There truly is a brand of young political idealist — and that’s the nice way of referring to it — which is wielding its vote, or lack thereof, as a weapon to hopefully get Bernie Sanders elected. These are the people who threaten to stay home on election day, so to speak, and who insist…
Tag: tea party
The Dangerous Bernie Sanders
The election for the nomination and the presidency is over. Clinton won. So why do you see so many anti Bernie posts on this page if he can’t win? Remember folks, I am not a Democrat. I believe in rational analysis, and intelligent, effective policy, and electing those people best equipped to move a progressive…
Who are Bernie’s Supporters?
There has been a lot of talk about righties masquerading as supporters of various candidates to influence outcomes in the Dem nomination process. We know that it is true, but it is difficult to gauge the actual level. Lately I have received some criticism for resorting to a ‘snarky’ tone and over-zealous criticism of Bernie…
Fellow Progressives: The IRS ‘Scandal’ Is a Crock and You Should Fight Back
Here’s what the IRS has been looking for. The biggest political farce on earth is the extraordinarily naïve perception that a Tea Party 501 (c) (3), the right-wing entity that sprung up nationwide, fully nurtured and politicized in a matter of weeks, hasn’t been in daily violation of the letter and spirit of what…
The IRS Scandal Disintegrates into Wild and Unproven Republican Accusations
The press is reporting both that IRS chief the Bush appointee who was running the IRS in May of 2012 knew about what the IRS was doing in their Ohio office and that the now acting commissioner also knew in May. This narrative presumes that the IRS was guilty of targeting conservatives, which has actually…
U.S. state officials in stealth mode on health exchanges
Republicans working on exchanges have been accused of party disloyalty, and that opposition has intensified after the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in late June. In Colorado, Tea Party members tried to expunge Republican Amy Stephens for co-sponsoring exchange legislation. In Michigan, the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity circulated petitions to kill…
Pizza Shop Owner Scott Van Duzer on Bear-Hugging President Obama
What’s your reaction to the angry people who are flooding your restaurant’s Yelp page with bad reviews because you hugged the president? You see the good and bad in people. That’s what’s wrong with our country. I tell people, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, he’s both of our president. He should be treated with respect,…
Tea Partiers Backing Scott Walker May Run Afoul of IRS
Tea Party Patriots could prove to be a formidable force in Wisconsin given the size of its fundraising machine; Martin recently bragged that the group raised $12 million last year. And that could be problematic. As a nonprofit group, TPP is banned from devoting the bulk of its resources to campaign activities—those resources are supposed to…
Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal…
Michigan Tea Party Mayor Says No To Fed Funds, Sends Business Packing
In what could be a new high water mark of anti-Washington sentiment, the city of Troy, Mich., is rejecting a long-planned transportation center whose construction would have been fully financed with federal stimulus money. The terminal, which would help Troy become a transportation node on an upgraded Detroit-to-Chicago Amtrak line, was hailed by supporters as…
Organized Climate Change Denial “Played a Crucial Role in Blocking Domestic Legislation,” Top Scholars Conclude
Some try to downplay the central role of the denial machine in U.S. politics, but the fact is that what the deniers have accomplished in this country is unique in the world, going far beyond the spread of disinformation. They have allowed fossil fuel interests to “capture” almost an entire political party —…
Eric Cantor’s America
The first thing he did was commission a national poll to show fellow Republican congressmen that while Obama was personally popular, his policies were not. Then he assembled what he called the House Republican Economic Recovery Working Group to come up with an alternative stimulus package. The group’s plan was larded with tax cuts that…