Tea Party Protesters Sink to a New Low

My fellow Americans

Today is a sad day in America. There is an extremely weak Heath Care bill that is about to pass that forces 30 million people to buy insurance from private insurance companies. However, the bill does get rid of two of the most egregious tools of the insurance companies, recision and pre-existing conditions. Some people on the right say that it is a government take over of Heath Care, it’s not. The whole point of reform was to lessen the cost of premiums for the average American and some people on the left say that the mandate will do this because there are so many more people in the heath care system, it won’t. The insurance companies will keep jacking up prices because that is what they do. They try to make as much money as possible by any means necessary. The Heath Care bill is only a slight speed bump to them that, honestly, they don’t really care about.

But, that is not my number one concern for today. Today is a sad day in America, there is a group of people that are extremely angry and they call themselves Teabaggers. They are the people with the signs that claim Obama is worse than Hitler and things like that. I’m sure everyone knows the Teabaggers by now so I won’t explain. Earlier this week I thought that they had sunk to an all new low when they lashed out at a man with Parkinson’s disease who is for Health Care Reform. This video from Dylan Ratigan’s Show made me sick to my stomach.

Deplorable, absolutely deplorable. Is this really what our civilized society has devolved to? Really? Now lets look at the facts about this man with Parkinson’s. His name is Robert Lechter and he is 60 years old. He was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s 15 years ago. He has two Master’s Degrees and a PhD from Cornell. He taught at the University of Michigan and worked as a nuclear engineer. Someone with this resume is very obviously not someone that is “stupid and lazy” that just wants “handouts,“ but enough from me, lets hear from the man himself.

Powerful stuff. Bruce Maiman had an excellent blog on Examiner dot com that said this:
“The raucous debate over health care is just another in a long line of indications that we have lost our sense of community. We say we don’t trust the government, we don’t trust the political class, we don’t trust our community institutions. Mostly, we don’t seem to trust each other. The comment that struck me in the video clip was, “I’ll decide when to give you money.” It’s all about me.”
And once again it makes me think of the Immortal Technique quote that I love so much. “Many of us are in the same boat and it’s sinking, and as long as we keep fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we’re all in, we’re gonna miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole.”
I guess that is where liberals and progressives like my self take a different path than these Tea Party people. I want things to be better for everyone whereas the Tea Party people, like five year olds, want things better for only themselves. All I can picture is them standing there with their Obama = Hitler signs stomping their feet screaming “MINE!!! MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!!!”

Earlier I said I “thought they had sunk to a new level of low” but apparently I was wrong. Yesterday Barney Frank, Emanuel Cleaver and John Lewis were accosted by Tea Party demonstrators. Barney Frank, who I proudly say is the representative of my own district, was leaving an office building when one of the older protesters yelled “Barney YOU FAGGOT!” which then made the other Teabaggers erupt in laughter. Then after that, apparently, the same group of people spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Cleaver who was walking near Rep. John Lewis said he could hear people shouting at them both. What were they shouting at the civil rights hero John Lewis you ask? Well, according to Lewis and a staffer for James Clyburn, they were shouting “NIGGER!” at him. So, just so we all have this straight, the Tea Party people think that it is perfectly fine and quite funny to spit on people, call black people “nigger” and call gay people “faggot”. It truly is a sad day in America.

When I heard this story which I read on The Young Turks forum and then was redirected to Daily Kos, I was very surprised. The Daily Kos blog is from Davidkc and quite excellent. I suggest everyone go check it out at:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/20/848307/-Teabaggers-hurl-racist,-homophobic-slurs-at-Reps.-Lewis,-Frank,-Others-(Updated-3x)

It has a much more in-depth look at what happened, more than I am prepared to get into for now. But anyway, I was surprised when I read this because about a month ago the Teabaggers were pissed at Marvel Comics Captain America. That’s right, they were pissed at Captain America. They were upset because Captain America and his fellow super hero Falcon (who is a black man, which comes into play later) planned on infiltrating an anti government group called “The Watchdogs”. One frame in the comic showed a group of protesters that, while never actually being called Teabaggers, was painfully obviously just that. They held many of the same signs that famous pictures show the Teabaggers holding. Signs like “Tea bag the Libs before they tea bag you” (which is hilarious if you understand the sexual connotation of the term tea bag) “Stop the Socialists” and “No govt in my Medicare” (which is also funny because Medicare is 100% funded by the government, with out government there would be no Medicare). The two super hero’s are on a roof top looking down at the crowd of protesters when they have this dialogue exchange:

Captain America: What the Hell is this?
Falcon: Some kind of protest rally, looks like some anti-tax thing. So I guess the whole hate the government vibe around here isn’t limited to the Watchdogs.
Captain America: We’re not in New York anymore Sam.
Falcon: Which brings me back to my earlier point about infiltration, I don’t exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks, if you know what I mean.
Captain America: No, it’s perfect Sam, it all fits right into my plan.

Boy, the Teabaggers where mad about this. In his conservative blog Warner Todd Huston wrote this:

The Captain tells him, “no it’s perfect… this all fits right into my plan.” After this we find that the Captain’s plan is to send the black man into a redneck bar to pretend to be a black man working for the IRS and to get everyone all mad… because… well, you know that every white person is a racist that hates black civil servants, right?
So, there you have it, America. Tea Party protesters just “hate the government,” they are racists, they are all white folks, they are angry, and they associate with secretive white supremacist groups that want to over throw the U.S. government.
Bet you didn’t know that when you were indulging your right as a citizen to protest your government that you were a dangerous white supremacist that wants to destroy the country, did you? Bet you didn’t realize that your reverence for the U.S. Constitution was a subversive thing to do, did you? And I’ll also bet that you never imagined that you’d scare the little blue panties off of Captain America!

Because of Mr. Huston’s blog and pressure from other Tea Party people Marvel Comics issued an apology and changed all the signs in the frames in subsequent printings of the comic.

My favorite sentence in Mr. Huston’s blog is this one “Tea Party protesters just “hate the government,” they are racists, they are all white folks, they are angry, and they associate with secretive white supremacist groups that want to over throw the U.S. government,” well let’s break that down. They want to over throw the U.S. government, just like early Americans wanted there own new government when they dumped all the tea into Boston Harbor. They are angry, angry enough to spit on a United States Representative. They are all white folks in every picture of every Tea Party protest I have ever seen, no Blacks or Hispanics any where. They are racist, racist enough to yell out nigger at a U.S Rep and they hate the government so much so that they would compare America to Nazi Germany with their Obama = Hitler signs.

In conclusion I have a few questions. My first one is for Mr. Huston. I would like to know, since you were so upset that Marvel Comics claimed that some Teabaggers might be racist, would you be willing to give an apology to Marvel and a retraction in your blog, because obviously there are some Teabaggers that are racist? And to the Tea Party demonstrators, are these the people that represent you? Are theses the people that you want to represent you? People that yell nigger at black congressmen? People that yell faggot at gay congressmen? People that berate, ridicule and mock nuclear engineers that are victim’s of horrific diseases? Have you no civility? Have you no shame? Today is truly a sad day in America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.