The Tea Party Is Over According To – Bill O’Reilly!

The astroturf fraud known as the Tea Party was literally invented by a cabal of uber-rightist millionaires and corporations with interests in tobacco and oil. The prime movers were the Koch brothers, who transited from their father’s John Birch Society to their own front groups, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

The financial firepower of these entities, however, was still not enough to elevate the Tea Party “movement.” It required an aggressive media sponsor to flood the news zone with faux-populist themes and give birth to the puppetized pundits and politicians who would carry the message. For that mission Fox News was all too ready to volunteer and even went to great lengths to brand the Tea Party as a Fox News subsidiary with promos touting their “FNC Tax Day Tea Parties.” There can be no doubt that without Fox News there would be no Tea Party.

Bill O'Reilly
Be Sure To “LIKE” News Corpse On Facebook

That makes the new column by Fox’s star attraction, Bill O’Reilly, all the more startling. His own headline reads “Is the Tea Party Over?” And by the end he answers the question with a resounding “Yes.”

“The only way the Tea Party can resurrect itself is for it to coalesce around a strong leader. There has to be a central message delivered by someone with charisma, a person who is reasonable and persuasive. The movement has been damaged both inside and out. Only a very intense public relations campaign will turn the tide.

“I don’t think that will happen. It would take millions of dollars in TV ads and organizational infrastructure for the Tea Party to negate the national media’s contempt. And that kind of big money operation goes directly against what the Tea Party people want to be – a citizen movement that operates independent of party structure.”

O’Reilly’s opinion, in short, is that “The only way the Tea Party can resurrect itself is for it to coalesce around a strong leader,” and “I don’t think that will happen.” O’Reilly is throwing recent Tea Darlings like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul under the bus, along with baggers like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann who are already there.

I’m not going to argue with O’Reilly’s conclusion because the Tea Party has always been a constructed reality. It never existed outside of the power structure of the Republican elite. There were no Tea Party candidates, conventions, voter registrations, or platforms. They were all Republican politicians, voters, and policies. However, there is much to disagree with in the path to O’Reilly’s eulogy.

First of all, O’Reilly’s contention that the Tea Party’s problem is a lack of leaders can only be taken seriously by a deaf and blind pundit who lives in a Himalayan cave. There are many who do, and who aspire to, lead the phony parade. Their problem is that they advocate a broadly unpopular set of policies that the American people emphatically reject. People like Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin have favorable ratings that scrape the sea floor at record low levels, as does the Tea Party itself. The Tea Party doesn’t have a public relations problem, it has an agenda problem.

Secondly, O’Reilly seems to think that there hasn’t been enough money thrown at advancing the Tea Party mission. When he said that it “would take millions of dollars” which conflicts with the Tea Party’s alleged aversion to “big money operations,” he ignores the fact that the Tea Party has always been a big money operation financed with hundreds of millions of dollars by everyone from the Koch brothers to Karl Rove to the Republican National Committee, and dozens of mysterious Super PACs that keep their donor’s identities secret.

The central theme of O’Reilly’s column is that the Tea Party’s woes are all the result of the contempt of the media (as opposed to the contempt of the people). He says that “the Tea Party finds itself with an image problem and there are two primary reasons why.” The first of O’Reilly’s gripes is with the media, who he says “is at odds with Tea Party beliefs,” and that “demonizes the Tea Party all day long calling it racist, stupid and even worse – unsophisticated!” It’s telling that O’Reilly thinks it’s worse to be called unsophisticated than racist or stupid. But he may be onto something because, based on their behavior, most Tea Partiers don’t seem to be concerned about public displays of racism or stupidity.

The second of O’Reilly’s grips is with the media (just like the first gripe), but in this case it’s “the right wing media, which generally loves the party.” Here O’Reilly lays into the birther nutjobs who call the President a communist and a Muslim. In other words, most of the Tea Party and much of Fox News. O’Reilly attempts to take a stand for comity by declaring that “Hate is hate no matter what ideology you embrace.” This from the guy who opened the column by implying that the supporters of Occupy Wall Street “embrace violent tactics [and] infringe on the rights of the folks.”

So according to O’Reilly, the billionaire-backed Tea Party is not a big money operation, it has no national leaders unless you count the Cruzes and Palins and Pauls, and Limbaughs and Hannitys, etc., but it is plagued by a contemptuous media that hates them and an adoring media that loves them. [Warning: Don’t try to make any sense of this. It can only lead to confusion, severe mental anguish, logical disorientation, and acute migraines]. However, if O’Reilly’s tortured contention is that what it all adds up to is that the Tea Party is over, let’s just cross our fingers hope that he stumbled onto the truth for a change. But in all likelihood, he is just carrying water for the establishment GOP who are trying desperately to distance themselves from Tea Party crackpottery out of fear that it is going to be a big loser for them in the 2014 elections. He, and they, are too late. Now they have to live (or perish, as the case may be) with the monster they created.

Advertisement:

8 thoughts on “The Tea Party Is Over According To – Bill O’Reilly!

  1. The end of the party that never really was.
    Say it isn’t so.

    As long as there are frightened, ill informed people around the ‘party’ will exist in some form or another.

  2. Gee. Neat. Can we dunk Bill-O’s head into Boston Harbor to celebrate?

  3. The tea party was a conspiracy that was intended to win one midterm, and to take state houses across the country so they could gerrymander districts and enact voter restrictions. It was all about rigging the system in their favor so those super rich that like to buy politicians and elections could save money on both in the long run. The problem now is that their beneficiaries’ heads have inflated and they think they’re doing good work. The bubble has become too thick to even see through. They think government in this country and therefore people’s lives are like forests; use a controlled burn so they can shape its comeback. The problem? That’s just an extremist republican view. That’s all the tea party is, extremists in the republican party. The question now is, why did they think extremism would save their party? They couldn’t have, cause it wasn’t about the party, it was about RIGGING THE SYSTEM. Their purpose was to combat a changing culture in a democracy that, increasingly does and ultimately will, see their views as serving the VERY few and the VERY rich, and is averse to actually doing anything else. They, the teabaggers’ benefactors that is, define anti-American behavior. Their pawns are just too stupid and underqualified to even be able to see that; they’re getting the chance to put extremism in the mainstream, which apparently a massive chunk of republican voters have been itching for.

  4. Bill-O is nothing more than a Racist DICK!! and that’s been polite in true English terms he’s a true C%^$ know that word would affend many Americans!!! Gotta say he preaches he’s traveled I say Fuck he has as he has no clue how the rest of the world lives!!! All he knows is his Rich little world!!!!!

    • Once again, ignorant liberals calling names.

  5. I just found this from Randy Monsen and decided to post it here because I TOTALLY AGREE with him! I was going to write the same sentiment but he said it very well. I will add that if the democratic liberal progressives claim to be so ‘caring, compassionate, warmhearted, sympathetic, kind-hearted’ and all the other altruistic ‘morals’ you seem to have projected as your own, then practice what you preach: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world!” Calling people and groups names and just plain acting out your visions of days without anyone who disagrees with you is very childish. If you wish to post, then say something intelligent pertaining to your liberal views instead of lying back on childish squabbles. You would be much better respected if you would/could do that. What you do not address is that there are many, many rich liberals as well as conservatives (i.e.: Ted Turner, George Soros, Jane Fonda, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Tyler Perry, George Lucas, James Carville, Rosie O’Donnell, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Bill Maher, Nancy Pelosi, Teresa and John Kerry, Ed Asner, Al Gore, Ellen DeGeneres and many more just to name a few who are better known. I believe, unlike yourselves, that if somebody else has more money or ‘stuff’ than I do, it is not my place to attack that person verbally or otherwise because their wealth has absolutely NOTHING to do with MY LIFE. If their fathers and fore-fathers worked hard to develope a huge empire to leave as an inheritance for future (familial) generations, then that is their business. My life is to be mine to live as I see fit, to be the person that I would like others to see and not worry about ‘everyone else’. All I read above is hate, bigotry, and intolerance of fellow Americans who differ in their opinions from your idealistic views. Please note: I am neither democrat nor republican. I am a full and educated INDEPENDENT. I have voted in the past both democrat and republican depending which candidate I believe has more interest in the country rather than a party dogma. I personally do not like either party as they stand currently. I am not here to make anyone feel bad or rejoice over my thoughts. I do and always will put forth what I have researched and studied well (including human nature throughtout history).

    Randy Monsen
    #Challenge: Please name ANY #Liberal news anchor… no, let’s change that… Please name any LIBERAL in America who gives or does one TENTH as much for #charity and #DisableVeterans as #BillOreilly.

    • Very well written Mrs. Miller, I enjoyed reading your post. Every time I attempt to discuss a topic with a liberal, based on facts, it always goes down the road of anger and name calling. Liberals only acknowledge facts when it supports their pont of view.

  6. Oh my achin ass….You just listed a whole shitload of liberals that do more than he does. Bill and Melinda Gates do less than Billo?? I couldn’t possibly slap my forehead hard enough…Not only that, we have yet another hardcore orielly fan calling themselves an independent, yeah right. You don’t see prodigious inheritances as being in direct conflict with conservative ‘values’?? How does that work?

    Turner, the Clintons, Buffet, the Gates’, Fonda, Winfrey, Bloomberg, the Kerrys, Gore…they all do more than billo ever could, COULD. Buffet, THE GATES???, Turner, the Clintons…..you people have absolutely no right whatsoever to get upset when we call you stupid, none at all. Only a stupid person would say all that and act like it’s an intelligent statement…what an incredible vindication…my disappointment almost matches the humor I got from this…for the record zuckerberg isn’t a liberal…and some of those people in that ‘full and well educated’ list aren’t very rich at all compared to the billionaires in the same list, that would be like listing the Koch brothers in with Tom Sellick. How irrelevant can you get?? Absolutely incredible….just, incredible…

Comments are closed.