The Tea Party, White Southern Extremists

Michael Lind at Salon.com:

The debt ceiling crisis is the latest case in which the radical right in the South has held America hostage until its demands are met. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln refused to appease the Southern fanatics. Unfortunately, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress chose not to follow their example and instead gave in. In doing so, they have encouraged the neo-Confederate minority in Congress to find yet another opportunity in the near future to extort concessions from America’s majority by sabotaging America’s government.

I don’t really recommend reading this piece by Lind, unless you have a fetish for poorly conceived arguments. I just wanted to point out two aspects of his argument that you’re bound to see repeated by the media-at-large in the coming weeks:

1. Lind does not refute a single argument made by the Tea Party. Instead he simply makes the case that they are white, from the south, racist, and dumb. When you can’t compete in the arena of ideas, just vilify your opponent and hope people don’t notice the fact that you’re leaving every point unchallenged. Classic Liberal tactic.

2. Lind proposes that the Tea Party somehow won the debt debate¹. This is absurd. This bill will increase our debt by a minimum of $7 trillion over the next 10 years and increases the debt limit by $2.4 trillion today. There is literally not a dime of spending cuts to be found in the bill. If the Tea Party won, I don’t know what all the Democrats are so upset about. They are getting a huge spending increase and a huge debt limit increase. That’s not a victory for the Tea Party that I identify with.