The Tea Party

[Hebrew Hammer]

I would like to understand this Tea Party movement from a Socialist/materialist standpoint and within the context of the overall class struggle. The pose themselves as being "fed up," with both parties (Democrat and Republican) and are fighting against policies they deem to be ruining this country. I do not know much about them since I have written them off as pissed off Republican nutters (much as I do with anarcho-capitalists, though not that extreme). From my meager understanding of these things, I have hypothesized that they are largely pissed of members of the petty bourgeois whom are protesting policies that conflict with their own material-class interests. Am I way off or what? I hate starting threads like these because I feel like a dumbass but have to start somewhere. Are they an extension of the Republican party or are they something else entirely?

[Nolan]

It's an astroturf populist group composed mostly of petit-bourgeoisie and retired workers. What more is there to understand?

[The Teacher]

The t party isn't sure what they are, to be honest. They seem to be ardently anti-socialist and don't mind letting racists and kooks hang out at their rallies.

[Hebrew Hammer]

It's an astroturf populist group composed mostly of petit-bourgeoisie and retired workers. What more is there to understand?

I don't know, I didn't know if I was right or what. From what I can see, usually there is these big long articles on every little happenings on in the world so, I don't know.

[Wubbaz]

I would like to understand this Tea Party movement from a Socialist/materialist standpoint and within the context of the overall class struggle. The pose themselves as being "fed up," with both parties (Democrat and Republican) and are fighting against policies they deem to be ruining this country. I do not know much about them since I have written them off as pissed off Republican nutters (much as I do with anarcho-capitalists, though not that extreme). From my meager understanding of these things, I have hypothesized that they are largely pissed of members of the petty bourgeois whom are protesting policies that conflict with their own material-class interests. Am I way off or what? I hate starting threads like these because I feel like a dumbass but have to start somewhere. Are they an extension of the Republican party or are they something else entirely?

It could be argued that the Tea Party represents the right of the Republican Party. This includes the sort of folks that call Obama a communist, random conspiracy theorists and supporters of the FairTax. The Tea Party do not view themselves as a party - they claim to represent a movement for all americans. However, republican voters make up the majority of the supporters and I believe that they also have quite a fascination for Sarah Palin.

The Tea Party seeks to further (knowingly or unknowingly) consolidate the power of the ruling classes, and we must therefore fight against this movement.

I really recommend watching some vidoes about them on YouTube. NewLeftMedia has some excellent interviews with the people visiting their rallies against MediCare and the so-called communist president.
It shows how hilarious the whole movement is..

[Bronco]

Religious right nutters, the kind that want creationism taught in schools, abortion to be made in illegal, no universal healthcare etc. etc. I tend to think of them as just your average Republican but slightly stupider

[chegitz guevara]

The Tea Party is a fascist movement, in the actual sense of a movement of the middle classes enraged about their declining fortunes under decaying capitalism, and funded by the most powerful layers of the ruling class.

[RedTrackWorker]

My group has an article on it at: http://www.lrp-cofi.org/statements/teaparty.html (A marxist analysis of the Tea Party movement).

Another blog has a post on the Tea Party movement that you might want to check out as well, which summarizes our article http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2011/05/liberalisms-limits-review-of-burghart.html:

The Tea Party is a mass movement of middle- and working-class whites whose political anger has been fueled not only by the erosion of traditional white privileges and social power, but also by long-term economic decline and capitalist attacks against all subordinate groups.
Although the Tea Party is decentralized and ideologically diverse, representatives of capital helped to create the movement and form the strongest power center within it. Neither independent citizens nor far right groups hold major countervailing influence. Largely for these reasons, the movement furthers the agendas of right-wing capitalists who want to intensify attacks on the working class and oppressed groups.
While racist attitudes pervade the Tea Party and are one of its driving forces, many movement leaders and members have worked to exclude blatant expressions of racism to avoid scaring away potential supporters (and Republican voters).
The failure of organized labor and other progressive forces to energetically protest the federal bailout of the financial industry in 2008-9 helped right-wing leaders to channel anti-elite resentment against Obama and the Democrats, and thus fueled the Tea Party upsurge. Many liberals’ contempt for Tea Partiers as uneducated “rednecks” does the same.
The Tea Party has some features of fascism (for example, scapegoating oppressed groups while also promoting a vague anti-elitism) but also differs from it in critical ways. (In my view a key difference is one that the LRP doesn’t mention: Fascist movements advocate a radical break with the established political order; the Tea Party, despite its insurgent veneer, does not.)

[chegitz guevara]

My group has an article on it at: http://www.lrp-cofi.org/statements/teaparty.html (A marxist analysis of the Tea Party movement).

Another blog has a post on the Tea Party movement that you might want to check out as well, which summarizes our article http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2011/05/liberalisms-limits-review-of-burghart.html:

It's odd that the quote does such an excellent job laying down all the material reasons why the Tea Party is fascist, then falls back on an idealist view for why it is not.

[RedTrackWorker]

It's odd that the quote does such an excellent job laying down all the material reasons why the Tea Party is fascist, then falls back on an idealist view for why it is not.

Go on: what makes it idealist?

[Coyote]

The Tea Party is a group of Glenn Beck fanatics who are extremely fun to troll.

[chegitz guevara]

Go on: what makes it idealist?


Fascist movements advocate a radical break with the established political order; the Tea Party, despite its insurgent veneer, does not

So because the ideology is different, despite all of the material identity, they aren't fascist. The quote puts ideas before the real world.

[HEAD ICE]

Tea Party was a well funded marketing ploy by the Republicans and big business to exploit middle class anger into supporting one faction of the democratic state. Hence why it has pretty much ceased to exist now. Really it isn't that difficult except when some leftists make superficial connections to fascist movements like a fuckin checklist to make it appear much more devious than it really is. Racism and scapegoating of immigrants is the past time of liberal democracy.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

The Tea Party tried to recall the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska recently. He won the recall by a small margin. I was hoping he would go on TV, and this would be his speech:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mEm9zpqSwtY/TbIcQDFaxLI/AAAAAAAABbA/ZjtcbEI1qDI/s1600/middle-finger.jpg