The Rotting Racist Underbelly of the Tea Party Protests

[Joanne98]

Were you wondering what happened to all the rabid, wild-eyed bigots yelling, “Kill him!” and “Terrorist” and “Socialist” carrying stuffed monkey plush dolls at the McCain-Palin rallies? It’s easy in our jubilation over Obama’s victory to forget the many people in America who were deeply fearful and hate-oriented towards an Obama presidency. Those people didn’t just shrug their shoulders at the Democratic victory in Nov 2008. No, they’ve re-organized. Largely abandoned by the Republican party who tapped cynically into their ignorance, fear and hatred and whipped these folks into a racist lather as a Get Out The Vote strategy, the Tax Day Tea Party people have used the internet to find each other and organize.

They’re getting plenty of news coverage. And don’t get me wrong: the teabaggers (heh) have expressed some legitimate concerns about the impact of the economic stimulus on the ballooning deficit and the evolving structure of the financial bailout strategy. Concerns some progressives and many Americans share actually. Yet Obama’s kept his promise to lower taxes for most Americans except the very wealthy - I don’t know about you but I definitely am getting more back than I expected personally on my own taxes. So…whassup, really? Are these folks really concerned about their taxes going up or is it about what they perceive their taxes to be funding? Here’s an image from the Michelle Malkin blog that sums up their real concerns, IMHO - note the bloody imagery, btw.

I’ve been parsing the words and the racists have been very careful to cover their tracks and fury that a black man is President. But not well enough. I’m starting to become pretty convinced at this point that “socialist” is a some kind of code word for “nigger”. Here’s an example of some of the subtle language the Tea Party people are using to describe their own movement (emphasis mine) from the Michelle Malkin blog, a central hive for the poorly informed, wild-eyed, bigoted, Fox News/wingnut blog-driven lynch, ahem I mean Tea Partiers:

As you’re probably aware, Michelle’s been a huge supporter of the “tea parties,” as has been Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush and countless others. The phenomenon is spreading, and more will be held on Tax Day — April 15 (a map of all the locations is here).

In late February, I attended a tea party in Lansing, Michigan, and will be there again next Wednesday. While there, I spoke with several people, and, while everybody attended for the same “big picture” reason, many had their own reason to be there.

For some it was wildly excessive and confusing tax laws. Others were there out of concern for their children and grandchildren. Some were there because they’re maddened that the same glorious policies that have made Detroit look like Bangladesh after a garbage haulers strike are being introduced on a national level, a few were upset because the same people who created these massive problems are charged with fixing them, others don’t want their country sold out to some global entity, and one man I saw had a sign that said “‘Government job’ is a contradiction in terms.” Many were there for the reason of “all of the above.”

Huh? What does Detroit or Bangladesh have to do with Barack Obama? Oh that’s right, Detroit has experienced white flight, urban blight and economic devastation for years now, making some areas seem almost Third World. But that wouldn’t have anything to do with the crumbling U.S. auto industry and everything to do with the black mayors the city has been electing, right? The corrupt Kwame Kilpatrick notwithstanding, this sounds like a snarky, swiping slur directed at South Indian immigrants, African-Americans and unions all combined succinctly. There’s real racist animus here: check out the video above of Tea Party nuts convinced that Barack Obama can’t be president because he faked his birth certificate and is actually Kenyan by birth. My God — do you know what that means? It means a black man is illegally president! Because it’s just not possible for a black man to be president unless something has gone horribly wrong with the system! Citizens, act now and get to your local Tea Party!!!

White supremacists are loving the Tea Party movement btw. They hear the dogwhistle loud and clear and are looking to take advantage of the discontent. Much more including what white supremacists are saying, the top five questions journalists and bloggers should be asking Tea Party rallygoers and my updated criteria for undercover racist attacks after the jump.

Continued>>>
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2009/04/the-rotting-racist-underbelly-of-the-tea-party-protests/

[Karenina]

1. WOO-HA!!!

:crazy:

[urcrz1]

2. sickening

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I am fairly sure you signed this agreement when you joined this "intelligent, progressive" forum. If you sound like a ranting radical no one will listen to persuasive speech. Your point of view will be lost in vile, crude and spiteful rhetoric. Pres. Obama won the majority because he remained calm and assertive of his ideals. The right already thinks all democrats are nut jobs with foul language and crude imagery on a drunken orgy of power. To regain the sterling reputation of bygone years that brought prosperity and strength to the Nation, Democrats must remain above petty parodies and vilifying the Right leaning conservatives if the wish for a gathering of forces and welcoming the vast moderate conservatives to a more progressive outlook.

So try to remember that someone is reading this saying "there go those left loonies, screaming racism as usual because they can't find a legitimate basis for rebuttal".

[spiritual_gunfighter]

4. I had to read your post a couple of times

to make sure you were serious. You are and that is too bad.

[mr1956]

6. The truth hurts

What is sickening is that you joined to post this. There is nothing I see that is vile, crude or spiteful in the article. It is a warning for us to keep our eyes open and be informed about a movement that may or may not sputter out. If you think there are no racists overtones to some of the rhetoric being spewed by some tea-baggers, then you just aren't thinking. Look at the signs being flaunted and the listen to the complaints. Yes some are legitimate and some I even agree with. But when you lay down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.

Its funny how those on the right seem to project their own world view on others. We just lived through a long national nightmare of a party engaging in a drunken orgy of power. Open your eyes and quit looking for reasons to vilify the Democratic majority.

[get the red out]

7. Your response is strange

Just because the shoe doesn't look good doesn't mean it doesn't fit. The original poster was linking together some unattractive, but real observations. The people at the Palin rallies WERE behaving in an insanely racist manner (it's recorded); the people teabagging are probably the same people and many of the things said by the right wing talkers who promoted the tea parities have racist overtones; most of the people attending certainly aren't getting their taxes raised. And how many non-white folks were shown in any of the coverage of these tea parties? Strong circumstantial evidence gets people convicted and put in prison when they are on trial, and this just is a political discussion forum.

[Daveparts]

3. Being a Republican

mean never having to say you're sorry because you aren't. It is the party of the white wealthy elite but their actual numbers are small. So how then can they get elected? They espouse Liberty and Freedom and God and the ignorant fat seals on the beach bay "Has-aa."

They own media outlets and public relations firms that lose money yet they hold tight to them as a child holds its mother. The man who shot the police in Pittsburgh did so because he thought that Obama was going to try to take his guns away. I wonder where he got an idea like that?

It is not new or improved it is just the same as when William Randolph Hurst published photos of atrocities in the Spanish civil war and just alter the captions of who were murdered and who were the murderers. In 1937 Samuel Goldwyn inserted a film story into the newsreels. Interviews with hobos all saying that they were coming to California to vote for the socialist candidate for governor because he was going to turn the state into a hobo's paradise.

The Hobo's were all studio actors, the interviews were studio scripts. Goldwyn was afraid if the Socialist candidate won he would soak the rich. Same as it ever was

[macebowman]

5. bush taxcuts

Can we stop and think for just a moment?

First, let us go back--let us go back to the Bush taxcuts. Let's try Slate,

The Bush tax cuts (which Congress just voted to extend) are an affront to the most fundamental principles of fairness. They are skewed in favor of those who already pay less than their rightful share of taxes and shift the burden even farther onto the shoulders of the most overtaxed. In other words, the Bush tax cuts are unfair to the rich.

http://www.slate.com/id/2108201

Wow, Bush made the taxcode more progressive. Who would have thunk it? So, what happened? The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. So, the answer to that is to make the taxcode more progressive? Hello.

[Shinimegami]

8. Just because it's on the Internet doesn't make it true

Steven Landsburg is proud of being a libertarian extremist. He's ideologically opposed to the idea of any income tax, and especially a progressive one, so it's no surprise he'd lie about it.

It's also offensive to suggest that the rich are overtaxed and the poor don't pay their fair share, when since 1980 the tax code has been ridiculously skewed in favor of the rich.