Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Demise of the Teabaggers

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


It's amazing what the passage of just two years can look like politically.  In 2010, the same year that the President was able to bring about the passage of national health care legislation (The Affordable Care Act), the lunatic fringe of the far right was in complete control of not only Repbulican candidates and talking points, but they were also having a serious impact on what some Democrats were saying and doing as well.  These hillbillies with their handmade (and often misspelled) signs would get on large corporate air-conditioned buses where they would be carted around the country to put on "spontaneous" demonstrations against anything that was philosophically opposed by Freedom Works, Karl Rove, ALEC, or the Kook Koch brothers.

Mitt Romney had to deal with these morons for the past year or so as he vied for something that he felt entirely entitled to:  the Republican presidential nomination.  He drank their Kool-Aid and espoused their positions as easily as he might order a fine meal and the right wine at a posh restaurant.  But with Little Ricky Santorum leaving the race, Romney was finally the obvious winner and suddenly the teabaggers were learning that they were no longer calling the shots.

The press has been full of stories today about Romney's positions quickly changing on a whole host of important issues.  His aides are literally burning the knobs off of the old Etch A Sketch!  The Republicans are going to become more reasonable, at least until the election is over, whether their teabaggers like it or not.

But the Republican Party is not the only place witnessing the return of common sense.  Democrats who let the right-wing rabble of the Republican Party impact their judgement are also paying the price.  Blanch Lincoln, the former Democratic senator from Arkansas, got in bed with the snakes two years ago hoping to lure enough of them to vote for her so that she could save her senate seat.  But snakes are snakes, and they didn't even give sweet Blanch a kiss for abandoning her principals and the poor of Arkansas.

Today two more Blue Dogs - incumbent Democratic congressmen - lost primaries in Pennsylvania and will be leaving Congress next January.  Representatives Tim Holden and Jason Altmire, both of whom had voted against the Affordable Care Act two years ago, were put out to pasture by members of their own party.

As Congressman Holden and Congressman Altmire pack their bags and head back into the real world, they can thank the folks wearing the tin foil hats who scared the bejezzus out of them two years ago.  What appeared to be a massive public movement was nothing more than a cankerous traveling circus.  And now the clowns are all back in front of their televisions watching reality shows and old Chuck Norris movies, and if Holden and Altmire want to join them, they can bring the popcorn!

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