Punch a Hippy

I think Democrats are wise to punch hippies. I grew up as a wannabe hippy and I volunteer.

Oddly a lefty blogger is convinced that what the Democratic party needs is a Tea Party of the left, but it can’t have one, because of the MSM and hippy baching progressive bloggers.

My jaw drops after the jump.

Here I admit that I am aiming for the maximum possible number of enraged comments.

If you can’t punch the hippy you want, punch the hippy puncher you’re with.

Also the Eagle flies with the dove

then eats it.

Have you looked at polls including the word “tea party” lately ? They are less popular than atheists (such as myself).



Consider the argument that the Tea Party has helped conservatism, that MSM hostility makes it impossible for leftists to do the same, and that progressive bloggers are making a strategic mistake by joining in the hippy punching.

The argument made by progressive hippy punchers is that extremists alienate most people, and that pulling a party away from the center dooms it to electoral losses (so policy moves the other way).

The claim, then, is that the tea partiers will be very bad for Republicans, because most US adults will disapprove of the Tea Partiers, disapprove of Republicans for bowing to the will of the tea partiers, and, in the end have an unfavorable view of the Republican party.

This isn’t, at the moment, a prediction. It is a description of the data. The fraction of US adults with an unfavorable view of the Republican party is the highest ever measured. The tea party rats last among 24 groups (including atheists).

I don’t think there could possibly be more evidence that progressive hippy bashers are right. Many of the most enthusiastic hippy bashers were leftists who expected huge victories in 70-72. One can over learn the lesson of 1972 but those who forget history do sometimes repeat it.

Now my praise of hippy punchers is not criticism of hippies. The punchers need someone to punch. The “professional left” is so useful that if did not exist, Obama would have to invent it. Also he clearly feels a psychological as well as political need to oppose extremists on both sides. If all leftists were reasonable, then he would feel the need to reject reasonable leftism.

But just because we insult each other doesn’t mean that we aren’t symbiotic. We just have to choose whether to be hippies or hippy punchers (I alternate which would be a problem if anyone were paying attention).