The teabaggers are it again…. and I am wondering…. where is the outrage?
(see footnote)
Oh – there is plenty of outrage on the left – just check out the #p2 hashtag on Twitter.
I am looking for outrage from reasonable people on the right – even perhaps from a few teabaggers themselves. Surely they realize that their movement has gone too far…. too far toward hateful, overt racism?
Yes – the teabag movement has always had its racists. Take a look here for a montage of posters from the rallies last summer….. or here for another group of photos.
Somehow, the teabaggers just write all of this off. Just a few crazies, they say. Or, better yet – they claim “liberuls” like me are just being too sensitive. Calling Obama a “lyin’ African” or a “Half-Breed Muslin” isn’t racist at all. Hey – maybe they are right. I bet that last poster is just decrying Obama’s fabric choices. Even I prefer my muslin curtains to be purebred – they are so much whiter that way…..
So – yeah – teabaggers have always been associated with racists.
But now it has gone farther – a lot farther.
If you follow the news, you know that the teabaggers are holding a convention in Nashville right this very minute. You can catch it on CSPAN if you like. There are a whopping 600 of them attending – paying a substantial fee to attend this for-profit event. I am indeed curious why 600 people attending a for-profit event is worthy of the national news…. but I digress.
The opening speaker at the convention was one Tom Tancredo. You may have heard of Teabag Tom before. He is a former Representative to the US House, hailing from Colorado. He briefly threw his hat into the ring as a possible GOP presidential nominee. He is pretty much a one-trick pony – that being an anti-immigration pony. That would be the ugly angry drippingly sarcastic racist anti-immigration pony.
Here are some quotes from his convention-opening speech:
“people who could not even spell the word ‘vote’, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.”
Tancredo goes on to propose a literacy test as a prerequisite to voting – to make sure that only the right people get to vote. After all – Obama apparently only won because – damn! – the wrong people were allowed to vote!
Maybe Teabag Tom needs a history and civics lesson of his own. Actually, I suspect he doesn’t – he knows what he is doing – but lets go there anyway. We have had literacy tests in this country before – in the Jim Crow south. Literacy tests were used to keep blacks from voting. Their use was restricted by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of these acts – literacy tests used to restrict voting are unconstitutional.
So – Tancredo wants to reverse the Civil Rights Act, reverse the Voting Rights Act, reverse Supreme Court rulings, and take us back to the Jim Crow south.
And people claim – with a straight face – that this movement isn’t racist?
Don’t worry – there is more. Tancrdo goes on to blame ”the cult of multiculturalism, aided by leftists, liberals all over who don’t have the same idea about America as we do.”
Apparently there is only one correct culture in America and only one correct idea about America. To Tancredo and the teabaggers, that is a hateful white racist idea about America.
The teabaggers can no longer claim that the racists are just a few fringe crazies. Tancredo was invited by the organizers – to do no less than deliver the opening speech of the convention. The opening speech is a big event – it is meant to set the tone for the entire convention. Tancredo’s views were well known prior to the convention.
The teabaggers cannot hide it anymore. It is a deeply hateful, racist movement. They embrace racism.
Again – where is the outrage?
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Footnote: I am well aware of the sexual double entendre surrounding the term “Tea Bagger” – although I must admit that I am not hip enough and had to look it up the first time it was brought to my attention. Since that time I have avoided using the term, and have called them “tea partiers” instead. Until now. Avowed racists are not deserving of that measure of respect. If they are offended – good! I am offended by them.
