Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tea Party Plan For The Debate: Loud Zombie Laughter

The St. Louis Tea Party has tipped their hand as to what they're planning on doing for Friday's debate between Congressman Carnahan and the shameless Ed Martin (7 PM at the Forest Park Theater, 5600 Oakland Ave. in St. Louis). They posted today a video of clueless tea party members loudly laughing and yelling whenever Russ Carnahan made true statements about the health care reform plan:

Now, the tea party blog post claimed that they were laughing because Carnahan said that it would be deficit neutral and save money, but that something couldn't both be neutral and save money.

However, this is not really why they were laughing. Here's the actual quote from Carnahan:
The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the current plan and said that it was not only deficit neutral...but also that over 10 years it would create a $6 billion dollar surplus.
Now, it's true that if "deficit neutral" just meant a deficit that was neutral, then it wouldn't correctly refer to a deficit that had a surplus. However, the term "deficit neutral" is a actually a term of art that refers to policies or plans that do not add to the deficit. It is used as a criterion for certian policies under the assumption that creating a deficit, all things being equal, should be avoided. However, since creating a surplus is a good thing (all things being equal), nobody thinks it is a mark against a policy if it is not "deficit neutral" because it creates a surplus. Thus, the term "deficit neutral," as it is used in policy, denotes policies that don't create new deficits, and this is clearly how Carnahan was using the term.

But anyway, none of this is why the tea party members were shouting and laughing. They were shouting and laughing because they were following the mob rule. In fact, this was back in 2009, and they had been given instructions to shout and interrupt, and they were all-too-happy to oblige. And since they are releasing this video the day before the Carnahan/Ed Martin debate, we can assume that they're planning on creating a similar atmosphere for that event. They will laugh and shout at what Carnahan has to say, even if they have no idea if it is true or not, because following the leader in an angry mob is so much easier than engaging in thoughtful reflection.


  1. What an outrage this is!! Thanks for posting it. I saw it in Feedjit at PalinGates so I posted the link. It should go viral!


  2. They got away with the tactic of shouting down, laughing etc at Claire McCaskill during the now infamous Jefferson College town hall. We will not let them do this again. For one thing, these forums are being moderated by the League of Women Voters and it should be made clear to those in attendance that unless they maintain proper decorum for such an event, the police will escort them out.

  3. In order to possibly quell this, there should be every effort to videotape the entire audience to expose the people engaging in such behavior! Then the video should be posted on the Internet with the goal of making it go viral! Bottom line: let as many people as possible see the face of the real Tea Party!

  4. Sigh...this is unacceptable. :-( He is a US Congressman not the Adminstrator of some bad school district.
    I would like to see the faces of these uncouth people. See if we can identify some people, name names, and correct this rude and antisocial behavior.