The entire European Union Parliament is being elected at the moment - and that is interesting - but I’m personally glued to the British results broadcast on the BBC. British politics is a mess right now due to an expenses scandal in Parliament, support for the ruling Labour Party is collapsing, and all hell is generally breaking loose. And tonight - the craziness has reached a head. A lot of the news is good, but some of it is actually scary.
On the good side, the Conservatives are wiping the floor with everyone, topped the polls in the Labour heartland of Wales for the first time in history. Many results are yet to come in, but Labor is currently fighting for second against the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a Euroskeptic party that sits decidedly to the right of the Conservatives. By the end of the night, I would not be surprised to see Labour in third or even fourth (depending on the performance of the Liberal Democrats, who currently sit fourth).
However, there is also some news - as the racist British National Party (BNP) has won it’s first ever seat in the European Parliament. The BNP has benefitted from the wave of anti-establishment sentiment (which is also carrying UKIP), and while UKIP is mainstream protest vote, the BNP is unfortunately picking up the people who want to flip the finger to the all of the mainstream parties. And while I am all for throwing bums out, I am certainly not for electing parties who only allow whites to join (which is BNP policy).
The BNP breakthrough may also provide a lesson to those of us in the U.S. who are interested in our own experiments in anti-establishment sentiment - the “Tea Party Movement”. We should be more than happy to embrace the mainstream of this movement (independent, Glenn Beck-style libertarians - who I would say are our equivalent of UKIP). However, we need to be very vigilant in making sure that we don’t allow hard-core wackos to ride the wave. Otherwise, we will wind up dealing with our own versions of the BNP.
Luckily, as we have a two party, first-past-the-post system - we will never see racist fringe parties elected here (the BNP made it through via a “proportional representation” system where seats are allotted based on percentage of the vote). However, we still should be watching out for nut jobs who wish too use “tea parties” and other such events to gain legitimacy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Good point, Adam; we need to keep vigilant about whackos (or seeming whackos) who might try to steer the legitimately-created Tea Party movement into ruin. Savvy activists always watch for this sort of development.
ReplyDeleteWhat is even more difficult to stomach is the incidious way many Americans have been duped by Obama and his comrades. The latter have so radically bent our capitalistic economy, and put us into so much debt, that it might be too late ever to recover----assuming that Americans eventually wake up to how socialist (communist?) Obama really is.
Adam, I'm disappointed. At this point, I haven't heard anyone report that kind of trouble with the Tea Parties. I think that worrying about people at the extreme far right isn't even an issue at this time - not when the extreme left is doing what it is doing. Your sounding a little like some of the CNN reporters with that kind of worry. We don't want to be encouraging the MSM in their paranoid assumptions, do we?
ReplyDeleteAt any rate - Of course there will be extremists of every ilk to a certain extent. Isn't that great? It would mean that we are still America - the land of Free speech, Free Association, Freedom of thought and Religion - the kind of America we want to keep.
What's more scary is that Obama is trying to prevent all those freedoms. What was this last week - where the Obama administration dropped charges against three men that had criminally intimidated voters in Pennsylvania last November?
We have lots bigger fish to fry than worrying about someone trying to take over the Tea Parties.
For example, Obama has been apologizing to the world for what he sees as America's historical "arrogance" and interference with other governments.
He stated that "no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other."
But then he then went on to tell Israel this week how they should run their country.
There is that on top of the socialization of the auto industry and banks, Hugo Chavez applauding obama as being more leftist than HE is, North Korea shooting off missles, and the unusual speech in Cairo.
Barack Obama's Muslim background was taboo to talk about during the campaign. All evidence of his anti-Israel position was hidden. Obama's friendship with PLO member Rashid Khalidi was important to his world view, but the LA Times refused to release the video concerning that relationship and Obama's views regarding Israel. But this week, his Muslim heritage is something he's suddenly openly proud of. And Israel was a country that he openly shunned.
I'm not one of them that was full of conspiracy theories during the campaign, and I'm not now.
I'm just pointing out that, as many of us knew at the time, what was being portayed wasn't the truth and the worst of our fears are coming true: ie socialism, a failing economy, a more dangerous world, our federal government over reaching into our lives, a man more interested in world adoration than the best interests of America, and anti-Christian, anti-sematic bias.
I'm lots more concerned with these things than the question as to whether the Tea Parties will have radicals involved.
Why should we run because of a small minority? You don't see the left panicking because of theirs, in fact they embrace it (well you had Killian telling me last week that these are actually right-wing conservatives in secret but you get the point).
ReplyDeleteI'm sensing a lot of "white flag conservatism", and for that reason I turned off Bill Cunningham, Hannity (don't trust him), and stopped reading Free Republic. I'm also disgusted at the fact that if Ronnie came back to us tomorrow (or on his 100th in 20 months) that he'd just turn around and drop dead again, because with the exception of Ed Meese (and by proxy Mark Levin), it seems that everyone associated with his administration is drifting so far left they're asking Chrissy if he has any extra kneepads (Noonan, Bennett, Powell).
I don't know what it is, mostly because of the Palins, but I don't like what I'm seeing from our supposed leaders and other voices on the so-called right. It seems like Rush and Mark
are the only two who get this. It's kinda also hard to rally behind Michael Savage when he was also out there trashing Sarah and sounding like a lib, and also endorsing Jerry Brown and talking up Chuck U. Schumer (you ever noticed the two sound alike?).
For god's sake I've actually read supposed conservative David Dum using the term "Obama Derangement Syndrome" as an attack against Rush. Of course, ignoring that this COMPLETLELY ORIGINAL term coined by the left has nothing to do with Bush or Palin Derangement Syndrome that's been on display since 2001 (sarc), I recently got into it with a Seattle-area liberal (not Killian, this guy was in Federal Way) who, also used that term to attack Rush. So way to show you're one of us, Frum.................
Useful idiots (continued)...............
I might have been guilty of assuming the GOP would go back on attack like they did in 1993-94, but then again, should we really be surprised? I mean, the Contract With America lasted for what, a year? That's why I refuse to trust Gingrich to lead anything right now.
ReplyDeleteBut the bottom line is, we gotta drop the little stuff. So Bristol is unmarried and a mother at 18, so what? She's doing the job of motherhood (By his actions, Levi's bothering about as much Shaquille O'Neal's biological did), and when she starts taking up a career on welfare come back to me. I think Sarah will survive without the support of the Huckster's religious phonies just fine. Interesting that we should drop the Palins cause they aren't perfect, yet we should embrace the McCains of the world who embrace liberalism.
This is why libs are way out in front right now, we're losing by four touchdowns to the St. Louis Rams because we're running the Detroit Lions out there. For instance why we EVER allow the left to claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism (when they're as much that as Mahmoud Ahthejackass is an ally of America) should be clue #1 that the GOP has none.
The one gov (yes our gal) that has the guts to call out The Great Pretender for everything from the stimulus (of nothing) to his are-you-freaking-stupid foreign stance and I wouldn't be surprised if the GOP is actively seeking to fly an op up to Alaska and "re-educate" her. I don't think (with all the RINOs up there as I've found out) the left are the only ones trying to destroy her (it won't work).
Stimulus? Jobs? Are you kidding me? What's 600,000 jobs if you're losing them over two months anyway? You're not GAINING jobs, you're RECOVERING them, all this assuming these are actually non-government jobs anyway.
So we have: Obama (supported by his legions of drones) steering us of a cliff, the Obama campaign team, er the media, will be there to remind us that this is all Bush's fault (of course I'm sure they'll add 'the final death of Reaganomics' as their latest talking point ad nauseum), Congress to ensure that happens, and the "loyal opposition" to not only offer all the resistance of the Bob Michel-led Congress but actively kill of whatever opposition that the above don't get to for various petty reasons.
I was completely wrong eight months ago in not thinking it would be this bad, but I would at least have HOPED the fire would finally have been lit, guess not.
Please fix the dreadful typo.
ReplyDeleteSo does this mean Cameron will likely be the new PM?
ReplyDeleteAw, heck, Larry----I'm an editor and < I > didn't mind the typo. Adam is swamped; give him a break.
ReplyDeleteI just LOVE your posts, 12thMan. Your Mom should be proud!
I agree: Palin, Levin, and Limbaugh all get it, and few otherwise do. IT WAS GREAT that Sarah was THE HIT at that Republican conference, and Newt droned on so long that people were leaving! Yawn....! The old or nitwit guys need to move on and let us WIN next time, or the hope for this nation is dimming big time.