I'm going to go ahead and say it.

[Savannahmann]

The question isn't what we'll win now. The question is how much are we going to lose. Many people here have used analogy to describe what they see the Republicans doing. From Thelma and Louise, to lemmings with suicide vests.

That isn't it at all. That's not close at all friends. A better analogy would be the movie 300 in which we are being pushed over the cliff.

Remember many of the Tea Party people are those preppers who believe that the end of civilization is upon us, so they are preparing for a self fulfilling prediction. They think that Civilization could collapse, and they believe the only way to prevent it is to force the Government to reduce spending and adapt a more conservative outlook on social issues etc. So they refuse to fund the Government's path towards national self destruction, thereby creating the national self destruction. They have food, some enough to last a year. They have weapons to defend their bunkers, and they have faith that this is the only course left open. They're crusaders in a manner of speaking.

They honestly believe folks. Call them crazy, but realize they are not just doing this to score political points. To them, this is the fight to save the nation, and to them, it is victory or national death.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

1. lol

[chowder66]

2. Fear of the Other

I think this is a bunch of rich white powerful men and some women who are deathly afraid of minorities rising and taking that power, money and control away. They are motivated by terror, fear and dark hearts because they can't imagine living side by side with the rest of us. This all makes them very desperate and dangerous people to have in positions like this.

It is a thing to behold and it's getting weirder and creepier by the day.

[Savannahmann]

4. The numbers don't add up to dismiss it that easily.

There are a finite number of "rich white powerful men and some women" in the nation. Those people did not equal the more than 60 million who voted for Romney. To get to that number you have to move the definition of rich down to those making barely middle class wages. The Tea Party demographics tend to be more middle class. Mostly white, granted, but middle and upper middle class generally speaking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement#Membership_and_demographics

Many of them are reasonably well educated, with at least high school, and many with college or some college. The point here is that to merely dismiss them as racists plays into the mistake I keep trying to tell people we as a party are making. We are underestimating our opponents. They are not all morons who need a caretaker to wipe the drool from their mouths. Racism may motivate some, but most are serious fiscal conservatives. They don't lay the blame of the Housing Crisis on the doorsteps of the Big Banks, they place it squarely on the heads of Fannie May and Freddie Mac.

These are the people who sent bricks by the hundreds of thousands to Washington when Bush was President and Amnesty was first floated. These are the people who turn out to vote every time the polls are open, and while a minority they are rapidly establishing themselves as the core of the Republican Party. It is said that the Democrats can't win without those like us, who turn out to vote. Without us, the Democratic Party would not win most of their elections, and us Liberals and Progressives, the staunch defenders of an idealism that many have declared dead many times, the Democratic party can't win.

How many times have we felt betrayed by those we have elected? I myself have raged at the elected leaders more than once. However, even when I am raging I know I'll vote Democratic next time.

These Tea Party folks are the new core of the Republican Party. They are the ones that without whom the Republicans can't win, because the game is always the same, get out the vote. We don't encourage the bible thumping snake handlers to get out and vote. We hope they will stay home, because then we increase our odds of winning.

So the Republicans in the House know that without some victory, they will face a primary challenge from the RW, and lose like Bob Bennett did in Utah. So what can they do but fight to the death, because either way is personal and potentially party death.

If the Republicans don't fight, they could see a spin off of a third party. Like Perot's party of the 1990's, and that would siphon off too many votes to make the Republicans viable for national office. The Tea Party will have their voices heard, and again, they feel that they are fighting for the very soul of their party, and they see a socialist future if they don't fight and win.

So if they surrender, they face nearly certain political death in the primaries. If they fight, they risk national death, but personal survival in the next elections. If the economy tanks, the radical RW extremism is likely to get more popular, as a suffering people tend to lash out at those who are different. Rage and anger are not rational points of view from which to affix blame. So if we end up in a massive depression with unemployment topping twenty percent, do you really think that the Radicals will stop or be exposed to a population that is furious with the situation?

Even if they do surrender, in 2014 we are liable to be facing even more radical Rethugs in the House, and risk losing seats in the Senate as the Rethugs are primaried out and sent packing in favor of even more RW extremist types. This situation is politically speaking extremely dangerous, and we should not rush forward certain of victory. Because if we were that popular we'd have the House now.

[chowder66]

6. I'm not dismissing it at all

I think the Republicans with power in industry, politics, etc paved the way for this extremism starting a long long time ago.
I agree with you but I think it is multi-layered. When I speak of the rich and powerful I'm speaking of those that are elected or who
can influence policy. Many are power mongers and when they saw the opportunity to build an army for their causes they probably didn't expect that that army would influence much but soon found out they were trying to herd cats that had their own crazy agenda.
And the sad truth is that some of it was working to a degree. I believe that influenced the old guard to deepen their resolve when it came to control and power, then it got even more perverted. The extremists ideologies starting feeding the kernels that existed with the "old guard" and it grew like a virus.

Mentioning that minorities are rising/growing in numbers was not an intentional reference to racism, though it could be taken that way because I didn't re-read how that could come across. It was referencing fear of the other (minorities, youths, demographics, etc) or loss of power among the few that control agendas.

[leftstreet]

3. One more reason half the eligible voters don't vote

Ridiculous theater, from a Congress less popular than a colonoscopy

[840high]

5. ....