Palin to Tea Party: "Time to, I guess, kinda start picking a party"
By II2aTee
@II2aTee (2559)
United States
February 18, 2010 10:17am CST
"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/17/politics/main6215033.shtml
I’m not bashing anyone or anything here. It’s just that this remark seems to fly in the face of everything I thought the Tea Party movement stands for.
Maybe someone could clarify this. I must not have understood it correctly. I couldn’t imagine Sarah using the Tea Party as a recruiting platform for the GOP.
1 person likes this
8 responses
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
18 Feb 10
I was going to start a discussion about this but thanks to you I can be spared the harassment for "attacking poor Sarah"...lol! She'd made several comments before this that led me to believe she was simply working to merge the tea party movement with the Republican Party.
I agree with you; I thought, especially from the posts made here by several members who have actually GONE to tea parties, the movement was meant to be a "grassroots" movement and that it wasn't meant to promote either of the major parties. Lately, it's all been about "conservative" principles, and far-right ones at that, at least if you listen to speeches by Palin and others who attended the recent convention. The movement has been or is being hijacked by the GOP and I hope for the sake of those who worked hard from the start to take it in a different direction it's not too late to "escape" from their grasp.
Annie
1 person likes this
@II2aTee (2559)
• United States
18 Feb 10
Apparently sublty is not one of Sarahs strong points. When hijaking a political party, or in this case a political movement, it has always been tradition to do it quietly, discretly, just under the surface of perception. It seems Palin will have none of that. It is actually quite refreshing to hear a voice from the political arena simply announce their intentions. I thank her for that.
The thing is Annie, I dont ever want to be the kind of person who says "I told you so!" but from the very begining it was a very likely possibilty that this was going to happen. After the election, Republicans where scrambling to find a ticket back to the top. People like Sarah Palin capitalized on the anger and frustration of the atmosphere and have been trying to steer it to their benifit.
Why, there are people right here on MyLot (one name pops to mind immediatly) who have never done a very good job of masking their true intentions. They feign loyalty to the principles of the Tea Party, but when you read between the lines it is all to obvious where their loyalties have always been, and will always be.
Those kind of people usually worship the snow Sarah Palin brushes off her shoulder, and this open aknowledgment of her intention to hijak the Tea Party will most likely be the best news they have had in a long time.
1 person likes this
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
18 Feb 10
No, she is not what the tea party stands for nor is what she says it stands for...what it stands for. She's part of the republican hijacking. She is supporting Perry over Medina in the Texas governors race for example. The tea party is a libertarian non partisan movement that is interested in liberty minded candidates of ANY party or NO party. Many are supporting independants or other parties. The big Nevada Tea party group actually did form a party and are getting a candidate on the ballot to run against Harry Ried in fact.
1 person likes this
@II2aTee (2559)
• United States
18 Feb 10
I freely admit that I am not the most politically informed person. I try to keep current, I have a good grasp on my personal values and I know what those values mean in the different political circles. But this tidbit of information caught my eye because it seemed like something totally out of the realm of what Tea Party goers would say.
When I read this I figured one of two things. Either one, Sarah Palin has no idea what the Tea Party stands for other than they are against taxes (I know that’s a very base assessment and I mean no slight, but for some people, that’s all they need to know before they start looking for the dotted line). I am not insulting her intelligence, but even someone as minimally informed as I knew that telling a Tea Party person to pick a party was, well, negligent. Or two, she knows what they stand for but doesn’t really care and wants to strike while the hammer is hot and try to get a few converts for her team while she has a captive audience.
In any case I was shocked by her almost blatant announcement that Tea Party people need to “pick a side”. I am very glad that so far the tried and true Tea Party people here on MyLot where insulted and outraged. I can only hope she doesn’t manage to pull the wool over anyone else’s eyes.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
18 Feb 10
Well that sucks. I was really hoping Sarah Palin would stand for the right values and not try to turn this into a GOP branch. She did the right thing in New York when she supported Hoffman over Sczhoffra (or whatever that woman's name was). I really don't think the tea parties were ever meant to be a political party and certainly not a branch of one. The point is to stand by proper constitutional values and small government which is exactly what the two big parties have failed to do.
1 person likes this
@Latrivia (2878)
• United States
18 Feb 10
And yet she is, and this is why I dislike her. She's a partisan shill. Her presence in the Tea Party scene is akin to a wolf in sheep's clothing. If the Tea Party supporters are smart, they'd oust her from their presence and ignore her. Going back to the first TEA party of '09, the issue was about BOTH parties taxing the hell out of the country and wasting our tax dollars. Now it's warping into "the dems and libs are evil". In essence the Tea Party is turning into GOP jr. and it's supporters are largly letting it happen. The reason? Increased media attention attracted GOP loyalists and partisan pundits.
The only thing that can save the Tea Party is if it remains independent, and sticks to the reason it was started in the first place. However, I don't see this happening.
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
21 Feb 10
Ummmm...lets see...pick a side..nope not going to....can't make me.
The right is full of corrupt lobbyist loving jerks....wait the left is too. So really who am I going to pick? The lesser of two evils is still evil you know.
Nope I won't support a "party". I will support good honest candidates...no matter what party they belong to. I also refuse to blindly follow any party.
I am a free thinker...I don't need a "party" to tell me who to vote for or how to feel about an issue.
Who cares what Palin says. Just becuase SHE wants people to pick a side (of course her side) does not mean I have to or that I am even going to consider it.
@epicure35 (2814)
• United States
21 Feb 10
I am not sure what either the Tea Party or Sarah Palin stand for anymore. No real or significant gains have been made by either. The usurper still sits in the WH tearing our country down. Our Congress is worthless when it comes to truth-telling, ditto courts, etc. So, unless we clean up our act from the top down and the bottom up, we'll continue spinning wheels or treading water, or whatever it is that keeps us from moving forward to reclaim a free and honorable nation.
To be sure, I would never vote Democrat EVER AGAIN. Given only the alternatives you mention, Republican is, by default, the only choice. Most or all of the Democrats belong in jail for treason since they didn't bother to make sure their "candidate" was eligible constitutionally for the office they helped him steal. Any wimpy or complicit Republicans should join them in jail. We the people have been and continue to be made a mockery and a scourge of by them and our fellow Americans, stupid enough to vote for a person about whom nothing real is known except for his criminal connections, not to mention our fawning and moronic media, who simply don't know how to spell "investigate and report the truth."
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
19 Feb 10
I was reading an article by Pat Buchanan and he said the Tea Party participants have many different complaints, but what they agree upon is, "that they have been treading water for a decade, working harder and harder with little or no improvement in their family standard of living. They see the government as taking more of their income in taxes, seeking more control over their institutions, creating entitlements for others not them, plunging the nation into unpayable debt, and inviting inflation or a default that can wipe out what they have saved."
Just because the democrats and republicans are the two largest parties doesn't mean there aren't others, and I can't see that the Tea Party participants are any happier with the republicans than they are the democrats. Of course, Sarah Palin is a republican and would naturally stump for them.
Buchanan ended by saying, "...one thing these folks are really good at is throwing people out of power."
Whether the Tea Party becomes a political party or chooses one already established, I would think any incumbent shouldn't feel too confident.
@jmowreader (83)
• United States
19 Feb 10
Look into the history of the Tea Party "movement" and you will see it was started by FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is run by Richard Armey and Jack Kemp. They're both former Republican Congressmen. (Jack Kemp was Bob Dole's running mate in the 1996 presidential campaign.) It's full of Republicans, and it's been toeing the Republican party line since it was founded. No thinking person would imagine a Republican think tank would start a "grassroots" (the technical term is "astroturf") movement and not expect it to be an arm of the GOP.
Word to the wise: If you guys want to GUARANTEE, one hundred percent, that Democrats will win in every district in America, run Tea Party candidates against the GOP. Go into a race where the Democrat is guaranteed to take 40 percent of the vote and run two conservative candidates. The GOP candidate will take 30 percent, the Tea Party candidate 30 percent and the Democrat will take the seat. As a Democrat I of course approve of this, but you probably won't.
