Tea Party Betrayed Already?

Friday 05 November 2010

by: Dave Johnson  |  The Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed

I have been writing about the Tea Party, and asking what they will do if/when the DC Republicans betray them.. CAF has set up a page for the Tea Party Getting Played series. This is the latest in the series.

So, how's that new Tea Party Congress working out for Tea Party supporters who expected that the lobbyists were going to be cleared out, the "too-big-to-fail" Wall Street banks brought under control and laws enforced?

The election was Tuesday, and on Thursday the expected new Chair of the House financial services committee warned regulators to lay of Wall Street, particularly Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, and not enforce the "Volker Rule" in the new Wall Street reform law. That's right, told them not to enforce the law.

In Financial Times, US regulators warned on new bank legislation (Matthew Yglesias c/o Brad DeLong),

Spencer Bachus, a potential Republican chairman of the House financial services committee, has fired the first salvo in a battle with regulators – warning them against harming US banks by curbing their trading activity.

. . . Mr Bachus says that a ban on proprietary trading – known as the Volcker rule – ... in the new Dodd-Frank financial reform law will “impose substantial costs on the American economy and market participants” with “doubtful” benefits.

. . . The proprietary trading ban, named after Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who proposed it, was opposed by most Republicans when it was passed by Congress in June. It also restricts banks’ investments in hedge funds and private equity firms.

Last week, in Tea Party Members VS Tea Party Wall Street Funders, I pointed out that Tea Party supporters expect their politicians to do something about Wall Street bailouts, lawbreaking and "too-big-to-fail" domination of the economy, but Tea Party candidates were receiving a great deal of funding from that very same Wall Street.

This set up a potential conflict between Tea Party supporters and Tea Party politicians.

Now that the election is over, we're all just waiting for what we think is coming, and asking: What will Tea Party members do when their politicians betray them?

Take a look at the growing list of posts here in the Tea Party Getting Played series. 

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Comments

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The Democrats have betrayed

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 12:31 — Dana Walker (not verified)

The Democrats have betrayed us, and the Republicans are betraying the Tea Party. We should coordinate and attack both parties simultaneously to avoid the 'spoiler effect' that has so bedeviled everyone who attacks the Democrats from the left or the Republicans from the right.



They might do the same as

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 12:35 — Anonymous (not verified)

They might do the same as everybody else. Like democrats voting for Reagan and independents for Lieberman, they will vote for the democrats, if Obama is no longer active. Fox will never inform them about this betrayal, and then we will have a scenario where teabaggers will be portrayed as effective legislators and will be reelected. Like Palin they will use their new position to make millions. Palin never made so much money than after being launched nationally by McCain. The name of the game is money and racism.



The American mice elect a

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 13:29 — Anonymous (not verified)

The American mice elect a bunch of white cats one year, get eaten, and then elect a bunch of black cats the following election cycle - and are shocked ... shocked! ... when the black cats eat them as well. When are the mice going to start electing mice, who will look after their interests, and finally give up on continually electing the fat cats, who are only interested in promising a new and better world, but are really only interested in gobbling up stupid little ignorant mice?



Obviously both parties have

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 14:00 — Chris Kibler (not verified)

Obviously both parties have been high jacked by big-moneyed interests. The only way to break that is to unite the American people - left, right and center, liberals, conservatives and independents - under one banner.

But how can we do this? My suggestion is a populist movement based on one issue that we can all agree on - getting money out of politics. A promising start may be the Coffee Party. Check them out here: www.coffeepartyusa.com



The Tea Partyists don't care

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 14:26 — Anonymous (not verified)

The Tea Partyists don't care what their politicians do as long as somebody gets got. As long as the Other is receiving pain, they will be happy.

If something hurts them, it is always the fault of the Other.

Once you grasp this, life becomes very simple.



It is bewildering to read

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 18:03 — wicaro22 (not verified)

It is bewildering to read about pro-conservatives and pro-liberals; whether your are for the Tea Party or for the Republicans; whether or not Obama failed; and more and more despair, sarcasm , outright insults, and the rest of the garbage our culture seems to apathetically, arrogantly, or pissed accept.

But the issue is not what is happening now, it has happened throughout our History, specifically, economic history.; The truth of the matter is that Capitalism is on its last stage, following the other worldview of Marxism. We do not know what we have, and we have been too dumbed down with consumer "goodies" to even think of our way out. The economic system must be replaced and there will be a civil war over this! Why, because the rich will see to it that we, the common or professional people or the conglomerate of We the People, fight amongst ourselves as we are the foot soldiers of the respective ideologies. My reason for the total disregard of Obama, for whom I voted and campaigned and donated money, is that he saved Wall Street and Corporations. He saved them with our money, mine, yours, everyone who pays taxes. Let it collapse and we could have rewritten our future...but we are afraid of redoing our present so that in the future it reflects on the worker, families, the professionals and others who truly do not want welfare or handouts, but good paying jobs. Good paying jobs? Forget it, they are not coming back, ever. It seems that our stupidity as a people is circular, we just keep going around and around digging the pivot deeper and deeper. How do we get out of it? Do not ask me! Ask God? Good luck on that one! What?



Just wanted to give some

 Mon, 11/08/2010 - 18:16 — Anonymous (not verified)

Just wanted to give some props to anonymous #1. Love your mice analogy. Really just dead on right!



no, no, no.....tea party

 Wed, 11/10/2010 - 04:35 — Anonymous (not verified)

no, no, no.....tea party people have said this to me: "I never got a pay check from a poor person". Now what does that indicate. The tea party does not want to tax the rich because they see them as their bread and butter. The main goal of the tea party is to abolish all entitlement programs for the poor, the elderly, etc... Oh, they say, those on those programs right now are safe but they want legislation to remove those programs so that the 'rest of us' have more money to burn. You know..those of us who will never be disabled, old or infirm. Now if that's not an insane way to look on society then I don't know what else is...but insanity seems to be the new reform in this country.