The Tea Partyfication of Moe Tucker

When my friend Chris in New York sent this video to me last night, my first impulse was shock. I felt like I’d just discovered that a loved one had been replaced by a pod person. I’ve always respected Moe and her politics, which I took to be thoroughly progressive in nature. Having at one point been forced to take a poorly-paying job at Wal-Mart in Georgia to put food on the table for her large family, she was always one willing to vent about the treatment of the working class, and the manipulation perpetrated by the corporate America. But, based on what I’m seeing in this video, it looks as though she’s found a new home in the Tea Party.

If I can get my nerve up to do so, I’ll call her later today and see what’s going on. In the meantime, though, I wanted to say that, for whatever it’s worth, I’ve come to the conclusion, as a result of this new revelation, that not all Tea Party people are evil, stupid, and racist. (If I’m remembering correctly, Moe’s got a big, framed picture of Bo Diddley in her living room. Not that it proves anything conclusively, but I think her love of early black rock and roll would make it highly unlikely.) Moe is a very thoughtful woman. Or at least she used to be. Maybe she just got sucked into the FOX News vortex of fear since I spoke with her last, but I’ve got to think that she’s still capable of reason. While I haven’t talked with Moe in a few years, I’ve got to think that we’ve still got common ground.

It’s just weird seeing her on video, ranting about how the country is turning “Socialist.” While I know that she has issues with taxes, and how our money is spent by the government, I thought that those concerns would be offset to some extent by other experiences in her life, like having to watch her dear friend Sterling Morrison navigate the American health care system with a terminal illness. I’m sure, at least at one time, she would have been one out in the street, demanding universal health care, and increased services for women who, like her, found themselves alone and struggling to take care of large families. But, for whatever reason, it seems as though now she looks upon such things as creeping Socialism. I’ve got to think, though, that there’s still common ground, and that she still has the capacity for rational thought…. I know it would be out of the way, but maybe I should swing through Georgia and pick her up on my way to Jon Stewart’s rally in D.C. at the end of the month. The old Moe, I think, would have loved it.

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25 Comments

  1. Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:29 am | Permalink

    I’m sorry about your friend :( I don’t know her, but did she have a support group around her? Was she kind of abandoned or something? I ask because I could see a situation where someone feels completely alone and angry about life circumstances and grabs onto something “new”. I mean hell, it’s how cults and pimps at the bus station get recruits. Maybe she just needed a “group” and they were there? I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t give up hope….

  2. Mike Shecket
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:37 am | Permalink

    You’re sure that’s her? There is a bit of footage from a documentary from like 15 years ago that looks like the same person: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHb103qRzrc

    Maybe she was an uber-hardcore Hillary supporter and came to the Tea Party that way.

  3. Robert
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    Last night at the bar I met a nice looking woman who, after talking with her a little, began to show signs she might be a Tea Party sympathizer.

    Me: “So where would you place yourself politically?”

    Her: “I’m a liberal.”

    Me: “Are you sure you don’t have a little Tea Party in you?”

    Her: (looking confused)

    Me: “Would you like some?”

  4. Robert
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:52 am | Permalink

    I was shocked when I saw this video!

    Albany, Georgia has it’s own NBC affiliate?!

  5. Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:58 am | Permalink

    Average “real” Americans continue to be used by Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers, duped into thinking that the TP is a political movement that has their best interests at heart. Listen to the lies and twisted commentary long enough and even the best of us would begin to believe this creeping socialism crap. It looked like a lot of those folks at the rallies were of Social Security and Medicare age. They’d be the first to lose from Tea Party inspired cuts to the safety net. No need for death panels when you’re health care and Social Security is cut from underneath you.

    Sorry to see Moe Tucker so angry and afraid. Can someone please find her another band?

  6. DelD
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 10:11 am | Permalink

    If you think this is bad, wait until you hear what Iggy Pop is doing…making an appearance with Sarah Palin.

  7. Paul M
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 10:20 am | Permalink

    Rick C –

    If anyone has been duped it’s been you. Robert Murdoch is anything but a right-winger. Alas, keep drinking the Kool-Aid and I hope your hatred keeps you warm this winter since Global Warming probably won’t.

  8. Posted October 2, 2010 at 10:50 am | Permalink

    Yeah, I suppose Rupert’s liberal bent made him donate a million bucks to the Republican party and keep his bastard sons like Hannity and Beck around. The Koch bro’s contribution to Dickless Armey’s FreedomWorks keeps the TP and fellow travelers like you rollin’ in the gutter. It’s TP’ers like you that got the anger, bub. I sleep just fine at night that knowing it’s folks like you that need the warmth.

  9. Paul M
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 10:59 am | Permalink

    Rick C –

    You are obviously ignorant to Mr. Murdoch’s political leanings. Perhaps if you did some actual research on the subject, rather than regurgitating DailyKOS talking points, you might surprise yourself.

    Also, for the record, I am not a member of the TEA Party movement. A Republican to be sure, but not a TEA Partier. But don’t let that stop you from jumping to conclusions and mislabeling people based upon your bias. Good to see the myth of “Liberal Tolerance” is alive and well.

  10. Posted October 2, 2010 at 11:15 am | Permalink

    I fail to see the intolerance of my politics but certainly know shit when I smell it and yours reeks of pull up your own bootstrap every man for themselves social darwinism, Paul.

    So, Murdoch’s a two faced forked tongue hypocrite, what else is new?

  11. A
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 11:22 am | Permalink

    Look this isn’t related, but I didn’t know how to send you an e-mail. This propaganda video is popping up all over the internet: http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnnewsplayer/cbnplayer.swf?aid=17933

    I just thought someone needed to write about it.

  12. Posted October 2, 2010 at 11:24 am | Permalink

    Who actually knows what Rupert Murdoch’s politics are? Who cares? He manages his image very carefully and has a global image managing empire to do it.

    His public image is belied by what we see read and hear from Fox News and the media outlets they control. People who think that Murdoch and Fox have their best interests at heart are dupes.

  13. Oliva
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 1:38 pm | Permalink

    Sat. noon to 4 p.m. (on C-SPAN), “One Nation Working Together” rally on the National Mall. Festivities wrap up, 4 p.m., with a performance by . . . George Clinton, “One Nation under a Groove.”

    To cheer you up.

    (Also, really big crowd.)

  14. Bob
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm | Permalink

    I saw this clip last week and was also shocked, but forty years is a long time. Where did you get that info about Sterling Morrisons last days? I thought he was a tenured professor at the University of Texas. I assumed he had decent health care but maybe that was a bad assumption. He was certainly one of the most influential & underrated guitar player of the 60’s.

  15. Posted October 2, 2010 at 5:23 pm | Permalink

    Yeah, it’s her. At least it’s her voice and her face. I suppose it could be a twin sister, but I don’t think she has one… As for Sterling, he may have had insurance through his job. I believe they were fighting with the insurance companies about their coverage of his treatments, though. They were, as I recall, making it very difficult on him and his family… Now I’m going to go and google “Iggy Pop + Palin” and see what comes up. Prepare for an angry post if I find anything.

  16. Dirtgrain
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 7:19 pm | Permalink

    And Ted Nugent.

  17. Chris
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 7:52 pm | Permalink

    They can have Ted (that was my first concert). Anywho, Mark, Rick C is right. She should read the article in the New Yorker about 4 issues back about the Koch Bros. I mean if she really hates corporations then she would be horrified to find the TP nothing but a toothless whore being pimped by the Koch Bros.

  18. Catch 22uzi
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:39 pm | Permalink

    Sorry Son, But God a-mighty, if you haven’t figured it out yet, it always was an underground that demanded a velvet lining. A velvet wall. Free love, free dumb, free-to-be-you-and-me don’t pay no taxes. Free to fuck. Free from law. The whole system revolves around pleasure-me fuck the man. Who’s the man? Anyone who fucks with my pleasure. The Tea Party IS the revolution, full term. Moe hasn’t skipped a beat. If you don’t see it, get yourself new goggles made of velvet ropes that only let those who have “it,” in.

  19. MR. MERCY
    Posted October 2, 2010 at 9:47 pm | Permalink

    Damn, i’ll say this is the best tea party bashing site i seen yet. markmaynard.com my ass, more like stick-it-to-the-tea-party.com. i sure hope that after the election mr maynard goes back to covering some real topics other than just feeding into the tea party frenzy. the tea party will self implode by 2014 just give them time, i for 1 am sick of hearing about them. they’ll end up just like the reform party. while i’m going off on a nut here. i was out walking my dogs tonight when a little old lady thought that she would try to drive over the clock tower in depot town. she looked like she wes old enough to be the pope’s mother, if we can put restrictions on young drivers why cant we put restictions on very old impared drivers. at least it brought enough cops to depot town to where i & my 2 dogs were not bothered by any panhandlers or hookers. hell, tonight i didn’t even see any crack heads in the frog island parking lot. which is way under lit by the way. maybe we shouldn’t stop blind old ladies from driving around ypsilanti. it might just clean up this city, which in itself reminds me of a 95 year old 1 legged man with terminal cancer on an operating table waiting for a heart transplant with no donor in sight.

  20. Knox
    Posted October 4, 2010 at 6:10 am | Permalink

    Mercy, if I were you, I’d submit this note to the Mayor so that he can add it to the woman’s Death Panel file.

  21. Mr. X
    Posted October 5, 2010 at 2:56 pm | Permalink

    It gets worse. According to the Guardian, she may have said the following.

    “This ‘administration’ HAS TO GO! I have come to believe (not just wonder) that Obama’s plan is to destroy America from within. It is the only reasonable explanation for his actions/inactions!”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/01/velvet-underground-tea-party-us

  22. Posted October 5, 2010 at 8:11 pm | Permalink

    Now I’m glad that I didn’t call Moe.

  23. Carcass Rock
    Posted October 5, 2010 at 11:48 pm | Permalink

    I called Moe.
    She said, “Grow up. And fuck you.”
    You’ll be old one day too.

  24. Mando Smectak
    Posted October 8, 2010 at 3:31 am | Permalink

    Say it ain’t so, Moe.

  25. Meta
    Posted October 20, 2010 at 7:56 pm | Permalink

    Moe Tucker, in her own words:

    http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2010/10/moe_tucker_interview_2010_politics_tea_party_velvet_underground_video.php

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