Quote: The Newsroom: The Greater Fool (#1.10)” (2012)
Will McAvoy: Ideological purity. Compromise as weakness. A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism. Denying science. Unmoved by facts. Undeterred by new information. A hostile fear of progress. A demonization of education. A need to control women’s bodies. Severe xenophobia. Tribal mentality. Intolerance of dissent. Pathological hatred of the U.S. government. They can call themselves the Tea Party. They can call themselves conservatives. And they can even call themselves Republicans, though Republicans certainly shouldn’t. But we should call them what they are – The American Taliban.
I honestly believe that we need to be open to ideas from different people. BUT … there are some ideas that are complete poison to a democracy. I believe that those ideas put forward by the Tea Party (I can’t tell you how it gripes me that they have turned that into a joke) are dangerous to our democracy and society. I pray that Americans wake up and see them for what they are.
Let’s take a look at the above quote and see how accurate it is.
Ideological purity:
This is simple … they are right .. everyone else is wrong .. they will cheat (keep people from voting, gerrymander districts, whatever) to get their way. They will not compromise and would rather bring down the country than work with anyone. They remind me of the spoiled little boy who takes his ball and goes home because everyone else won’t play “HIS” way.
Compromise as weakness:
See above, look at Tea Party in Congress.
A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism:
Our country is founded on freedom of religion for everyone. That means that your religious beliefs do not have any bearing on my life. But, the tea party and their right wing cohorts want to impose their Christian beliefs on everyone else. They say we were founded as a Christian Nation. That is bullshit. We were founded so that everyone could believe as they wanted … AS LONG AS IT WASN’T PART OF THE GOVERNMENT OR IMPOSED ON ANYONE ELSE.
Here is a quote from a Tea Party member on separation of church and state: ”Do you know, where does this phrase ‘separation of church and state’ come from? It was not in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists. … The exact phrase ‘separation of Church and State’ came out of Adolph Hitler’s mouth, that’s where it comes from. So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of Church and State, ask them why they’re Nazis.”
—Glen Urquhart, the Tea Party-
This guy has definitely NOT read the U.S. Constitution.
Check out the article at http://www.skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id9.html.
Quote: “The Christian right is trying to rewrite the history of the United States as part of its campaign to force its religion on others. They try to depict the founding fathers as pious Christians who wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, with laws that favored Christians and Christianity.
This is patently untrue. The early presidents and patriots were generally Deists or Unitarians, believing in some form of impersonal Providence but rejecting the divinity of Jesus and the absurdities of the Old and New testaments.
Denying science
They deny global warming, they think creationism is science. I mean, after all the proof, they think the HPV Vaccine is bad and evil. They discourage vaccinations of children (that’s why we now have measles outbreaks, whooping cough and other diseases that were thought to have disappeared). They would rather listen to crack pots with questionable education than scientific proof.
“I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change. It’s not proven by any stretch of the imagination…It’s far more likely that it’s just sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ‘gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow.”
—Ron Johnson
Unmoved by facts and Undeterred by new information.
See all of the above. Plus, listen to them argue, they use statistics or surveys that are made up or are outdated. They believe if they keep repeating something, everyone will believe it. If anyone else quotes a fact that they don’t believe, they smear the person instead of challenging the facts presented. In the current government shutdown, here is a remark by Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), who told reporters Wednesday that Republicans were “not going to be disrespected.”
“We have to get something out of this,” Stutzman said of the shutdown. “And I don’t know what that even is.”
A hostile fear of progress.
They do not want to provide health care to all citizens.
They do not want a good retirement for all citizens.
They are afraid that the poor abuse the welfare systems, but encourage large corporations and corporate farms (many of the members of congress own very large farms) to get government subsidies (another name for welfare).
They do not want to invest in our national infrastructure.
A demonization of education.
They believe in teaching Creationism in schools (it has no scientific basis whatsoever) and don’t want to teach real science (upheld by a couple of centuries of proof) such as evolution.
As our country falls further behind the rest of the world in competency in the sciences, they continue to fight teaching real science.
They say that teachers are the cause of many evils in the country.
“The Federal Department of Education should be eliminated. The Department of Education is unconstitutional and should not be involved in education, at any level.”
—Sharron Angle, July 12, 2010
A need to control women’s bodies.
Not only do they feel they have the right to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies, they want to ban birth control. They want to eliminate cancer screening for women and restrict preventative care.
“It is not enough to be abstinent with other people, you also have to be abstinent alone. The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. You can’t masturbate without lust! … You’re going to be pleasing each other. And if he already knows what pleases him and he can please himself, then why am I in the picture?” —Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell
Severe Tribal mentality, Intolerance of dissent, Pathological hatred of the U.S. government.
If someone disagrees with them, they attack them, even if they are in the same party. Other Republicans are afraid because Tea Party activists with Koch Brothers money backing them, will attack them in the primary. The money that funds the movement want to get rid of government regulations, treat corporations as people, equate money with free speech and twist laws to keep those who don’t agree with them from voting. Just listen to their spokesmen, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh (convicted of drug offenses), Sara Palin (try not to laugh when she speaks).
I could go on and on, but the fact is, they are a bunch of extremists who do not believe in democracy. They believe in wrecking the government instead of letting those who won the last election govern the nation.
They are one of the biggest threats to our way of life since Senator McCarthy and the hysterical Communist purges of the 50’s.
Wake up America.