So again: is the Tea Party, at least in part, a racist movement?

What the man speaks of, it sounds like the words I could get behind. I think an amalgamation of liberal and conservative ideals is enough of a platform that a lot of people could get behind.

 

I don't know...when someone more or less says the Civil Rights Act is too much of the federal government intrusion, its sort of like saying the Bill of Rights is too far reaching.....its sad we'll never get a 3rd party of significance in this country - just fringe radicals...

 

Actually, it's like saying the Bill of Rights doesn't go far enough, and it doesn't really have anything to do with race. But that's a quibble for another thread.

As to this thread's question, I'd say the tea party movement has a disproportionate number of racists, but I don't think it's a racist movement.

 

I wish I knew how. You show these people facts they just ignore them. If they were all teens believing in conspiracy theories I could at least understand it. But these people are old, they refuse to entertain reason, the more rediculous crap Beck and Limbaugh spew the more they lap it up.

I guess after Wallace, McCarthy, Reagan, and Jim Jones we shouldn't be surprised. There is just a ton of extremely ignorant people out there looking for the least qualified moron to lead them to their doom.

 

you dont have to worry about the tea party. they are indeed racist.

AND...

in case you havent noticed this country is and will become less and less white. therefore if you have a group that is overtly racist and bigoted they will make small dents in the political landscape but nothing that will ever truly succeed because they will never have enough votes.

 

That interview was in 2009. This is the recent one:

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Very painful to watch. If you believe in something, then just say it! "Well I think it's interesting..." ugh! Made me wish O'reilly was the one conducting the interview and making him answer the qn.

 

umm you just answered your own question. NO the TEA Party movement is NOT a RACIST movement.
You have your radical racists just from all walks of life. Including ur main stream parties in the republican and democrat party. It's just the media likes to paint them as racist so they try to spread these stories.

 

this...

 

I would agree except that the tea "party" (lol) has gone out of it's way to not take action against or distance itself from obviously racist leaders. Consequently, they are actively supporting racists and (inevitably) racist policy. This makes them complicit in racism, and, accordingly, a racist party.

 

This is speculation on my part but I predict the TEA Party will burn itself out within a year or two and not be a major movement. From what I've seen of the movement from here and others is that it is too unfocused to be a longterm political movement.

Anger is a strong motivator but not something to build a party off of.

 

Wow, that's really profound. If you're going to insult someone, at least come up with something more clever than "nut wads" and "mental cases". What's next, are you going to call them poo-poo heads?

Oh, that explains it.

 

That's right.

 

This. Someone start a thread "Is the Democratic Party socialist?"

 

Except unlike the tea party which will not denounce it's racist leaders, Democrats will distance themselves from socialist policies that are outside the norm.

 

I'm definitely ignorant to all the data, but once Obama entered office at the start of 2009, were average Americans taxed more? I know those making $250K were, but I just looked up that those making more than $150K+/year represent 5.84% of the American population, while 68% of the population is making $25K or less. I'm firmly middle class and a homeowner, with a 2 person household income of $80,000 (no kids, just me and the wife) and we certainly aren't being taxed any more now than we were from 2004-2008.

SO... if taxes have not significantly increased for the average American (while healthcare costs decidedly HAVE increased) but this alleged "tax-fatigue" movement happens to spring up when a minority is elected president, then it certainly feels like a racist movement. I may be making too large a leap, but why didn't the Tea Partiers make a stink about taxes when Bush 43 was in office since nothing has significantly changed?

My feeling is, they suddenly didn't like "who" was taxing them, i.e. a black man. I obviously voting in the "yes, they're racists" category.

(LINK ON INCOME % NUMBERS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States)

 

um, that's the entire platform of the tea party.

 

um, I thought at least part of the platform was racism?

 

Taxes went down for something like 98% of households, and did not go up for the rest. Obama's $250,000 income tax increase was just a proposal and has not been implemented yet.

That reinforces your point, and I agree the problem was "who" was taxing them. But in this case I thing the more relevant attribute of "who" was that he was a democrat, not that he was black.

I'm sure for some the fact that he is black, or has a strange sounding name or that he spent part of his youth outside the country has made the fear and anger greater, but I wouldn't say that's the overall majority or focus of the tea party movement.

 

Great points... and I can't really argue with your sentiment.

That last paragraph of my post was based solely on "gut" rather than actual data. I guess I'm trying to say that the movement "feels" racist.

I'll give you an example:I think that if Obama was named say, Chris Dodd for example, and he looked and sounded like Sen. Dodd, but everything else about him was the same old Obama (policies, campaign strategies, charisma, etc.), this movement wouldn't exist in its present form if at all.

Again, 100% gut feeling on that. It's an opinion that saddens me deeply in one sense, but also one that actually makes me feel optimistic. I sense that this Tea Party noise could be the death rattle of the "old guard."

 

I agree with this. If it is just because he is a Democrat why don't we see stuff like this pop up every time these positions change?