Maybe some on the left have a case of TPDS (Tea Party Derangement Syndrome). They get worked into such a lather about the alleged radicalism of the Tea Parties, based on a few documented cases of nuttiness and nastiness among a broad-based, diffuse grassroots movement, yet are oblivious to their own narrow-mindedness.
Sonicfrog asks for such lefties to engage in a little introspection:
It’s funny; in a week where a liberal black man gets fired by white extremist neo-tolerant liberals for expressing and dealing with his inner fears about Muslims and terrorism, the same extremist neo-tolerant liberal types are wringing their hands analyzing the cognitive biases within the Tea Party movement, desperately trying to understand why it’s become so popular, and generally trying to figure out “what the hell is going on.”
Commenting on the Berkeley conference (trying “to make sense of the Tea Party movement“) which inspired Sonic’s post, Ann Althouse quips, “the very idea of a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements makes me want to run in the other direction.”
FROM THE COMMENTS: The man who inspired this post answers the post’s title in the negative:
No, it’s not a new fad. They simply transfer the object of their animus from one target to the next. There was “Reagan The Enemy Of All Things Good And Virtuous” and then it was “George H W Bush The Enemy Blah Blah Blah” to GW to Rove to Cheney to McCain to Palin to the Tea Party to….
The left is in a constant state of derangement. The only thing that changes is who gets designated Emmanuel Goldstein. They’re gunning for Mara Liasson.
Also, the left can’t bring themselves to honestly come out and say “We hate the Tea Parties because they oppose Big Government, Big Spending, and High Taxes” because Democrats have to pretend to oppose those things as well. So, they have to come up with these phony charges of racism instead.
No, it’s not a new fad. They simply transfer the object of their animus from one target to the next. There was “Reagan The Enemy Of All Things Good And Virtuous” and then it was “George H W Bush The Enemy Blah Blah Blah” to GW to Rove to Cheney to McCain to Palin to the Tea Party to….
Well, you see the pattern.
#3: “No, it’s not a new fad. They simply transfer the object of their animus from one target to the next.”
Agreed, however, I believe the Allinsky tactics the Left has been using to great success for decades is now failing them because they have tried to “isolate” too many different enemies to blame for their own failures. In the 80s, the Left beamed all of their hatred and outrage onto Reagan alone. And one of the reasons the man is a LEGEND is because he effortlessly deflected all of that leftist rage with class and humor, making the public love him all the more.
Fast-forward to 2010, and even the liberals woke up to the fact that they couldn’t blame ONLY George W. Bush forever. But instead of picking one target and coordinating all of their venomous attacks in one direction, they have launched almost a dozen different smear campaigns against:
Rush Limbaugh (the “titular” head of the GOP);
DC lobbyists for “special interests” (whom Americans know are just as cozy with the Democrats as Republicans, if not more so);
Foxnews (“not a news organization” = EPIC FAIL);
Wall Street/The Banks (which the Democrats couldn’t wait to bail out to the tune of billions);
The Tea Parties (“violent racists!”, minus the violence and racism, of course);
Sarah Palin (no really! that mother of five that CHOSE to have a baby with Down’s Syndrome is actually an evil, stupid, bigoted, book-burning DEVIL WOMAN!);
John Boehner (liberals respect people of all colors and want diversity in Congress,…unless you’re orange); and
the US Chamber of Commerce (it’s a “shadowy” organization that receives donations, so how are Americans supposed to believe that it isn’t up to something unless they PROVE to us that they aren’t up to something!).
I’m sure I’ve left some off the list, but the point is that the Democrats have been spewing their hatred, blame, and false accusations in so many different directions that it’s failed to stick to any single target. This is great for America and illustrates perfectly why conservatism will always beat liberalism in the end. Liberalism is all about doing the same thing over and over again and failing to adapt in response to failure. That’s true of their policies generally and it’s true of their political messaging as well.
Where the Democrats have failed to isolate and effectively demonize a target (Rush, Foxnews, etc.), they have simply moved on to another target, getting no where. In contrast, when us conservatives saw that the GOP had lost its way and was no longer listening to us, we ADAPTED and the Tea Parties were born. And now conservatives are CLEANING HOUSE and sending establishment RINOs to the unemployment office. That’s why we will always win in the end.
Tea Party Derangement Syndrome is a transference of Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Tea Party Derangement Syndrome is a transference of Bush Derangement Syndrome which is a transference of Gingrich Derangement Syndrome which is a transference of Limbaugh Derangement Syndrome, which is a transference of Reagan Syndrome, which is a transference of Nixon Derangement Syndrome…
Notice there was never really a Quayle Derangement Syndrome. The intensity of the Derangement Syndrome is directly proportional to the subject threat against The Progressive Socialist Agenda.
#6: V the K, while I agree completely that liberals are infected with an incurable, blinding psychosis of hatred and rage that at all times must be directed somewhere, your list omitted what I believe has been the most acute manifestation of their affliction to date:
Palin Derangement Syndrome
Liberals HAAAAAAAAATE Sarah. They hate her so much that they still can’t stop insulting and attacking her on an hourly basis even though the election was two years ago. Go look at the HuffPuff–every single posting or article that so much as mentions her in passing gets 15,000-20,000 comments within an hour, 99 percent of which condemn her as a stupid, evil, racist, gun-crazy, unfit mother. They literally want horrible suffering and misfortune to befall Sarah and her entire family. If Bush Derangement Syndrome were a bout of thumb wrestling, Palin Derangement Syndrome is Beyond Thunderdome. I’m convinced from the massive avalanche of seething hatred I’ve observed from the Left directed toward the Palins (equally vile from the highest level of the Democratic Party to the lowliest anonymous DailyKos commenters) that if Willow got terminal cancer or Trig was eaten by a rogue grizzly bear, most liberals would barely be able to stop themselves from dancing in the streets.
Sarah Palin and Juan Williams have something in common. They both blow-away a stereotype that liberals have so carefully crafted. People like them aren’t supposed to exist, and so they must be destroyed before the general public finds out they are only normal people, and that the liberal leaders aren’t ‘all knowing’.
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
Every single member of the Republican party should announce their intention to run for president in 2012. It’ll drive the liberals nuts, trying to determine just who to smear.
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What timing!
I was in a Starbucks on Columbus Ave in NYC last Thursday when the conversation next to me caught my ear. The women were discussing the TEA Party people and it was astounding. One mentioned a TEA Party person running for office in Ohio who is a war re-enactor. That led to a discussion that the United States is as fragile as the Wiemar Republic and just ripe for a Nazi like take over. From there, Fox News would be the only channel and The New York Times would be shut down. They talked about how both Time and Newsweek were pushed to the brink by Rupert Murdoch. In fact, Rupert Murdoch just walked in and took over the Wall Street Journal. Of course, Glen Beck came up as the Elmer Gantry type charlatan who was stirring up the fundamentalists.
I would have loved to prod these two women into revealing more of what was “just around the corner” but I was just a fly on the wall. As luck would have it, my guest arrived and I never had the chance to get the low-down on Sarah Palin. I am sure she was on their topic of discussion radar screen.
This idea that the TEA Party is stuffed with “marginal” people is amazing to me. The two women I overheard were talking as “nutty” as anything they were “fearing.” Admittedly, I was surprised they brought up the Weimar Republic. I wondered if they were reciting talking points from some unnamed source or if they were educated enough to bring up the Weimar Republic on their own, but so overwrought to carry on with the babble that surrounded the reference.
Notice there was never really a Quayle Derangement Syndrome.
Oh V… How wrong you are. Don’t you remember when Bush 1 ended up in the hospital due to a mild heart attack, and Quayle became the acting President for a little while… you don’t remember any libs totally freaking out over that? And now that his son is running for office, I can’t count how many times I’ve come across one lib or another making a crack about how stupid he must be because he is DQ’s son, and that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the worm rotted or some reference to wondering how good his spelling is. These libs… They never forget, do they.
I remember Quayle being mocked, but I don’t recall him receiving the level of vitriol that Palin, Limbaugh, or Beck get.
Quayle was never a threat. They danced on his forehead and no one cared to stop them. They already tarred Bush with being a wimp.
When they try to step on the foot of Palin, Limbaugh or Beck they get knocked flat on their buns.
Dan Quayle is a good guy, he was a solid conservative long before radioRight became a reality, he was a good US Senator but a lousy choice for Veep. He wasn’t ready for prime time… he wasn’t ready for the Veep’s job… he did a great job representing Indiana’s interests in the US Senate.
By comparison, his contribution to the Bush 41 Admin is far greater than Biden’s will have been to Obama’s single term in office. Sen McCain pulled a Quayle when he picked Palin 20 yrs later… and those of us who were there then said the same thing: “Dan who?” “Sarah who?”
Outside, long-stretch choices are usually flops as Veep. Pick the runner up and get the ticket moving.