The Tea Party is getting worse: Media may want a new narrative, but GOP is still nuts

[applegrove]

The Tea Party is getting worse: Media may want a new narrative, but GOP is still nuts

by Elias Isquith at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/13/the_tea_party_is_getting_worse_media_may_want_a_new_narrative_but_gop_is_still_nuts/

"SNIP................

So, because the most important story of the 2012 cycle was the surprising potency of President Obama’s so-called Rising American Electorate, the story in 2014 concerned the Republicans’ electorate, which also proved itself to be alive and kicking. And because the story after 2012 focused on the Tea Party pulling Mitt Romney too far to the right, the narrative for 2016 will be about the Republican “establishment” throwing its weight around to nominate an ostensibly more moderate, electable candidate. The bland, cautious, managerial Republican Party of yesteryear is back! The crusading, militant and extremist Tea Party is over!

........

It’s not over in the U.S. Congress, where a shutdown-in-miniature is unfolding between the White House and the Tea Party wing of the GOP. It’s not over in Wisconsin, where a Tea Party-darling governor is slashing the state university system’s funding, changing its mission statement (while lying about it), and fighting tooth and nail to humiliate people on government benefits. It’s not over in North Carolina, where a billionaire-backed Tea Party government is also going after the public university system in its effort to turn the state into Kansas. And it’s not over in South Carolina, where one state representative hopes to mainline National Rifle Association propaganda to a generation of public school students.

Let’s stick with the South Carolina example for a moment, because I think it tells us much about the contemporary GOP’s character. According to Kimberly Johnson of Al Jazeera America, the recent decision on the part of PTR Industries, a gun manufacturer, to move its headquarters from Connecticut to South Carolina has inspired Republican state Rep. Alan Clemmons to propose what he’s calling the “Second Amendment Education Act.” As the name implies, the bill would “provide all public elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools” with “instruction in the Second Amendment” for no fewer than “three consecutive weeks in one grading period in each academic year.” The curriculum would be written by the NRA, of course.

Anyone who does not consider Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s frequently rabid executive vice president and chief public representative, to be a proper author of school children’s education might look on this proposal skeptically. They might wonder if it’s not exactly the kind of big government social engineering that Tea Partyers, who often accuse the left of changing the culture to reflect its worldview, usually decry. They might also worry that the bill is an example of the crony capitalism the Tea Party says it hates, with the government aiding a friendly and favored industry — or picking winners and losers, as they like to say. What the Al Jazeera report shows is that, on both counts, these fears would be correct.



..................SNIP"

[world wide wally]

1. But no sex-ed,of course

[gordianot]

2. I have a solution, Republican Bland Nuts. N/T

[Blue Owl]

3. Joni Ernst has a bag full of nuts

n/t