{"id":3268,"date":"2010-09-18T21:34:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T02:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=3268"},"modified":"2010-09-18T21:57:30","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T02:57:30","slug":"starfish-analogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=3268","title":{"rendered":"Starfish analogy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Sarah Palin annointing Republican candidates around the nation with no more vetting than she got before being propelled into the national dialogue even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.powerlineblog.com\/archives\/2010\/09\/027251.php\">stalwarts<\/a> in the conservative movement have much to fear.<\/p>\n<p>I saw this analogy recently about the difference between <a href=\"<embed src=\"http:\/\/c.brightcove.com\/services\/viewer\/federated_f8\/1460906593\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" flashVars=\"videoId=605835628001&#038;playerId=1460906593&#038;viewerSecureGatewayURL=https:\/\/console.brightcove.com\/services\/amfgateway&#038;servicesURL=http:\/\/services.brightcove.com\/services&#038;cdnURL=http:\/\/admin.brightcove.com&#038;domain=embed&#038;autoStart=false&#038;\" base=\"http:\/\/admin.brightcove.com\" name=\"flashObj\" width=\"486\" height=\"412\" seamlesstabbing=\"false\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" swLiveConnect=\"true\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/shockwave\/download\/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\"><\/embed>spiders and starfish<\/a> which attempts to explain the Tea Party phenomenon. A simpler way to describe the Tea Party would simply be to call it a mob. Many of the Founding Fathers were the insiders of their day and a great many of them were aghast at the French Revolution and its mob actions. As the starfish analogy explains there is no &#8220;head&#8221; in a starfish nor is there one in a mob, its leadership is found in voices riding the wave until they crest and are replaced by some new megaphone wielding opportunist.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the mob can be more sympathetic as it was recently in Iran during the Green Revolution. Sometimes, usually, it can turn ugly. <\/p>\n<p>One fortunate thing about the current Tea Party revolution is that it is taking place in a youtube nation where every crack pot (liberal, conservative, Scientologist) can be exposed coast to coast within minutes. The Obama mania which I still recall with fondness was much the same although with a lot more kumbuyah and a lot less insanity.  Anyone want to go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tv.com\/jon-stewart-rally-ignites-calls-for-sanityandhellip-and-fear\/webnews\/150508.html\">Washington DC<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Oh and here&#8217;s another <a href=\"http:\/\/andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com\/the_daily_dish\/2010\/09\/the-communal-cyclone-of-death.html\">analogy<\/a> that seems to describe the Tea Parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Sarah Palin annointing Republican candidates around the nation with no more vetting than she got before being propelled into the national dialogue even&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,75],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}