The Tea Party And Racism

The NAACP got it right on the Tea Party.  They were compelled to express what no one in the media or main stream politics will touch, because of the passion it unleashes. “The Tea Party is about race.” A bigotry below the surface, not just against African Americans, but anyone who is “different”. The soul of the Tea Party has little to do with small government, low taxes and preserving the constitution.  These issues are smoke screens for what drives many of its core supporters.  The real soul of the Tea Party traces back to a time when the fear of assertive black men, interracial marriage, non Christians and eastern elitism brought forth bible beaters and white sheets. A forbearer of the Tea Party was the No Nothing Party, rising against the imagined threat from catholic German Irish and Polish immigrants (at a time when blacks were still enslaved) in the 1840s and 50s.   

            Perhaps the initial organizers of the Tea Party were motivated by a traditional political agenda. It is more likely that the movement was always about racism and religious intolerance disguised as a political agenda. My personal observations are that its supporters in the small towns, farms and rural churches are happy to have political cover of their overt distaste for Obama and others of color.

  On a recent drive through rural Pennsylvania the large signs “He’s Not Our President” and the chatter at family gatherings I’ve attended do not speak to getting republican or libertarian candidates elected. Obama’s policies have done little to change their world. These individuals, who wholeheartedly support the Tea Party, cannot accept, under any circumstances, what they view as an “interracial elitist” with “questionable Christian values” to boot, running their country. 

The antithesis to Obama, an undereducated, symbol of Andrew Jackson white protestant supremacy, Sarah Palin, is the perfect figurehead to champion Tea Party bigotry disguised as a political agenda. Glen Beck on television, Rush Limbaugh on the radio and far right internet postings provide incendiary rhetoric to seal the deal. Clearly, without Barack Obama, there would be no Tea Party.

            Unfortunately, Tea party members are not the only closet racists.  During the democratic primary, I could feel the underlying racism coming from Clinton and Edwards supporters.  Obama was their last choice, never the best choice, for unspoken reasons that had nothing to do with politics.  Among many lifelong democrats, racism is alive in the social DNA. 

            The NAACP must know that things are getting better.  It is a good thing that the racism that remains in this country is wrapped in subliminal political views and not white sheets.  It is encouraging that the old time religion with its parochial self interest, is giving way to a broader world view that takes Christian values seriously rather than the bible literally.  This is not to say that there is no better time than now to address racism head on and expose it for what it is.

 In the end, the Tea Party will not become a viable third political party.  The fact that Barack Obama was elected tells us so. The 24 hour news cycle makes the Tea Party more viable than it to an historical footnote as the country continues to evolve.  Rural white Protestants, who have never had an African or Hispanic American to lunch will become a minority. The population will become younger, less WASP and more open minded. Racist DNA will begin to disappear from our descendants’ social fabric.really is. It will fade