The Tea Party movement has not done much to raise awareness of specific issues that regularly affect millions of Americans. Instead of issuing a reasonable, thoughtful rebuttal of President Barack Obama’s policies, Tea Party supporters have been preoccupied with producing a fearful caricature of Obama as a “committed socialist idealogue,” a Leftist Leviathan who will do everything in his power to destroy the Constitution. At least, that’s according to Former Congressman and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, who spoke to an audience at the first-ever Tea Party Convention in Nashville.
In his opening keynote speech on Thursday, Tancredo took aim at voters who voted for Obama, saying, “People who could not even spell the word ‘vote’, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House.” According to Tancredo, 53% of American voters are illiterate or can’t say “vote” in English. What does Tancredo’s outlook say about the president’s policies? What does his perspective tell us about Barack Hussein Obama, the “socialist”? Absolutely nothing. However, if we take Tancredo’s words and put them in a geographic and historic context, there’s an indication that Tancredo truly knows his audience.
Prior to the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights movement, literacy tests were used in the south to deter African-Americans from voting. At the time, African-Americans were 4-5 times more illiterate than whites due to rampant, racial discrimination.
Former president Jimmy Carter wasn’t totally off the mark after all.
Watch Tom Tancredo’s speech here:
Of course, not everyone in the Tea Party subscribe to that point of view, but when Tancredo is one of the keynote speakers at an organized convention representing a certain movement — along with the ever-controversial 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — one can’t help to wonder: is the Tea Party launching a “revolution” against liberal ideas and policies or is it simply about Barack Obama?
Judson Phillips, co-founder of the Tea Party Nation told CNN that he thought Tancredo’s speech was “fantastic.” He added, “Tancredo doesn’t feel like a lot of people who supported Barack Obama understand the basics of this country.” Like literacy?
People have said that the Tea Party movement is becoming a passing fad. In reality, despite the Hatfield-McCoy infighting between the Tea Party Nation and the Tea Party Patriots — which has been commonly credited as the most prominent, fatal flaw for the movement — the glue holding everything together is the mutual disdain for the President.
The Tea Party movement is heavily fragmented at best. While local groups continue to thrive and market themselves as the people’s movement — and not a political one — organizers are left deprived of political expertise. Most of the movement’s base includes people with no political backbone; that prevents the movement from organizing on a federal level without the aid of Fox News. In other words, there are many people who are angry — and they have legitimate concerns — but they don’t have enough of a grasp to tackle the political complexities and circumstances that relate to their problems. The best they can deliver are media sound-bytes, calling Obama a “socialist” and comparing his administration to the Nazi regime. Why?
In November 2009, Tea Party protesters and loyalists distributed t-shirts and other merchandise that referred to Psalm 109:8 in the bible, labeling the passage as a “prayer for Obama.” The passage reads: “May his days be few; may another take his office!” Following the Psalm, it reads, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” There is no mistaking it. The Psalm was used as a prayer, wishing for the end of the President’s days. Why? What does this Psalm tell me about Obama’s “socialist” policies?
At the Tea Party Convention’s Dinner Party on Friday, WorldNetDaily’s Editor-in-Chief, Chairman and CEO Joseph Farah talked about a quote made by conservative radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh: “What does Obama and God have in common? God does not have a birth certificate and neither does Obama.” Limbaugh made the joke in June 2009. Several months later, Farah said he believed that Obama didn’t have a birth certificate despite substantial evidence to the contrary. Questions have already been answered about Obama’s citizenship. How does this relate to Obama’s policies?
Before Sarah Palin delivered the closing keynote address on Saturday, numerous panelists and other speakers talked about getting followers of the movement motivated enough to financially support their candidates in upcoming elections. Tea Party leaders openly support candidates with “traditional American values” and the limited American imperialist worldview. These values are observed by people from the “real America,” which — according to Palin — is located in the midwest.
Watch Sarah Palin’s speech here:
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In her keynote speech, Sarah Palin delivered a series of bumper-sticker talking points. Her focus is narrow as she speaks to who she calls the “real people,” not the politicos. She appeals to the lowest common denominator: the angry middle-class right wing who are looking for any reason to legitimize their fear, paranoia and angst. Because she’s relatively inexperienced in assessing national issues compared to issues found in her home state of Alaska, Palin sells the crowd by preaching “common sense conservative principles,” which are left unexplained. However, she found more time to criticize the agenda on the left and the Obama administration for being “out of touch, out of date.”
Palin embraces gutter politics. She closes out the convention by inadvertently reminding millions of Americans that the Tea Party is just that: gutter politics.
The problem is the complete failure to establish a clear contrast between the policies upheld by the Obama administration and “Real America” values that have the potential of serving as tangible policy. The movement often reiterates the need to push for the incorporation of their values into the government, but there is no strong consensus on how to implement it. Thus, they rely on what they perceive to be Obama’s weaknesses. From there, they follow the footsteps of Senator Joseph McCarthy and haphazardly attempt to purge the country of what they believe is the resurrection of Communism, which is coming straight from Obama.
Unfortunately for the Tea Party, they’ve spent so much time living in the adrenaline rush of dehumanizing their enemies — and riding the trends of fevered, populist rage — instead of systemically scrutinizing public policy, they’ve lost themselves and the promise of their movement in the process.
-- Aaron Ochs
