Participants pour fake oil on each other.   Watch it below:

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The state of Arizona has passed the most stringent, draconian immigration law in the United States.  Proposition SB-1070′s impact on millions of Hispanics–both legal and illegal immigrants–will be profound.  For the first time, law enforcement will be given a broad swath of powers to stop, seize and detain those they believe may be in the country illegally.  The new law, signed last week by Arizona governor Jan Brewer, has caused widespread consternation and fear of increased racial profiling.

At its worst, SB-1070 is unconstitutional, clear government overreach, and a violation of the civil liberties of American citizens.

So on that front, why haven’t we heard from the Tea Party?  This seems such the perfect opportunity for Tea Party activists to mobilize, harness their prodigious power in defense of the constitution, and excoriate this new law right?  So where are they?  If they perceive that the rights of other Americans are being violated–as they have for the past eighteen months, vehemently opposing the current administration’s policies– why are they not on the front lines here?  You could not put a better example of constitutional overreach and government expansion on the board than this.  It’s as if SB-1070 is on a tee, waiting for Tea Party activists to take a huge swing for the fences.  But they seem to be whiffing.  What’s behind the deafening silence?

It’s most curious that Tea Party activists portray themselves as patriots, standing up and defending American liberties– and protecting against government growth– yet not one member has come out strongly against it.  Isn’t individual freedom the crux of the Tea Party argument?  Perhaps it’s because this law directly targets those who have brown skin and may speak a different language?  Christopher Parker, political scientist at the University of Washington examines some factors as to why Tea Partiers are reluctant to join immigration activists, and their perceived intolerance levels:

For instance, the Tea Party, the grassroots movement committed to reining in what they perceive as big government, and fiscal irresponsibility, also appear predisposed to intolerance. Approximately 45% of Whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe Blacks to be hardworking, only 45 % believe Blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that Blacks are trustworthy. Perceptions of Latinos aren’t much different. While 54% of White Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be hardworking, only 44% think them intelligent, and even fewer, 42% of Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be trustworthy. When it comes to gays and lesbians, White Tea Party supporters also hold negative attitudes. Only 36% think gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children, and just 17% are in favor of same-sex marriage.

Intolerance?  Ambivalence?  The Tea Party only seems to care about constitutional rights when they perceive white men and women are the ones being deprived of them. That would add much  to my argument in a previous post about the movement.  Arizona has now turned into a police state, where the clarion call will be show me your papers, much like it was during the Joseph Goebbels era. Only this time Arizona law enforcement officials will be initiating the stop and seizures, based upon the kind of shoes Hispanics may wear.  And throughout this, the Tea Party is content to wield defense of the constitution as a weapon only when it’s convenient for them to do so– and not in defense of any of America’s brown people.

UPDATE:  It turns out the Arizona Tea Party is not silent on this.  They support the legislation.  What a surprise.

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From the Minnesota Independent:

The Mille Lacs Tea Party Patriots drew about 60 attendees to their Tax Day Tea Party a week and a half ago, and one statement by Sue Bicar, an organizer for the central Minnesota chapter, is raising some eyebrows on blogs this week: Bicar compared the movement to those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

Bicar told tea partiers at the April 15 rally in Milaca that they needed to get more active in the movement.

“If we do nothing, we are no better than the Jews who stood in line for the gas chambers,” Bicar said, according to the Mille Lacs County Times.

The Minnesota Independent attempted to contact Bicar about her statement. We’ll pass along any comment we receive.

Pretty pathetic.  You have just marginalized genocide, and equated your own government to Nazism.  These people have lost touch with reality.

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The Tea Party movement’s influence and rabid energy is being felt throughout the corridors of the capitol in Washington, D.C. as well as the hot pavement and dusty plains of America.  The group, who believe in less government, is the driving force behind the republican party’s efforts to retake congress in this year’s midterm elections.  But what do we really know about the movement– besides it’s disdain for big government?

Tea Party members tend to be white males, over 40, and wealthier and more educated than the general populace.  This tends to fly in the face of those who’ve conjured images of Tea Partiers who live in rural communities, and have less education than other supporters of the republican party.  Here’s a quick snapshot from the New York Times of what Tea Party supporters generally feel:

Their responses are like the general public’s in many ways. Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. They actually are just as likely as Americans as a whole to have returned their census forms, despite some conservative leaders urging a boycott.

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

Let’s examine this more closely.  Anger toward Washington may have nothing to do with high taxes, high deficits, or even Washington incumbency.  The apparatus responsible  for the formulation and growth of the Tea Party is a contempt and ambivalence toward the poor.  Tea Party anger may not be aimed at health care reform directly, but for whom the actual reform is meant to help. Here’s more from the Times:

The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

If the majority of Tea Party supporters believe that President Obama does not share their values, and his policies are intended to help minorities, then what’s gestating beneath the surface isn’t just antipathy toward politics as usual.  In what manner is this White House’s policies benefiting black Americans, or minorities in general?  Black unemployment is nearly twice as high as the American average.  In fact, there is a strong cross-section of black leadership–including members of congress– who believe the exact opposite. 

They’ve called on the president to create a Black Agenda in order to properly address the needs of black Americans.  President Obama has rejected that notion, instead choosing to enact policies that benefit all Americans–particularly middle-class Americans.  So this perception on the part of Tea Partiers is at best skewed, and at worst bigoted.  So why would the Tea Party movement have this perception in the first place?

It stands to reason that they believe only the privileged few– those whose quantifiable worthiness is measured by their ability to project their “Americanness”– can reap the benefits of government benevolence.  The idea of a new Contract With America, reinforces the notion the some whites in the movement refuse to relinquish their grip on the structures of power.  This new Contract from America offers this basic tenet:

“The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country’s sovereign borders.”

In short; they believe in a limited government that restricts aid to minorities and the poor–those undeserving dregs of American society.  It is the re-creation of a brand of white nationalism, meant to reawaken the spirit of the Founding Fathers.  The Founding Fathers– who at one time displayed their antipathy toward blacks and native Americans– by railing against full citizenship status for them–and instituting political structures to prevent it from occurring.

Could this be a coincidence?  There have always been forms of white nationalism rooted into the framework of the American socio-political landscape.  Tea Party members have become the progenitors of a slice of radical, racially charged American ideology, determined to jettison those deemed unworthy of America’s promise.  Clearly a provocative statement, but given some of these quotes, is it really that far off?

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

Let me make three points here.  One:  Ms. Mayhugh is receiving medicare benefits– and as an American it is her right to do so– but she is participating in a program with many socialistic values.  She, like many conservatives, refuse to engage in debate about scaling back the program to limit its size and scope.  Here’s a quote from another Tea Partier about this very idea:

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Of course she didn’t.  She only wants other, less deserving people to lose things they might need.  How is it be possible to reconcile your disdain for big government, while being complicit in its continued pattern of growth and waste?

Point two:  Sarah Palin– the GOP superstar who headlines most of these tea party rallies– is a vocal critic of the president and his socialist agenda.  Yet it was Palin who raised taxes on oil companies as governor of Alaska, then distributed the money to the state’s citizens.  I don’t have an issue with her raising taxes–especially for the purpose of righting a corrupt tax loophole– I do have an issue with the hypocritical stance she’s taken, and the her lack of acknowledging her own socialistic past. 

My point is simply this:  Elements of this society–from medicare, to social security, to pell grants for college, to unemployment benefits are socialist in nature.  There may be some who are critical of this point, but even they at some point will partake in one of this government programs.  And they will be drinking from the same socialist fountain.

Point three:  When I listen to the speakers, and the rhetoric, I hear words or terms such as patriot and American values.  The movement seems to be using code words to denote the underlying theme in a lot of their protest.  A good portion of these protesters don’t believe the president shares their values–and some believe he isn’t even a citizen of this country.  Just read Ms. Mayhugh’s quote.  She believes he’s a Muslim, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. 

His ascendance to Pennsylvania Avenue embodies every literal fear some white nationalists have about their nation.  A black man, as alien and unrelatable to them as possible, gains power and begins to distribute it to his black and brown minions–amassing an army of militant minority militiamen, primed for the ultimate insurgency– to reshape their America into some unholy image.  Take back our country indeed.

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Absolutely amazing.  I know I know, not all tea party protesters are insipid, ignorant fools. But…

HT: Crooks and Liars

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Shocking video of the uprising in Kyrgyzstan.  Anti-government protesters have stormed government buildings, causing mass hysteria and bloody violence.

(Warning:  This is raw footage, and it is explicit.)

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There you have it:

I hear GOP folks and Tea Partiers bemoaning the fact that media and Democrats are using the extremes of their movement for ratings and to score points. This is like Drew Brees complaining that Dwight Freeney keeps trying to sack him. If that were Martin Luther King’s response to media coverage, the South might still be segregated. I exaggerate, but my point is that the whining reflects a basic misunderstanding of the rules of protest. When you lead a protest you lead it, you own it, and your opponents, and the media, will hold you responsible for whatever happens in the course of that protest. This isn’t left-wing bias, it’s the nature of the threat.

There is of course a deeper question about the limits of strategy. It’s possible that if the Tea Partiers cleaned up their ranks–purged the birthers, publicly rebuked people like this guy, banned Hitler signs, loudly rejected any instances of racism–that they simply wouldn’t have much of a movement left. Martin Luther King was trying to lead a black community that was demonstrably patriotic, and had, in the main, rejected political violence as a strategy. He could afford to be picky. In the case of the Tea Parties, it’s possible that once you subtract the jackasses, you just don’t have enough energy left.

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I don’t have anything to say.  Anyone?

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An interesting take on how Tea partiers view government, and how what they believe may not coincide with reality.  Bruce Bartlett:

On March 16 the Tea Party crowd showed up for yet another demonstration on Capitol Hill… Curious about the factual knowledge these people have regarding the issues they are protesting,… David Frum enlisted some interns to interview as many Tea Partiers as possible on a couple of basic questions. … (Survey results are here.) The first question that was asked concerned the size of government. Tea Partiers were asked how much the federal government gets in taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product. According to Congressional Budget Office data, acceptable answers would be 6.4%, which is the percentage for federal income taxes; 12.7%, which would be for both income taxes and Social Security payroll taxes; or 14.8%, which would represent all federal taxes as a share of GDP in 2009

Tuesday’s Tea Party crowd, however, thought that federal taxes were almost three times as high as they actually are. The average response was 42% of GDP and the median 40%. …

This explains a lot.  The  perceived basis for protest is lost on some mythical plane, where things exist only in the minds of the protesters.  They are not armed with facts, or anything remotely resembling them.  Only venom, and hatred, and intolerance.

<<<<Read more Bruce Bartlett and The Tea Party>>>>>

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Abusive, derogatory and even racist behavior directed at House Democrats by Tea Party protesters on Saturday left several lawmakers in shock.

Preceding the president’s speech to a gathering of House Democrats, thousands of protesters descended around the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform. The gathering quickly turned into abusive heckling, as members of Congress passing through Longworth House office building were subjected to epithets and even mild physical abuse.

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-M.D.) had been spit on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-G.A.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a ‘ni–er.’ And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a “faggot,” as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president’s speech, shrugged off the incident.

Outrageous but hardly surprising.  When there are no bullets in the chamber, you have to battle with what you have.  In this case, blinding rage and ignorance win the day.  How sad.  The ironic thing is those degenerate cowards hurling bigoted epithets, will more than likely benefit from the passage of health care reform.  God Bless America.

HT: Sam Stein/HP

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