Special Comment: Tea Parties and Race

A bit late for me but last week Keith Olbermann gave a solid Special Comment on the "Tea Party" movement and its undercurrent of racial hatred that seems to be driving it. I personally just can't take the tea party movement seriously. The ideas are sound and very much not new by any stretch of the imagination.

Who doesn't want to pay fewer taxes? What bothers me though is no one can explain why the anger now. Where does it come from? They claim it’s because of Obama, but really what exactly has he done recently? Health care? That hasn't passed. The bank bailouts? That was Bush's plan. Taking away their guns? There is no law in Congress nor any plans to do that. It seems they are angry at Obama for simply not being a Republican or more likely for being black.

After all the things they claim to hate - big government, wasteful spending are all complains a Republican President with the rubberstamping of a Republican Congress brought to new heights - to the tune of a $9 trillion deficit. That was Republican action causing that. However, since most Tea Partiers are die hard Republicans and members of the Republican "base" they can't exactly point the finger at themselves now can they? So that leaves Obama. This leaves the question of timing. Would this same "movement" have occurred if a Democratic white man had been elected? I don't think so.

If they were true to their conventions, rather than closet racists, they would stop acting like an arm of the GOP and act like a separate party. After all, in the last 60 years the Republican nor Democrat parties have never been fiscally responsible (government debt jumps when they are in control) nor created smaller government (it has always grown every term, never shrunk). That is historical fact. If they claim that these things matter, it’s time to finally act on it rather than just making a lot of noise about it.
The GOP has been making those same promises for 60 years, instead of being the fool and going “this time will be different” how about doing something different. Oh wait, that involves the dreaded “change” word that conservatives hate so much. Never mind, no wonder the tea party is really just promising more of the same, with just an extra dose of hatred.