It is a way to discount the "tea parties" and the people at them.
The sentiment on the left is that these demonstrations were organized by FOX news and other conservative organizations, not a part of some widespread grassroots movement (thus the astroturf reference).
It's saying they are phoney; staged by the vast right-wing conspiracy and attended by brain-washed right-wing extremist dittoheads.
I wouldn't go quite
that far. Nor am I attempting to discount them...regardless of whether there was a bit of top-down organization (and there was plenty of grassroots sentiment as well..I said it smelled
vaguely of astroturf, not strongly
), obviously a pretty fair amount of people decided to make their voices heard today. FOX can't fake that. Like I said, it's kind of heartening to see these kinds of rallies/protests.
After all, that many people couldn't possibly be unhappy with the direction our federal government it taking our country, right?
How many people? I have
no problem believing a hundred thousand (or maybe a few hundred thousand) people can be that unhappy with this direction. And for every one that turned out today, I have no problem believing there are ten (or more) who are just as unhappy but simply couldn't make it.
I'd be careful with the presumptions about what I'm thinking.
Yeah and that one about bullets first surely reflects well on gun owners
I've seen dozens of signs that reflect
very poorly on those holding them (and by extension those around them). That's the first gun-related one I've seen, though.
JuanCarlos, please forgive my ignorance, but what sentiment don't you agree with? You are for limitless deficit spending? Also, I don't understand the astroturf reference.
I'm wondering why there weren't TEA parties (gotta love the backronyms...wait, no you don't) on 15 April 2008, personally. I guess
nearly limitless deficit spending was cool.
So, for fun:
Would this be irony? I, like most people, tend to screw that up. It's
funny, that's for sure. If you don't see why, think about it for a minute. What's today's date, and what is this nice gentleman doing? Note I'm not bothering to make fun of the misspelling of "speech," because hey that can happen to anybody.
But Bush/Stevens/Hastert was cool? A one-party dictatorship is fine if it's
your party? I know I didn't see her out with any signs a few years back. I saw a
lot that seemed to suggest that (going back to that "nearly limitless deficit spending is okay" thing) this wasn't
just about some people angry about taxes. I mean yeah, obviously they
were but I think losing a couple elections had a lot to do with it as well. Limits on freedom of speech (have any even come about since November?) and ginormous deficit spending are only bad when guys you didn't vote for do it...or at least, only bad enough to break out the signs and protest when it's the wrong guys doing it.
And those are just a couple that were
amusing (and there were plenty more). I'll leave the outright offensive ones alone. Especially since for the offensive ones, I expect to have at least a few idiots in every bunch.
Note that
none of the above changes my mind about these demonstrations being a good thing. The freedom to peaceably assemble too often seems to be the domain of shiftless hippies and hate groups.
Also, I will almost certainly not reply to any posts in response to this in this thread (though I welcome you to respond), just to keep the politics from getting any thicker than they already are. If you want any back-and-forth on it, feel free to PM me.