Teaparty.org Founder's Email Shows Ugly Side
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Teaparty.org Founder's Email Shows Ugly Side
Going to spend time with "his homies in the Chicago hood," the taxpayers will be footing the bill for the President to "bump and grind in the hood." This was just a taste of an email circulated by Dale Robertson, president on TeaParty.org, attacking President Obama for going home to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend rather than staying in Washington to lay a wreath in Arlington Cemetery. And people still bristle at characterizations that the Tea Party movement smacks of racism? Seriously.
The email gets better. Robertson goes on to add that Vice President Biden and his wife will be stepping "into Obama's sneakers" while the President is off "shooting hoops, smoking cigarettes and goofing-off with his homies." Of course, the email fails to mention the President would be honoring the fallen at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery just outside Chicago, or that George H. W. Bush never went to Arlington while he was President. But that's not the point now is it?
There is no denying the Tea Party movement has tapped deep into a hostility in this country and helped give it a voice. And part of that populist rage is directed at all of Washington, irrespective of the race of those politicians or even their political leanings. But there can also be no denying that there is an element of this movement that is very deliberately stoking racial animosity and playing on years of racialized fears as a means to gain support. We've seen it with groups like Stormfront actively supporting Ron and Rand Paul, and we've seen it with the birthers and their insistence that President Obama is not in fact a legitimate president.
The truly sad part is that there are some legitimate conversations to be had concerning the scope of executive power and the state of our constitutional rights, and many progressives and libertarian-types could not only find common ground on these issues, they could push Congress away from a corporatist-centrist agenda on some key issues like privacy, for example. But just like those on the left that insisted on only labeling Bush/Cheney as "baby-killers" as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Tea Party discredits itself when these kinds of messages surface. And it's even harder for the Tea Party to rebut when that racism bubbles up through an email blast circulated by the purported founder of the movement.
The email gets better. Robertson goes on to add that Vice President Biden and his wife will be stepping "into Obama's sneakers" while the President is off "shooting hoops, smoking cigarettes and goofing-off with his homies." Of course, the email fails to mention the President would be honoring the fallen at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery just outside Chicago, or that George H. W. Bush never went to Arlington while he was President. But that's not the point now is it?
There is no denying the Tea Party movement has tapped deep into a hostility in this country and helped give it a voice. And part of that populist rage is directed at all of Washington, irrespective of the race of those politicians or even their political leanings. But there can also be no denying that there is an element of this movement that is very deliberately stoking racial animosity and playing on years of racialized fears as a means to gain support. We've seen it with groups like Stormfront actively supporting Ron and Rand Paul, and we've seen it with the birthers and their insistence that President Obama is not in fact a legitimate president.
The truly sad part is that there are some legitimate conversations to be had concerning the scope of executive power and the state of our constitutional rights, and many progressives and libertarian-types could not only find common ground on these issues, they could push Congress away from a corporatist-centrist agenda on some key issues like privacy, for example. But just like those on the left that insisted on only labeling Bush/Cheney as "baby-killers" as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Tea Party discredits itself when these kinds of messages surface. And it's even harder for the Tea Party to rebut when that racism bubbles up through an email blast circulated by the purported founder of the movement.
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