Saturday, as lawmakers were trying to whip votes for the Health Care bill, Tea Party activists called Rep. John Lewis (D, GA) a "nigger" and Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA) a "faggot". The GOP and the Tea Party are trying to distance themselves from the actions of the activists. Rep. John Boehner (R, OH) called the actions "reprehensible" and said that they don't represent the Tea Party.
I am trying to figure out at what point the Tea Baggers weren't a racist group. Since the Tea Party unveiled themselves last summer during the initial Health Care debate, they have shown nothing but contempt for a black president. It ranges from questioning his birth certificate to questioning his loyalties to the United States. This group, who was obviously the brain-child of man-child Glenn Beck, has fomented fear and hatred since its inception. They have incited people to violence and given voice to what seemed to be a dying group of white nationalist groups. So here is my question to the GOP: Are you surprised?
When you work people up by telling them that Stalin-reincarnate is taking over the government; that said government is going to take all of your money; that said government is going to kill your grandmother; that said government is going to kill you; that said government is going to take away your guns (which should probably happen, looking at this group of fools), what do you think they are going to do? They are going to lash out at whoever is, in their mind, the cause of the problem. Just as Hitler lashed out against the Jews because he didn't get into the art school that he wanted, these Tea Baggers are lashing out ignorantly, and violently, against an enemy who is supposedly looking for reparations.
Rush Limbaugh says almost daily that the health care bill is somehow reparations for slavery to black people. Glenn Beck says it is encroaching communist-socialist-nazist ideals, personified in a black president. Sean Hannity constantly calls the presidents (and all those who aren't republicans for that matter) actions into question as unpatriotic. What are the people that listen to their bile and hatred going to do?
I find Rep. Boehners' statement reprehensible. When you work people into a frenzy because they are stupid and easily controlled, you can't claim to be appalled when things get ugly. Rep. Boehner was one of many who helped make this happen. Now it is time for them to be seen as the racists that they are.
It should be OK though. The Tea Party does have Jesus on their side.
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