Extremists, Not Republicans

The Tea Party.

Where do I even start?

I could focus on the fact that most American citizens that identify themselves as Tea Party supporters are of retirement age now, or will be in a few short years.  In a Gallup poll, those citizens who identify as Tea Party supporters fall into these following statistics:

20% - 65 and Older
29% - 50 - 64 Years of age
Over the younger generations which account for 51% of the Tea Party supporter population. Those age groups break down as so:

16% - 18 - 29 Years of age
34% - 30 - 49 Years of age.

Let us also not forget that the majority of these supporters are men. Breaking down to a 55:45 split. But the real kicker in the pants is how they identify themselves politically. Because if we are being honest here, The Tea Party is not a political affiliation.

49% identify as Republicans. (Are we really surprised?) 43% identify as Independents, and a whole 8% identify as Democrats.

Lastly, they are prominently white. While personally watching some of these Tea Party protests, I have noticed the serious lack of diversity as well as the noticeable racist undertones. That is a whole subject in its own though. The amount of Non-Hispanic Whites in the movement is 79%. With 6% Hispanic or Hispanic Whites, and a whopping 15% in the "other" category.

Now that all the statistical mumbo jumbo is out of the way, I want to really get to my point. Because this isn't about the numbers or who the Tea Party is, it is about how they package and present themselves. The title of my post is Extremists, Not Republicans. Which is what this movement is.

These are white, male, Republicans using a new cloak of history to promote their right wing, racist, Christian viewpoints. Pro-Life, Anti-Health Care Reform, Wealthy, Christian bigots who want the country run on their own personal beliefs.

While The Newsroom is a fictional show, it based its incredibly accurate assessment of The Tea Party on facts, real news clips, and what the country has been dealing with since these geriatrics bust out of the nursing home.



Jeff Daniels, or Will MacEvoy as his character is named in The Newsroom, hits the nail right on the head. These Tea Party leaders are not concerned about the state of the American people but instead concerned about their own personal agenda. They are the American Taliban. They are everything they hate about other countries, right here on our home front.

My personal assessment of this group of people is simple. They are stuck in the past. It is a generational thing. They want to see America exactly like it was in the early 1950's, when to them life was perfect.

Women stayed at home with the kids and listened to their husbands. Mainly for fear or society or being backhanded if they got out of line. Families were one man, one woman, and 1.5 children with a white picket fence and a dog. Women didn't have higher education or careers making them dependent upon men. Men were the lawmakers and had the final say in most of everything.

Unfortunately for this dated group, this is not what America is nor stands for in the year 2012. Women have careers and rights. Women make more than their husbands, and have the lovely legal right to choose their own course of medical care when it comes to the privacy of their uterus. We no longer have to ask our husband's for permission to drive or leave the house.

Women are lawmakers. Women are teachers. Women are doctors. Women are independent. We will not take a step back into the dark ages of American history when our rights were limited to "keep us under control".

Why don't we just go ahead and admit what we all already know. The Tea Party is a group of misogynistic extremists, stuck in 1950.

We are the ones with the power.
Vote these assholes out!