Dem Rep Stands By Tea Party/KKK Comparison: 'If The Shoe Fits, Wear It'

[Jack Rabbit]

32. It's really not too far off the mark

While Mr. Grayson has earned a reputation for overstatement, this isn't that far off the mark. In spite of the presence of notable blacks or Hispanics among the teabaggers, the Tea Party is the focal point for the political arm of bigotry of every stripe. Pointing to Allen West or Ted Cruz doesn't do the teahadists any more good in terms of a defense against racism than pointing to Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann shields them from charges of misogyny.

The Tea Party is the Klan and Dave and Charlie Koch are the Imperial Wizard and the Grand Dragon. Through the Koch funded organization ALEC, Tea Party members of state legislatures are furnished with bills to make it difficult for poor people to vote; while it is not true that poor people are necessarily black, it is true that blacks are disproportionately represented below the poverty line. The Tea Party legislators supporting these ALEC-originated bills claim it has nothing to do with race, and they are right. The legislation is aimed at suppressing Democratic votes, and the most efficient way to do that is to identify demographic groups that vote vote for Democratic candidates and require something of the members of those groups they are less likely to have in order to admit them to the polling place. Blacks, especially poor blacks, typically vote Democratic. Of course, officially the legislation is misrepresented as "needed" to fix a the non-problem of ineligible voters casting votes, but the legislators who support this legislation defend the charges that it disproportionally attacks poor people who are eligible to vote with a shrug of the shoulders and the usual worn out coded argument about those people being poor because they are lazy and stupid, characteristics that poor whites and even some middle-class whites often associate with being black. Since the legislation is not designed to fix a major problem -- only a handful of voter fraud cases come out of any election cycle -- the urgency to pass such laws must be motivated by some other problem. For Republicans, especially those on the far right, democracy is a problem, a voter ID requirement is the solution and racism is the selling point.

The reason we oppose the Tea Party is because their program is an affront to democracy, as was the Ku Klux Klan at the height of its power. It is nothing more than an organized hate group sponsored by wealthy industrialists whose anti-democratic agenda has more to do with establishing a state run by corporate elites without interference from the unwashed masses than it has to do with the welfare of poor, ignorant white racists who are willing to believe that nation's first black President is a Muslim born in Kenya and that his signature accomplishment, a giant step toward health care reform, provides for "death panels."

In order to save democracy, such as it is, and to promote a stronger democracy, the ability of fascist-minded industrial and financial elites to disproportionately influence elections and government policy must be destroyed.