Remember how hard you laughed the first time MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow discussed “teabaggers” on her show?
Her story about how protesting Republicans were mailing tea bags to the White House was uproariously amusing thanks to the action’s sexually-charged double entendre. Not everyone thought the term was funny though, and now it seems the Massachusetts Senate race has brought this name controversy back to the forefront of political civility.
This ground movement of Tea Party protesters was integral in securing Republican Scott Brown’s victory over Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, as detailed by the Daily Caller.
Vehemently expressing their displeasure for the Obama administration’s political agenda, these citizens turned the supposedly locked-down liberal state of Massachusetts into the site of a shocking political upset on Tuesday night.
It seems ironic to me that a Monday Washington Times article described how the “Tea Party activists” felt ignored by the Republican National Committee, only to have those same activists be conservative heroes come Tuesday night. Now, conservatives like FOX News’ Greg Gutfeld wants the party to embrace the moniker.
Anchor David Schuster, also of MSNBC, took to Twitter yesterday to comment on the election’s results. “Highly amusing to see teabaggers claim Brown a referendum on Obama...when Brown himself denied it and distanced himself from teabaggers.”
For those Tweeps upset by his statement, Schuster replied: “For all who object to the term ‘teabaggers,’ please direct your frustrations to Griff Jenkins at Fox News. He came up with it.”
At this point, it’s become very difficult to determine who really decided to start calling these Tea Party protesters “teabaggers.”
While the Right definitely initiated the Tea Party moniker, most of the subsequent name-calling has certainly come from the Left. It was funny to liberals, until a few nights ago when these protesters made a single but giant dent in Democratic health care reform. Now it’s time for bipartisanship to be renewed, instead of being circumvented.
The focus of political civility may be on Tuesday’s election, but Americans aren’t the only citizens voicing their displeasure with their current government these days.
A Facebook group called “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament” has taken on over 200,000 members in order to collectively protest against actions taken by their Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The National Post covered the story and noted the group has more members than the Post has subscribers.
Harper recently prorogued the Canadian Parliament, which means it will be shut down until his decided restart date on March 3rd. As the group’s description explains, bills being debated are thrown out, committees are shut down and decisions stop being made. This is the second time Harper has prorogued the government in two years.
Turning social networking into political networking, the group has created a rally event on Facebook, along with multiple smaller chapters according to regions and territories. Saturday, January 23rd, is being dubbed “National Day of Action” by the group as rallies will be held across the country. I applaud these Canadians’ use of Facebook to form civil protests towards this highly criticized move.
I wonder what would happen if the US government ever shut down? Oh wait, it’s called their month-long Christmas break. Snap.
Got a story you think deserves highlighting? Feel free to post some sweet, sweet comments for us!
