The media attacks on the Tea Party are becoming truly deplorable.
On Wednesday, MSNBC's Martin Bashir actually brought on an addiction specialist to analyze the nation's most powerful conservative movement, and his opinions were nothing less than vile (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MARTIN BASHIR, HOST: In the battle to claim credit for resolving the debt crisis, the Tea Party has been quick to proclaim victory. No new taxes was their mantra, and there are no new taxes, indeed. For a relatively young and small political group they have pretty much gotten their way since entering the Congress in November. Of course, not everyone is thrilled with the tactics used by Tea Party lawmakers during the debt ceiling crisis.
After reading some of Maureen Dowd’s truly disgusting column in Wednesday’s New York Times - "[The Tea Party] were like cannibals, eating their own party and leaders alive. They were like vampires, draining the country's reputation, credit rating and compassion. They were like zombies, relentlessly and mindlessly coming back again and again to assault their unnerved victims, Boehner and President Obama. They were like the metallic beasts in 'Alien' flashing mouths of teeth inside other mouths of teeth, bursting out of Boehner's stomach every time he came to a bouquet of microphones" - Bashir brought on Peele:
BASHIR: Dr. Stanton Peele is a psychologist whose specialty is addiction, and he's the author of "Seven Tools to Beat Addiction." Good afternoon, sir.
STANTON PEELE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Good afternoon, Martin.
BASHIR: Can I ask you a question: what is the effect of giving people their way all of the time? How does it shape our thinking behavior if by being adamant and dogmatic we get our way?
Before we get to Peele's answer, you should understand who he is. According to his contributor bio at the Huffington Post:
Stanton Peele is an attorney, psychologist, and addiction expert. Beginning with the groundbreaking Love and Addiction in 1975, Dr. Peele has broken down myths about addiction. Among his accomplishments, discussed at his Website, showing that addiction is more than a physiological response to drugs, addressing life processes in treating addiction, and opening the field to harm reduction.
That's right: he's an addiction expert. So exactly why would Bashir and MSNBC consider him a fitting person to analyze members of the nation's fastest growing grassroots political movement?
If you're answer was, "To debase and humiliate them," you'd be right:
PEELE: Well, the way I think about it is they are pursuing goals that can't be achieved. It's sort of like a child who has some kind of fantasy, and they keep asking you to give them things to acquire that, but it's impossible to arrive at the goal that they want. The idyllic paths that they are pursuing probably never existed and certainly not something that we can reach right now.
The idyllic paths that they are pursuing probably never existed? That's not true.
The Tea Party much as its prior iteration the Reform Party wants a balanced budget and for the U.S. government to spend within its means.
For those that have forgotten, it was pressure from Ross Perot and his extremely powerful political movement that really brought attention to the perils of unrestrained deficit spending in the early '90s and not only assisted the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 but also had a hand in creating surpluses years later.
To say this either didn't happen or is no longer attainable is either the height of stupidity or unabashed dishonesty, but let's continue:
BASHIR: So you're saying that they are delusional about the past and adamant about the future.
Well, as I just demonstrated, the Tea Partiers are by no means delusional about the past, but let's see how the good doctor answered:
They are adamant about achieving something that's unachievable? Once again, a balanced budget is not something that's unachievable.
Furthermore, if wanting such a thing "reminds us of delusion and psychosis," then according to a recent CNN poll, 74 percent of the nation are delusional and psychotic.
With each passing day, more and more Americans are realizing that they share the Tea Party's values as well as its concerns about the direction of this country, and people like Peele are so threatened they feel the need to go on television shows to defame its members with utter nonsense:
PEELE: And it reminds us also of the Norway situation, because when people are thwarted, when a child is thwarted in attaining something that can’t be had, they often strike out, and I think Norway is one example of one kind of reaction to that kind of a frustration.
BASHIR: But going back to the Tea Party in this country, do you think that having achieved their goal, no new taxes, instead of this actually making them think about compromise in the future, it's actually simply going to harden them so this kind of battle, this kind of standoff, this kind of face-off is just going to become routine in Washington?
PEELE: Well, I'm looking at one goal beyond. They want no new taxes because they seek some kind of idyllic past. No new taxes won't bring that. It won't bring them economic recovery, so then they’ll have to turn their attention to some other supposed method for attaining that until they go through all of them. Perhaps they can push through all of them. Perhaps people become discontented. Perhaps they will become discontented. And then I think people are likely to get riled up, and it could become a very angry movement, could potentially become a violent movement.
And there it is. Like most attacks on the Tea Party, the implication of violence seems to be a prerequisite for liberals.
Although Tea Party rallies have been shown to be far more peaceful than most other political gatherings, those on the Left work overtime to present a totally unsupported violent image of the group:
BASHIR: And what about those who oppose this angry group? I mean, do you worry that eventually the people who have been whacked will whack back?
PEELE: I think right now they are mystified. They are thinking how did they succeed? It's like when you look at a child who throws a tantrum. How do they get to win this when it makes no sense what they are looking for? And, we're operating at a symbolic level here, and they control the symbolism now until at some point there's some dramatic horrible clash between all of this symbolism and what really we have to face in what is in our hands.
So the Tea Party is like "a child who throws a tantrum."
And this is the kind of guest MSNBC brings on to analyze the fastest growing political movement in the nation.
Think Peele would have been brought on or even had such views if the Tea Party was a liberal group espousing higher taxes and weath redistribution?
No - I don't either.
(H/T Weekly Standard via NB reader Jammie Younce)
