Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball took exception to a Tea Partier's comment "We're not racist, we're anticommunist." He claimed that this is exactly what the John Birch Society used to say, and went on to add "this is the old Dixie crowd."
Well, it is what the John Birch Society used to say. It might also be said by virtually every American, plus a few billion people from other countries. Trying to associate it with an organization discredited in public sentiment is thus either deceitful or dim. Or both.
There's another point, a bit more subtle, that bothers me more. The problem is more than the tu quoque of You're a bigot, No, you're a bigot. Nor is even the irony of making bigoted statements while talking about bigotry the central difficulty. It is the complete absence of self-observation, the thorough lack of clarity of thought, which cannot see these ironies, even when they are pointed out.
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Your point that there are several billion [atleast] in the world who are anti-Communist is well taken. Slightly more than the membership in The Flat Earth Society. I doubt that the Tipster [McNeill], Chrissie's old boss, had many kind words for the Commies.After all, they didn't deliver him votes!
Chrissie was The One who got a tingle up his leg in response to The One. Coherent thought with him is hit or miss. Sometimes he does come up with a coherent statement. Part of the problem is that of being an on-air pundit. Odds are that anyone who talks for an hour at a time is going to say some damn fool thing.
The MSM and the Oilbama administration has tried for the last year to demonize and marginalize the Tea Party. Result: they are stronger than ever.
From the Gallup Poll: Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their Demographics
Tea Party Supporters 28%
Tea Party Opponents 26%
Neither 38%
No Opinion 6%
Tea Party Supporters
Non-Hispanic White 79 %
Non-Hispanic Black 6%
Other 15%
All Americans
Non-Hispanic White 75%
Non-Hispanic Black 11%
Other 15%
For the 2008 election, it was estimated that blacks constituted 13% of the voters, with 96% of black voters voting for Obama. With 46% of the vote going to McCain, the math says that blacks represented 1.1% of the Republican vote in 2008. The math, in percentages : ((.04X.13)/.46) X100.
Blacks constitute six percent of Tea Party supporters while blacks constituted one percent of McCain voters in 2008! That is quite a difference. These numbers say that the Tea Party has had considerable success in attracting black support compared to what the Republicans did in 2008.
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