On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:50:58 -0700, Vincent Wolodkin wrote: >As I recently upbraided some friends about their persistent use >of the term "teabagger" to describe those who associate with the >Tea Parties, one might wonder where that term started? I think it >was Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow, those gleaming icons >of objective journalism;-)
Sir, no doubt you are absolutely correct. And since all media is now readily accessible on the interwebs, you should be able to document exactly where and when Chris Matthews or Rachel Madow or Keith Olbermann or [insert you favorite progressive here] initiated the public use of the term "tea bagger" as an appellation for those people who think that are starting a national grass roots anti-government uprising while in support of anarcho-totalitarian interests (see: http://blogs.alternet.org/rmontero/2010/09/11/koch-and-anarcho-totalitarianism/ ). For the whole story, see Jane Mayer's article in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer Quoting from the article: | As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary |underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America. Charles’s goal, |as Doherty described it, was to tear the government “out at the root.” |The brothers’ first major public step came in 1979, when Charles |persuaded David, then thirty-nine, to run for public office. They had |become supporters of the Libertarian Party, and were backing its |Presidential candidate, Ed Clark, who was running against Ronald Reagan |from the right. Frustrated by the legal limits on campaign donations, they |contrived to place David on the ticket, in the Vice-Presidential slot; upon |becoming a candidate, he could lavish as much of his personal fortune |as he wished on the campaign. The ticket’s slogan was “The Libertarian |Party has only one source of funds: You.” In fact, its primary source of |funds was David Koch, who spent more than two million dollars on |the effort. | | Many of the ideas propounded in the 1980 campaign presaged the |Tea Party movement. Ed Clark told The Nation that libertarians were |getting ready to stage “a very big tea party,” because people were “sick |to death” of taxes. The Libertarian Party platform called for the abolition |of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., as well as of federal regulatory agencies, |such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department |of Energy. The Party wanted to end Social Security, minimum-wage laws, |gun control, and all personal and corporate income taxes; it proposed |the legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide. Government |should be reduced to only one function: the protection of individual rights. |William F. Buckley, Jr., a more traditional conservative, called the movement |“Anarcho-Totalitarianism.” | | That November, the Libertarian ticket received only one per cent of the |vote. The brothers realized that their brand of politics didn’t sell at the ballot |box. Charles Koch became openly scornful of conventional politics. “It |tends to be a nasty, corrupting business,” he told a reporter at the time. |“I’m interested in advancing libertarian ideas.” According to Doherty’s |book, the Kochs came to regard elected politicians as merely “actors playing |out a script.” A longtime confidant of the Kochs told Doherty that the brothers |wanted to “supply the themes and words for the scripts.” In order to alter the |direction of America, they had to “influence the areas where policy ideas |percolate from: academia and think tanks.” Yeah, one needs to be civil with such F'n' people. |So I wish those at Rutgers good luck as well. When one of the |major sources of incivility is the media itself (FoxNEWS, MSNBC, |et al), they are certainly going to need it. Ah, yes. No doubt that Rupert Murdoch, owner of FoxNews and related outlets that serve to promote a conservative Republican agenda is the mirror image of liberal Democrate GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt who oversees MSNBC and the NBC Universal channels and outlets who promotes the liberal Democratic agenda. Oh wait! Immelt is a registered *REPUBLICAN*! My bad. I guess there isn't the equivalence of FoxNews and MSNBC as the good sir tried to imply. NOTE: for one source on Immelt as a registered Republican and GE's attitude towards the Obama administration, see this article from the Wall Street Journal, a Murdoch outlet (notice GE's history of supporting Republican politics and politicians): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125832961253649563.html -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5032 or send a blank email to leave-5032-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
