1980 - Tobacco companies and energy resource gurus join forces and plan a major disinformation campaign, based on "over-regulation," "taxes," and government interference in people's lives. They even call it the USTea company.
2003 - The Kochs secretly underwrite Americans For Prosperity, the group that forms the financial backbone of most of the present day Tea Party entities. Using the Citizens for a Sound Economy (yet another Koch creation), the movement adds FreedomWorks to the line up of (ahem) Tea based life forms. FreedomWorks hired Dick Armey as its public face. While it claims to have acted in response to so-called Tea Party movements across the country, in reality, FreedomWorks was designed attract people, to control their political positions, and eventually move Tea Party platforms in a uniform direction. Rightward. In essence, AFP and CSE underwrote Tea Party politics, funded it, then with its FreedomWorks arm, molded it to be a ultraconservative arm of the GOP.
1998 - Hilary Clinton is pilloried for accurately claiming that there existed a "vast, right wing conspiracy" allied against her husband.
- - -
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
"Hillary Clinton bothers me a lot. I realized the other day that her thoughts sound a lot like Karl Marx. She hangs around a lot of Marxists. All her friends are Marxists."
Co-conspirator in Chief Dick Armey
"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand."
GOP's Resident genius Paul Ryan
"I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries."
The mental giant among GOPers - Marco Rubio
FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:
We have a problem in our political system. Potentially, a deadly one. Let's take a quick hop through recent history, and see where the pealed onion skins lead us. Let's find the cause and the culprit, and visit the heart of the matter. Let's name names, and point out precisely who caused the current mess inside the Bloatway.
Perhaps it is because Traditional Master Journalists (TMJ) give them so much credit. After all, there is nothing as juicy as airing on prime time a Rand Paul attacking school meals, a Gov. Perry praying for rain, while closing down Planned Parenthood access to a million women, Senator Graham spewing how much he prefers to fund our military budget instead of health care, - come to think of it, there are too many examples to list. But, the fact is, TMJ gives TeaBaggers a hell of a lot of free media exposure, and rarely do opponents get the same face time. Just look to Sunday Mourning Talk TMJ favorites, and outside of Sen Graham and McCain, who populates the screen, week after week? Hint: NOT the party that kicked ass last November.
Perhaps there is still some core group of voters, committed to the Tea Party. I am sure there are some still clueless, deluded individuals who proudly boast of their ineffably stupid hats, hanging tea bags, and badly spelled signs. But frankly, any honest poll (and I stress honest) will tell you that except in three groups, 1) within the rusty minds of TMJ; 2) a few nut job politicians in the house: and Door #3 which will be discussed later, there is no ground swollen, Joe 6-packed, down to earth TeaBugger movement. Poll after poll have shown how that movement has come and gone.
Once upon a time, before the masters of disaster took the reins (the Armeys and so many other conservative pros), innocent people were decidedly unhappy, but did not know why. By innocent, I mean the politically ignorant, the middle class whose economics have gone downhill steadily for a decade, as their corporate masters' incomes have mushroomed, and those who really didn't care much for politics or political games. I have no doubt that some of the larger TeaBuggered meetings had some attraction for those folks. After all, you write a letter to congress, nothing happens. But if you get together with a few other like minded folk, the T&V cameras come out! YIPPEE! PARTY TIME! WE ARE UNHAPPY TOGETHER!
That was then. This is now. After the owners and operators of the TeaBuggerers took control, many people woke up to the fact that, "No, these bozos don't represent me, either!" And they quit coming. They saw Rush as a racist, sexist, obese, obnoxious, slovenly, blowhard, and not the leader of some political movement. They saw Sean as an idiot, Glenn as stark raving insane, and too many of the Tea Buggered candidates as crazy.
To add up the last three paragraphs, and to come to a conclusion, I will be clear and concise:
The Tea Party Is Dead.
They don't have the numbers, the grassroots support, the ideas, or the sense of purpose. They clearly don't have the support of the indie voters, not since their organizations turned out to be so bloody conservative and crazy.
So the question becomes, Why does the Tea Buggered group still have so much control over what happens in Washington? That leads us to Door #3.
Because in reality, the Tea Party was simply a passing fad, and the true powers behind them have never wavered, never changed, and never admitted defeat. However, by grabbing all of the attention, and facing a lazy TMJ that would never be bothered to dig into the story behind the story, today's TeaBaggers, especially their craziest success stories like Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Paul Broun, Scott Walker, and Scott Brown, continue to grab precious media attention simply by being Ineffably Stupid and unpredictable. Well, they are unpredictable to the extent that they are Ineffably Stupid, but that's another matter.
As long as this group of conservative crazies continues to hold office or more importantly, hold the attention of the TMJ, those behind the scenes get ignored.
Here's a quick quiz:
1) In the 1980's which group spent more than $118 MILLION dollars, under the auspices of two organizations, Donor's Trust and Donor's Capital Fund, on projects attacking climate change science and renewable energy projects?
2) From 2002 through 2012, who spent $300 MILLION dollars on more than 100 groups (most of them labeled "grass roots" in press releases) fighting a political war based on lower taxes, less regulation, and a smaller public sector?
Funny about "the smaller public sector." That does not apply to war efforts like IraqNam, in which several corporations managed to make billions over the table, and quite likely, billions under the table as well. If it is war, the ultra rich get quite a bit richer.
3) Who underwrote and created so-called think tanks and idea palaces like American Enterprise Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council, Hudson Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Reason Foundation, Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Mont Pelerin Society and Discovery Institute?
I admit that it is a stretch calling the Discovery Institute a think tank. But the term "anti-think tank" just doesn't cut it. They deserve a new term all of their own.
4) Who gathered hundreds of millions of dollars, in the hopes of turning the current president into a one term wonder?
If you guessed that the Koch brothers, the DeVos family (of Amway fame and fortune) and a few billionaires were behind these retched moves, you would be right.
Here's the problem, and the true source of Washington not working any more.
Those folks still exist. Their vast fortunes still exist. Their power to create and wreck the careers of people still exists. And whether TeaBaggers are a viable party, or simply a convenient attraction, moving political attention onto themselves, and away from their deeper goals, matters not. The fact is, either way, the Koch & fiends still win. If they have viable candidates and elected officials, the sand in the gears is already there. If they are merely a distraction, the Kochs continue with their schemes and plots, effectively controlling lives of millions without their knowledge or agreement.
When Mitch McConnell is shaking in his boots about his upcoming GOP primary, when Sen. Graham sounds like he is quoting Michele Bachmann campaign speeches, it is not because they fear the actual Tea Party. No, rather, they fear the behind the scenes billionaires who control the purse strings. Those guys want Obama to fail, because it would be unprofitable for them if he were to survive and thrive, even though the rest of the world would benefit.
They are the enemy. They are the powers behind the scenes. They are the vast, reich wing conspiracy.
Hilary? When you said that so many years ago, I scoffed. I scoffed even as evidence of that conspiracy was visible right before my eyes. How else could so many different people use exactly the same attacking words against President Clinton then, and President Obama now? How do they do it? By reading a script. A script written on the orders of Koch and company, and their billionaire friends.
Have you noticed that the Intertubes have been under attack? Conservatives tried to place "anti-port" limits on the tubes, or financially regulate them. Now, we have the CIA and NSA spying on every email, every visit to a site, and they use private companies to accomplish it. For now, the last refuge against corporate tyrants was the Tubes. Watch them try to erode that as well.