Some GOPpers Worried About Reaction of Independents and Moderates to Teabaggery; Bonus: Comedy Stylings of the GOP Base

by Damozel |  Sam Stein notes:

While the anti-tax sentiment of the protests may have been sincere, the images pulled from the events have often been offensive, embarrassing, or politically problematic.

It is a development that has tripped up the GOP before. The rallies outside McCain-Palin events included some of the same bile that was seen at the tea parties: charges of fascism, terrorism and other malicious criticisms leveled at Barack Obama. And it did the Republican ticket little good in its efforts to bring moderate voters to the cause....

In fact, middle-of-the-roaders don't seem to have found the spectacle an attractive one.

"My own sense that is I don't see anything going on that is good for Republicans," said Doug Bailey, a longtime Republican consultant who helped co-found the centrist reform movement Unity08. "I just don't get it. It may be, and I don't doubt this, that there is a large segment of the American public that can and is riled up about taxes and can be riled up about one thing or another. But a large segment, in terms of numbers, doesn't amount to a couple hundred people demonstrating in Washington or wherever. That's a non-event ... Nobody likes taxes. So, of course, I'm sympathetic myself. I might throw a tea bag myself. But the fact is, that it is particularly ineffective for the Republican Party when it is Rush Limbaugh and the likes stirring it up. That just doesn't speak to the middle."  (Sam Stein)

I'd just like to take a moment to challenge that statement: "nobody likes taxes"?  I like taxes because I'm not a moron and I like having some of the things my taxes pay for, even if I don't like all of them.  I don't have sufficient money on my own to pay for roads, a military, funding for my local schools and university, and a host of other things that cost M-O-N-E-Y

l also don't have sufficient money on my own to pour into the economy in order to get it going again, if getting it going again is even possible, but I have enough brains to work out that if it doesn't, taxes are going to become a moot issue for a lot of people who are complaining about them now.  They won't have to pay any taxes because they won't have jobs, homes, cars, anything.  I for one am willing to chip in my bit now (even if it takes the rest of my life to pay it off) for even a chance that I'll go on having a job and a roof over my head.  

Anyway:  back to the teabaggers.  The base plans to go on protesting against its own interest at the behest of its corporate masters.  Wall Street and Main Street (the vacant end with the "RENT THIS SPACE" signs in all the windows) in bed together again!   The GOP:  proof that you can fool some of the people all of the time.

[P]lans are in place for a next wave of protests in July. More significantly, as the GOP continues to stake their future on a wave of populist anger at the government and economy (witness: Texas Gov. Rick Perry talking about secession), the likelihood only increases that the most vocal and offensive elements of that anger will come to personify the party.

BTW, say you are a member of the Republican base and say you are a moron.  (I know: I repeat myself.)  

Wonkette has a hilarious account of one member of the base's chagrined attempt to "negotiate" with Tim Russo of Blogger Interrupted to take down a video of her screaming obscenities into a camera.   

“I have asked you three times to take this fukkin video down. Now it is plastered all over that libnut webiste Huffington Post. TAKE THIS FUKKIN VIDEO DOWN NOW. P.S. I hope you know that you can get sued, and thrown in jail for using this video without our permission.” Comical negotiations have ensued....

She says something about her sister being the one who was “tricked” into screaming vulgarities into a camera in a public place, and again asks him to “take the FUKKIN VIDEO DOWN,” or she will have YouTube murder him.

You’re an idiot, he responds, and then she responds with THIS:

Ok, then how much money would it take for you to take the video down? $75.00-$100.00? Times are tight, and that would be a nice tidy profit for you just for a few hours of work, if you ask me. I can type up a contract, and have the money and contract wired to you by Monday morning. That way everybody can be happy. We can have peace of mind, and you can have some extra walking around cash.

And that, my friends, is the base in action.  Here's Russo's own blow-by-blow account. Here's the best of the delightful emails he received.

My sister is one of the women in the video that you tricked into commenting, and i am standing just out of camera range. After your video went viral, we asked you to take it down. But instead, you ran and put the remarks on your libnut blog. So it was decided it was just best to ignored you. Now, we see that once again the video has been put out for worldwide consumption. After all the election is over. So here we are again. And once again, we are asking you very nicely to take the FUKKIN VIDEO DOWN.

And I am asking Russo very nicely to LEAVE THE FUKKIN VIDEO WHERE IT IS.

Cf. Sadly, No!  "Dont Let O’Bama Take My Right’s Away."

Memeorandum has more.

RECENT BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS

Colbert on the Payday Loan "Reform" Act: "They'll Still Feel Like a Debt Pineapple is Being Hammered Up Their Ass, but They Will Have the Comfort of Knowing that that Pineapple Meets the Strictest Federal Standards"

Was It the Teabags Talking? Rick Perry, Gov. of Texas, Says Texas Might Secede

Colbert: Spontaneous Grassroots Events Hosted by Fox

The Daily Show Tea Par-TAY! "Americans buy one million teabags to protest wasteful spending. "

Progressives Ponder the Teabaggers & Teabagging Rhetoric [Yes, They Can -- Fool Some of the People All of the Time]

Taibbi & Others on the Authoritarian Right (Showing, Once Again, that You Really Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time)