Judith Gayle | Political Waves
An originator of the Tea Party movement, a big, loud Texan by the name of Dale Robertson is warning that Sarah Palin is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, attempting to ‘bastardize’ the principals of the populist movement and hijack the Baggers into the Republican stronghold.
The movement distanced itself from Robertson during the summer when he was photographed with a controversial homemade sign that represented his passionate thoughts on taxation — and said a little something about his personal bias, as well. Well, so much for the notion that we’ve gone post-racial, now that we have a president of color.
Or perhaps this isn’t a question of either/or. Maybe, in our big divided nation, this is always a question of percentages.
Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota is a particularly visible Tea Party proponent. Frequently over-the-top, she’s a proud ‘birther’ and a FOX News darling, and is in the news constantly due to her immoderate commentary. Despite a poll of GOP ‘movers and shakers’ indicating that 87% consider birthers fringe members of their party, her state was recently surveyed and it was discovered that her popularity breaks down as one would expect along Right/Left party lines; but the surprise, given the supposed leanings of the Independent vote, was that only 26% of them are proud of the job Bachmann has done in Congress, while 62% call her an embarrassment.
Gosh, ya think?
Moral of the story: the more infighting the Republicans do, the more they attempt to use one another while seeking to recapture their power base, the more they fracture and offer nothing to a national conversation in search of solutions. By the way, 78% of the anonymous GOP leadership mentioned above also think that Obama is a Socialist. I guess that’s why Republicans demured on unemployment extension for 1.2 million laid-off Americans last night, unwilling to give up on their “death tax” a.k.a. the Paris Hilton tax.