> I don't recall how the discussion started, but even for those like myself who do not see any imminent threat from the US far right, the teabaggers are a popular movement which is all over the news, so it's understandable they would provoke interest and discussion, particularly when some on the list have expressed real forebodings about them.
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I want to make it clear: I agree with Chip. I think the TP is important. Very important. It has zero to do with fascism, but it's very important. It does push politics sharply to the right; it's already doing that. I hate Obamacare, but objectively speaking the TP movement was amazingly successful in killing it (assuming it dies) - first with the town halls last summer, then with Scott Brown. You don't often see such a spectacular derailing of a juggernaut very often in US politics (though I guess the push to stop Bush's SS privatization would count).
The problem isn't the claim that the TP is pushing politics to the right. The problem is the diagnosis. It always ends up being, by default, that we should obsess about the threat of the TP (or whatever right-wing movement) and put aside differences with the Dems to stop them. That's exactly the opposite of what should be done. If the TP is putting pressure on Obama from the right, you need to increase the pressure from the left. You can't sit and wring your hands about whether that "weakens" Obama. Who cares? Answer: Only people who've been told that the alternative is fascism.
For example, the TP was so successful with health care not because their views reflected those of the mass of the public, but because they were the only visible flesh-and-blood movement out in the country that cared about the issue one way or the other. If the plan on the table had been single payer, there would have been an enthusiastic pro-reform constituency willing to show up at the town halls in large numbers and defend the plan. But with Obamacare, nobody outside of Washington is really, specifically *for* it. There's just people who hate it. No wonder it got so unpopular so fast.
SA