I think the lack of actual leadership/administration of the tea party has been what has allowed the lines to be blurred between it and the Republican party so much.
Aren't these emails from one guy? How one guy comes to represent the Tea Party MOVEMENT is just so convenient for the critics of Tea Partiers.
I agree with you completely, this is like saying that Nancy Pelosi represents the entire progressive movement and then planning to use her name and image in campaigns against Democrats because everyone knows that all Democrats are in lock-step with her. These events don't indicate that the entire Tea Party movement is racially insensitive, but they do prove that there is such an element within the movement. Personally, I hope the Tea Partiers start calling people out and making them stand behind their words or recant them. It is nice to see that in the more recent event, elected officials canceled TP appearances because of the insensitive Tweet.
They are from one guy, and it has been established that he doesn't officially represent the tea party. However the tea party does support the guy who spreads racist humor. This is in addition to the tea party inviting an opening speaker to their convention who delivered a racist speech, and was never denounced by the tea party. Members of the tea party spat at a congressman, called other black congress men the n word, and have done nothing to get rid of this behavior, instead they formed a federation to combat the bad image in the media, and have been trying to claim the incidents didn't happen. The tea party has had racist signs and slogans at numerous rallies and haven't done much if anything to clean this element from the group. They have established a pattern of not caring if racist elements are part of their group, if not endorsing those elements.
Gonna get who? The Republicans? The Democrats don't seem to be in any real danger from them. In fact, they may actually be helped by them.
Problem is the fringe is the base. The Tea Party is made up of a lot of different people that believe in different things. However none of those things are even close to reality. All of these people are angry over "big government" and the bailouts and want less government when it was less government oversight that caused the financial crisis in the first place! I will never understand it. The only time we should have been fearful of the government was a century ago with crap like the Smith Act and Sedition Act where ironically enough it was socialists like Eugene Debs and Bill Haywood whose freedoms were taken away and locked up by the big government for speaking their minds. Somehow Reagan or McCarthy or someone brainwashed this nation into believing Big Government is out to get them and socialists are leading the way to take away guns, bibles, and the right to forgo high school for a GED. Reagan wasn't that good of an actor so where does this unfounded paranoia originate?
fox news, anyone? look at who organized all the teabagger rallies of the last year - its been fox news...they promote the events on their network and give the events 24-7 coverage, they send their anchors and commentators out all over the country to attend and speak - it seems to me like fox news has been the driving force behind organizing and promoting the actual events.
You know, I appreciate all of these "one isolated person" defenses, but when every third Tea Party supported candidate or Tea Party leader comes with this stuff? I'm sorry. You can't have 10,000 examples of "one isolated instance" and pretend there isn't a pattern. The half-assed attempt to pretend that it isn't what it is also seems remarkably familiar. source [rquoter] CNN anchor rips ‘bigot’ Ohio Tea Party leader CNN host Rick Sanchez described the leader of an Ohio Tea Party group as "a bigot and a liar" on Tuesday, after he had first referred to Hispanic immigrants as "spicks" and then attempted to defend himself by claiming he had merely been quoting a 1960's Bee Gee's song. Several weeks ago, during a march supporting immigration reform, Tea Party leader Sonny Thomas had tweeted, "Illegals everywhere today! So many spicks makes me feel like a speck. Grr. Where's my gun?" That original tweet appears to have been scrubbed from Thomas's Twitter feed, although a few retweets calling it "disgusting" can still be found. "So he's referring to Hispanics with the most offensive word that you can use," Sanchez remarked, "and then he implies that he wishes he could shoot them? Nice." Thomas's "racially insensitive" remarks have already caused an Ohio state senator to drop out of an event organized by his Springboro Tea Party group. Thomas appears to be known for his racist attitudes, and CNN found a photo on his MySpace page of him wearing a "white pride" t-shirt, although that also now appears to have been removed. According to Sanchez, when CNN contacted Thomas to ask for an explanation, he claimed, "As I am a lifetime music lover of all genres, I always have some sort of song that can fit almost any occasion or situation. ... Coincidentally, the song 'Spicks and Specks' had been on my player. ... I made the reference to the song, not stopping to think of the era that it was produced from and taken out of context could be so offensive to some people." But Sanchez wasn't buying the excuse. "So, he's blaming it on the Bee Gees?" he asked incredulously. "And he didn't think -- he didn't think it would be offensive. Really? Really?" The original Bee Gee's song from 1966 has no racial content whatsoever. The lyrics run, "Where are the girls I left all behind, the spicks and the specks of the girls on my mind." "Yeah, he is just a Bee Gees fan, like I'm Elvis," concluded Sanchez sarcastically. "That's a song about love lost. It has nothing to do with that Australian band singing about Mexicans. With or without the music, Sonny Thomas appears to be two things, a bigot and a liar." <p>This video is from CNN's <em>Rick's List</em>, broadcast April 13, 2010.</p><p><embed src="http://rawreplaymedia.com/fvp/flvplayer.swf" width="480" height="380" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="image=http://rawreplaymedia.com/media/2010/1004/cnn_rl_teaparty_racist_100413a.jpg&file=http://rawreplaymedia.com/media/2010/1004/cnn_rl_teaparty_racist_100413a.flv&logo=http://www.rawprint.com/fvp/rsvidlogo04.png&link=http://www.rawstory.com&autostart=false&lightcolor=0x557722&backcolor=0x000000&frontcolor=0xCCCCCC&showicons=false"></embed><br/></p> [/rquoter]
Exactly. How many isolated incidents do we need to see before it's pattern. And again if it was just one isolated person after another, it seems the tea baggers would be happy to come out against them, and actually do something to rid their movement of these isolated individuals. Instead they invite a person to open their convention who gives a speech advocating the racist policies that were used against blacks before the civil rights movement, and nobody in the tea party comes out against it. They are doing nothing to rid their movement of these racists, and at some point it has to be seen as condoning such behavior. Maybe even thumbs has come to feel the shame of the tea party and their behavior. I don't know.
I would suggest that words uttered by an elected official in an official congressional hearing have more weight than something chirped in a campaign. Let's not forget the way-too-awkward pause and the giggling by colleagues... Like the Democratic Party, there are good and honorable members of the Tea Party and there are dolts. Where do you choose to put your focus?
Sure you can suggest it - you just look like a twit doing so. Who says this did not occur when the horse bestiality was sent out to our intrepid tea-partiers on the candidate's email lists? The dolts. Because they are the majority. Heck, I cannot recall reading anything from a "good and honorable" teabagger. lol.
I too would like to hear from this mythical "good and honorable" teabagger. You know? One who actually lives in the world of reality.
