The Tea Party is an effective nemesis for Obama: A paper tiger. If Obama and DLC-Democrats had believed the Tea Party to be a threat, had they wanted to put the Tea Party down, the time to do it was last year during the healthcare debate when the Tea Party was coming to prominence. When Democratic members of Congress were cancelling Town Halls because of the escalating threats of violence by gvn-toting teabaggers, disrupting Americans' long-honored traditions of peaceful debate in the public square.
Instead of taking to the bully pulpit, announcing increased security on government properties hosting these events, Obama disappeared from the healthcare debate (to cut secret deals with Big Insurance, PhRma, hospitals, the AMA, etc., and then l!e about it) as the Tea Party grew & bullied at Town Halls.
What Obama did instead during the same Town Hall time period: Unleashed federal security forces to Pittsburgh to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting (using the new weaponry on dissenters who the 'establishment elites' really fear) and stem the unrest that actually threatens the 'elites', i.e., the American people taking back their government -
Obama has no problem quelling dissent or inspiring our better angels when he wants or needs to.
Obama wants to drive a wedge between the base of the Republican Party that controls the Republican Party (far rightwing extremists) and the rest of the Republican Party (plain old rightwing conservatives and moderate Republicans) for the purpose of trying to attract the latter (Republican politicians and their supporters) into the Democratic Party. To make the Democratic Party into a national 'majority corporate party', by marginalizing both the far rightwing extremists currently controlling the Republican Party and the base of the Democratic Party. In order "to govern, from the center, for 100 years".
The Tea Party serves this end it several ways. Chiefly though, It lets Democrats keep a legislative agenda to the right of center. If the teabaggers are far rightwing, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim. And that's a lot of corporate-money ground.
Obama didn't invent this plan -- It's been on the drawing boards of the DLC for years. The midterm elections did nothing to change the plan.
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