Truly out of power [updated]

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In addition to all the obvious things that have been said about the tea-bag tax protests today, I have two observations.

First, it's really encouraging to me that self-identified conservatives are every bit as capable as liberals of ridiculously self-marginalizing public conduct. The tea parties are much, much stupider even than giant liberal puppets of George Bush.

Second, I take these events as the first real sign that the far right wing really, truly is out of political power for the first time since 1980. Yes, I include the 1990s, too, when Hillary Clinton's peckerwood husband did everything he could, intentionally and unintentionally, to keep the right wing appeased and emboldened. To me, this is huge news. After decades with their pudgy fingers all over the levers of power, the best they can do now is engineer ridiculous publicity stunts and (regrettably, still) haunt TV news-commentary shows where the corporate media continue to legitimize their absurd worldview.

That said, the ideas these people promote remain pernicious and influential, and the media are as much in thrall of them as ever.

Update: I added a sentence to the third paragraph that I forgot when posting last night.