The mainstream media has used terms like “overwhelmingly white” or “mostly white” when describing the demographics of tea party protesters. One left-wing blogger described the protesters this way: “legions of Americans, almost all of whom are white.”
From a tactical standpoint, leftists and liberals know exactly what they’re doing when they argue that tea party activism is lacking racial “diversity.”
They want the larger public to believe that the racial makeup of tea party gatherings leads to only one conclusion: that racism lies at the heart of tea party events.
This charge of racism demands to be responded to and refuted by conservatives at large, and certainly by those directly involved in tea party activism.
But, speaking as a former hard-core leftist, I would offer the following advice to tea party activists: don’t fall prey to sensitivity about the skin color of who’s attending and participating in your events.
The left is obsessed with racial “diversity” to the point of religious zeal. It does us no good to have conservatives, libertarians, or independents also fixated on the diversity, or the lack of it, at tea party events. The left is wrong to engage in this sort of color-coding and nose-counting, and conservatives — of all people — should reject this approach at every opportunity.
But let’s be honest: the majority of those attending tea party events are white. Is this really a problem?
Last time I checked, the country was still a majority white nation, and when the last presidential election took place an overwhelming percentage of black voters pulled the lever for … Barack Obama.
There’s no disputing the fact that the Democrat Party has a lock-hold on black voters — a pattern that’s existed for all-too-many years.
This may explain why there are not more blacks attending tea party protests — events that routinely slam a black president as well as liberal Democrats.
But leftists and liberals couldn’t care less about the nuances of national voting patterns. In the strange worldview of racial identity politics, any gathering that is predominantly white must by definition be racist.
Frank Rich, the New York Times columnist, argued in a recent column that those protesting Obama’s health care scheme are motivated by a deep-seated racism.
Another Washington Post writer, Colbert King, wrote a lengthy article that equated tea party activists with southern segregationists, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Cynthia Tucker suggested that the actions of those who protested the signing of Obama’s health care bill were a “reflection on the Grand Old Party.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd gave the following brilliant assessment: the “shrieking lunacy of the summer… had much to do with race.”
What these liberals do is inhale scattered anecdotes about angry white activists, connect the dots as best they can, and then spew out predictable stereotypes.
Yeah, a few idiots have yelled epithets and have held up stupid, inane signs. But c’mon, the largest tea party gathering took place last September in Washington, D.C., and more than 7,000 people attended (possibly a lot more, depending upon whom you ask).
Whenever that many people come together, I guarantee you that a handful of fools, troglodytes, and knuckleheads will be right there with the regular folks.
But what’s infuriating is the double standard upheld by the liberal mainstream media and Democratic Party figures.
As they whine incessantly about right-wing anger and violence, liberals have conveniently forgotten and ignored the countless cases when liberals called for the assassination of President George W. Bush. A film was even produced by liberals — Death of a President — explicitly about the assassination of Bush.
Left blog sites featured photos of Bush with a target drawn on it, and there are approximately 6 million Google links that connect George W. Bush with Adolf Hitler.
And then of course, there were the 1999 World Trade Organization protests that featured violence so bad that law enforcement’s confrontation with leftist crazies was called “The Battle in Seattle.”
Oh, just in case you wondered, those violent leftist protesters in Seattle were in fact predominantly young, anti-government, angry, and mostly white.
But wait, I don’t remember the mainstream media describing them that way.
Look, tea party organizers should respond directly and forcefully to claims that racism, hate, or extremist views dominate their agenda. However, leftist criticisms about a lack of “diversity” in the ranks of activists should be ignored.
Involvement in the tea party movement’s agenda is a “y’all come” kind of thing. It’s open to all who come — skin color, sexual orientation, or national origin don’t matter.
And oh yes, there is anger out there. People who’ve been ridiculed and demeaned as rubes and racists are rightfully angry. This is not a recipe for violence, but is a powerful motivation for a grassroots political revolt.
It’s this motivation that’s causing lots of panic among Democrats.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member