David Axelrod: Tea Parties Unhealthy
Senior White House adviser David Axelrod was on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ this morning. When asked for his opinion of the Tax Day Tea Parties held across the nation on April 15, 2009, he replied they could be ‘unhealthy’.
“I think any time you have severe economic conditions there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that’s unhealthy,” Axelrod said.
Of course, he back peddled pretty quickly by saying that, of course, the Obama Administration wants people to be able to express themselves freely. Of course. This saying something and then back peddling has become the mode of operation for this administration. They put the propaganda out there, then say that people misunderstood, or they didn’t really mean it, or maybe they could have worded it a little better. The strategy seems to be to just get whatever they want out there in the public, knowing that taking it back won’t get the publicity the original statement gets. That’s an old trial lawyer’s trick.
The statement about the ‘unhealthy’ nature of ordinary American’s expressing their opinions is perfectly consistent with recurrent themes coming out of this White House. Take Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s recent report that ‘right-wing extremists’ like American Soldiers and pro-life soccer moms. Again, the average America and the value system embraced by the majority of Americans is ‘unhealthy’, ‘dangerous’ and possibly anti-American!
While Axelrod was back peddling on his implication that there is something intrinsically dangerous and ‘unhealthy’ about average, every day, Middle Americans demonstrating peacefully about their concerns of the over stepping nature of this Administration, he through in, for good measure, that Obama is actually LOWERING taxes on 95 percent of Americans.
“The thing that bewilders me is that this president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people,” Axelrod argued. “I think the tea bags should be directed elsewhere because he certainly understands the burden that people face.”
This is one of those, ‘Don’t believe what you see, believe what I tell you to believe’ kind of things. They keep saying they have ‘cut’ taxes on 95% of Americans. I guess that’s the $250 tax credit people may or may not be getting. If they say it often enough people will think that’s actually better than the $600 or $1200 tax refund people got under President George W. Bush. They also neglect to mention the huge tax increases they are imposing on the poorest in the nation. The cigarette tax, the liquor and beer taxes, the increase in gas taxes. They want people to believe those aren’t real tax increases, I guess. What other tax increases have people been seeing? Grocery taxes, sales taxes? It seems that everything is costing more from being taxed more.
James Carville had the old fashioned Clintonesque response to the Tea Party movement and to Axelrod’s statement. Instead of saying its ‘unhealthy’ and can lead to acts of civil disobedience, he just made fun of the Tea Party demonstrators. Forcing laughter to the point he could barely be understood, he said the Tea Party movement was not ‘unhealthy’ but ‘harmless’ and helpful to the democrats. He went on to make fun of the participants, in the way the democrats do. He said the average age was ‘72.4 or something like that’. Ha, ha, ha. He laughed.
Of course, he had to throw in the ‘tea bagging’ joke, because apparently every democrat in the country thinks that’s just hilarious. I think Barney Frank must have clued them all in to what that meant so they could all act like they are totally hip and clued in to what that means before they ran home and googled it to find out the sexual connotations of the term.
They are soooo middle school!
Here are the videos of Axelrod and Carville from their television appearances this morning.
David Axelrod: Tea Parties Unhealthy – Video
Response to David Axelrod – Video
April 19th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Take it as a sign that the left has nothing to say – and so must resort to ad hominem attacks.
April 20th, 2009 at 12:20 am
I agree with Axelrod. These teabaggers are like robots set in motion by right-wing influences that have always been able to convince a portion of the population that they should support what is actually the opposite of what would be in their best interest. I have seen this work with illiterate and under-educated people in third-world countries. It seems to work with the less informed people in the US also. Education is the answer. People need to be taught to think with discrimination. At the moment the right-wing people of influence are trying to make people afraid rather than smart. It is really sick.
April 20th, 2009 at 1:24 am
James, your answer is what’s really sick. You just demeaned and insulted everyone who doesn’t agree with you. You are the one that can’t accept that people have minds of their own and think for themselves. You are the one parroting talking points. you have nothing original to say.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Sad to see some Americans have no idea of what it means to be an American.
It’s also kinda funny to see people like Axelrod step up to the plate and make negative statements against fellow citizens exercising rights.
Makes you wonder just where people like Axelrod, Napolitano,Janeane Garafolo,Paul Begala,what kinds of social values they have, or lack of.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Sad to see some Americans have no idea of what it means to be an American.
It’s also kinda funny to see people like Axelrod step up to the plate and make negative statements against fellow citizens exercising rights.
Makes you wonder just where people like Axelrod, Napolitano,Janeane Garafolo,Paul Begala,came from and what kinds of social values they have,or lack of.
April 20th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Axelrod says we are getting tax cuts? What a joke! I pay the highest state taxes, highest sales tax, highest county taxes living in Northwest Suburban Chicagoland. This guy is an absolute moron! I should thank O’Bama for my $80 tax cut per year – give me a break people! My state of Illinois (filled with crooks) takes the money back 2fold everyday!
Tea Party participants are just exercising their civic rights still not trampled by the government.
April 20th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
James Twomey Says:
“I agree with Axelrod. These teabaggers are like robots set in motion by right-wing influences that have always been able to convince a portion of the population that they should support what is actually the opposite of what would be in their best interest. I have seen this work with illiterate and under-educated people in third-world countries. It seems to work with the less informed people in the US also. Education is the answer. People need to be taught to think with discrimination. At the moment the right-wing people of influence are trying to make people afraid rather than smart. It is really sick.”
I’ve got news for you… I’ve got a Master’s degree and I was out there. Go ahead and keep kidding yourself that these folks are robots. We’ll see how close the mid-term elections of 2010 mirror 1994. If they don’t the American people deserve what they vote for.
I guess in your opinion the “rent a mob” protests of the left are not robots? When was the last time you saw a left-wing protest without broken glass and flipped cars? If being well-behaved as a protesting mob earns us the label of robots, that’s ok by me.
April 20th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
tpaine: You may have a Masters degree but it sounds like you have never actually learned how to think.