Nice Article by Naomi Wolf: Tea Time in America
By Naomi Wolf | March 5, 2010
EVER SINCE the first “Tea Party” convention was held last month in Nashville, Tennessee, with Sarah Palin as one of the keynote speakers, America’s political and media establishments have been reacting with a combination of apprehension and disdain.
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has called the Tea Party adherents Nazis, while the mainstream media tend to portray them as ignorant and provincial, a passive rabble with raw emotion but little analytical skill, stirred up and manipulated by demagogues to advance their own agendas.
To be sure, the Tea Party’s brand of aggrieved populism – and its composition of mostly white, angry, middle-class voters – has deep roots in the United States, flaring up during times of change. But observers who have drawn comparisons to the Know-Nothings, the racist, paranoid, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant party that surged in the 1850s, are reading the movement far too superficially.
Continue:
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/opinions/tea-time-america/20100305
I'll take it as a plus...
Her smug declaration that "...a group called End the Fed, were among the first to focus critical attention on the unelected and unaccountable US Federal Reserve Board..." ignores almost a hundred years of vehement opposition to what can only be described as a gigantic public screwing.
Still...I sense she's *honest*, and that puts her light years ahead of the hopelessly corrupt elite with whom she no doubt identifies.
I appreciate anyone who . . .
points out the fallacies of the two-party system versus populism, and I appreciate anyone who cares about the constitution--
I like Naomi Wolf.
it's hard to be awake; it's easier to dream--
Excellent
The divide is not between Republicans and Democrats, but it's Grassroots v Elites.
The worst thing the Tea Party people can do is become part of a team (Red Team v Blue Team). It's obvious the Republican bigwigs either want to control the movement or destroy it.
Supporting candidates based on issues is the way to go, not blind support of a political label. That sort of thing sends the Lindsey Grahams and the John McCains to Washington D.C.
Here's hoping the Tea Party folks maintain their independence and make a difference.
Very good analysis...
And frankly, quite courageous of Naomi given her normal readership.
Thomas Jefferson: “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
Viva La Revolucion!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmaTNf4YhEs
good article
Thank you for posting.
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"How can we justify to the unemployed and underemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire?" - Dr. Ron Paul
I'm glad she mentioned Dick
I'm glad she mentioned Dick Armey and his organization FreedomWorks as being part of the problem, trying to take over the tea parties. Sarah Palin is part of the problem, of course, too.
Good article
When she reached out to Ron Paul supporters in 2008 by having someone start a couple threads on this site and by going on AJ's show and Lew Rockwell's some of us said that it would be a good idea to extend our hands in return because soon we will be demonized by the establishment.
Now, after MIAC, the report on right-wing extremism, Joe Stack, Bedell, and plenty of hit pieces by SPLC and many others, she (someone from the Left) has written a very fair article about the tea partiers -- and it couldn't come at a better time.
progressives are not antiwar
Only anti repub wars. Please remember somalia, kosovo and endless peacekeeping ops. Progressives lobbied to use force in darfur. Progressives are hypocrites on war.
What always bemuses me in
What always bemuses me in these discussions is when the term 'white middle class' is used as a derogatory term intended to be dismissive. It is as though to be any of these things renders a person somehow unimportant an irrelevant. To be 'white middle class' is to be no less human than anybody else. I would no more use this term than to describe Pelosi as 'white upper class'.
PR
all I know is wolf voted for
all I know is wolf voted for Obama... Screw her. Before I get all the well she's learning, give her time BS.. She knew exactly what she was doing. She Knew Ron Paul and refused to support him or Baldwin. If she is such a "champion" of liberty and freedom then how could she vote for obama?..
“Defiance of God’s Law will eventually bring havoc to a society.” - Dr. Ron Paul
naomi wolf is our friend
I personally have more Potential Contempt for those who voted for John S. McCain than for those to ventured a vote for the great deceiver Obama.
It's really unproductive, nay, counterproductive to attack Naomi, since she helps bring progressives into the fold.
I'm curious...
...how many that is...
I'm sure the message of liberty resonating in the hearts of the newly-converted is responsible to a much greater degree at bringing "former" progressives to the fold than anything Ms. Wolfe has either written, or spoken...at any time.
agreed!
agreed!
Ventura 2012
I Like
I like Claire Wolfe even more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Wolfe
I LOVE Naomi Wolf
She was the catalyst that propelled me into the Ron Paul Revolution with her book:
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
then I read Ron Paul's book:
The Revolution: A Manifesto
and I was enlightened from then on!
The End of America
is a great book, and everyone here should read it.
I can support these sentiments...
I just wish she could back up these words with actions. At least she figured out after a year that Obama was Bush's 3rd term. Baby steps perhaps.
This was far more 'fair and balanced ' than FOX!
Great find, thanks!
But that man should play the tyrant over God, and find Him a better man than himself, is astonishing drama indeed!~~D. Sayers
There is no difference between an authoritarian government from the right or the left...F. A.Schaeffer
FAIR AND BALANCED!
And not in the Fox News "Fair and Balanced" way.
This is great. I am very happy and proud of Ms. Wolf, who I met in Boston a few years ago. I really do think she gets it, and is making efforts to unite rather than divide. Examples:
I don't like Sarah Palin, either, but Ms. Wolf is gracious here:
As little as I like Sarah Palin, the fact is that entrenched lobbying and other special interests mean that a “changing of the guard” in Washington is too often only a change in branding. As Barack Obama submits to the pressures of a US Department of Defence in which private contractors comprise 65 per cent of the staffing budget, proposes preventive detention of Guantánamo detainees, and perpetuates the status quo in myriad other ways, her question – “So how’s that whole hopey-changey thing workin’ out for ya?” – is not the wrong question.
Finally:
I hope that the Republican establishment does not succeed in co-opting the Tea Party – and that the Democratic establishment does not, either. And I hope that the movement captures the imagination of progressives, who are equally disgusted with the corruption of the status quo, and who can agree on many thematic goals, even if their policy proposals might be different.
I hope so, too.
If there is any flaw in the
If there is any flaw in the article(there isn't) it would be that she was TOO amiable towards Palin.
Ventura 2012
If she gets it then how could
If she gets it then how could she vote for Obama? what is she doing now? she writes a book and everyone should just fall their knees and worship? is she in C4L? Is she supporting Rand and Peter? where is she besides writing raw raw chearleading books? I don't see here usuing here stage to further any group or individual that supports libery or the libertarian cause.
“Defiance of God’s Law will eventually bring havoc to a society.” - Dr. Ron Paul
Touche!
Know them by their works!
I wonder why she mentions
Sarah Palin and not Ron Paul.
Prepare & Share the Message of Freedom through Positive-Peaceful-Activism.
She doesn't need to
Everything she talked about pointed to Ron Paul. And maybe that is a better way or (only way) for some people to learn about him- by putting the pieces together themselves.
Sarah Palin, who's that? Some empty skirt that doesn't have any good ideas of her own. I don't care how many people she attracts to her speaking events, I've heard her speak. That's not charisma. I'm predicting a pretty quick fade here.
Possibly because the so-called Counter MSM, FOX
Likes Palin. Also as a former VP candidate for one of the two Big Government parties, her name is more controversial than Paul's right now.
But that man should play the tyrant over God, and find Him a better man than himself, is astonishing drama indeed!~~D. Sayers
There is no difference between an authoritarian government from the right or the left...F. A.Schaeffer
that was good
I think that she is getting it. How the progressives fit with constitutionalists confuses me
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Progressives and
Progressives and Constitutionalists are against corporatism and war. Two very prominent issues today.
Progressives and Constitutionalists both realize that government shouldn't be in bed with corporations, however they differ on whether or not government should offer or is able to offer better quality services then competitive institutions can.
In a nut shell:
Progressives look to the government to fix their problems, Constitutionalists want to fix their own problems.
Progressives know the government...
doesn't follow the Constitution. Thus, they lobby for their own interests. As they a primarily antiwar, they are a better fit than neocons. In other words, take away the unconstitutional entitlements and they are really not much different than we are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era
The "progressive movement" has always been diametrically opposed to constitutionalism. It's central tenet is that there exists a group of "experts", who, if only given enough support and freedom of action, can make America and the world, a better place. That is about as far from natural rights, enumerated powers, bind them down by the chains..... constitutionalism as it is possible to get.
Probably the two most immediately famous progressives, are Wilson and Roosevelt. Which is pretty much Obama and Bush, only a century ago.
Contemporary progressives aren't anti war. They're anti Iraq war. Some anti Afghanistan war. More because it was started by someone who talked like a non progressive, while acting like a dyed-ion-the-wool one. Any yahoo can claim to be anti war in reference to a politically incorrect war. Ask them their opinion on the War of Northern Aggression, and you'll see how anti war most of them are.
Amongst other highlights of progressive institutions, are the Fed, the Income Tax, and prohibition / later to become drug war.
Still, divisiveness is a show stopper in electoral politics, so as long as the wars currently in question are unpopular amongst self defined progressives, I'm all for siding with them on a case by case basis.
And BTW, thanks to Ms Wolf for a great article.
Ron Paul would probably say
Naomi Wolf is right on that point because of the way freedom brings people together. Crisis also tends to bring us together.
I don't think this ism is as easy to pin down as you might say. At least both ideologies have inherent disdain towards abuse of government power.
And semantically, freedom is a progressive idea. In the scope of things, it's the new way, tyranny is the old way.