The NAACP has released a report on racism in the Tea Party movement. From a press release:
Based on exhaustive research, a new report “Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size Scope and Focus of it National Factions,” demonstrates that despite Tea Party claims that its solely concerned with budget deficits, taxes and the power of the federal government, Tea Party membership and actions are permeated with radical views about race, national identity and other so-called social issues.
What’s in it:
*The report’s website, teapartynationalism.com identifies and maps Tea Party membership, provides an interactive map, and breaks down membership of different factions state-by-state, town-by-town;
*Analyzing the work of the party factions, demonstrating how racism, bigotry and the dismantling the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th amendment dominate their agendas, far outweighing fiscal policy concerns. (can we move this up)
*Demonstrating the lack of influence of the widely-quoted and fiscally-oriented FreedomWorks faction, which is run by Dick Armey and has the second-smallest membership of the groups.
*Listing all Congressional members who are part of the Tea Party caucus, as well as those in support sponsoring of a law aimed at birthright citizenship that aims to would challenge the 14th amendment;
*Documents the long history of connections and interactions among various Tea Party factions and their connections to right-wing fringe groups such as Stormfront, David Duke and others, which are essential to understand the character of this movement;
*Showing leaders of five of the six factions subscribe to the “birther” theory that President Obama is not a natural born American
I haven’t had time to read the report yet, only the press release, so I can’t speak to how convincing the data is. But they make some very interesting claims that surprise even me.
October 21, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I’m shocked, shocked, I say! One of the things I find bleakly amusing is what would happen if the opponents to native birth got their way. Don’t like all the illegal aliens? Well, then, you’ll just love it when we get a million stateless refugees who were born here but aren’t citizens of the US or anywhere else. Incredible that we are back 19th century arguments about immigration. “Send us your poor, your huddled masses…and we’ll intern them for eventual deportation!”
November 11, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Well now that the results of the election last week are in we can revisit this old racist canard …
The midterm election not only busted the myth that the GOP is a regional party – seeing Republican gains in the Northeast, Midwest and West – it also puts to rest the notion that Republicans are a lily white party whose base won’t embrace a diverse slate of candidates.
Nevada Governor – Hispanic Republican Brian Sandoval defeated Rory Reid.
New Mexico Governor – Suzanna Martinez became the first female Hispanic Governor of a US State in history – from either party.
South Carolina Governor – Overcoming nasty rumors about her religion and alleged marital infidelity, Nikki Haley became America’s second Indian-American Governor. The other is Lousiana’s Bobby Jindal, also a Republican.
SC-01 – African-American Republican Tim Scott, a strong conservative, won the open seat in South Carolina’s first Congressional District. He pulled off this feat in the deep south, winning by approximately 35 percentage points.
FL-22 – Another black Republican: Conservative Col. Allen West. The Iraq War hero handily unseated Rep. Ron Klein, who threw the kitchen sink at West, but to no avail. When this race was called, supposedly “racist” tea partiers and grassroots conservatives rejoiced across the country.
WA-03 – Jaime Herrera chose not to highlight her Hispanic origins in her battle against Democrat Denny Heck for the open seat in Washington’s third Congressional District.