Frank Rich had a good piece on Sunday about the tea party Republicans, rightly observing that "whatever Tuesday’s results, this much is certain: The Tea Party’s hopes for actually effecting change in Washington will start being dashed the morning after...Trent Lott, the former Senate leader and current top-dog lobbyist, gave away the game in July. 'As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them'.”
^^^^ CB: They were always co-opted as Republicans. _All_ of them ran as Republicans. It was a big charade that they were not Republicans. They got started opposing healthcare reform just like all the Reps in the Congress were doing.
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Rich's conclusion, however, is that "the tempest will not be contained within the tiny Tea Party but will instead overrun the Republican Party itself" once "the Republican establishment’s panacea of tax cuts proves as ineffectual at creating jobs, saving homes and cutting deficits as the half-measures of the Obama White House and the Democratic Congress."
^^^^^ CB: You and Rich's analysis is flawed by your accepting the fake difference of the Tea Party with the Republican Party. The Tea Party has the same tax-cutting panacea as the Republican Party because the aren't different.
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More likely, the TP's will fall back in disillusionment in the same manner as has the Democratic base has since 2008.
^^^^^ CB: The Dem P base has not fallen back in disillusionmentt because the DP base didn't have your illusions about Obama. Independents , who are not the Dem base by definition, fell into the typical American Charlie Brown/Lucy pattern
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But it's also true the odds of a third and fourth party to the left of the two major ones - even of a more "respectable" party of the middle pledged to "restore sanity" - have probably never been higher.
^^^^^^^ CB: :>). I'm afraid we Yanks are not where you think we are , Marv.
How about higher odds than 1948 ?