Michael Lind: The Tea Party -- "Newest Right" -- is not a populist movement

[KingOrfeo]

In this analysis, the Tea Party movement -- what Lind renames the "Newest Right" -- is not merely an "extremist" version of conservatives; nor is it a bunch of ignorant yokels; nor, despite its populist pretensions, is it a populist movement. It is simply the latest iteration of the Jacksonian movement, which was not really populist either.

The Tea Party right is not only disproportionately Southern but also disproportionately upscale. Its social base consists of what, in other countries, are called the “local notables”—provincial elites whose power and privileges are threatened from above by a stronger central government they do not control and from below by the local poor and the local working class.

Even though, like the Jacksonians and Confederates of the nineteenth century, they have allies in places like Wisconsin and Massachusetts, the dominant members of the Newest Right are white Southern local notables—the Big Mules, as the Southern populist Big Jim Folsom once described the lords of the local car dealership, country club and chamber of commerce. These are not the super-rich of Silicon Valley or Wall Street (although they have Wall Street allies). The Koch dynasty rooted in Texas notwithstanding, those who make up the backbone of the Newest Right are more likely to be millionaires than billionaires, more likely to run low-wage construction or auto supply businesses than multinational corporations. They are second-tier people on a national level but first-tier people in their states and counties and cities.

And what the TP/NR movement is all about is simply preserving these local notables' local power and privileges from federal interference. They dominated the federal government for decades, but now that predominance is doomed by demographics, and they're desperate to keep what they have. And they're using the same tactics they've always used: filibusters, disenfranchisement, and pushing for localization/privatization of federal functions.

Seems very convincing to me. It would explain why the TP is mostly silent on social issues -- even those that really appeal to a conservative-populist base, such as immigration -- but hammers hard on fiscal and biggummint issues. The Contract from America could easily have been written with the local notables' interests in mind.

Anyone have a different opinion?

 

[unregistered]

 

[Dazzle1]

In this analysis, the Tea Party movement -- what Lind renames the "Newest Right" -- is not merely an "extremist" version of conservatives; nor is it a bunch of ignorant yokels; nor, despite its populist pretensions, is it a populist movement. It is simply the latest iteration of the Jacksonian movement, which was not really populist either.



And what the TP/NR movement is all about is simply preserving these local notables' local power and privileges from federal interference. They dominated the federal government for decades, but now that predominance is doomed by demographics, and they're desperate to keep what they have. And they're using the same tactics they've always used: filibusters, disenfranchisement, and pushing for localization/privatization of federal functions.

Seems very convincing to me. It would explain why the TP is mostly silent on social issues -- even those that really appeal to a conservative-populist base, such as immigration -- but hammers hard on fiscal and biggummint issues. The Contract from America could easily have been written with the local notables' interests in mind.

Anyone have a different opinion?

Michael Lind works for the New American Foundation which is controlled by the criminal George Soros

 

[KingOrfeo]

Michael Lind...is your problem.

Michael Lind is a lot smarter than you.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Sean Renaud]

That couldn't possibly be true, he's a liberal like you.

Hense smarter than you.

 

[KingOrfeo]

That couldn't possibly be true, he's a liberal like you.

So? Obama is also smarter than you. Hadn't you noticed?!

Lind has a law degree, has an MA from Yale, has written a lot of books and they're way better than Pat Buchanan's. As for "liberal," actually he considers himself a "radical centrist."

 

[koalabear]

MOTroll using soros links for his alt.

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

No, nothing he's done has been a success . . .

No necessary correlation betweens brains and success. But, Obama has succeeded in becoming the first AA POTUS, in becoming POTUS at a remarkably young age while still but a freshman senator, in enacting health-care legislation where Clinton failed (and the legislation itself is a lot more successful and beneficial than you will ever admit), in tipping the balance of the Libyan Civil War, helping out of the W Recession, whole buncha stuff. Even if you have a Medal of Honor, you're a failure by comparison.

 

[rosco rathbone]

He's right..they're not "populist". It's probably the media's fault that everyone's image of baggers is folks who look like the belong in the cheap seats at a nascar race, like that guy with the "morans" sign.

I grew up with real TeaOP types. They live in big houses in the exurbs, often own businesses, and culturally identify with the proles, despite having a lot more money.

But there are no potential populist movements on the other side of the aisle either---because the times that produced capital P populism are gone. The real populists were 1. poor and yet 2.--they saw themselves as independent small businessmen, not employees. Most of them were sharecroppers and they thought that if the furnishing merchant, the railroad and the bank were off their backs, they'd have as much of a shot to make good as anyone.

 

[DooleyDarter]

No necessary correlation betweens brains and success. But, Obama has succeeded in becoming the first AA POTUS, in becoming POTUS at a remarkably young age while still but a freshman senator, in enacting health-care legislation where Clinton failed (and the legislation itself is a lot more successful and beneficial than you will ever admit), in tipping the balance of the Libyan Civil War, helping out of the W Recession, whole buncha stuff. Even if you have a Medal of Honor, you're a failure by comparison.

He is also the first president to let our credit rating drop, the first to rack up this much debt in such a short period of time, and just might be the first to back out on paying our debt, depending how things shake out. So if you are going to use a balance scale for this president, make sure you load up both sides of the balance beam.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Michael Lind...is your problem.

Michael Lind works for the New American Foundation which is controlled by the criminal George Soros

Quality conservative rebuttals: "La la la I can't hear you!" and "but..but...George Soros!"

And they wonder why they keep losing elections....

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Quality conservative rebuttals: "La la la I can't hear you!" and "but..but...George Soros!"

And they wonder why they keep losing elections....

I still don't get what their problem is with Soros. If it's about his business practices, certainly the RW has businesscritters far more unethical on their side.

I don't know what is his connection to Lind's New America Foundation, but Jonathan Soros (a relative of George?) is on the Board of Directors.

 

[bronzeage]

I know the "Big Mules." That part is dead on.

Car dealers make the best Tea Partiers. They want small government and low taxes, while engineering government licensing boards which restrict competition and protect them from the manufacturers they represent.

In the great small government state of Texas, car dealers have used their government to outlaw retail sales of Tesla Automobiles. They depend upon state government to protect their early 20th century business model, all the while demanding the state do it for less money.

 

[Sean Renaud]

He is also the first president to let our credit rating drop, the first to rack up this much debt in such a short period of time, and just might be the first to back out on paying our debt, depending how things shake out. So if you are going to use a balance scale for this president, make sure you load up both sides of the balance beam.

He didn't let our credit rating drop. Republicans sabotaged the nation. He's not the first rack up this much debt in this short a period of time. That would be FDR. He might be the first to "back out" on paying our debt but again it would be more accurate to say the Republicans sabotaged the country.

I don't have a medal of honor, far from it.

All of the above in inconsequential bullshit. A thousand years from now he will only be known as the most unremarkable person, save the fact that he was perhaps the most deceitful, to have ever occupied the White House. He will be remembered as the most anti-American President in history, the first to wander far afield from the core values of the American people, and the first to have welcomed with open arms, the decline of the United States of America. Historians will wonder at the swiftness of intellectual decline that enabled his rise to power. They may even mention your name as an example of the damaged mentality that prostrated itself before the Obama narrative.

Wait, one thousands years?! Okay yeah he'll probably be at most interesting foot note after that long. He will however never known as anti-American except by a small group of mostly racist haters.

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

interesting..

 

[dan_c00000]

Michael Lind works for the New American Foundation which is controlled by the criminal George Soros

I know remember when he started two wars he couldn't fund and killed millions of innocent people? Oh wait wrong George.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Shit, meng.

After a thousand years, if we haven't achieved interstellar travel yet to find resource planets and/or escape the point of no return due to overpopulation and human inequity fucking up absolutely everything on Earth, the only ones to give a non-fuck about Obama's presidency will be the Morlocks.

although I like the X-Men's contemporary version better:

 

[KingOrfeo]

Shit, meng.

After a thousand years, if we haven't achieved interstellar travel yet to find resource planets and/or escape the point of no return due to overpopulation and human inequity fucking up absolutely everything on Earth, the only ones to give a non-fuck about Obama's presidency will be the Morlocks.

Hmm . . . Didn't I see that one at a Tea Party rally?

 

[KingOrfeo]

. . . save the fact that he was perhaps the most deceitful . . .

You're always saying that, but whenever you post any specific instance of Obama's dishonesty, it usually comes from some zero-credibility nonsource like Blaze or Breitbart or WND, and it is always and easily debunked as bullshit -- yours, not Obama's -- within three posts.

He will be remembered as the most anti-American President in history . . .

He will be remembered as the best POTUS since FDR and certainly better than Reagan or either Bush. He is not a Marxist, not a socialist, and certainly not anti-American, whatever that may mean.

. . . the core values of the American people . . .

. . . are not what you think they are.

. . . and the first to have welcomed with open arms, the decline of the United States of America.

If America declines it will be because of declining petroleum supplies and/or financial-sector misfeasance, neither of which is any of Obama's doing. The ACA, etc., will play no role in America's decline but to make it slightly more bearable.

 

[Que]

In this analysis, the Tea Party movement -- what Lind renames the "Newest Right" -- is an "extremist" version of conservatives; It is simpl.

And what the TP/NR movement is all about local power and privileges. They're desperate to keep what they have. And.

Seems very convincing to me.

Anyone have a opinion?

I notice you enjoy selective edits...thought I'd play too.

the tea party being silent on social issues was by design. The idea was that the majority of the country thinks the government overspends....except those directly employed by or receiving hand-outs from and NO, recipients of SS ponzi scheme payments are victims of the program not 'takers'; Military vets and currently serving EARN the money.

It was designed strictly to bring together people (theoretically INCLUDING registered) that want government to do LESS to and for us. By leaving socially contentious issues off the table it denied liberals their big stick.."Conservative hate you because______________."

That didn't work because liberals tend not to let facts, position papers, and direct statements get in the way of their pre-packaged narratives...

the world is controlled by the jew/rothchilds/fat cats/wall/street/bankers/evil corporations/greed....

and only we can stick up for the little guy.

PS why is it that when a lib engages in navel gazing it is an "analysis" or a "study" instead of "conjecture" and "suppositions"?

Oh yeah and white guys are racists...unless they are democrats.

 

[KingOrfeo]

the tea party being silent on social issues was by design.

Whose?

 

[bronzeage]

Whose?

Yeah, who designed the Tea Party?