What they have in common is that both groups - the Libertarian Party and the Tea Party - were created by the Republican Party, and with goals of controlling voters who weren't registering (or who were changing registration from) the GOP. In 1972, there were many recent college grads still afraid of being drafted; they were first-time taxpayers in their new post-college jobs, and many in their age group were exploring illegal drugs. So the GOP (two incumbent GOP congressmen) created the anti-war, anti-tax, hinting at legal marijuana Libertarian Party - since they weren't voting GOP, they had to try to keep them from voting Dem - so they swoop them in that 3rd party to control them.

Then comes the 2009 Tea Party. Between 1998 and 2008, the number of registered Republican voters fell from 32% of all voters to only 23%. Many GOP voters had switched to independent; they were principally white, ages 40 and older, middle-class income, and with no college education. So this time they created the Tea Party (former GOP congressman from Texas, Dick Armey, was the adviser). Low taxes, no wasteful spending on items this group doesn't affiliate with (education, minority programs, etc.) - that's who this Tea Party was created to appease. And yes - Tea Party respect and participation has significantly declined as more of them realize how they're just being used as pawns of the GOP. And yes - their respect is dwindling here in SC, too, as a SC university study recently reported.

Jim, are you serious? Look at the shape of this country? Are you blind? Is this what we get with bipartisanship? I would rather us be paralyzed! These men have sold their soul and need to be removed. I personally am sick and tired of the Tea Party being demonized by leftist radicals who are the ones that have brought America to her knees!

@Joe, I know that you have a strongly held belief that everything was great when Bush took office until the day he left, but the fact is that bipartisanship died with Dick Cheney running the country, not Obama. Your taxes haven't been raised, even though you are sure they were. , there aren't any "leftist radicals" anymore, and Obama has a more conservative fiscal and social record than Reagan. That isn't bluster or hyperbole, so you may not understand it, but it is the truth.

@joe: "Jim, are you serious?...etcetc"

'Look at the shape of this country?' [joe say]

looking at losing jobs in 2008; gaining jobs in 2012...looking at DJI at 6000 in 2008; DJI at 13000 in 2012...looking at 30-40 million without health care insurance in 2008; 30-40 million on path to affordable health care in 2012

'Is this what we get with bipartisanship?' [joe say]

this what we got without bipartisanship (a JOB#1 BLOCK BO congress)...boy what we could have gotten with bipartisanship...

'I would rather us be paralyzed!' [joe say]

T-GOP policy well stated.

'These men have sold their soul and need to be removed' [joe]

These men (T-Gops) have sold their soul "to grover norquist" and need to be removed.

'leftist radicals who are the ones that have brought America to her knees!' [joe]

leftist radicals like FDR who brought USA back from 1929 depression...leftist radicals like BO who is getting USA out of the 2008 ditch...leftist radicals like LBJ who gave USA medicare...leftist radicals like JFK who saved the world from nuclear holocaust (weel, at least prevent USSR from installing missile 90 mile from our shore...leftist radicals like...

If you don't want a Marxist president, then why are you supporting the Marxist GOP? *The economic program it's promoting - openly free trade despite negative effects on national economy, supporting the companies that ship jobs overseas, reducing taxes on wealth when we already have lowest wealth tax of all developed nations, increasing taxes on low income while we are already the only country that taxes people in poverty - comes directly from Karl Marx's "Capital."* He was an economist, not a poltiical consultant - and his economic theories now promoted by the GOP are the same ones in use in North Korea and (in part) in China. LIke those Marxist GOPers? THEN MOVE TO NORTH KOREA.

@ Reg;
Where did you find the idea that republicans are more Marxist than the Democrats? Matching one ludicrous statement with another does not promote your position. This is the reason I can never declare a party again. There is too much absurdity in both. I'm staying undecided for now.

Not that reg needs any help, but he explains it in the paragraph you're responding to. He even highlighted it with an *. Calling a statement ludicrous without even actually reading it does not promote your position of being against absurdity.

I read it and stand by my original assertion. The statement between the asterisks is ludicrous. To say that Republicans aim is to become like China and North Korea is ridiculous. It is as ridiculous as those who say that the Democrats are creating a European style socialist state.

Marx never mentioned in his theoretical description of capitalism, companies shipping jobs overseas. His view of taxation was a mechanism by which the government gains control over private interests. The comments between the asterisks are a jumble of inconsistencies.

John, Marxist economic theory called for unrestricted industry with no govt oversight, with unrestricted trade, and with no labor laws that favored labor. In this theory, Marx claimed the state would become a open trade mart, bringing in raw materials at little cost, from which could the companies in that state make finished products. And because its ports would theoretically became trade hubs, that state would already have open avenue for free trade of its finished products. Consumerism by citizens would be irrelevant. That's what China is today, and is what North Korea has continually attempted to become.

I appreciate the explanation. My perception is that China and North Korea are totalitarian states that have full control of all economic activities. I am not ready to concede that one party or the other espouses a Marxist economic policy because I cannot separate the social and economic aspect of the theory. Capitalism creates separate classes that conflict. The conflict is resolved by revolution, creating a new order, socialism which becomes Communism. America will never go that rout due to the political dialectic (resulting in more value surplus retained by the proletariat) that occurs, thankfully preventing Marxism from achieving it’s conclusion.

spare me the neo-feminist bull, I am sick of hearing you women whining about your reproductive rights. LAst time I heard of these "rights" was the Civil War. You have no right to kill your children, case closed! And no one except the liberal media is trying to take away your right to take your birth control pills, we just don't want to pay for them, my goodness my 85 year old neighbor can't get medicare to pay for her hearing aids but you want your birth control paid for??

Allison .....
Look .... BIRTH CONTROL PILLS are not the issue. The issue is SPENDING FOR ALL SORTS OF UNNECESSARY STUFF. If you cannot afford a few dollars for birth control pills, just get rid of your cell phone. Come on . Give me a break ! Where does it say the GOVERNMENT should take care of BIRTH CONTROL PILLS !?!?!?! EH ???

The same place it says the government should take care of nuclear submarines and internet policies and bio-terrorism and cell phones. Many members of society have evolved, as have our laws. Health care is not "UNNECESSARY STUFF" to many of us.

We really need to set aside an area in the center of the country and let people who want to leave society to do so. America can provide them the security they need to "live" how they want fighting off bears and clans and the flu without society intervening. I wouldn't even charge them taxes, as long as all they wanted from us was military protection and to be left alone to their own devices.

@Gretchen: "...Where does it say the GOVERNMENT should take care of BIRTH CONTROL PILLS !?!?!?! EH ???"

EH, probably the same place it say the gov should pay for erections...eg;

'Within weeks of hitting the U.S. market in 1998, more than half of Viagra prescriptions received health insurance coverage. If many women weren't already outraged that they had to pay for birth control out of pocket, they were infuriated at the preference given to the anti-impotence pills.' http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91538

course there are some T-GOP women who are not infuriated...guess they believe a woman's place is pregnant and in the kitchen...

indeed the hypocrisy continues...

Indeed it does. What do you define as failure, and using that definition how would you characterize George Bush's presidency? How would you define the Congress with it's Tea anchored and promoted hyper partisanship?

Yeah, 2.8 million new jobs in just three years is a failure. Restoration of US corporations that were about to close is a failure. Keeping our auto manufacturing industry alive is a failure.

@Gretchen, I do not believe any of the people on this post who disagree with you about the Tea Party have done ANY of the things you listed (breaking windows, deficating (2 times), raping etc.. So what is your point? The Teabaggers want to reduce taxes again, even though we are the lowest-taxed developed nation already, with lower taxes on the wealthy than we had during the booming 50's or since. This country prospered with the tax levels under Eisenhower, and under Clinton! Maybe we should reinstate those tax brackets and provide the same level of health insurance coverage that the rest of the developed world provides. Are we too poor to do that? Wars are expensive, maybe spending that money on rebuilding bridges, railways, and highways would have been a little more productive than destroying those things in Iraq, but then we could not have had the great photo-op of the draft-dodging president landing on an aircraft carrier. Talk about politicizing a national crisis...

I agree with the Tea Party folks on many issues, too. The problem is that the GOP chiefs who created their Tea Party keep telling them false information that they mix up. Like the line of "personal freedom and free markets!" This Marxist "free market" concept is responsible for the unemployment, reduced wages, and trade deficit we have. Too many of the Tea Party people are just doing the dirty work for the GOP chiefs who could care less about their personal freedom - they are directly misled and are misused as the army of the same group that keeps taking away their personal freedom. So much for small government, eh?

Stanley you sound like a bitter old man

For a better understanding of AMerica, read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalists' Papers and any other document written by the greatest minds of our country.

I've read all of them, Joe. Not one says we are a plutocratic serfdom to be on the brink of bankruptcy thanks to Marxist Republican ideals. That's what the Republican Party is pushing for, though - and that's why they are unAmerican. Not one says we are a country to be ruled by a tight-knit circle claiming to be the majority, and that only reduces its own taxes and raises everybody else's. That's the GOP for ya, though.

You are totally right... they all SPEND TOO MUCH.... Hence, we need to THROW ALL THE INCUMBENTS out ... and elect a new bunch. If they don't stop spending, then don't re-elect them. I fail to see why they can't understand WE HAVE NO MONEY ! ! ! They are all a bunch of damn fools.

It's becoming more and more apparent, Joe, that you are certainly not an authority on this subject at hand, or any other regarding politics, government or economy. Marxist Economics, created by Communist-theorist Karl Marx, calls for unregulated industry operating with entirely free trade. That's what the Republican Party is calling for. And that's what both communist China and communist North Korea are doing. And labor unions only represent - representation is a basic American right, and was the founding principle of this country, in fact. So your argument against labor unions only makes it clearer that your true goals are to promote oligarchal/plutocratic government with communist leanings. You're using that GOP Trademark of "blame the other side for the bad things about us" technique. Again - you don't like these American rights that were guaranteed upon the foundation of our American country? THEN GET OUT OF AMERICA, JOE.

..."the Leftists Democrats are Marxists, the Progressive movement is Communist" is perhaps the epitome of right wing rhetoric.

Taxes are near historic lows and haven't been raised in over 12 years, but keep telling yourself that they are. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3151 Don't ever consider facts.

Yes, the ~11% of American workers that ARE and increasingly shrinking section of the increasingly shrinking middle class are destroying the middle class with their lavish pensions and health care. It's not regressive tax policy and outsourcing jobs to slave workers in the third world in order to increase the shareholders stake a few points, it's unions.

The Democrats, or this Democrat, is not Marxist. I am a retired Navy officer and run my own small business doing marketing & business development for other small businesses. I am all for the free market. I am a Progressive. I am the furthest thing from a Communist. Labor Unions have given us a 40-hour workweek, job safety requirements and minimum wage, and if not for the Labor Unions, there would be no middleclass. Labor unions do not destroy the middleclass. In my opinion anti-labor laws (right now there is a bill pending in the US Congress to remove minimum wage requirements and overtime payment for any computer operator - know any jobs these days that do not require some computer operation?), corporate welfare and our tax system are destroying the middleclass. Labor unions were founded on the basic tenant of American principles - representation. You can have an attorney represent you in court, why can't you have a labor representative represent a worker when negotiating wages and benefits? Employers have a lot of organizations representing them - the Chamber of Commerce just to name one, and if they contribute to political campaigns, the politicians they help get elected. If you do not have a strong workforce you will not have a middleclass. If you do not have a middleclass you will not have a free market as there will be no consumers to purchase goods and services.

The Supreme Court hearing on the Affordable Care Act did a great service in informing Americans what the ACA meant and the favorability of ACA took a huge leap. Now more than 60% of Americans want the benefits of ACA. SC received $39,300,000 in federal funds to improve our public health, prevent excessive health insurance premium increases and establish healthcare insurance exchanges. What has our State House and Senate done with that money? The only money that I know of to address affordable healthcare was used to join with 24 other states to file a law suit with the Supreme Court. How has ACA impacted SC directly? 602,760 South Carolinians on Medicare have received free preventive services, 755,000 South Carolinians have had their private insurance add free preventive services, 1,458,000 South Carolinians no longer have a lifetime limit on the health insurance plan, 30,376 young adults have gained health insurance through their parent's plan, 1,037,000 South Carolinians are protected by new medical loss ratio 80/20 rule, 948 have gained coverage through pre-existing condition insurance plan. Our State House and Senate passed a resolution to call a US Congressional Congress to prevent our State Insurance Commissioner from regulating Health Insurance Premiums and to prevent the US Congress from mandating that 80% of health insurance premiums be used for direct patient care and services. I don't understand how anyone can say that there was no bipartisan support of ACA.

Joe you must be one of the most clueless people ever to comment on this blog. Do you really think that all of a sudden the health care bill just showed up the day Obama took office??? The health care bill was created years ago with the help and support of Mitt Romney and many many Republicans and Democrats (bipartisan) the only inroads the Tea Party is making is attacking women rights. Where are the jobs Joe, Where are the cuts to our over bloated Military that the Tpers have just increased the military budget didn't cut a dime. Even the military doesn't want funding for plane they keep shoving down their throats. WHy you ask because Boeing benefits from them. If the Tea Party was rational intelligent group of folks they would have realized a long time ago you must raise revenue to pay for Medicare Part D that was created and no idea how to pay for it, but it did create a windfall of profits to big Pharma. You can't nation build in other countries and neglect our own thats not free either Joe. As far as bipartisanship on the national debt the Democrats have found a whole slew of reductions, however the Tpers and GOP find it necessary to increase spending on our biggest socialist program this country has OUR MILITARY. Now when you talk about abortion I would say that is the Tea Parties agenda cause that is the only bills coming out of the Republican party in the thousands, not ONE jobs bill from a tper NOT ONE.

@Barbara McGowin: ". I don't understand how anyone can say that there was no bipartisan support of ACA.

not really bipartisan support...T-GOPs were dragged kicking and screaming to the table...

if you are serious re politics and DEM principles...get out of SC...move to CA (60:30 DEMs...and you an appealing resume for CA voters...eg, retired military would get you GOP votes in CA.

Sorry, Joe - but when you promote the exact same things the GOP is calling for, what else can we assume? Here's what I love about the Tea Party officials (who got elected by continuing the misleading that the GOP did to the public by its creation of the TP to begin with): they are all openly conflicting with all the principles the Tea Party was supposed to stand for. They all promised "freedom!!!" but continue to take away freedoms. Take Tim Scott, for example - he supported the bill that took away your privacy online. Now, your employer can require you to give up the passwords for your email, facebook and even here on Patch - all so you can be constantly monitored with no regard to your freedom or your privacy. But that's the GOP posing as TP elected officials for you - promise one thing, then do the opposite.

name them...weel name 10...

public sector doesn't manufacture, Joe - keep it real, dawg

@Joe: "...with a public sector union we have no choice but to buy an inferior product form inferior workers."

SOO joe public employees (teachers, firemen, policemen) are inferior and should not have the right to collective bargain as you did...are you superior to them...

Restore everything to 18th century! That's just good conservative values! Progress is for heathens!