Democracy Now! Headlines For August 18, 2011

DemocracyNow.org - This is a summary of news headlines from the United States and around the world as reported by Democracy Now! on Thursday, August 18, 2011.

NYT OpEd: Crashing the Tea Party

Professors David E. Campbell and Robert D. Putnam wrote an OpEd in the New York Times detailing that the Tea Party movement is made up largely of ultra-religious conservatives who insist America is a “Christian nation:”

Tea Partiers ... seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates.

...The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government. This inclination among the Tea Party faithful to mix religion and politics explains their support for Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

...It is precisely this infusion of religion into politics that most Americans increasingly oppose. While over the last five years Americans have become slightly more conservative economically, they have swung even further in opposition to mingling religion and politics.

Now that America is catching on to this fact, the Tea Party people are much less popular than other groups who largely seek to mind their own business:

Polls show that disapproval of the Tea Party is climbing. In April 2010, a New York Times/CBS News survey found that 18 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of it, 21 percent had a favorable opinion and 46 percent had not heard enough. Now, 14 months later, Tea Party supporters have slipped to 20 percent, while their opponents have more than doubled, to 40 percent.

Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.

So, the Tea Party "movement" is now officially less popular among Americans than Muslims.

Ultra-right social conservatives often accuse "liberals" of undermining the Christian nation values.

But leading conservative strategist Karl Rove called the notion that the U.S. is a Christian nation “offensive” during a Fox News interview. “We are based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, we derive a lot from it, but if you say we’re a Christian nation, what about the Jews, what about the Muslims, what about the non-believers? I mean, one of the great things about our country is that the first amendment gives you right to believe or not believe as you choose."

It's All About the Messaging

From our friend John Aravosis over at AmericaBlog:

Ezra Klein has an interesting piece up, from yesterday, arguing that the White House should take a page from the GOP playbook in pushing for actions on jobs. And Ezra is right, to a degree. The Republicans are ruthless and the President has been somewhat spineless. I think Ezra is incorrect, however, in arguing that Boehner wouldn't have resorted to a PR campaign to get his way.

That's exactly what Republicans do. They grab a message, and beat it to death, again and again and again, until you're sick of it, but suddenly, one day the entire country is parroting the same message.

Democrats, on the other hand, think that issuing a single press release [or sending a single email to an aging email address list] "is" a PR campaign.

So, yes, the GOP does take hostages, and it does all the other high-stakes things needed to pass legislation in this town, but they don't forgo PR as some kind of unnecessary politesse. It's key to their campaign, and always has been (e.g., death panels, Obamacare, the stimulus didn't create any jobs, if the deficit isn't addressed today we're all going to die, etc.) The GOP is great at PR. Our leaders in power need to learn their game.

Democracy Now Discussion On Gov. Perry With Bob Moser

Amy Goodman discusses Rick Perry's recent comments with Bob Moser, executive editor of the American Prospect and former editor of the Texas Observer

Democracy Now: Since announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination over the weekend, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has already raised eyebrows over a number of heated comments.

On Monday Perry accused Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of treason and suggested he would face physical harm in Texas. His comments were widely criticized, from the White House to Republican key strategist Karl Rove.

Perry has also drawn criticism for calling Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare "a Ponzi scheme."

Perry’s record in Texas is also beginning to face increased scrutiny. He claims responsibility for the an "economic miracle" in Texas, but many have questioned the success of his economic policies.

We look at Perry’s recent comments and his past with Bob Moser, executive editor of the American Prospect. Moser is the former editor of the Texas Observer, where he spent the last three years covering Perry.