These tea party people....

[Hassled]

Nutters? In this BBC blog, one woman says "This progressive agenda (Obama's economic policies) has progressed to the tipping point in the United States, where we either stand up for the constitution of the United States or we accept socialism, tainted with Marxism."

How can she interpret Obama's policies as socialism tainted with Marxism? Is it just down to lack of education? I really, genuinely, don't understand. I don't understand the fear they seem to have. And they're doing well - they've got the Delaware Senate nomination, NY, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky and Alaska. Meanwhile they're being funded by billionaires who clearly have a vested interest keeping the focus on tax cuts for the rich.

I don't know what my point is really - I get that many people want smaller government, lower taxation, less govt spending etc, but that view is already well represented. I don't get this extremism.

Regarding the NHS - looking from across the Atlantic - it's not the best advertisement for a national health care system is it? I'm sorry, but it's probably a case-study for the US in how not to do it.

Chil1234, the Founding Fathers are not wooly crap. The Constitution of the United States is not wooly crap, it is the document that enshrines the rights of US citizens and guarantees their freedom from oppressive big government. The only people who could possibly think of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers as wooly crap are some progressives, who seek to undermine the rights and liberties of US citizens.

Chil - centrist to us yes - and that's what we see as normal - far left to people for whom right is normal. IYSWIM.

Claig I believe in assisting disadvantaged people, providing healthcare and a minimum standard of living to everyone, a woman's right to choice with contraception and abortion. I do not believe that people who been dealt a shitty hand in life should be left to rot. Call me old fashioned.

People all over europe are not highly right wing either, that's a fantasy.

We know that the French health care system is better than ours. I have heard US broadcasters in shock at our health system, where people are refused treatment and drugs which could save their lives because they live in the wrong postcode area. They don't want to be hostage to government dictats and cutbacks which might mean life or death. There are stories in the press of how UK citizens travel for treatment in the US for life-saving operations that are not available here. Of course there are problems with the US system, but the Americans don't want to lose the good parts of their system.

Someone on another site linked up to this clip showing supporters of the Tea Party.

The people all over Europe, just as in the United States, are in the majority right wing. That is why right wing newspapers sell more than their left wing counterparts with the likes of Monbiot writing for them. However, our media is predominantly left of centre and that distorts the voting outcome.

amnesty report on maternal healthcare in the US.

Again, call me old fashioned. But for such a wealthy country to leave people to die in pregnancy and childbirth in this day and age is nothing short of scandalous.

Of course the right would argue that it's their own fault.... I just don't- understand it.

bullet234 that video is by progressohio, and it is the same old progressive scare tactics again. The progressives are desperate, they know that their progressive media is not working to fool the people of the United States. That's why the progressives are resorting to the thing that they know best - scare tactics.

@claig. Subscribing to the constitutional opening statement that 'all men are created equal' resulted in a country where segregation, poverty and prejudice flourished. Rights were not enshrined in the slightest. Equality finally exists at a legal level but the legacy of 200+ years is that equality of opportunity is still denied to many. Standing in society and life-chances are determined at birth and there are few routes to escape. If "freedom from oppressive big government" means being left to your own devices to sink without trace then the 'rights and liberties' of those particular US citizens are not worth a candle.

I'll say again. The Tea Party are pushing the 'Mom & Apple Pie' buttons. They are selective in which parts of the constitution they choose to uphold and they are as beholden to the big businesses and banks as any other politicians in the US system.

Isn't Sarah Palin a leading advocate of the Tea Party? 'nuff said

The UK, with our NHS, doesn't do too well on maternal death rate. But that was probably kept quiet, it might have harmed their election chances.

Pregnant-women-more-likely-to-die-in-UK-than-Poland

Claig do you think it is right that millions of women every year are unable to access basic antenatal care, putting them at high risk of pregnancy-related complications. And that the US has a very high maternal death rate (double the UK) because of lack of healthcare?

Is that OK?

I don't care who the video is by, it shows the Tea Party supporters behaving despicably.

Do you believe that access to abortion should be restricted?

Do you think that the right to bear arms is a fundamental and inviolable right?

Chil1234, I thought you were a conservative. You are sounding like a socialist. If you get injured at work in the United States, you can sue your employer for far more than the paltry amounts you can get here. That is why US employers have to take health and safety and equality seriously. US citizens have many rights, often more than the rights that we get. They have had a real Freedom of Information Act for years.

Do you believe in executing people?

Do you believe in executing people with mental health problems / very low mental ages?

Do you support the fact that 1 in every 10 black men in the entire US, are in prison? Does that show that their social policies are working? Is that cost effective? 1 in every 100 people in the US are detained at vast expense to the taxpayer. Is that a good thing?

I said that there are problems with the US system. It needs to be improved.

It's not about what I believe, it's about democracy and what the people of the United States believe. I don't believe that I should dictate to them or that any progressive should dictate to them either. I am all for democracy and representation of the people by the people and for the people. I think that that is what the Tea Party are about and that is why they have a 40% approval rating among the American Public, a higher approval rating than the other parties.

Do you believe that it is right that the US should have a maternal mortality rate twice that of the UK, and 4 times that of Italy?

Does this mean that they have been doing it right?

Why not answer my questions directly claig?

I am very interested in what you believe.

No I don't believe they should have that. But I suspect it may have something to do with their large immigrant population possibly not getting access to services.

This is a reason given as to why more women die during pregnancy in the UK than in Albania
"It is thought a large immigrant population, who tend to present to antenatal services late, and the rise in obesity, which causes complications, are to blame."

Also we know the problem that the US has with obesity and junk food etc., and that may be a contributing factor

"Chil1234, I thought you were a conservative"

I'm a Tory voter from working-class roots & I'm also British. I have nothing in common with a group like the Tea Party.

My dad is a die-hard Republican. But he thinks these idiots are not just nutters, which they are, but also traitors. They wish to overthrow the US government and as such, they are traitors.

expatinscotland, they are not revolutionaries, such as Marxists, as far as I know. Don't they want to work through the electoral system, and vote in politicians who represent their interests? By overthrow the government, don't you just mean, vote the Democrats out? Isn't that what the Republicans also want?

i love how you've got george monbiot (george monbiot FFS!) down as public enemy number one along with his 'green policies' that undermine industry.

what a bastard to pay attention to the science of global warming (no doubt you're with nigel lawson on this one) and campaign to prevent our self destruction as a species along with the world we live in.

lets shoot him now.