Tea Party: Angry white southern guys

[Sauron]

Good read at Alternet on Robert Reich's blog.

It’s no mere coincidence that the states responsible for putting the most Tea Party representatives in the House are all former members of the Confederacy. Of the Tea Party caucus, twelve hail from Texas, seven from Florida, five from Louisiana, and five from Georgia, and three each from South Carolina, Tennessee, and border-state Missouri.

Others are from border states with significant Southern populations and Southern ties. The four Californians in the caucus are from the inland part of the state or Orange County, whose political culture has was shaped by Oklahomans and Southerners who migrated there during the Great Depression.

This isn’t to say all Tea Partiers are white, Southern or rural Republicans – only that these characteristics define the epicenter of Tea Party Land.

And the views separating these Republicans from Republicans elsewhere mirror the split between self-described Tea Partiers and other Republicans.

In a poll of Republicans conducted for CNN last September, nearly six in ten who identified themselves with the Tea Party say global warming isn’t a proven fact; most other Republicans say it is.

Six in ten Tea Partiers say evolution is wrong; other Republicans are split on the issue. Tea Party Republicans are twice as likely as other Republicans to say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, and half as likely to support gay marriage.

Tea Partiers are more vehement advocates of states’ rights than other Republicans. Six in ten Tea Partiers want to abolish the Department of Education; only one in five other Republicans do. And Tea Party Republicans worry more about the federal deficit than jobs, while other Republicans say reducing unemployment is more important than reducing the deficit.

In other words, the radical right wing of today’s GOP isn’t that much different from the social conservatives who began asserting themselves in the Party during the 1990s, and, before them, the “Willie Horton” conservatives of the 1980s, and, before them, Richard Nixon’s “silent majority.”

What do I think?


* If this movement actually cared about limited federal government and the Constitution, then where the hell were the teanutters back when the Bush administration was suspending habeas corpus and working with the telecom companies to conduct warrantless surveillance on US citizens?

* If this movement was about fiscal responsibility, then where was the teabagger movement back when Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress took a budget surplus, turned it into a deficit, and paid for two Mideast wars by selling Treasury bills to China? That one act alone eroded the buying power of the US dollar by 43% - almost half. Where was the grassroots rage then?

* And another thing: Bush paid for these wars this by moving the costs of the war "off the books", to keep it from being fully reviewed by Congress or the public. What would the original Founding Fathers think of an imperial president who operates above the review of Congress or the people? Where were the teanutters marching on the White House over this?

* Where was this movement when George Bush - that's right, BUSH - bailed out the Wall Street investment banks, the insurance companies (AIG), worked deals with Goldman Sachs, and bailed out the auto companies? How come we didnt' see tea parties back then, hmmm?

* Where was this movement when Dick Cheney tried to evade accountability by declaring that the office of Vice President didnt' fall in to Executive, Legislative OR Judicial branch? What would the Founding Fathers think of that, I wonder.

No, I'm sorry. The people in this movement are exactly as Reich indicates: far right wingers filled with unfocused rage and conspiracy theories. They were perfectly happy to sit on their fat behinds while Bush and the GOP shredded the Constitution and spent like drunken sailors. No tea parties then - no marches on Washington - nothing.

That's because they agreed with expanded government and deficit spending, as long as Republicans were doing it.


In reality, the people in this movement are a bunch of hypocrites who only got motivated when a black man had the nerve to run for President and win the White House. Everything else is just window dressing to make naked hypocrisy and racism sound less obscene.

[livius drusus]

Jules Manson, Failed Tea Party Candidate, Calls For Assassination Of Obama, First Daughters

Jules Manson, a failed Tea Party candidate for local office in California, recently called for the assassination of President Obama and his daughters in a racial epithet-ridden Facebook screed.

The post, originally about his opposition to the recent passage of the controversial National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a measure allowing the indefinite detention of suspected foreign terrorists, referred to the president as a "monkey." Then it got much worse.

"Assassinate the f----- n----- and his monkey children," Manson commented on his own post, according to a screen shot uploaded by Facebook group "Americans Against the Tea Party" and relayed by Your Black Politics blog.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Jules Manson, Failed Tea Party Candidate, Calls For Assassination Of Obama, First Daughters

I foresee a visit from the Secret Service in 3....2....1......

[livius drusus]

Already happened.

[SR71]

Just pretend it never happened. Can we just leave that part out?

Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder's Slave-Owning History

According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."

[Watser?]

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by Sauron

Good read at Alternet on Robert Reich's blog.

Just wanted to point out that this bit is a stretch, as far as contrasts go, for obvious statistical reasons.