Ratigan’s Libertarian Critique of The Tea Party

Dylan Ratigan couldn’t mess this up when he points his bombast in the right direction, i.e., a wayward family member. As usual, our buddy Cenk was there to boost Dylan’s ratings:

[R]ecent ratings show that the 40-year-old host outdrew MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on the five days he replaced the daytime host in July and August. (While Ratigan averaged 276,000 viewers in August, Uygur drew an average of 293,000.)

Memo to MSNBC suits: Those 17,000 viewers are progressives who would watch Cenk, but hate Ratigan. (Can you take a hint, suits?) Progressives are turned off by Ratigan’s obnoxious attacks on Democrats — we criticize too, but constructively; it’s all in the family. Ratigan’s criticism is destructive, filled with cheap shots and outright lies, with his penchant for sweeping generalizations. Therein lies the difference. Their Mise-en-scène is quite amusing. Ratigan beams and giggles condescendingly as Cenk makes a progressive case for government intervention, then steers the conversation back to his kooky libertarian notions. For his part, Cenk can’t disagree with the hand that feeds him. He really needs his own show.

Here, Ratigan returns to the Tea Party of his heart: The Ron Paul original “tea party moneybomb” to raise money for Dylan’s candidate, Paul, in 2007. Ratigan interviews Karl Denninger, one of the original Tea Party “founders,” who is not pleased with the current direction of the Tea Party groups:

In a “message" to the Tea Party Wednesday, Karl Denninger declared that he "ought to sue" anyone who uses the Tea Party name "for defamation."

“Yeah, that's a joke,” he writes. "But so are you. All of you. Especially Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, and douchebag* groups such as the 'Tea Party Patriots.’”

Ratigan howler: Describing Cenk as a “moderate progressive.”

*Trans: "douchebag" means "racist." Why Denninger didn't just come out and say it is baffling.