my connection with the tea party

[FireIceTalon]

There is no magic "they" who have all the money and are willing to give it away to pay for all the wants or needs of everyone else indefinitely. But, I love the dichotomy of on the one hand portraying them as evil to justify taking their wealth, and on the other side expecting them to be benevolent to pay for all the whims of those who won't or can't provide for themselves.

It's the evil top 1%. We 99% can all side against them. Class warfare by degrees. How do you define peasant?

And this way of thinking among many people is exactly why 'they' can continue enriching themselves.
Probably most 'tea-party voters' would if you give them choices between simple things without telling them who's opinion this is, relate much more with a left wing democrat ideology but they are imprinted to hate anything that is left wing. People are not rational. And that is what the filthy rich class uses to keep things going their way.

And don't forget, those top 1% you are talking about got the chance of becoming so rich because the way the society is build up favors them.
Say, you sell arms, and your friends in politics invade a few countries that benefits you tremendously. OF course going to war just to support oil and arms industry luckily never happens....
Anyhow...is it strange that you would be asked to support your fellow American citizen that can't support himself a bit? For example because he was send out to fight in Iraq because that was more or less the only choice he had, he became handicapped and when back he was left to arrange things all by himself which isn't easy because handicapped people are not really good employees is what they say?? (or at least think).

Of course it is a choice you make, and a choice I can respect....but what I don't respect is all the sweet talking around it to explain why some people deserve to have bad healthcare just because they were unlucky.

Basics.

I had a really interesting thought earlier today. I find it ironic how the Tea Party and the far right in general embrace free-market, get-the-government-out of my life economics, but only when it benefits them. Privatize profits, socialize losses. Companies like Goldman & Sachs and AIG, contrary to popular belief, LOVE socialism (but like capitalism, only when it benefits them). This "too big to fail mentality" is what killed American capitalism, if you think about it. It is a myth: No firm is too big to fail, none. If it failed, it failed. When small businesses fail in a capitalistic system, they have to suck it up most of the time. But now giant lending firms on Fraud Street and other transnationals can simply rely on this new (or rather not so new if you think about it) concept of socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else. To me, it is just further evidence to reinforce the idea that not only are social democracies superior to capitalistic ones, but that in fact capitalism (even if it's not 'pure' capitalism) and true democracy are now INCOMPATIBLE since the political process now allows those with greater wealth to have more political clout than the rest of us, since corporations are now treated as individuals. The Citizens United decision needs to be overturned. Throw in a right-wing controlled media that spoon feeds citizens who can't think for themselves about what is best for them by creating a predetermined social discourse, the majority of whom drink it up like kool-aid, and Marx's concept of 'false consciousness' is illuminated. I think the Tea Party, more so than any other group I can recall in at least contemporary American (or even international) politics, exemplifies this concept almost perfectly. Normally I would feel sorry for these people, its one thing to be ignorant, but its an entirely other thing to be WILLFULLY ignorant as they are, thus when things go bad for them they do not have my sympathy (now I sound like one of them, but I can't help it). But this doesn't merely apply to business. It also applies to families that think a 'for profits' healthcare system is great but then wonder why they have to choose between losing their home, all their retirement savings (if they have any), and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay for their mothers cancer treatment or let her die.

And of course, our politicians wonder why we keep having recessions and depressions, and though we get out of them, they try to look for solutions to prevent them from occurring again. Thus far they have failed, and that is because there are no solutions. No amount of "deregulation" can prevent these booms and busts. As Marx said, they are an INEVITABLE part of a capitalistic system such as ours. The sooner politicians can take their blinders off and realize this, the better off they and the rest of us (or almost the rest of us ) will be.