Should Obama kill the tea partiers with kindness? That’s what one reader thinks:
I can’t for the life of me understand why the President doesn’t embrace the tea party and say something like, “I think the Tea Party is fantastic. It represents everything that we prize in this country, most importantly the freedom to speak out against the government if we don’t agree with it. Personally, I disagree with most of their ideas, but I think it is always inspiring when average citizens get involved. I think my supporters would win in a battle of ideas, but simply having the argument is a victory for the country and it’s basic values.”
Every time he tries to give his take and botches it, I think it just fires up the Tea Party more. Why not try to embrace it and try to kill it with kindness?
Maybe it’s a naïve idea, but it seems like a no-brainer to me even from the right-hand side of the spectrum.
I agree, this’d be a shrewd way to go. And you see some of it in President Obama’s comments on the tea partiers (you saw it at the CNBC town hall, for instance), but it is always cut through with this condescension and this dwelling on the “darker elements” that fear what an Obama presidency “stands for.” Completely reveals the rest of it as smoke.