Kevin Marshall's America
A couple Sundays ago, an op-ed piece by local historian and author Scott Christianson appeared in the Times Union that drew parallels between the secession of Southern States leading up to the Civil War and the current Tea Party movement. The piece elicited a strong response from Conservative readers, many of whom found the piece to be personally insulting due to its inflammatory suggestions.
From the article:
“But many of the libertarian and right-wing grassroots agitators opposing the federal government seem to have taken a page from principles and tactics employed by the ante-bellum “Fire Eaters” who started the War Between the States. Some brandish their guns, condone racism and violence, and threaten secession.”
Knowing at least one member of the movement, I agree that such a statement may be unfair and detrimental to the better discourse this country sorely needs. However, I see and hear things from Tea Party gatherers that legitimately scare me. I hear elected officials involved in the movement suggesting they’ll secede from the Union once more, making vague threats against homosexuals, and a litany of other outrageous statements. Yet I don’t see the stern and solid denouncement from organizers and friends of mine in the Tea Party that I’d like to hear, nor am I clear of what specifically the Tea Party Movement stands for. Because as it stands and as they’re presented, it reads to me like a movement of assorted contrarians who have anger first and stances on issues second.
But that can’t be the case. Right?
I have to wonder if it’s a matter of the Tea Party not doing a good enough job of communicating its positions, or is it that my ears are just closed to it? Or, is it simply that they’re not getting enough representation in the media?
What I’d like to see, ideally, is a TU blog run by a Tea Party person, preferably an organizer. I’d like to see and hear his or her side of the story, and I’d like it done in an adult and educated manner. I want someone who’s going to write to me, the liberal, and tell me what their stance is without empty rhetoric and inflammatory accusations. I want to hear why we shouldn’t associate the Tea Party with racism and homophobia. I want to hear actual opposition framed by ideas, not by immature and inconsequential jabs at the opposition.
I do know that our terribly mean and nasty Blog Czar here on the TU blogosphere, Michael Huber, has reached out to certain Tea Party groups (and bloggers such as myself) in hopes of finding someone that can fill this void. Here’s hoping he’s successful in doing so and we can get something going.
I want to believe these people are earnest when they claim it’s a legitimate cause and not just a means of mobilizing the hard-line base of the Republican Party. So let’s give them that chance.
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6 Responses to Invite the Rest of Us To Your Tea Party
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While I am not a Tea Party Memeber, I do agree with some of their points. I have friends that are in the “movement”…..they are not racist (one is actually a black guy…who knew?) and they are not homophobic. I consider myself pretty conservative in most areas. It does annoy me that the Tea Partiers are grouped together with some fringe elements of the movement. Just like not all Democrats are hemp smoking hippies from the 60’s who burn the flag and blow up police stations…..not all Republicans/tea partiers are anti-government yahoos, with KKK tatoos and a rebel flag bumper stickers.
I would love if a local member had a blog. I’m sure it would be really popular, and have “lively” discussions.
I think the Tea partiers are more Libraterian(I’m sure I spelled that wrong) than Republican. I know I lean more that way. In otherwords, a you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone kind of thing.
But back to the Tea Party thing…has there been ANY violence associated with the meetings or rallies? I don’t think there has. Unlike some of the fringe left wing rallies. I think everyone has a right to their wrong opinion…..even me.
Kevin – it’s probably one of many, but I think this article discusses the problems you are describing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050405168.html
Further, IMO, any time you get a large group of anyone together, you are going to get outliers and kooks. The trick is in whether or not you allow yourself (your movement) to be defined by the kooks. Sometimes, as I suspect might be some of the case with the Tea Party people, it is either in the strength of your opposition (obviously those who feel threatened by you work very hard to define you and marginalize you) or if the isolated instances of kookism are so out there that they co-opt attention from the majority, or if the media itself finds the kooks to be a better story and are not willing to work to learn that they are outliers. Generally it’s a combination of everything. For example, you mentioned the AZ law and the support or protests. The protests last week had their share of violence and derogatory names, etc., likely in no less proportion than the Tea Party rallies. I think you have different perceptions of both things, no?
I don’t think that there is substance in very much in life. It’s all just how your picture is painted.
The problem with the tea-party is that, for all I’ve seen, there is no set platform. And it’s because its not yet a clearly defined movement. Oh certainly things are going in that direction, but there is no one group running things. As of this moment. As we’ve seen from Time’s 100 Influential People of the Year, there are clearly organizers that are becoming party leaders. And candidates are beginning to run on what they want to be the tea-party line.
Many I know involved in the movement wish to make their community more sustainable. When I first met them, I was convinced that the tea party movement was a conservative yet green party. And then I considered going to a rally. There I saw not so many bikes and more than my share of SUV’s. Escalades. Talking to a few of them, I realized the rally was against Obama’s healthcare plan. And more than one interviewed by Metroland indicated they supported killing government officials because of a real distrust of the political process. You know, French Revolution sort of stuff.
What I find interesting isn’t so much the tea-party movement, but how the public has reacted to it. Liberals were branded as unpatriotic during the years after 9-11 for suggesting we not bomb countries that did not have WMD’s or suggest that elements of the Patriot Act were unconstitutional. And yet no one is willing to say that conservatives that throw rocks at the windows of gay and black congressmen are racist and homophobic. There’s no real public outrage.
The issue isn’t what the tea-party is or what it stands for. The real issue is that America is still a racist and homophobic nation. elements within the tea-party movement are simply channelling that feeling.
K-Marsh- could’ve sworn you ran an earlier post here about your distaste for politics…I wonder which posts are the true K-Marsh posts- I’ve always applauded your blog for never just running posts that conflict with one another simply just to add content…
Awesomedude – I can see where you might think there’s a conflict. This is more of an appeal for there to be a Tea Party blogger just so that we can try to do away with much of the derision associated with it from both sides. If anything, I’m just saying “let’s give it a chance and try to be adults about it, so that we can get past all the nonsense of it all already.”
Oh! I just realized which post specifically you’re referring to:
http://blog.timesunion.com/marshall/the-deep-divide-in-the-20th-present-tense-gets-international-coverage/59/
It’s keeping in line with this one: that the thing I hate about politics is the childish nature of the discourse.