrich, Mike Huckabee, even Tim Pawlenty. They would be dismissive of her "contributions" and her shrillness. And not to forget their disdain for women speaking up in church and politics.

Palin going to the Tea Party is like starting your own club and electing yourself President.

[burnsei sensei]

3. toxic for the Republicans?

The Tea Party are the Republicans themselves.
They are extremist, irrational, and vitriolic.
Anyone with any capacity to reason is either on the left or moderate enough to reject the core of Republican principles.
They fixed an election in 2000; and they have lost all respect for law.
Why is it any surprise that they attack the government then?
Jon Stewart was right-- if they say they want government limited, then they want it limited to their objectives.
I see no difference between the Tea Party and the Republican party. They are indistinguishable.

[BeFree]

5. Right

They are all bushies and reaganites that have been used and abused.
That's why they are so dangerous! They have been abused by their own parents.
We should have pity on those people.

[AlinPA]

6. Yes. Teabaggers=republicans.

[Doctor_J]

8. True. These people who think the teabaggers are bad for the GOP

are delusional. Another teabagger won the AK Sen primary last night, and will probably be in the Senate next year. Step 1 to fixing a problem: identify it, honestly.

[Winterblues]

4. I think he uses too big of words for the Tea Baggers so he must be writing

for the Democrats..

[warrior1]

7. they are astro turf

funded racist. They are the republican party as it is now. Real republican's may be still in the majority in the party but are shut down by the minority fringe, beck, rush, and of course palin.

[madamesilverspurs]

9. tealephant

-

[gratuitous]

10. When the Tea Baggers were at the height of their influence last August

There was much hand-wringing over what appeared to be an incipient new force in American politics. I don't recall specifically, but it wouldn't surprise me if I shared that anxiety. What I do recall thinking was that this toxic little growth on the body politic would soon localize itself, and indeed that's what has happened. Tea Baggers are widely and correctly seen as a branch of the Republican party, and their poison has badly infected that party, as seen by the primary results this week. There is going to be a lot of bad blood and hard feelings left over from these whiners, and the Republicans are going to have to decide how much they want to appease these selfish assclowns, who look and sound so much like them but aren't really them. Or so they hope.

You brought them along, financed them, nurtured them, and now that they've turned into the monster that a lot of people saw in them from the beginning, my dear Republican friends, you want to be shed of them. Of the four characteristics cited by Gerson in his little article - logically inconsistent, historically uninformed, morally irresponsible and politically disastrous - the Republicans are worried only about the fourth one. The first three are features, not bugs, of any Republican proposal.

Bit in the ass by your own creation. Tough toenails, Mr. Gerson.

[Kolesar]

12. The Ohio Republican party succeeded by staying moderate

The tea baggers can accomplish "marginalizing" their party.