“The Rotting Racist Underbelly of the Tea Party Protests”
Were you wondering what happened to all the rabid, wild-eyed bigotsyelling, “Kill him!” and “Terrorist” and “Socialist” carrying stuffedmonkey plush dolls at the McCain-Palin rallies? It’s easy in ourjubilation over Obama’s victory to forget the many people in Americawho were deeply fearful and hate-oriented towards an Obama presidency.Those people didn’t just shrug their shoulders at the Democraticvictory in Nov 2008. No, they’ve re-organized. Largely abandoned by theRepublican party who tapped cynically into their ignorance, fear andhatred and whipped these folks into a racist lather as a Get Out TheVote strategy, the Tax Day Tea Party people have used the internet to find each other and organize.
They’regetting plenty of news coverage. And don’t get me wrong: the teabaggers(heh) have expressed some legitimate concerns about the impact of theeconomic stimulus on the ballooning deficit and the evolving structureof the financial bailout strategy. Concerns some progressives and manyAmericans share actually. Yet Obama’s kept his promise to lower taxesfor most Americans except the very wealthy – I don’t know about you butI definitely am getting more back than I expected personally on my owntaxes. So…whassup, really? Are these folks really concerned about theirtaxes going up or is it about what they perceive their taxes to befunding? Here’s an image from the Michelle Malkin blog that sums uptheir real concerns, IMHO – note the bloody imagery, btw.
I’ve been parsing the words and the racists have been very carefulto cover their tracks and fury that a black man is President. But notwell 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 exampleof some of the subtle language the Tea Party people are using todescribe 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 hugesupporter of the “tea parties,” as has been Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity,Rush and countless others. The phenomenon is spreading, and more willbe 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 withseveral people, and, while everybody attended for the same “bigpicture” 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. Somewere there because they’re maddened that the same glorious policiesthat have made Detroit look like Bangladesh after a garbage haulersstrike are being introduced on a national level, a few wereupset because the same people who created these massive problems arecharged with fixing them, others don’t want their country sold out tosome global entity, and one man I saw had a sign that said “‘Governmentjob’ 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 andeconomic devastation for years now, making some areas seem almost ThirdWorld. 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 hasbeen electing, right? The corrupt Kwame Kilpatrick notwithstanding,this sounds like a snarky, swiping slur directed at South Indianimmigrants, African-Americans and unions all combined succinctly.There’s real racist animus here: check out the video above of Tea Partynuts convinced that Barack Obama can’t be president because he fakedhis birth certificate and is actually Kenyan by birth. My God — do youknow what that means? It means a black man is illegally president!Because it’s just not possible for a black man to be president unlesssomething has gone horribly wrong with the system! Citizens, act nowand get to your local Tea Party!!!
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White supremacists are loving the Tea Party movementbtw. They hear the dogwhistle loud and clear and are looking to takeadvantage of the discontent. Much more including what whitesupremacists are saying, the top five questions journalists andbloggers should be asking Tea Party rallygoers and my updated criteriafor undercover racist attacks after the jump.