Prejudice

[geezer_also]

Thinking about the discussion the other day on how the tea party is: bad, evil, bigoted, ignorant, etc (choose your favorite adjective). Accepting, for the moment, the general consensus, that there is no ism without power (the idea that there can be no reverse discrimination, since there is no power on the other side). Accepting also that it is

Comments

[kinvore]

First of all I doubt anyone voted for him ONLY because he's black, whereas I think there are many who only have such strong negative opinions of him because of his race. No I don't think everyone who doesn't like him is a racist, but I think the sheer venom he's faced since day one (before he'd even done anything as President) can only be explained by racism. Maybe they aren't as prevalent but I don't recall images of Clinton as Hitler

[kinvore]

It's purely an opinion and speculation, not something that can be backed up with hard data. While Obama had high numbers of blacks voting for him this wasn't the case until after Bill Clinton had compared Obama to Jesse Jackson. This really galvanized a lot of people who were offended by the remarks, and I think it caused them to give him a second look. If it were only because of his race that they voted for him, he would have had those numbers from the first time he started running.

The other aspect to it, those who had such strong hatred for him from the onset, is merely the process of elimination. Since he hadn't done anything to earn such anger at the time I see no other reasonable explanation as to why they hated him so.

[fizzyland]

"is it fair to assume that so many people on the left just have a knee jerk reaction of hate to things they disagree with?"

As an angry liberal, I think I should field this one. I wasn't parading around with Bush-Hitler signs when he was President but I did despise many of his choices and policies and responded by voting for democrats in the various elections since in an attempt to reverse those actions. I think conservatives overall are more wrong than they are bad, prejudiced, etc. and the worst I would say about them in general is that they lack empathy and fail to see how their privilege excludes a lot of people in this society.

And I think it's fair to say that contempt for some things is well-earned, be it Sarah Palin talking about "Real Americans"(as if liberals aren't) or the ongoing war against abortion rights, the gays, etc.

[geezer_also]

Now see, angry liberal or no, this is why I like you and can generally get along with you, we agree on the basic foundation, just disagree on how it's applied :D

[fizzyland]

And now I have a question for you. How are we on the left supposed to interpret things like the following?
45% of Republicans don't think Obama was born in the USA.
Is it racism? Ignorance? Enquiring minds wanting to know?

[geezer_also]

Well personally I don't account for it at all, so I have no idea how a liberal should.
Honestly, I heard that and went What the......?????

Bottom line, I don't believe it, but that is based on anecdotal evidence, knowing literally hundreds of republicans, most way more ideological than I am, and doubt that more than a handful think that (or don't think he was) admittedly I know scores who have doubts, but even for most of them it's just wishful thinking :D

[telemann]

Grady Warren:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cLxQ4B23_g&feature=player_embedded#at=29

Tea Party representative, but he's not racist.

[fizzyland]

Glad that's cleared up then...

[paedraggaidin]

>> My question is there really that big a difference between the tea party and the "hope and change" people other than in ideology or is it fair to assume that so many people on the left just have a knee jerk reaction of hate to things they disagree with?

Of course there isn't, so long as you're not equating the majority of "hope and change" Obama supporters with the radical left (just as I would not equate every tea party supporter with the radical right). For every birther there is an equally moronic truther, and for every airborne wolf-sniping anti-environmentalist there is an equally stupid Animal Liberation Front diseased lab monkey-freer.

And it's fair to assume that, as long as you assume that as many people on the right are equally as volatile.

[geezer_also]

And I do :D (actually I don't assume for the right, since I KNOW some of them personally :D)

[paedraggaidin]

Haha, I know the feeling.

[sealwhiskers]

The Tea Party isn't necessarily evil, bigoted, ignorant etc etc (all your examples and more), but what they are, and should be seen as, without any doubt, is the adversary. There is no bipartisanship to be found there for a progressive and any time wasted on such matters is time which will be spent by those same groups to undermine any progressive goals.

Even time analyzing the Tea Party is sort of wasted time for a leftie. ;)

[geezer_also]

I can understand that posistion, but if it's such a waste of time, why do so many do it? :P (note: I ask my friends on the right the same question)

[sealwhiskers]

I believe a large part of the Tea Party "issue" was a certain form of disingenuity on their partisanship in the beginning. They were honestly pushed as a bipartisan sort of group for a while there, and so, lots and lots of scrutiny was spent on analyzing them. In all honesty that analysis should have stopped a long time ago on the left (leaving the libertarians to whine and moan over their lost names and slogans).

For my part, I just chime in with what I learned form being to many meetings, when the subject comes up (I don't bring it up on my own, ever), because there is plenty of misconception and/or denial out there.
While the left should occupy their minds and campaigns elsewhere, there is nothing wrong in adding a few cents of my own to something started by someone else.

(and mind you, there are bigoted and ignorant elements in the Tea Party campaigns, as in signs and shouted opinions. It is not all of it, but there is nothing supporting it being "just a fringe" either. It's actually impossible to say, how much it is comprised

[sandwichwarrior]

Load-mouth assholes always get the most attention.

While I tend to agree with a large part of thier Stated platform, there are elements of the Tea-Party that make me nervous. They're harmless as long as they remain the "opposition" but I get the sense that quite a few of them would be all too eager to enforce thier own form of despotism if they thought they could get away with it.

In the mean time its seems to me that both the Democrats and Main-Stream Republicans are intent on driving the national economy off a cliff. So pardon me while I stock up on food water and ammunition.