Four Words For The Tea Party
Anti-government radical Andrew Joseph Stack III crashes small plane into IRS building
The Tea Party Movement is making lots of waves nationally and I applaud that. Every group interest in this country has a right to a voice and a right to try to influence the American political process. I defended those rights in uniform for 21 years from deserts to snow-covered hilltops on four different continents. Fox News claims to be the defender of the Tea Party (they actually just manipulate them for ratings) but while everyone else is content to dismiss all of the primal emotions that motivate Tea Party members, Fox News pointedly capitalizes on those base emotions for dramatic effect to make compelling TV. At the same time that they foment dark emotions on the one hand, they tell the rest of us that we should not judge the entire group by the actions of the radicals who respond to their emotional message.
Consider that even today, you cannot have a discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King without someone bringing up the allegations of communist ties that he was saddled with during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960′s. Even though those allegations were completely debunked at every turn, they persist. Many people say that Dr. King should have condemned the Black Panther and Nation of Islam Movements in a more vociferous manner to prove he did not support it. They claim that by not being in the forefront of opposition to these other groups, he gave tacit approval for them.
For anyone in the Tea Party Movement who finds logic in this allegation I have four words for you.
YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE!
These four words are all you have to say to people who show up to your rallies with assault rifles, racists signs, and who advocate overthrow of the U.S. government. By allowing them to participate in your events, are you not giving tacit approval as well?
How often have John Boehner, Eric Cantor, or Sarah Palin been asked if they think radicals are welcome to join the voices of the right only to have them refuse to say that there is any fringe element that is unwelcome in their opinions. Here is Bill O’Reilly trying to pin down Sarah Palin about the birthers:
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In the previous clip, Sarah Palin goes to great lengths to avoid setting a standard of the kind of negativism that should not be condoned within their movement. Why are the rest of us so critical of the Tea Party Movement? Because most of us have seen at lease SOME of the images in this racist and very inflammatory video:
Janeane Garofalo confronts Tea Party members below and their circular logic. She clearly feels the same exasperation that I feel when trying to get people to look at these issues in clearly logical terms. Anger for anger’s sake is nonconstructive. The pattern over the last 30 years has been the same. Spending and deficits decrease under Democrats. Deficits have exploded under every single Republican administration. (Don’t take my word for it, look it up.) Yet no one wants to take their country back under Republicans. Why is that?
Let’s be honest, we all thought in the back of our minds that Andrew Joseph Stack III, who crashed his small plane into the IRS building depicted in the picture above, was motivated by all of the anti-government anger being promoted by Fox News, Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party. I’m sure it was the first thing most people thought about when the 9 militia whackos were arrested by the FBI yesterday.
How long until we stop denying that anti-government whack jobs are responding to anti-government rhetoric? No one is more unpatriotic than a person who does not respect our democracy. Even if you believe that President Obama is a Marxist, Communist, or Socialist the one thing you cannot dispute is that he was elected by our electoral process as laid out by the Constitution. Even if he is the anti-Christ (as 29% of Republicans so pathetically believe) then he is the duly elected anti-Christ of the United States and we are all obligated by law to afford him the same respect we gave our other Presidents. Failure to do this is not only hypocritical but also unpatriotic, not just by my opinion but by the law of the land.
Be aware: right wing website just found your blog via a cnn post you made.
A big dose of crazy coming your way.
Yes, I noticed that. My spam bucket is filling with profanity at a brisk pace at the moment. Sheesh, those guys’ feathers are easily ruffled.
Thank heavens for comment filtering software!
I found the article quite illuminating John. I have actually defended the Tea Party members as you more or less do at the beginning of your article but I really had no idea the racist element was so bad until seeing the 2nd video here. I have to agree. If they don’t want to be seen as radicals then they should not have people freely expressing those kinds of ideas at their meetings without being told they are not welcome. If someone approached them whenever they show up and said, “I’m sorry, but we are not racists here and we are concerned that your sign will misconstrue our intentions,” what would happen? Would they not eventually get the message and stop showing up? Or would they not simply find a more constructive way to express their ideas? Republican leaders are seriously dropping the ball by not making themselves clear on this.
Ouch, John!
I took a tour of the John hater club and they are writing some…interesting things on the rightie blogs. You really made a splash this time.
Oh yea, I think you make some good points as usual.
You know, I don’t only print supportive comments. I happily print dissenting ideas, providing they are not full of profanity and personal attacks. Don’t get many printable comments from the right. Just thought that might be worth mentioning.