Where was the Tea Party?

I have had many an e-mails, comment, and other type of messages sent to me accussing me of using the "race card" when referring to the Tea Party. Many from avid Tea Party members & supports. OK, so I don't have to keep repeating the same thing over and over again, let me start out my answer with the following:

When you lay with pigs you get muddy. What this means that even if you don't beleive that you are a racist, the fact that you associate yourself with one and you support it pretty much can cause people to believe that you are.

Ah, now we come the key question...how do I know that the Tea Party is racist. Because I am a student of history and remember a couple of decades back when the old KKK was around. I remember news footage of their speeches and their statements. They wrapped themselves with the American flag, called themselves partiotic, called into question the patrotism of those that criticized it, and were obsessively religious. So much so, that they use to burn a cross as a form of celebration and devotion. That seems like a pretty solid connection to me.

Not enough? OK, try this on for size. Let's look at the George W Bush administration. During Bush's term he started 2 wars whose cost he didn't even put on the books, thus not allowing the American people (and especially the Tea Party crowd) the opportunity to weigh in on, if they wanted to incur the costs of the wars, and thereby passing the costs onto their grandchildren. You remember the Tea Party supporter's grandchildren. Those that the Obama administration will bury in debt but the Bush spending wouldn't. Did we hear from the Tea Party crowd? We heard some isolated voices that were quickly shouted down or silenced with cries of "UNAMERICANS!!", "UNPATRIOTIC!!". But where were the Tea Partiers. Nowhere to be found? Why?

It was during the Bush Adminstration that the full financial system was on the verge of collapse. This is contrary to what many of the supporters of the Tea Party are now saying. These people are repeating constantly that the finaicial crisis came into existence during Obama's administration and that Bush inherited an bad economy and that he turned around (when in fact Bush's administration inherited a budget surplus). Why do they say this? Because Bush was white and he was wealthy.

Where were the Tea Parties when Sec of the Treasury Hank Paulson, who was appointed by George W Bush, came to the American people with a bailout plan that inlcuded trillion of dollars in handouts to the financial industry all written out on a few pages, with no details or oversight. I remember that Paulson wanted the American taxpayers to just hand him the money with no questions asked. Otherwise we were going to go through a financial Armegeddon. Where was the Tea Party Supprters then? Nowhere. It was the Democrats that stood up and said that IF there was a real crisis and IF the financial industry needed to be bailed out that there would have to be guidelines and oversight. No one knew what the end result would have been without it. We now see, with the global debt situation and the markets' activity that the fraud that Wall Street was a party to and the Bush Administration tried to cover up has had more drastic and far-reaching impact then anyone thought.

So, now we move forward to the presidential elections of 2008. Barack Obama wins the presidency. A black man. The FIRST black man to occupy the White House as something other then a servant. It WAS historic. Other countries viewed us again as an enlightened society, no longer the country rubes of the Bush Administration. However, almost immediately there sprang into existence a loose confederation of groupos calling themselves The Tea Party. Complete with the tea bags hanging everwhere. Is it coincidence that as soon as a black man is elected to the highest office in the country, this Tea Party group comes out of nowhere and what do they protect? Did they protect the record bedget deficit that George Bush saddled the country with? Nope. They protected Barack Obama. The man wasn't even in office that long before the signs were up protecting HIM. The man that was willing to negotiate and discuss the continuation and long-term viability of social security and medicare was being accused of destroying it by the Tea Party group INSTEAD OF the Republican Party that had put forth an actual plan to dismanlte it and replace it with a completely inadequate voucher plan. The Tea Party supporters are even going to be pushing for Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan while villifying The President for the destruction of it. Let's see...Paul Ryan is WHITE and The President is BLACK.

If you don't believe that the Tea Party groups isn't a racist group, then explain to me where they were when the deficit was being impacted as depicted below. Where were they during the Bush Administration. Where were they when George Bush and Dick Cheney were shredding the US Constitution, that the Tea Party supporters hold so dearly and wrap themselves in, when the Bush Administration lied and manipulated in order to send troops on an unwarranted war. Why weren't the Tea Party supporters screaming for the impeachment of Bush & Cheney when they violated, ignored, and essentially broke their oath to uphold and protect the US Constitution? Why weren't they as vocal and inflamed then? Because there was no black man occupying the highest elected office in the country, that's why.

If you're not a racist and don't wish to be labelled as one, then disassociate yourself from the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party. Allow the Republican Party to go back to being a decent group that cared about ALL Americans, albeit from a different perspective then the Democratic Party. Work within the Republican Party to throw off the shackles of corporate enslavement. You do this, THEN you'll be thought of as a decent person again.