Tea Party Activists Show Their Classy Side
Mar 20th, 2010 | 76 responses
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-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), 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.
But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.
“It was absolutely shocking to me,” Clyburn said, in response to a question from the Huffington Post. “Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday… I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit ins… And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus.”
“It doesn’t make me nervous as all,” the congressman said, when asked how the mob-like atmosphere made him feel. “In fact, as I said to one heckler, I am the hardest person in the world to intimidate, so they better go somewhere else.”
Josh Marshall notes that a TPM reporter, Brian Beutler, was there:
Things are getting pretty heated in the Capitol with crowds of anti-Reform/Tea Party activists going through the halls shouting slogans and epithets at Democratic members of Congress.
As our Brian Beutler reports, a few moments ago in the Longworth office building, a group swarmed a very calm looking Henry Waxman, as he got on the elevator, with shouts of “Kill the bill!” “You liar! You crook!”
Not long before, Rep. Barney Frank got an uglier version of the treatment. Just after Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protestor yelled “Barney, you faggot.” The surrounding crowd of protestors then erupted in laughter.
Brian’s writes about what he saw and heard, here.
Echidne has a photo of one of the signs. It reads, in part, “If Brown can’t stop it, Browning can.” With a hand-drawn picture of a gun.
Think Progress provides some details about the distinguished speakers who addressed the crowd, as well as the organizations that sponsored the event:
Tea Party activists have gathered on Capitol Hill today for a “Code Red” rally against health care reform. Speakers at the event included Republican Reps. Steve King (IA), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Mike Pence (IN). The gathering was organized by Tea Party Profiteer organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. ThinkProgress attended today’s rally and spotted a sign threatening violence if health care passes. The sign reads: “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm[.]
Prof. Darren Hutchinson points out that this kind of poisonous stuff is always just under the surface:
Homophobia and racism are pervasive social forces, and fear and anxiety often bring out the worst biases in people. Hence, these developments, though quite disturbing, are not shocking. Furthermore, the Tea Party movement began its healthcare protests in a circus-like atmosphere; apparently, things will remain that way until the bitter end.
Amanda Terkel gives us Sen. Jim DeMint’s comments about the protests:
On Twitter, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) wrote that he was “grateful for the thousands of patriots who are storming the Capitol today protesting government healthcare and defending freedom.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez has the grace to call the racist and homophobic slurs “shameful, uncivil, and wrong.” Good for you, K Lo.
Fox News provides the fairness and balance:
Just days after holding a rally in Washington, Tea Party activists returned Saturday to make one final stand against the health care reform bill ahead of an expected Sunday vote.
Thousands of Tea Partiers descended upon the Capitol in an effort to derail the march toward “Obamacare” by pressuring undecided lawmakers to vote “no” Sunday.
At times protestors broke into chants of “Kill the bill!”
More than 60 Tea Party affiliates organized the event in the four days since Tuesday’s rally after organizers were flooded with requests to hold another one for those who couldn’t take off of work for the first one.
The article is longer than this, but don’t worry — there’s no mention of the N word, the F word, the pun with the gun, or the spittle. The best part, though, is the photograph. Go on, take a look. It’ll make your day. I laughed out loud the moment I set eyes on it.
I’ll end with a little ditty for Glenn Reynolds — with apologies to Woody Guthrie:
As I kept walking, I saw a sign there, and on the sign it said, “Got my Browning.” But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’. THAT side was made for you (not me).
76 Responses to “Tea Party Activists Show Their Classy Side”
Many tea party supporters have tried to justify this “movement” as just being concerned about federal spending and seeking “small government”, all the while assuring us they were not racist or homophobic or dangerous.
The assurances don't seem to be holding up so well now that their escalating tactics are allowing these people to unleash the real emotional underpinnings of their agenda.
There's no excuse for that kind of behavior, ever. I lived in KC when Rep. Cleaver was mayor. He's an ordained Methodist minister, a fine Christian man. We're sorry this happened to you, sir.
Phew!. . . Wouldn't it be a NIGHTMARE to wake up tomorrow morning and find our politicians had voted along the lines of the Tea Party?
Don't think i will sleep tonight with that thought. . . Phew!
One person had a sign about a gun and you Leftist bigots smear thousands. Would you agree that because some anti-Iraq war demonstrators carry signs saying “Kill Bush!' “Assassinate Bush” Death To Israel! Free Palestine! and they chant in support of Palestinians, “Hitler should have finished the job!” it means that all leftists agree with it? You people are typical liberal hypocrites. Your side has been saying the most vile things about Bush (how do you like your Hope and Change hero killing civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan?) for years. Lefty comedians on TV have joked about killing him on more than one occasion. There was a movie about assassinating Bush that leftists loved! You celebrate radical left bombers and cop killers like Obama's close friend and mentor, Bill Ayers. The list of Leftist political violence is endless. But, “OH, MY GOD!!!!! A TEABAGGER (we use homophobic insults but don't dare call Barney Frank a fag!) IS HOLDING A SIGN WITH A PICTURE OF A GUN ON IT!”
By the way, I am a former 1960's Marxist revolutionary, Anti-Viet Nam War protester and draft dodger who defied the pig establishment Nixon war machine. “Off the pigs! Bomb the Pentagon!” was my battlecry.
I grew up and realized how wrong the Left is about almost everything. The hypocrisy I saw decades ago is still alive and well in the Leftist mindset. Proclaiming outrage about something while practicing the very same thing.
Leftists have a huge hole in their minds. They never gained the wisdom to know that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. They think that good intentions will always bring good results.
The welfare state was intended to redress past injustice against black Americans. It has done horrific damage to poor blacks. The prisons are full of black victims of misguided social engineering. Victims of leftist good intentions.
It seems that you leftist true-believers think that ObamaCare will bring positive change to national health care problems. No one seems to have the slightest bit of doubt about it. The Teabagger boogie man is EVIL! He's a REDNECK! A MINDLESS ANIMAL! We Leftists are BRILLIANT!
That is the insanity of the leftist mind. What a pathetic false self-image.
TheShadowKnowsBest, Maybe you should find a good therapist (or a good golf course?), you never know… it might help.
This actually happened? Any hard evidence?
Take a look at this: http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/03/st…
Rightklik is quoting a site that is allied with the christian conservative right; among their commenters are those demanding video proof these events occured because surely no one could say the n word and spit on other people if they were good conservative christians, and besides, what about what everyone did to St. Bush. SOrry man, your link is dust
KATHY KATTENBURG, thanks for the post! Last fall, before the TBers had gained much exposure, our civic association met with a group of TBers from GA & NC. Within 30 minutes our association members were leaving the meeting because it was painfully obvious our purposes for oganization were different. The TBers were reading a hostile script that smacked of the old John Birchers with a klan motif – a distinctly racist orientation anchored in an extreme right format. Our multicultural group quickly decided the TBers had nothing to teach us.
It is sad the national republican party has moved so close to them. Republicans in our state have a history of political reform and resistance to the almost total control of the democratic machine. Since Richard Milhous Nixon that has gradually changed. Reagan & GHW Bush gave some hope of redirection but it didn't take. The former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, GA,, who fancies himself as a political savant rested control of the reforming political direction of Reagan-GHW Bush and put the GOP on a malignant course of divisive, assaultive partisanship. The TBers, Rush and Beck are an excrescent and magnification of Gingrich's work. Sooner or later the republican's attempt to bed down with this assaultive group will fulfill the story of attempting to ride the tiger and winding up inside.
Another blogger here posted this interesting video from the protests on Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilG7PCV448
Kathy,
A job well done. I think you fairly represented what happened/is going on.
BZ
And in this rally the milk of human kindness overflows
I want Congress to vote no on the bill, but is there a way to get them to vote no to these people also? I'm afraid not.
(Gegenschattenbild, the video you linked to is well-made and disturbing. I should point out a subtle flaw–A few of the people in the video are actually far left activists, a fact I'm sure the producer knows).
Will the 'Blue Dogs' hunt for Obama?
Yet again confirmed: the Teabaggers holler, shout and expose themselves fully for what they really are–racists, homophobes and bigots, with a far Right agenda in which only they control the nations political interests.
The Reps here on this site and in Congress will either deny allegienace or claim “Dems do it, too” in their best imitation of fifth grade playground discourse, but any thinking person knows the truth.
The base of the Republican party is the Teabaggers themselves–rotten to the core, useful idiots allowed to say and do anything to justify the political means of their “betters”, sucking up the mother's milk of Fox news like good little drones.
Luke Russert, several Congressmen and their staffers, and other reporters witnessed this mob mentality. Call them liars all you want, but deep inside you know it's true.
[...] At the same time, Anti War protestors were arrested More reports here. And here. [...]
[...] Tea Party Activists Show Their Classy Side (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
Another David Horowitz or alot of BS? When and where did you cross into Canada?
No excuse for the epithets or the spitting. Let the individuals who performed the actions bear the consequences. I wish the other protesters would have shouted them down.
I am OK with shouting “liar” and “crook” at Henry Waxman. I'm not sure why that was referenced in association with the racist comments. Heck you can legitimately shout that at most politicians.
I admire the Tea Party movement for it's support of small government and it's energy, however they continue to look like a bunch of people mad about something but not sure exactly what. The left has tried to fill in that blank by saying the basis of the anger is racism, but I don't agree. I've read too many accounts and statements by Tea Party members to believe that.
The temptation on the left will be to judge the many by the actions of the few, something that many bloggers are already doing judging by Memorandum. The response from the right seems weak and defensive so far, my guess is that they're hoping the stories turn out to be false.
I agree with this.
“The left has tried to fill in that blank by saying the basis of the anger is racism, but I don't agree. I've read too many accounts and statements by Tea Party members to believe that.”
The left doesn't have to do that, the tea partiers are doing the job for them. You don't think that small government people can be bigots? The longer that the tea partiers let the bigots shout, the less chance the regular folk have of succeeding.
After all, they all claim that the tea party people are in the majority, right? So a few less members won't hurt.
The accounts and the statements are what you get when they try to give themselves cover. What you see at events like these is the true feelings and attitudes of many of the Tea Partiers “shining” through. It's undoubtedly true that many in that movement aren't racist. But they choose to continue associating with the many who are. And others who might not be racist but are certainly homophobic. Then there are the ones who might not be either but see nothing wrong with signs threatening, however implicitly, the use of force.
So the consensus of the left-leaning members here is that the Tea Party is at it's base racist? Racism is a primary motivation?
Show a demographic where urban, nonwhite gays are welcome at the shout fests…
LOL Glenn Beck says it wasn't so. But seems Capitol police witnessed the spitters action and arrested him. The good Reverend and Congresscritter didn't press charges.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar…
Proof enough, or does it have to come from Crazy Becker…
DaGoat,
My take is not that every tea partier is racist. Your point that they tend to be angry is perhaps more universal in the movement. But, they are travelling with racists, and allowing racists to be an untethered part of their group. That bothers me.
One of the more distrubing aspects of this story is the part about Barney Frank (far from my favorite congressman by the way) being called a “faggot”. Not only was the person who did this not told to shut up, the crowd burst into spontaneous laughter in approval of the epithet. To me, the reaction of the crowd says more than the act of the individual.
The response from the right seems weak and defensive so far, my guess is that they're hoping the stories turn out to be false.
That wouldn't be without precedence. (and somehow the reports of false incidents never seem to get retracted by most media outlets or bloggers.)However, in this case Rep. Lewis is credible and there is said to be a police report on the spitting incident, so I don't think this was a fabricated incident.
On the 'weak and defensive' response, I guess I don't see how people should or could respond better to accusations of the type “So, when did you stop beating your wife”. If people are choosing to believe that the actions of a few are representative of bad behavior (or hidden thoughts, according to some here) of a large group, well, I don't know how you can disprove something to people who believe it without evidence to support their belief (it simply confirms their preconceived view of 'these people').
I don't even consider myself a member of the Tea Party*, but I think the attempts to discredit it are obvious, and for obvious reasons and I think some pushback against the false impressions is necessary.
*Mainly because it's currently a reactionary movement and too incoherent (as such movements necessarily are.) If/when it becomes a movement for a positive purpose, presenting an alternate course of action, if I support where they're going with that I may consider taking part.
Show a demographic where urban, nonwhite gays are welcome at the shout fests…
I don't completely understand what you're asking for – “urban, non-white gays” is it's own demographic. You're saying conservative white people by definition will not welcome urban, non-white gays?
Spot on.
Circular logic, Rudi. If minorities and gay people don't believe they're welcome, it may at least in part be due to false impressions that are being propagated when minor incidents are reported as though they're the norm. That then can't be used as the reasoning to prove that the incidents are representing a nonwelcoming view of such groups.
On the 'weak and defensive' response, I guess I don't see how people should or could respond better to accusations of the type “So, when did you stop beating your wife”.
In the case of the spitting incident, the Tea Party member really was “beating his wife”. I would have liked to have seen a stronger reaction from the right on the order of “we don't want these kinds of people in our party”.
“If minorities and gay people don't believe they're welcome, it may at least in part be due to false impressions that are being propagated when minor incidents are reported as though they're the norm.”
When a speaker is paid to appear at a supposed convention makes racist statements and gets three standing ovations for them, that isn't a “minor event.”
From what I understand, DaGoat, Michael Steele and someone who represented the Tea Party organization did condemn it. I don't know if their statements were strong enough (haven't seen the text) but I doubt that anything they could have said would have convinced some of the people who are convinced of widespread bigotry (do you think there's anything that would do so?)
As an aside, my own impression is that the anti-gay slur against Frank may have not been called out by the crowd, but I'd bet that racial slurs were. Since we don't have video of any of it, we don't actually know what the crowd's reactions were (but my comments are just based on my experience, that there is anti-gay sentiment among certain conservatives but not tolerance of racism in mainstream circles.)
You apparently keep referring to Tancredo at CPAC, vey, and I am not familiar with what he said or what the reactions were. You brought this into the discussion in response to a comment I made about a different speaker at CPAC. I was pointing out a case where the crowd heckled someone for being anti-gay rights. Whether or not that sentiment is as prevelant as it should be is another discussion (and I'd have to see context of what Tancredo said, I may or may not agree that it was racist because sometimes I find that anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric is painted as racist.)
It would seem that a whole lot of the population at times can be racist or anti-Semitic or sexist or whatever, with out being aware that what they are saying falls into one of those categories. I believe that a much higher, than average, percent of Tea Partiers are racist. Some are aware that they and the movement are racist while others ujst believe what they are told on Faux News.
When ever I hear a conservative start talking about “Small Government” or “States Rights”, I translate that into “Why can't we go back to the 50's when Negroes knew their place”…
The reason America is in the position it's in today is the backlash against civil rights, there are entire regions of the country, particularly the South but they are not the only ones, were the basic conservative philosophy could basically be boiled down to a simple slogan: “I rather eat Sh*t than give a Nickel to a Negro”… And we can see the results of forty years of that philosophy: crappy public schools, crappy health services, crappy wages, crappy standard of living, prisons full of minorities…
And the Teabaggers are just this year's version of that attitude…
I am referring to Tancredo at the Tea Party Convention, I know it is hard to keep all this straight. He was the Opening Night Speaker which tends to set the tone for the rest of a convention. Video cameras were not allowed so we have to go by what people said happened there,
I think the problem is that the tea party now is not the same tea party it was before Fox News started promoting it. In the beginning, there were the people like Prof that were truly concerned about big government and had intelligently thought out reasons for joining or leading their local group. Once Fox took over…all of the dittoheads joined and it became a hatefest.
Impossible, Ridiculous, Repugnant
The Tea Party, this decade's version of Lee Atwater's supporters…
DaGoat–
A little earlier in this thread I agreed with you about the unfocused anger of the Tea Party people. If they can't bring focus to their concerns, they will be subject to others whose anger is already fully focused.
I don't think racism is a primary motivation for the Tea Partyers. But they facing a kind of moment of truth in their response to these events.
Thank you, Steve.
Yes, read the links.
Minor incidents, Christine? Crowds of tea partiers surging down the halls of Congress, screaming imprecations, banging on the door of Barney Frank's office and screaming homophobic slurs?
Tea Party events have evinced outpourings of hatred and more than a little racism time and time again. Yet you choose to buy into the idea that it's an isolated and very tiny fringe of the movement. Sorry. Your claims are the ones without merit. So are the ones that try to paint the entire movement as racist. But the majority of the movement does not loudly reject their fellows when this sort of thing happens. And I mean when it happens, not when the publicity begins to make them look bad when it hits the news. A spontaneous rejection of these attitudes at the gathering itself has not happened (or at least been documented by anyone) once that I am aware of.
I don't know what he said at CPAC, but he told the attendees at the Tea Party Convention that literacy tests should be brought back.
“The temptation on the left will be to judge the many by the actions of the few”
Correction, goat, the entire public face of the movement is repellent to most, not just “the left.” Which is why I fully support you and other “conservatives” aligning yourselves with this group. Any “movement” that can't keep control of its own message is an epic fail. No one in the “movement” has the nerve to go up to everyone with a hateful message or swastika or monkey-themed sign and say “stop that. it is NOT helpful.” Why not? Because in fact, the angry, fearful and hateful sign carriers ARE the base of that movement and of the current Republican party.
Vey, I'm puzzled by your statement that cameras were not allowed at the Tea Party Convention. I saw and heard Tancredo call for the return of literacy tests with my own eyes, on Rachel Maddow.
I guess I thought that because while I read reports like this one:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/tea-party-speaker-tom-…
I saw videos like what is on that page. 2:10 sec.
And if you are gcotharn then you don't know what “literacy test” means. I never thought I would be lectured about racism.
I live in a place where they finally allowed Jews in the Country Club about 10 years ago. No Jewish members yet, but they are allowed in as guests.
TO COMMENTERS: Please do not attack other commenters whether they have posted on this thread or not.
Thanks