[Peace-discuss] tea parties miss the boat
E. Wayne Johnson
ewj at pigs.ag
Thu Apr 16 10:21:15 CDT 2009
Perhaps you don't know what's behind the sign
*"I'm a proud right-wing extremist."*
Maybe you haven't been following the MIAC matter and the recent
statements by Janet Napolitano
regarding "right-wing extremists".
The sign is a response defying Janet Napolitano.
***
You really are amiss throwing bricks at the tea parties without attending
or doing enough homework to know what is going on.
If you didn't strain so hard to disagree you might find some things you
agree with.
Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> Thanks for your efforts, Mort -
>
> And Wayne for your even-handedness. Unfortunately I think we will
> have to 'agree to disagree' on this event. But I want to make it
> clear that before making my remarks I did research this effort, which
> anyone could do as well as I did. For one thing, I went to
> http://taxdayteaparty.com/ and read what participants were saying.
> The Illinois section was particularly enlightening:
>
> " I stand for preserving the American way. I am against this
> socialistic regime the uninformed have elected. I’ll be there with
> others!"
>
> "liberals are projecting a very rabid socialist agenda."
>
> And when one lone voice chimed in to criticize the war, "Uh, “C”,
> “failed Iraq war”? Did you miss something? Like the success in Iraq?
> Democracy? Come on down to the tea party, be sure to wear your Obama
> slobbering t-shirt so we know who you are … maybe by April 15 you’ll
> come to your senses when you see how (N)Obama is rapidly destroying
> our country."
>
> "I will be there will bells on. I am so tired of what Obama is doing
> to this country! We need to take back our country and renew our pride
> in being a true American."
>
> "I am in P-Town also Carol and Bobbie, and if we can get an April 15th
> Tax Tea Party here in the land of Obamunism Central, I can be there.
> Of course, I also view April 15th as National Buy A Gun Day, so it
> might have to happen after Pekin Gun Store opens."
>
> "Operation Support Our Troops organization will be there and is
> requesting perhaps a donation to bring since their inventory is low
> for the troops. Come with American Flags and signs - enough is enough!
> Get our country back! Help us with this 2009 American Revolution -
> stand strong, stand united and let us make history!"
>
> " No more government funding of a “bridge to nowhere”, no more
> providing non-essential medical care for illegals, no more research
> grants “to study the Kentucky toad” (see Stimulus bill), or public
> funding of “artists”, No more public financing of insurance for those
> that CHOOSE to live in high casualty risk areas, like beach front
> property."
>
> I should also point out that racism is not the only problem with this
> "tea party" idea, and it wasn't my focus - just the part at which
> Wayne took most umbrage - but it was real, as we can now see from the
> results across the country:
>
> http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/04/15/party/index.html
>
> Not that criticism or anger directed at Obama is necessarily racist -
> it certainly isn't - but in this context of jingoistic "Ameristan"
> comments emphasizing the middle name "Hussein" and so on, I think
> there is good reason to see racism at work.
>
> But that's not all that's wrong. There is, for example, the woman at
> http://taxdayteaparty.com/ holding a sign proclaiming, "I'm a proud
> right-wing extremist."
>
> If you notice in the background of the first CNN clip - which is
> pitiful journalism, but what do you expect from CNN? - someone is
> waving a sign that reads, "Obama, start bowing to Americans not
> foreign kings." Maybe you could take that a couple of ways, but when
> people are shouting "Obama is the anti-christ" and so on, none of it
> exists in a vacuum. In another photo, someone holds a sign that
> reads, "Don't tax me, bro." The same slogan comes up again in this
> little Fox News ad for the April 15 events:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktijKFURdPg
>
> It's too bad that some of the people at these rallies are sometimes
> assumed to be the same as these "nutjobs", but frankly they have made
> a decision that it's okay to be associated with "proud right-wing
> extremists" over the welfare rights movement or ACORN or the immigrant
> rights movement - the "losers who couldn't pay their mortgage"
> http://www.officialchicagoteaparty.com/. (This is a call to "all you
> capitalists" who want to organize.)
>
> The biggest problem I see is not hurt feelings of a few misguided
> angry white folks. It's that it is the Right that has seized the
> moment, and harnessed popular rage, while much of the Left is still
> arguing about what to do, writing in progressive magazines with
> 3-4-digit circulations (some of which I love, but none of which are
> going too spark a revolution), and washing its hands of itself.
>
> There are some excellent initiatives, as we can see at
> http://www.equityblog.org/ and
> http://www.peoplestribune.org/natlrsrc/natlrsrc.html and, if I do say
> so myself, at our local Jobs With Justice coalition and the People's
> Potlucks we've been holding. But we have a lot of work to do to
> redirect this rightwing travesty.
>
> Ricky
>
> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
> *Cc:* peace discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, April 15, 2009 5:50:37 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] tea parties miss the boat
>
> I did see Mort there with the flyers that had some good information.
>
> I actually did not hear any remarks that I would call racist.
>
> I did hear some attacks on Obama and on Acorn, most of which were
> unfortunate as well as unedifying.
>
> I heard the organizer say also that he really didn't like that sort of
> thing either. But the organizer, who invited me to speak, did not
> provide me with
> any restrictions or guidelines either. It was left up to me to decide
> what to say and consider what would resonate with the
> audience and also move them toward some introspection and contemplation.
>
> I heard some in the audience remark that McCain would have been at
> least as bad a choice for President as Mr. Obama, and they were about
> as unimpressed with the partisan Obama-bashing as they are with Mr.
> Obama himself. One of the Leno-esque remarks about Obama was fairly
> clever and did get a chuckle from me but I can't recall it now.
>
> Ricky's observation that it was "Libertarian nutjobs" (emphasizing the
> capital "L") holding the event is incorrect.
> There were a couple of active local Libertarians there and a couple of
> out of town students who identified themselves as Libertarian,
> but none of those were among the actual organizers.
>
> Kevin Waite, the organizer, identifies himself as a Constitutionalist,
> and one of the speakers was Randy Stufflebeam, who is the director of
> the Illinois Constitution Party. The
> Constitution Party was originally called the USTaxpayer's Party, and
> considers itself neither liberal nor conservative, but most of us
> would identify
> most of the members of the Constitution party as traditional
> conservative. The Constitution party is pro-defense but anti war and
> opposes
> the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.
>
> The Libertarian Party is not opposed to abortion while the
> Constitution Party is 100% pro-life. Constitution Party members tend
> to be Christian and church-goers.
>
> There were a variety of Republicans there ranging from RonPaulers to
> paleocons, not many neocons, very few of the mainline GOPers other
> than a few who stopped by
> to take pictures and then vanished. Some indicated they were
> followers of Glenn Beck and some sported signs with Glenn Beck slogans.
>
> There were people there from Champaign and Urbana, as far away south
> as Charleston and Arthur, and as far north as Iroquois county.
>
> ***
> Here is an excerpt from my comments- full text of my "notes" is at
> http://www.liberty4urbana.com/drupal-6.8/node/172
>
> We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect
> Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
> common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings
> of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
> this Constitution for the United States of America.
>
> Rather than a more perfect Union, we have inherited a monstrous
> Federal government that is insinuating itself into every aspect of our
> personal and private lives.
>
> Rather than the establishment of Justice, we have 2 million of our
> fellow citizens incarcerated behind bars. The legal-justice-prison
> industrial complex has become an out-of-control monster. Justice is
> perverted for profit, job creation, and the accretion of political
> favour, at tremendous cost.
>
> Rather that the insurance of domestic Tranquillity, we have embarked
> upon the establishment of a police state at home and often
> unreasonable surveillance and monitoring of our fellow citizens.
>
> In the name of common Defence, we have embarked upon the insanity of
> world-wide empire-building that drains our economy and constantly puts
> us all at risk.
>
> Instead of promoting the general Welfare, we have allowed an oligarchy
> of elitists to plunder our treasury, debase our currency, export our
> jobs, destroy our state and national sovereignty and erode the very
> structure of our society by destroying its basic unit, the family.
> Welfare has come to mean handouts and redistribution of income.
> Indeed the sharing of our wealth is a good thing, but we need to
> provide to one another the opportunity and the obligation to be
> productive. That is the right to life, the right to a future. We
> have killed by Abortion – 50 million not quite 4000 per day. Can you
> hear their voices, “I am a person too. My life means something!”
>
> Rather than securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
> posterity, our governments are robbing us of our liberties and our
> properties and are taxing us and our future generations into a life of
> perpetual servitude. The government established to protect us has
> brought us the Military industrial complex, Medical pharmaceutical
> industrial complex, Education industrial complex, Entitlements we
> cannot pay, Ponzi schemes beyond the imagination, and under the
> table, behind the curtain, in dark corners,--- theft, and fraud. Why
> do they do it? Because they can.
>
>
>
>
> Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>> Good work, Ricky.
>>
>> I attended the Champaign Tea paryty with a little flyer put out by
>> AfterDowning Street.org which I displayed walking around, and which
>> pointed out that over 50% of the income tax dollar are military costs
>> and that there is a huge bailout to the banks. People there were
>> interested, surprisingly. I had many questions and positive nods
>> while I walked around. One comes to the conclusion that many are
>> just confused about hy they may be suffering, and are vulnerable to
>> "fundamentalism" just like elsewhere in the world.
>>
>> On the other hand there was a lot of ignorant and hateful speech,
>> absolutely scurrilous and racist from the podium. "Patriotism" was
>> the order of the day, flags a-flying. Of course, this "Tea Party"
>> has its origins on the far right, so what does one expect? Wayne
>> Johnson was there to give a speech, but I couldn't stay to hear what
>> he had to say; I hope it showed the costs of our wars.
>>
>> Too bad more didn't show up to show what's behind our budget.
>>
>>
>> On Apr 15, 2009, at 3:34 PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>>
>>> My 2c...
>>>
>>> http://theclayeater.blogspot.com/2009/04/missing-boat.html
>>>
>>> Ricky
>>>
>>> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>>
>>>
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>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>
>
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