Salvage, a frequent commenter on this blog, has sent me a link to YouTube videos (click here) purporting to show Tea Party racism, hate and any number of terrible other things. He sent these at my request as a rebuttal to videos I posted a few days ago showing the complete, at least in my opinion, insanity among some on the left.
I'll post one of then below because I've seen this one making the rounds lately anyway.
You be the judge.
A couple things come immediately to mind. Are there racists, haters and all sorts of other people involved in Tea Party activities? I would assume there are because they're everywhere. Have I seen any examples of them personally when attending Tea Party rallies? No. But then I've not seen any craziness from the left, either. Mostly I've seen a bunch of good natured bantering back and forth.
And really, a big part of the signs in the video above have nothing to do with racism or hate. They are legitimate expressions of political belief, protected by the First Amendment.
Of course, that doesn't mean that crazy stuff doesn't happen. The video below from here in St. Louis on 8-6-2009 when SEIU members attacked Kenneth Gladney at a Russ Carnahan health care bill event. Gladney is black, which I don't think had anything to do with the attack, even though one of the attackers can be heard using racial slurs. I don't think he even was there because of political affiliation. He was just selling some Gadsen flags, trying to make a buck. But that was enough to piss off the thugs on the left.
So does evidence of violence and racism on the left make the case none of the same exists on the right? No. That being said, the media has been looking for any way it can to smear the Tea Party with racism. Remember the staged perp walk that Pelosi and the Democrats did the day of the healthcare vote? And do you remember that charges were hurled at Tea Party members accusing them of spitting at the Congressmen and screaming racial insults and anti-gay slurs? It was plastered all over the papers.
Well, guess what? It turns out that there was no proof of any of this happening, even in this day of massive news coverage of the event itself and all the camcorders that were there. Andrew Breitbart over at Big Government even went so far as to offer $10,000 to anyone that could bring evidence of the assault. No one has collected yet.
With all that being said, I look at the video above and videos like it with a somewhat jaundiced eye. We know from the Pelosi incident that some on the left are more than willing to lie when it comes to charges of racism and other slurs to tarnish the Tea Party and we also know that the main stream media will gladly publish those charges as fact without doing their due diligence. Now, if the photos in the video above were real, and verifiable, doesn't it seem fairly likely that we'd see them trumpeted across the front page of the New York Times and being presented as the lead story on NBC Nightly News?
There's also the issue of Tea Party opponents acting like racists and infiltrating Tea Party events. How many of the photos in the video above are reflective of that?
So I guess this is where I come down on the issue of Tea Party racism. There are racists in the Tea Party but the Tea Party is not a racist organization, if it can even be called an organization. While some pretend to speak for it there really is no central controlling authority.
I know that pictures exist purporting to show racist sentiment at Tea Party rallies. I've never seen it personally and I know that when someone has shown up at rallies in St. Louis with any sort of hateful message they've been asked to leave by others in attendance:
My personal experience in talking with people on the left tends to support as relatively normal the reaction of the protesters in Portland that I posted the other day. I've been yelled at, called names and been threatened many times by people that disagree with me on political issues. The debate from the left seems to be more emotionally driven than intellectually driven for most so emotions come to the fore rather quickly. Do I know this is a fact? No, but my experience leads me to that conclusion.
Again, I think that if the various photos of Tea Party racist signs were real and verifiable we'd be seeing them all over the news; but, we don't. So while they could be true I don't believe they are. There is ample evidence of lying on the part of the left that leads me to suspect that these photos are just another example of it. If they're real and if they truly represent the majority, or even more than a minuscule minority opinion of the average Tea Party supporters then I'll admit I'm wrong.
But I'm from Missouri and you'll have to show me.
Posts
First, They Came for Alex
3 hours ago
The people who voted for Obama specifically because he would be the first black president - why aren't they considered racists?
ReplyDeleteThe people who murdered 39 million black babies by abortion out of 60 million total since Roe v Wade - why aren't they considered racists?
>There are racists in the Tea Party but the Tea Party is not a racist organization,
ReplyDeleteCorrect.
However the Tea Party is merely the 20-30% of Bush voters who will never, ever yammer on about the stuff they're yammering about if there is a GOP President. Where were these "Patriots" when Bush was running the deficit up? Why aren't they praising Clinton for bringing it down?
If the GOP takes teh White House next election you'll see all their complaints about big government fade away and their rallies finished with their Mission Accomplished.
So, no, the Tea Party is not racists, they're partisan hypocrites and worth as much.
Salvage,
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party is so misunderstood by those (such as yourself) who are deeply entrenched in the status Quo, people who can never look beyond the two parties, one left and one right. This has never been nor will it ever be about Republican or democrat, liberal versus conservative, black pitted against white. This is about government and its ever growing size, about elected civil servants hired to uphold, maintain and protect the constitution of the United States who instead spend all of their time skirting the very rules they swore to uphold, about bureaucrats who have created a maze of government waste, graft and squander to further enrich their position and standing, nothing more and nothing less. These civil servants, elected by us to serve at our discretion, are sent to Washington to be our voice in the republic in which we live, and yet they no longer serve us, instead it is we who now serve them.
You brand the Tea Party as hypocrites who will fade into the sunset as soon as we no longer have a democrat in the oval office; that we only complain because we are no longer the party of power, and see Salvage that is where you and so many others are wrong. The Tea Party exist because our political class is out of control, they hold up the federal budget (which the democrats refused to vote on when they controlled the house and senate because campaigning at home was more important) because funding for Planned Parenthood was not included, because cutting 300 billion out of a 4 trillion dollar budget is too much according to the elected elite, because our government can’t borrow money from other countries fast enough to further their drunken spending spree. No Salvage we are not hypocrites, we are average people who have remained silent far too long, who have been called stupid because we work for a living and hicks because we go to church, our opinions are overlooked because we believe in limited government and the value of family, because we believe that a man should have the right to keep what he earns and give to charities he feels just and not have a politician decide these things for us.
We are people who want our country back, not from democrats and not from republicans but from government and those of both parties who now further to limit our freedoms, our values and our beliefs. We are sick and tired of being called racist because we don’t agree with our president and cruel because we want some accountability of social programs, we are no different than anyone else, even the so called radicals of the sixties who now are the party of power.
Until you are able to see that there is very little difference between the two parties, that they are the same people with the same goals and same ideology and the same quest for power, well then sir, you are as much a cause a the problem we now face as those who sit in Washington. Because until you can understand that they who are elected by us for us, are there to serve us, until then you are just one of the many useful idiots so sought after by those who wish for little more than to enslave the American population for their own gain.
Blah blah blah, when Bush was running up the deficit, no Tea Party, mere months after Obama is President suddenly you there you are screaming about wanting your country back as if Obama had remade America into this unrecognizable entity in such a short time.
ReplyDeleteYou're partisan hacks who thought Bush was doing a great job cutting taxes for the mega-rich and now are hollering about deficits as if there is no connection.
And yes, the Tea Parties will end the minute the GOP is in power, you don't care about the economy you just care about the illusion of "Winning" and as far as you are concerned that begins and ends with the election. Everything else is unimportant.
The guy you vote for wins you are content, the guy you vote for loses it's time to scream and shout about stuff you never cared about before and barely understand.
The cure for deficits is taxation by the way, if the Tea Part were for real they'd be insisting on it. Oh and maybe shaving a few billion off the Pentagon's budget but darn it, how will America kill Muslims then? Some things are worth spending billions on!
The cure for deficits is taxation. . . Really? Well I can see you have never run a business, a house hold budget or headed a department of any sort. The cure for deficits is reduced spending, that and that alone will cure the problem. Raise taxes to 100%, take everything every person in this country makes and our government would still run a deficit; that is the nature of government and progressive government in particular.
ReplyDeleteThe pentagon needs to fall under the ax of budget cuts as much if not more than any other aspect of government, though you should also note (as I am sure this fact will completely floor you because you haven’t a clue) the military is the obligation of the federal government to fund and maintain, unlike social security, school lunches, abortion, highways, tobacco farms, building bridges, maintaining parks, oh and health care. Now you may have missed this, you don’t sound like someone who really knows history very well, but we have been at war with Islam since the Barbary Pirates seized a naval ship back in 1794, granted not in the headlines much these days or Marvel Comic Books but that is when it started. We fight Muslims because they fight us, as a man who spent a fair amount of his adult life in the military I am going to pass this on to you, just because we might stop fighting them does not mean that they would stop fighting us. We don’t kill Muslims for sport as you would so sarcastically imply, we do so because they have been at war with our nation for years and have the mind set to kill us, just as they would gladly kill you if given the opportunity.
No Salvage, the Tea Party is here to stay, something I am sure you and your ilk fear more than anything possible. Liberals, Democrats and Progressives love unrest, protest and demonstrating . . . that is as long as it is for their side, now that the other half of the country has had enough and is finally standing up as the left has been (without the violence) for the past forty years we are suddenly told that opposition to the people in power is bad, that we are anti-American, that we want to starve old people and children that this is only happening because a Black Man is in office . . . you are very wrong, we are people who don’t want to see our country go the way of Canada (god forbid, that should not be wished upon any sovereign nation) or Europe. We are a nation founded on capitalism and freedom and as we have watched over the past twenty years our country slip into the abyss of socialism we have finally banded together and said enough is enough. You may not like this reality, you may not agree with this reality, though you need to except the fact, as has a good part of the civilized world has, progressive government does not work, eventually you run out of people to pay the way, the theory works well in your protective class rooms of academia yet fail to stand up under the test of practical application. So talk theory of raising taxes to lower a deficit while we spend three dollars for every dollar taken in, talk theory of holding hands and getting along with those who want nothing more than your demise, tell me how I am wrong for speaking my mind because it doesn’t coincide with the liberal mind set, start your next post off with Blah, blah, blah to belittle anyone who disagrees with you . . . please do all of these things because every time you sit at a key board and write this tom-foolery you prove every point as to why the left is so wrong.
>The cure for deficits is reduced spending,
ReplyDeleteYeah, like they did in the 30s to 50s... oh wait a second, massive government spending lead to the biggest boom in history.
Like I said, barely understand.
>but we have been at war with Islam since the Barbary Pirates seized a naval ship back in 1794,
AHAHAHA! YES! AMERICA HAS BEEN AT WAR WITH A WHOLE RELIGION! Weird that's never made it in the history books.
>might stop fighting them does not mean that they would stop fighting us. We don’t kill Muslims for sport as you would so sarcastically imply
Oh no, you don't, you kill them out of fear.
>No Salvage, the Tea Party is here to stay, something I am sure you and your ilk fear more than anything possible.
Nope. Numbers have already bled away since the election and if the GOP wins they'll be gone for at least four years.
>country go the way of Canada (god forbid, that should not be wished upon any sovereign nation)
You mean the country with the stronger currency, economy, no housing or bank crisis, robust employment in the majority of regions and a health care system that works? How many tent cities does Canada have vs. America? You check the worldwide life expectancy and quality charts lately?
What's hysterical about Tea Baggers like yourself is that you talk endlessly about things you know nothing of, Canada is in better shape than America right now in many ways.
I know, I know Glenn Beck said otherwise but he's actually a lying moron.
>We are a nation founded on capitalism and freedom and as we have watched over the past twenty years our country slip into the abyss of socialism
Yeah, that actually happened in the 30s.
>we have finally banded together and said enough is enough.
And by "We" you mean all the people who thought Bush was doing a great job right up until his last day, you make up about 20-30% of the American population.
> progressive government does not work,
Except in Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, Israel and well pretty much the whole of Western Civilization... are you sure you're the one with the grasp of reality? I remain unconvinced.