Media Still Views Tea Baggers as Political Vagrants

So much progress has been made for The Fold Blog's conquest to get the media, as well as the blogosphere, to accurately define Tea Baggers as a movement within the Republican Party and not some semi-popular inter-political front.  Yet so much work still remains.

From CNN, or what they are billing as their Election Center:

Even though Tea Party candidates aren't shutting down their opponents, Phillips said the Tea Party -- which is a conservative movement and not a political party -- is doing well and is healthy for the country because it's getting newcomers involved in politics.

My oh my.  For starters, there is nothing conservative about Tea Baggers-- NOTHING.  Apparently we need to be reminded daily that these people are primarily recipients of government social services such as food stamps, Social Security, Medicare, Disability, unemployment, Farm Subsidies (welfare) and many other very left of center social programs that supposed "conservatives" oppose. They are people who benefit greatly from government services who are protesting people benefiting greatly from government services.  Brilliant!

Since we are on the subject of conservatism, Tea Baggers are people that also voted for George Bush twice.  And as we all know, there is no way anyone can honestly label people who voted for Bush as conservative.

Moreover, polling data (every single poll ever taken actually) suggests Tea Baggers are overwhelmingly registered Republicans, consider themselves Republican, vote Republican or largely identify with the GOP.  In other words, they are just as Republican as the GOP is.

The media, however, refuses to acknowledge, in most cases, it's very own data and reporting on the Tea Bagger crowd.  That leaves us with stories like the one above where we get to pretend Tea Baggers represent some sort of kumbaya of politics.

The Fold Blog's crusade is important for a number of reasons.  Most notably because it's vital Democrats and progressives make Republicans own their crazies.  Essentially what happens when we allow the narrative to describe Tea Baggers as some rambling band of Patriotic Freedom Fighters, we allow the GOP to pick up the seats Tea Bagger candidates win while distancing themselves from Tea Bagger stances like re-instituting Jim Crow literacy tests, or the hanging of Democratic Members of Congress, or the president is a foreign born enemy of the state.  It's just another way for Republicans to accept no responsibility for anything, much like they do with everything else.  Not to mention, there is no way Democrats would ever get away with allowing its supporters to behave the way Tea Baggers have been.