Tea Party explained: a religious movement

[Rigon]

It is now a commonplace for Tea Party candidates to vow they won’t sacrifice an iota of their principles. In this light, shutting down the Government rather than bending on legislation becomes a moral imperative. While critics may decry such a tactic as “rule or ruin,” Tea Party brethren celebrate it, rather, as the act of a defiant Samson pulling down the pillars of the temple. For them, this is not demolition but reclamation, cleansing the sanctuary that has been profaned by liberals.

I see the tea party movement as very similar to the jihadist movement in the Muslim religion.  Only their way is acceptable.  This is the new religion that is sweeping the less intelligent of our people. The Old white men want to take this country back.  The real problem is that yes everything looked better when you were young, but as you get older you pine for the good old days when you could walk or run around and you didn't get ackes and pains.  Those days won't come back so for god sake quit trying.

It is very much like that.  There is real religious fervor underlying this movement (I'm talking about batshit Christian fundamentalism and Dominionists etc)..... and the "libertarian" contingent that likes to present itself as NOT about this, is happy to throw in with them anyway and just ignore the Christian jihadist aspect.   Ron and Rand Paul for example are Christianists to the core; they just don't advertise that part. 
If you want stark evidence of this, you only have to look at the tree that Ted Cruz fell from...Daddy Rafael.

Some inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz

Ted Cruz is not alone. If you want Ted Cruz, you also get his father Rafael Cruz, who currently tours the country, giving outrageous speeches in which he spews hate and lies. His primary target is President Obama, and just a few days ago, some particularly shocking quotes by Rafael Cruz were highlighted by David Corn at Mother Jones, in an article which thankfully received a lot of attention.

Quote from Mother Jones:

    In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God." Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."


Some really disturbing information at this link including video clips.

http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2013/11/rafael-cruz-father-of-senator-ted-cruz.html

You want to look at what Ted Cruz "fell from"


how about we look at what Barry Soetoro fell from


a communist polygamist and a porn star mom???

an uncle that's a murdering would be dictator??

a grandfather who was supported by his wife his entire life?

Do you really want to get into family histories??

[sana8410]

It is now a commonplace for Tea Party candidates to vow they won’t sacrifice an iota of their principles. In this light, shutting down the Government rather than bending on legislation becomes a moral imperative. While critics may decry such a tactic as “rule or ruin,” Tea Party brethren celebrate it, rather, as the act of a defiant Samson pulling down the pillars of the temple. For them, this is not demolition but reclamation, cleansing the sanctuary that has been profaned by liberals.

I see the tea party movement as very similar to the jihadist movement in the Muslim religion.  Only their way is acceptable.  This is the new religion that is sweeping the less intelligent of our people. The Old white men want to take this country back.  The real problem is that yes everything looked better when you were young, but as you get older you pine for the good old days when you could walk or run around and you didn't get ackes and pains.  Those days won't come back so for god sake quit trying.

It is very much like that.  There is real religious fervor underlying this movement (I'm talking about batshit Christian fundamentalism and Dominionists etc)..... and the "libertarian" contingent that likes to present itself as NOT about this, is happy to throw in with them anyway and just ignore the Christian jihadist aspect.   Ron and Rand Paul for example are Christianists to the core; they just don't advertise that part. 
If you want stark evidence of this, you only have to look at the tree that Ted Cruz fell from...Daddy Rafael.

Some inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz

Ted Cruz is not alone. If you want Ted Cruz, you also get his father Rafael Cruz, who currently tours the country, giving outrageous speeches in which he spews hate and lies. His primary target is President Obama, and just a few days ago, some particularly shocking quotes by Rafael Cruz were highlighted by David Corn at Mother Jones, in an article which thankfully received a lot of attention.

Quote from Mother Jones:

    In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God." Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."


Some really disturbing information at this link including video clips.

http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2013/11/rafael-cruz-father-of-senator-ted-cruz.html

You want to look at what Ted Cruz "fell from"


how about we look at what Barry Soetoro fell from


a communist polygamist and a porn star mom???

an uncle that's a murdering would be dictator??

a grandfather who was supported by his wife his entire life?

Do you really want to get into family histories??

A porn star mom?  No kidding?   You really need to be a a rubber room somewhere.

[sana8410]

It was because the Founding Fathers did not want an official state religion like England had. Find us one Founding Father quote that says it was to 'prevent religious wars'. Liberals are so full of crap!

The English Civil War was fought in large part because the Puritans didn't feel that the Church of England was pure enough, and hated Laud for reinstalling some of the gaudier Catholic rites and forms. The whole point of the fear of an established church was the sectarianism that could lead to those sort of conflicts as had occurred barely a century before our own revolution. Religion is EXACTLY what led to the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution in 1688, do you know anything?

[umair127]

The Teabaggers do seem to go beyond the ordinary ideological sticks-in-the-mud, I am reading a book by Pat Buchanan right now about how Nixon united the GOP in 1964-68 and even he understood at the time the necessity of bending a bit with the wind. But the Teabaggers are so rigid that they can only be described as "stiffnecked" in the sense of the Jews who stuck their necks out to be hacked by the Romans rather than submit to the desecration of the temple by Roman totems to the Emperor.

And speaking of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution,

Washington is seen in the same way Protestant fire-breathers once saw Rome: a seat of corruption that has betrayed the pillars of the faith.

Titus Oates, late in the reign of Charles II, is famed for having ginned up a wild conspiracy of Catholics to assassinate the King and install a regime of "popery" on the nation. His accusations were beyond absurd, Charles himself questioned him and laughed at him as an idiot, but the fears and hysteria of the arch-protestants made them willing to believe anything, no matter how idiotic, due to their fears of Catholicism.

Sound familiar? Look at how the 'baggers today view Washington, with that same ultimate paranoia that makes them willing to believe anything they are fed by the modern day Titus Oates--whether they be the Limbaughs, the Becks, the Fox News, no matter how hysterical or outlandish the accusations get, the fanatics--whether 'baggers or archprotestants, are willing to believe them.

I think the psychology between the 'baggers and the archreligious is the same, the only difference really is the object of their hatred and fear.

[noviapriani]

I am deeply committed and involved with three VERY active local local Tea Party groups in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. NEVER, even once has religion been mentioned except 'under God' in the Pledge.Since we limit our vetting to our single Fiscal Sanity issues, there is no question that we will elect candidates with their 'social positions such as religion, all over the spectrum. Still, it is understandably why you Anti-American, Liberal Moonbats keep our Tea Party Movement as front page news. Fiscal Sanity VERY apparently scares all Parasites and Piranhas.

[umair127]

Titus Oates, late in the reign of Charles II, is famed for having ginned up a wild conspiracy of Catholics to assassinate the King and install a regime of "popery" on the nation. His accusations were beyond absurd, Charles himself questioned him and laughed at him as an idiot, but the fears and hysteria of the arch-protestants made them willing to believe anything, no matter how idiotic, due to their fears of Catholicism.

Sound familiar? Look at how the 'baggers today view Washington, with that same ultimate paranoia that makes them willing to believe anything they are fed by the modern day Titus Oates--whether they be the Limbaughs, the Becks, the Fox News, no matter how hysterical or outlandish the accusations get, the fanatics--whether 'baggers or archprotestants, are willing to believe them.

I think the psychology between the 'baggers and the archreligious is the same, the only difference really is the object of their hatred and fear.

[noviapriani]

Titus Oates, late in the reign of Charles II, is famed for having ginned up a wild conspiracy of Catholics to assassinate the King and install a regime of "popery" on the nation. His accusations were beyond absurd, Charles himself questioned him and laughed at him as an idiot, but the fears and hysteria of the arch-protestants made them willing to believe anything, no matter how idiotic, due to their fears of Catholicism.

Sound familiar? Look at how the 'baggers today view Washington, with that same ultimate paranoia that makes them willing to believe anything they are fed by the modern day Titus Oates--whether they be the Limbaughs, the Becks, the Fox News, no matter how hysterical or outlandish the accusations get, the fanatics--whether 'baggers or archprotestants, are willing to believe them.

I think the psychology between the 'baggers and the archreligious is the same, the only difference really is the object of their hatred and fear.

That does certainly seem to be the case regarding the mainstream media, some of these folks and their accusations against the tea party movement.  Thanks, Umair.  I didn't think you had it in you to be rational.  Well done.

[umair127]

Titus Oates, late in the reign of Charles II, is famed for having ginned up a wild conspiracy of Catholics to assassinate the King and install a regime of "popery" on the nation. His accusations were beyond absurd, Charles himself questioned him and laughed at him as an idiot, but the fears and hysteria of the arch-protestants made them willing to believe anything, no matter how idiotic, due to their fears of Catholicism.

Sound familiar? Look at how the 'baggers today view Washington, with that same ultimate paranoia that makes them willing to believe anything they are fed by the modern day Titus Oates--whether they be the Limbaughs, the Becks, the Fox News, no matter how hysterical or outlandish the accusations get, the fanatics--whether 'baggers or archprotestants, are willing to believe them.

I think the psychology between the 'baggers and the archreligious is the same, the only difference really is the object of their hatred and fear.

That does certainly seem to be the case regarding the mainstream media, some of these folks and their accusations against the tea party movement.  Thanks, Umair.  I didn't think you had it in you to be rational.  Well done.

What you believe as a tea party person and what the national tea party lead by the Kock brothers is totally different than your view.  They are not interested in making this country better for you and me.  They don't give a shit about your freedoms.  Their goal is to make more money for themselves and are more than willing to use the tea party to obtain their goal.  Just as many politicians try and use the church for political gai

[beetcoin]

is it really a religious movement? because its engineers are politicians; koch brothers. it's a pseudo grassroots movement, i agree, but the guys who bankrolled it probably wanted to be known as the masterminds that created it. they just want to obstruct governance and work their agenda.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/study-confirms-tea-party-_b_2663125.html

[Westin Landon Cox]

I'm shocked (shocked!) to hear Obama drones spreading lies about the Tea Party. Just kidding. No one expects the truth from lefties.

My experience with the Tea Party in the Dallas area has also been that they're mostly focused on fiscal issues. A lot of them are Republicans who were annoyed to put up with Bush's massive increase in the government. The fact that Obama's accelerated the expansion just makes it worse.

They also tend to emphasize following the Constitution, which is considered radical and extreme by most politicians. Bush reportedly called the Constitution "just a goddamn piece of paper". That the progressive movement has been out to undermine the Constitution has been well-documented since the time of Wilson.  Anyone who thinks Obamacare is constitutional is delusional.  I'm not calling the 5 members of the USSC who said it's constitutional delusional. I'm saying they didn't believe it either.

As much as the lefties hate the Tea Party and lie about them, I'm convinced the Republican Party hates them even more. Look at what they did to Joe Miller in 2010. Look what they did to get their bitch Thad the nomination in MS a few weeks ago. The Republican Party *hates* the Tea Party.

On the other hand, the lefties don't just lie, call the Tea Party racist, laugh and pronounce "Koch" the wrong way like goddamn idiots. Or shout "teabagger"! "teabagger"! The left actually uses the goddamn IRS to go after members of the Tea Party.

And do you really think the Republicans are trying to get to the bottom of this IRS scandal? They want to use it to get more Thadpublicans elected. They're *happy* the IRS went after the Tea Party.

I think it's time for Tea Party sympathizers to recognize that the United States, as a constitutionally limited republic, is lost. There is no chance of electing people who believe in fiscal sanity. There is no chance of electing people who follow the Constitution. There is nothing close to a majority that believes in such things, and, if such a majority were to exist, there are forces powerful enough to defeat it.

Instead of pointlessly working to get people elected, I seriously think the Tea Partiers who believe in liberty and fiscal sanity should take a look at the ideas of cryptoanarchy. I don't consider myself a cryptoanarchist, but in a time like this we need to recognize useful alliances against common powerful enemies.

The IRS cannot harass you if they don't know who you are and they don't know how you're funded. Cryptoanarchy has solutions to these problems. Use them.

Go dark. Then throw the tea in the harbor.

[beetcoin]

^ the problem is that the most well-known teabaggers are some of the dumbest people in the country.

off the top of my head, i can name you some really dumb people: sarah palin, tod akin, michelle bachman. and there's really nothing you can say to defend your party when everyone talks about how the koch brothers engineered the tea party. it was a fake grassroots movement.

[Westin Landon Cox]

The dumbest people in the world are Obama supporters. Close runner ups are Joe Biden and Harry Reid, but at least they both have the excuse of being brain damaged from medical conditions.

Todd Akin wasn't Tea Party. He's just an idiot liars like to associate with the Tea Party, because that's the kind of thing liars do.

[beetcoin]

nice job trolling. i like it how rightwing nuts like you ignore 3 of the examples i give, and then argue against one subject. have fun fear mongering your family and friends about how obama is an autocratic nazi born in kenya to terrorist muslim parents.

oh, and here is information on todd akin, the tea party-backed candidate in 2012. i'm even using your favorite news source as evidence. you'll probably end up interpretting it however you like, since you seem to live in a tea party bubble.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/07/congressman-akins-wins-missouri-gop-senate-primary-to-take-on-sen-mccaskill/

[Westin Landon Cox]

You're jumping to a lot of conclusions, but I suppose that's because you need to keep your worldview simple.

That article says Akin *claimed* to be Tea Party. It also said he beat the candidate Palin endorsed. Does that confuse you?

I'm not a huge Palin fan, but the only evidence that's she's dumb is that she's bad in hostile interviews. Oh, and she has a funny accent. I suppose we'll find out if Obama's bad in hostile interviews if he ever has one.

Bachmann was always more of a Mark Levin type. Levin is sympathetic to the Tea Party, and his book Liberty and Tyranny was a big influence on the start of the Tea Party, but it's not a very direct connection. Yes, I suppose she's Tea Party, but not the best representative. In any case, the Tea Party is quite decentralized (contrary to your Koch fantasies).

There. I commented on all three.

Oh, and the Koch brothers have been part of the liberty/libertarian movement for decades. As far as I'm concerned people who have a problem with the libertarian movement in general should GTFO of Bitcoin and join something more suitable. Maybe an ILoveTheStatecoin.

By the way, I find it amusing to be called a "troll" by anyone who uses the term "teabagger". It's like being called a racist by a klansman.

For Tea Party types reading this, it's because of assholes like this that you need to go dark.

[Spendulus]

The dumbest people in the world are Obama supporters. Close runner ups are Joe Biden and Harry Reid, but at least they both have the excuse of being brain damaged from medical conditions.

Todd Akin wasn't Tea Party. He's just an idiot liars like to associate with the Tea Party, because that's the kind of thing liars do.

Regardless, I have no qualms being associated with a movement that has as it's motto "Taxed Enough Already" and which does not have a bunch of side issues on social agendas.  That's about as simple as it gets, isn't it?

Obviously, we're seeing the orchestration of the beginning (drumroll) of the smear campaign against the fiscal conservatives in the lead up to the 2014 elections.

How about that. 

[Bimmerhead]

A very interesting post.  It does seem to fit what is happening with the tea party today. Sadly it is turning into a religion of hatred.

Why is it the actual haters are always the first to accuse the other side of hatred?

You post an article with the sole purpose of slandering a group of people who are trying to bring a semblance of fiscal sanity to the most indebted country in the history or the world and they are haters?

Have you also yet figured out that the article is not saying the TEA Party is an actual religion (Christian fundamentalist) but rather has the characteristics of a religion, as do socialism, atheism, and especially the environmental movement?

[Spendulus]

A porn star mom?  No kidding?   You really need to be a a rubber room somewhere.

Well, I for one am not hold that heritage against him.

We have serious ideological and practical work ethic differences, and in any case, his mom never rose to the level of stardom.

[Cicero2.0]

It is now a commonplace for Tea Party candidates to vow they won’t sacrifice an iota of their principles. In this light, shutting down the Government rather than bending on legislation becomes a moral imperative. While critics may decry such a tactic as “rule or ruin,” Tea Party brethren celebrate it, rather, as the act of a defiant Samson pulling down the pillars of the temple. For them, this is not demolition but reclamation, cleansing the sanctuary that has been profaned by liberals.

I see the tea party movement as very similar to the jihadist movement in the Muslim religion.  Only their way is acceptable.  This is the new religion that is sweeping the less intelligent of our people. The Old white men want to take this country back.  The real problem is that yes everything looked better when you were young, but as you get older you pine for the good old days when you could walk or run around and you didn't get ackes and pains.  Those days won't come back so for god sake quit trying.

It is very much like that.  There is real religious fervor underlying this movement (I'm talking about batshit Christian fundamentalism and Dominionists etc)..... and the "libertarian" contingent that likes to present itself as NOT about this, is happy to throw in with them anyway and just ignore the Christian jihadist aspect.   Ron and Rand Paul for example are Christianists to the core; they just don't advertise that part. 
If you want stark evidence of this, you only have to look at the tree that Ted Cruz fell from...Daddy Rafael.

Some inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz

Ted Cruz is not alone. If you want Ted Cruz, you also get his father Rafael Cruz, who currently tours the country, giving outrageous speeches in which he spews hate and lies. His primary target is President Obama, and just a few days ago, some particularly shocking quotes by Rafael Cruz were highlighted by David Corn at Mother Jones, in an article which thankfully received a lot of attention.

Quote from Mother Jones:

    In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God." Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."


Some really disturbing information at this link including video clips.

http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2013/11/rafael-cruz-father-of-senator-ted-cruz.html

I am no christian in the traidtional sense, but I have to disagree with your assertion. There is no christian "jihad." If they start blowing up buses filled with peple and flying planes into buildings we might have an issue. Aside from being annoying (evangelicals) christians as a group are mostly harmless.

[Elwar]

"What the Tea Party is."
 -Author: someone who doesn't know what the Tea Party is but wants you to believe what they think the Tea Party is as to discredit it.

[newflesh]

I've always seen the Tea Party as the Occupy Wall Street for the 1%ers. When you've got dirtbags like the Koch brothers supporting a 'movement' then you know it can only be bad thing.