A footnote to David’s post on the hysterically anti-gay, and anti-limited-government, 2010 Texas Republican Party Platform:
“Joe My God” characterizes the platform as “tea-bagger influenced.” I’ve been doing a deep dive on the Tea Party, and this seems wrong, and another example of a knee-jerk anti-Tea Party reflex that will do gays no good at all.
When I talk to Tea Party people, they are firm on eschewing the social issues, which they regard—rightly, imho—as snares and delusions that Republican politicians have used to distract conservative voters from GOP complicity in ever-expanding government. Tea Partiers tell me they have wised up to the fact that politicians use the social issues to divide the country and empower themselves.
I talked to three leaders of the Dallas Tea Party, and they were very much on that page. Typical comment (from a Dallas TP leader): “We do not touch on social issues. We believe the biggest danger to our country is the fiscal irresponsibility that’s going on in Washington.”
And I was pointed to this interesting fact: Tea Partiers recently kicked out a Schlaflyite culture warrior as state party chair, replacing her with a fiscal-conservative lawyer who de-emphasized social issues. In fact, this was done at the very same state GOP convention that adopted the rabid anti-gay platform—which apparently was recycled from 2009.
So the real story seems to be, if anything, a swerve toward the libertarian branch of the Texas GOP (though this article sez it’s too early to be sure).
I don’t know much about Texas state politics, but the more I see of the Tea Party, the more convinced I am that it is good for gays, not because it is pro-gay (its members are mostly socially conservative) but because it is anti-anti-gay. To whatever extent they succeed in shredding the overdrawn “moral values” political credit card, more power to them.
48 Comments for “‘Tea-Baggers’ in Texas”
posted by Mark on
This post is contradictory. On the one hand, we’re told that the Texas Republican convention was “tea-bagger influenced,” to such an extent that the delegates replaced their party chair with someone acceptable to the tea-baggers. On the other hand, we’re told that the rabidly anti-gay sections of the platform can’t be called “tea-bagger influenced,” because a handful of tea-baggers say they’re more concerned with economic issues. Or were the delegates who provided the votes for the party chair different from the delegates who provided the votes for the platform that the same convention adopted?
It’s hard to describe a movement that dominated a convention whose platform called for criminalizing people who perform gay weddings “anti-anti-gay.”
posted by John Howard on
Libertarian Transhumanists are deluding themselves if they think allowing same-sex procreation and genetic engineering is a small government, fiscally conservative position. Of course it will cost billions of dollars to fund the research and then it will become an entitlement that continues to cost billions every year. It will also use up resources and harm the environment, but of course Libertarians don’t care about that. To them, same-sex procreation is the same as jet skis and powerboats, they think it’s a God given right to do anything anyone wants to do, regardless of long term social costs and environmental destruction.
Libertarianism is childish and irresponsible and appealing to people’s selfish interests is easy at first but people have moral consciences and will soon resent being manipulated into screwing over the next generation.
posted by Skye Winspur on
Can Mr Howard explain how allowing two people who love each other to marry is “genetic engineering?”
posted by Bobby on
The word tea-bagger is offensive, just like the n-word. It’s Tea-PARTIER. Joe.my.god is an asshole.
posted by BobN on
I have seen no evidence that the Tea Whatevers are anti-anti-gay. They are, at most, disinterested in social issues and working to change the party’s IMAGE vis-a-vis those issues. When the Texas GOP platform explicitly changes its positions on gay people, I’ll believe the TPs have had an effect. Until then, they are organized under the GOP banner with the platform as it is.
I’m not holding my breath.
posted by Jorge on
Like I’ve said before, it’s a little too convenient for the right to be disinterested in gay issues.
Note that I do not say “social issues.” If not so much on the issues of gay rights and abortion, the culture war is as big as ever:
Glenn Beck just headlined a march on Washington that was supposed to be some kind of religious revival.
The Ground Zero Mosque puts front and center the growing battle lines on the war between mainstream Judeo-Christian culture and a sometime coalition of secular-progressism and Sharia-prostelyze Islam.
A couple of school districts, including one (in Texas I believe) that sets trends for textbook purchases for the rest of the nation, have had major changes in how they are teaching and emphasizing American exceptionalism vs. the accomplishments of people of disadvantaged and oppressed backgrounds.
If I follow Glenn Beck correctly (I generally don’t follow him), at least one of his points is that increasing secular-progressive control over the economy is a means by which the intellectual elites can begin exerting control what people think.
I realize there are other motivations behind the desire to build a fence along the Mexican border and pass strict stateside enforcement laws, but the resistance by the left is predominantly driven by civil rights concerns.
Eureka moment on that last. The right is still arrayed against the left, thus the left sees no difference. Only the coalition is different and the home base–the defense–is different.
posted by Jorge on
Sharia-prostelyze Islam>> Sharia-prostelyzing Islam.
And I mean it’s a little too convenient for the right not to care about gay issues after they already accomplished their goal in most states.
posted by Bucky on
@Bobby
“The word tea-bagger is offensive, just like the n-word. It’s Tea-PARTIER. Joe.my.god is an asshole.”
Joe.My.God may or may not be an asshole. But you are most certainly a fool.
Tea-Bagger is the name that the Tea-Baggers gave themselves. Then they realized the cultural implications of the word and tried to rebrand as the Tea-Party. Too late for that, really.
But you somehow think that the words tea-bagger are as offensive as the word nigger.
Really?
If you don’t understand the difference then you are a complete fool. And there is no use in trying to explain it to you.
The only thing to do is ridicule you for you utter and willful ignorance.
We point our fingers at you and laugh.
posted by Amicus on
“…that increasing secular-progressive control over the economy is a means by which the intellectual elites can begin exerting control what people think.”
====
it’s funny, because that looks like a Marxist analysis…LOL@Beck-the-
Marxist
The fact that the Beck rally was called “Restoring Honor” shows that the key ostensive appeal(s) is NOT to our fiscal woes, no?
Once the GOP is back in power, it is possible, maybe even probable, that the deep-pocket funding for the TP will be pulled and it will quickly atrophy.
posted by Craig Howell on
Is there any evidence or reason to believe that Tea Party Republicans, once in Congress, will vote to repeal DADT or DOMA or otherwise do anything that might offend the nuttyfundamentalist wing of the GOP? Maybe the TPs would rather not talk about the culture war, but I’d be amazed if they actually fight on our side.
posted by Bobby on
“Tea-Bagger is the name that the Tea-Baggers gave themselves. Then they realized the cultural implications of the word and tried to rebrand as the Tea-Party. Too late for that, really.”
—Just because one person at a rally used that term without knowing what tea-bagging really means doesn’t mean we should all be called that. Bill O’reilly, Glenn Beck, the leaders of the Tea Parties and pretty much everyone else finds that term extremely offensive.
“But you somehow think that the words tea-bagger are as offensive as the word nigger.
Really? If you don’t understand the difference then you are a complete fool. And there is no use in trying to explain it to you.”
—Both are offensive words, but right now you’re acting like those hypocrite blacks that cry about “racism” from whites yet never acknowledge their own anti-semitism, homophobia and racism against whites.
“The only thing to do is ridicule you for you utter and willful ignorance. We point our fingers at you and laugh.”
—It is because of people like you that Obama will be a one-term president and a future Ronald Reagan will take over. You progressive jerks are your own worst enemies. I see what you people do on MSNBC, and I have news for you, this is a center-right country and your views are not mainstream views.
posted by Bucky on
@Idiot
“Just because one person at a rally used that term without knowing what tea-bagging really means doesn’t mean we should all be called that”
Actually, Bobby, the term to my knowledge the first acknowledged public mention of the term “teabagger” was used by Griff Jenkins of Fox News on March 14, 2009. Subsequently, over the following months, Fox News spread the name and the teabaggers themselves adopted the term. Fox News used the term repeatedly for many months.
I have a problem calling that “one person at a rally.”
How sad that you don’t even know anything about the movement that you support.
More fool you.
You probably think that it is a mainstream “grassroots” movement as well.
Fool.
And you still seem to think that “teabagger” and “nigger” are somehow equal in being offensiveness?
Disgusting.
Your phrase “those hypocrite blacks” says all we need to know about you.
Dumb and hateful.
How surprising to find racism and idiocy in a teabagger.
posted by Lymis on
Sorry, doesn’t work.
If the Tea Party were specifically saying that they support gay equality, or if they were specifically saying that officially, the movement holds that its members are free to support or oppose gay rights, then they could make this claim.
“We don’t talk about it” doesn’t get them off the hook at all. It leaves 100% of their members free to oppose gay rights, and to declare that even if the vast majority of their members are vocally anti-gay, they are doing it on their own time.
Show me a significant number of influential Tea Party members who are speaking out FOR gay rights without negative consequences from other Tea Party members and I will believe it. Otherwise, they’re just the Klan leaving their hoods at home.
posted by Bobby on
“How surprising to find racism and idiocy in a teabagger.”
—People like you are not worth debating. If I’m a racist for telling it like it is, whatever. You progressives find racism everywhere, David Duke must be laughing his ass off right now.
“If the Tea Party were specifically saying that they support gay equality, or if they were specifically saying that officially, the movement holds that its members are free to support or oppose gay rights, then they could make this claim.”
—-The Tea Party doesn’t have to support equality anymore than the NRA has to support abortion rights. The Tea Party is about small government, that’s it, they have no interest in getting involved with other issues because nothing is more important to them than stopping Obama and his enablers from bankrupting America.
posted by Jorge on
That is unnecessary. Neutrality on the issue means that Klan members and civil rights warriors can be on the same side. If there were any anti-gay animus to be tied to the Tea Party, it would have been found by now.
posted by Throbert McGee on
And let’s not forgot that as part of Tea-Bagger “Initiation Week,” new recruits will drive around at night with their headlights off, and any unlucky motorists who honk or flash their highbeams are run off the road and shot in cold blood.
Yes, it’s true!
posted by Bucky on
It has been found, Jorge. Once again, you show your ignorance of the movement you support.
Tim Ravndal, the President of Montana’s Big Sky Tea Party Association, expressed his views that marriage should be between a man and a woman in a Facebook posting. Ravndal expressed support for a commenter who (in apparent reference to the Matthew Shepard murder) said, “I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions.”
Answered Ravndal: “Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?”
Is that enough anti-gay animus for you Jorge? You know, killing homos? Is that enough hate?
Fucking idiot.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
I don’t think so, Bucky, because given how JoeMyGod and his commentors wished death on Mary Cheney and her child, as well as other gay people, you really can’t say that wanting gay people to suffer and be killed is wrong or hateful.
Unless, of course, you are willing to state that JoeMyGod and other gay and lesbian websites that have these sort of commenters and encourage this sort of behavior are hateful and homophobic — you know, applying the same standards for behavior for gay people that you do to others.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
I don’t think so, Bucky.
Perhaps you aren’t aware that JoeMyGod and his commentors in fact wished death on Mary Cheney and her newborn child.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
And perhaps, Bucky, you aren’t aware that JoeMyGod and his commenters also called for harm and death to come to other gay people and their parents.
So frankly put, you don’t care about wishing death on homos. You in fact do it yourself, along with the rest of your fellow gay-sex liberals.
Do you know how much of a fool and a hypocrite that makes you?
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Also, Bucky, why are you whining about calling black people “niggers”, when you and your fellow gay-sex marriage supporters do it regularly?
posted by Bucky on
@NDT
WTF are you ranting about?
Crazy ass fuck you are.
posted by Bobby on
“Tim Ravndal, the President of Montana’s Big Sky Tea Party Association, expressed his views that marriage should be between a man and a woman in a Facebook posting.”
—So what? He was speaking his own views on the subject, views that may not necessarily be the same views of the Montana Tea Party, the same views of your messiah, Imam Barrack Hussein Obama.
posted by Bucky on
@Little Bobby
So, the president of the Montana Tea Baggers supports the murder of h0mosexuals and he is “just expressing his own views.”
Okay.
And the world is still waiting to hear from all those Tea Baggers who think that one of their leaders advocating murder is reprehensible.
….
The silence is deafening.
The man actually supports the murder of gay people. And none of you assholes can muster the courage to say something about that?
That pretty much tells us all we need to know about the sort of people that are part of the TeaBagging movement.
As to your other comment implying that President Obama is a Muslim … well, I have no need of a messiah. President Obama is actually a Christian, if that matters. You show your hateful ignorance by trying to pretend otherwise. But what if he was actually Muslim? We don’t have a religious test for office in this country. There is that little thing called the US Constitution (that you right wingers hate) that guarantees freedom of religion for everyone.
You seem to think that calling someone Muslim is a slur of some kind.
Can we just cut to the chase and all agree that you are a hateful fucking bigot?
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
WTF are you ranting about?
Crazy ass fuck you are.
ACtually, I provided links proving that you and your fellow liberals support the murder of gays and lesbians who disagree with you and fully support and endorse the use of “nigger” and “Negro” to describe black people.
It’s no surprise you can’t answer. Bigots and hypocrites like yourself rarely if ever do.
If you had any integrity you would condemn JoeMyGod for advocating murder and violence against people. If you had any integrity you would condemn gays and lesbians like yourself who use the word “nigger” to describe black people. But you don’t. You support murder and violence of anyone who disagrees with you, and you call black people “nigger” and “Negro”.
The proof is right there in those links. No integrity, only hate and bigotry. That’s all you have, “Bucky”.
posted by Bucky on
@North Dallas Asshole
How dare you?
How dare you tell me that I call people nigger and negro? You don’t know anything about me.
In your little mind you find some blogger on the internet (who the fuck is JoeMyGod?) and find some random comments on his little blog and then you tell me that I am just the same as some crazy idiot you’ve found on the internet?
Fuck you.
And for the record, I am sick and tired of all you right wing assholes trying to find some equivalence between comments by your GOP/TeaBagger party leadership and some random internet commenter. When Sarah Palin or Glen Beck says something outrageous, it isn’t at all comparable to dumbfuck257@hotmail.com posting a hateful comment on some never read blog.
Like this one, for instance.
posted by Jorge on
It has been found, Jorge. Once again, you show your ignorance of the movement you support…
Was that the best you could do? I know an reckless, easily-refuted statement when I make one, but the desperation your example reeks of proves a broader point. In any event, I don’t take the word of people who are so quick to flame me. I want to know where you learned this from before I accept it as factual.
And I resent your post. I do not support the tea party, and I’m much smarter than you are.
posted by Jorge on
In your little mind you find some blogger on the internet (who the fuck is JoeMyGod?) and find some random comments on his little blog…
Careless, careless, careless, showing your ignorance and lack of reading comprehension skills! Check the top of this blog entry. Idiot.
posted by Debrah on
Once again, the seasoned and cerebral Jonathan Rauch rides in on his horse to save the day with a reality-based view.
No pistols required.
He has to tie one hand behind his back just to make it fair!
:>)
posted by Bobby on
“So, the president of the Montana Tea Baggers supports the murder of h0mosexuals and he is “just expressing his own views.” ”
—You got a link to back up that allegation? And no, Media Matters doesn’t count.
“The man actually supports the murder of gay people. And none of you assholes can muster the courage to say something about that?”
—Oh yeah? Well there are plenty of people in the progressive community that support the murder of Christians, conservatives and others. Remember Andy Stern saying “we know where you live” when it comes to bankers?
Whatever Bucky, go back to Huffington Post, you don’t belong here. By november we’re taking back the house and senate, by 2012 we’re sending him back to Chicago where he belongs.
posted by Jorge on
—You got a link to back up that allegation? And no, Media Matters doesn’t count.
Personally I could use the laugh.
A good journalist makes mistakes that unravel them. Media Matters is so shoddy it doesn’t even reach the level of arguing a coherant point.
posted by Bucky on
http://www.towleroad.com/2010/09/montana-tea-party-president-condones-violence-against-gays-in-facebook-post-supporting-traditional-m.html
And why, exactly, doesn’t Media Matters count? Do they not count in the same way that Fox News doesn’t count?
Sorry you think that I don’t belong here, Little Bobby. Guess you only want to play with people that agree with your very limited world view.
posted by Bucky on
@Jorge
“A good journalist makes mistakes that unravel them.”
Could you please start writing sentences that actually make any sort of sense? It is really hard to argue with someone who can’t write a simple sentence.
posted by Throbert McGee on
Gosh, might this this be because the story essentially broke on the Friday or Saturday going into a three-day holiday weekend?
The offensive jokes about stringing up “fruits” appeared on Tim Ravndal’s Facebook page on 23 July of this year, but from what I’ve turned up with Google, gay and/or progressive blogs only discovered this and began running headlines about it on or about Friday, 3 September. For example, here’s the Towleroad story, datelined from Friday, which includes a screengrab of the gross jokes from Ravndal’s FB page.
And since Monday was Labor Day here in the U.S., most people enjoyed a three-day weekend, which typically means a slowed-down news cycle. So it’s hardly surprising that there wasn’t an instantaneous national reaction to the story from Tea Party representatives across the country, as Futt-Bucky petulantly demands.
Nonetheless, in Ravndal’s home state of Montana, the local Tea Baggers had heard of and reacted to the story as early as Sunday, 5 September, when they voted to remove him as their president. (Note that the linked story is dated two days later, on 7 September, even on this news site based out of Helena, MT — again, the effects of the holiday weekend.)
posted by Throbert McGee on
Gosh, might this this be because the story essentially broke on the Friday or Saturday going into a three-day holiday weekend?
The offensive jokes about stringing up “fruits” appeared on Tim Ravndal’s Facebook page on 23 July of this year, but from what I’ve turned up with Google, gay and/or progressive blogs only discovered this and began running headlines about it on or about Friday, 3 September. For example, here’s the Towleroad story, datelined from Friday, which includes a screengrab of the gross jokes from Ravndal’s FB page.
And since Monday was Labor Day here in the U.S., most people enjoyed a three-day weekend, which typically means a slowed-down news cycle. So it’s hardly surprising that there wasn’t an instantaneous national reaction to the story from Tea Party representatives across the country, as Futt-Bucky petulantly demands.
(To be continued in a second post, because of the stupid new spam filter…)
posted by Throbert McGee on
(cont.)
Nonetheless, in Ravndal’s home state of Montana, the local Tea Baggers had heard of and reacted to the story as early as Sunday, 5 September, when they voted to remove him as their president. (Note that the linked story is dated two days later, on 7 September, even on this news site based out of Helena, MT — again, the effects of the holiday weekend.)
posted by Bucky on
@Throbert
Just saw that the Montana Tea Bagger party had removed Ravndal because of his comments.
Bravo!
I will admit to much surprise.
posted by Throbert McGee on
Now, the question is: How long will it take Bucky the Futt™ to spin the news of Ravndal’s ouster as “purely a cosmetic gesture” by Tea Baggers, to distract people from the fact that they all secretly support vigilante lynchings of homosekshuls?
posted by Throbert McGee on
Oh, darn it — that last post was ill-timed.
Well, bravo to you for giving them proper credit, Bucky.
posted by Bucky on
Thanks, Throbert, for that small consession.
I am happily surprised that the Montana Tea Baggers ousted Ravndal for his beyond-the-pale endorsement of the murder of gay people.
Let’s not forget however that the Montana GOP/Tea Bagger platform calls for the criminalization of any homosexual acts.
Suck a dick and go to jail.
I’m not sure what to make of your “homosekshuls” comment, Throbert. Please explain.
posted by Bobby on
Bucky, your link said nothing about murdering homosexuals. Is the guy a gay basher because he believes in traditional marriage? Give me a break. You lefties are too spoiled, in the old days bigotry used to mean burning a cross, lynching a black, bombing a church. Now bigotry is saying that you only support traditional marriage.
“And why, exactly, doesn’t Media Matters count? Do they not count in the same way that Fox News doesn’t count?”
—Fox News is fair and balanced, they have vigorous debate on all issues with all kinds of people. Media Matters only goes against the right, yet when MSNBC does hateful stuff like shown here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Iip_BhhAo
They say nothing.
So no, I’m not gonna take Media Matters seriously when they’re nothing more than a property funded by George Soros, a billionaire socialist with a progressive agenda for the entire world.
“Sorry you think that I don’t belong here, Little Bobby. Guess you only want to play with people that agree with your very limited world view.”
—No, I play with people who are fair and balanced. People who would rather discuss my arguments instead of calling me a bigot and a racist every time they disagree with me.
Even Obama is at it, now he’s complaining that he’s being treated like a dog.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/pres-obama-on-dc-opponents-%E2%80%9Cthey-talk-about-me-like-a-dog%E2%80%9D/
Really? Bush was treated like a cockroach yet he didn’t complain about it. Of course, progressives always play the victim card. “It’s not my fault, it’s just because I’m black/gay/Muslim.” Well, I don’t care, and neither does the average American. Obama got elected for who he is, well, now he’ll be defeated for what his done. He promised to control spending, he didn’t. He ran as a centrist, he isn’t. His backers claimed he was post-racial yet now everything’s about race in this country. He claims to be a Christian yet he covers the Christ at Georgetown and doesn’t go to church on a regular basis. Is it racist to point that out? Is it racist to judge someone by what they do? According to people like you, Media Matters and The Huffington Post, it is.
posted by Amicus on
There is clearly a gap between what the party elites say and what the membership believe, do, and often say.
I suppose thee is always such a gap, in most political parties; but it seems especially large for TP, as party elites try to fit “warriors” into libertarian non-involvement.
posted by Jorge on
Could you please start writing sentences that actually make any sort of sense? It is really hard to argue with someone who can’t write a simple sentence.
Not half as hard as arguing with someone who can’t read a simple post. Have you checked the top of this topic for the Joe My God reference? No, of course not. Get back to me once you admit that you were wrong in accusing North Dallas Thirty of looking at some
random blog poster’s writings.
I can’t speak for Bobby, but the reason I don’t respect Media Matters is–to be a little more clear–because in my experience they can never make a clear, straightforward point without running into an obvious contradiction. Often the contradiction is within the same article, or in other articles on the website. The points they try to make are extremely weak on many fronts. They put up a headline, and their article says something completely different. Most of the time I have a problem with an article from another source, it has only one attackable weak point, a careless assumption or ommision on the part of the author.
This is all beside the point. You are surprised by the turn of events in which Mr. Ravndal was expelled as president of his local tea party. This means either 1) you have a lot more dirt on the way, or 2) you are misreading the tea party movement.
posted by Throbert McGee on
It’s a clichéd dialect spelling often employed by gay writers to attribute a sluggish intelligence to their anti-gay opponents.
And I used it to imply that you, personally, are the precisely the type of highly excitable but not overly bright person who is apt to think in clichés — as evidenced, for example, by your hasty stereotyping of the Tea Party movement, and your eagerness to treat “GOP” and “Tea Baggers” as interchangeable.
posted by Rob on
Bobby: “—So what? He was speaking his own views on the subject, views that may not necessarily be the same views of the Montana Tea Party, the same views of your messiah, Imam Barrack Hussein Obama.”
Ummm… Bobby, you do realize that Obama is an atheist. Even Ann Coulter knows that. Not the first non-Christian president though. That honor goes to Thomas Jefferson.
posted by Russell on
Yet the politicians they’re bringing to the fore, from Miller in Alaska to Angle in Nevada, are the most vicious culture warriors we’ve seen. Bad news for gays. Bad news for scientists. Bad news for civil libertarians.
posted by shasta on
This post is utter and complete bullshit and displays a remarkable igonorance of Texas politics. The social issues are assumed in Texas. There is no support for gay rights, none, outside of Austin.
posted by JoeMyGod on
As Andrew Sullivan has linked this post today and it will get a lot of traffic, I’ll pop in to point out that the ridiculous claims by North Dallas Thirty are, of course, untrue. I have never blogged any wish for physical harm on Mary Cheney or any gay person.
Comments on JoeMyGod are unmoderated and uncensored as JMG has the highest comment volume of any LGBT blog and such oversight is impossible. So yes, on very rare occasions you will find our people saying unfortunate things in the comments of my blog, just as you will on any unmoderated high-volume site.
[And FWIW, you should note that North Dallas Thirty has been banned from virtually every major politics-oriented blog due to asshattery such as witnessed above.]