When the Left looks at anti-government protests, it sees hate and hears slurs — even when they aren’t there.
By David Franke
I did not watch the coverage of the protests against Obamacare last weekend, nor the coverage of the actual passing of the health care bill, nor the coverage of President Obama’s signing. I had had enough by the time all this came up. I knew where I stood, nothing that happened in the last 24 hours was going to change my mind, and I definitely had better things to do.
Therefore I did not “see” any of that happen in real time, and cannot vouch for what happened one way or the other. I have seen some after-the-fact coverage on CNN and MSNBC, but just a little before I could get around to changing the channel.
But now I’m concerned about the accusations of racism being hurled at the Tea Party protesters. In particular, charges that they shouted epithets at black members of Congress as they were headed for the Capitol chambers to vote.
If that charge is accurate, it points – at the very least – to pretty poor crowd control on the part of the Tea Party organizers. I do not believe they are so morally deficit as to condone something like that, or so politically tone-deaf that they wouldn’t realize how an incident like that can damage and even destroy a movement.
So, I turned with interest to an article forwarded to me, “Anatomy of a Racial Smear,” by Jack Cashill. It appears to be a pretty well-reasoned article, even though it appears in a neocon rag (The American Thinker) that I don’t usually cite approvingly.
“Tea Party protesters scream ‘nigger’ at black congressman”
That’s the headline on an article Cashill says was written by reporter William Douglas, and published by the McClatchy Newspapers chain. I couldn’t believe a supposedly respectable newspaper chain would put something that inflammatory in print, so I started Googling, and here it is, right on the chain’s site.
The question then becomes, is it true? And Cashill does a convincing job of taking that headline apart, word by word, as well as the article itself. Truth, it appears, is pretty elusive. The smear, you come to believe, is everywhere in that McClatchy headline and article.
Check it out. Read Cashill’s article, and while you’re at it, definitely check out his links – a video of the Tea Party protesters shouting at the congressional Black Caucus (see if you can hear the “N” word) and an audio link of House Majority Whip James CIyburn, who walked with the Black Caucus contingent, admitting to Keith Olbermann afterwards, “I didn’t hear the slurs.” (Maybe that’s because there were none?)
Use of the word “nigger” has no place in our political discourse, of course, or in protests. But so far the only place I’ve actually seen or heard use of the epithet is in that McClatchy Newspapers headline and article.
Videotapes are everywhere today. Has anyone actually seen or heard a tape where the Tea Party protesters at the Capitol used racial taunts or epithets? If so, please bring this to my attention. Short of some real evidence, all we seem to have is the “word” of members of the Black Caucus and an apparently biased reporter. I wouldn’t take the word of a Black Caucus congressman if he had both hands on the Bible, they are such propagandists. Ha, that’s probably true with any Member of Congress other than Ron Paul, so maybe I’m being racist myself in singling out the Black Caucus. But they are very conspicuous propagandists, and they’re the center of this particular story.
I’ve personally witnessed only one Tea Party gathering, the original one on Capitol Hill last year, and that was as an observer. I wanted to see how many people showed up. What I saw were very ordinary Americans. Definitely not the Beautiful People you see at Washington soirées, both on the Left and the Right. Most of them probably were not exactly “sophisticated” in their way of expressing their concerns – ordinary Americans, after all, have better things to pursue with their lives than politics, things such as jobs, family, etc. But they were angry enough to get off their duffs and come to Washington to protest. That anger, however, was directed at the federal government’s messing up their lives, and our nation’s future. I certainly heard or saw no anger that was racist.
Isn’t this the kind of civic involvement all the “good government” types say we should be encouraging? Why is it (in the MSM) that only leftist rallies and demonstrations are portrayed as virtuous?
I am certain there are some racists in the Tea Party movement, just as there are in any broad-based movement. That doesn’t mean they define it, and from what I’ve seen, the Tea Party organizers have tried to weed them out. Heck, there are racists in any big civil rights gathering, only their racism is directed at whites. I see fear of homos and fear of Mexicans as much bigger problems on the Right today.
Do not mistake vehemence for something more sinister
Americans have every right to be angry at almost everything the feds do, and passions on both sides were strained as this epochal battle over health care reached the final vote. I look at the video linked in Cashill’s article, and I definitely do see anger. But no evidence of racism. What – were they supposed to stop their protesting and just smile and wave “hello” to these congressmen because they were black? That’s racism itself.
By the way, can anyone explain why the members of the Black Caucus were walking through the crowd? Where were they coming from? Since I didn’t watch the live coverage, I have no idea why they were there.
Congressmen usually take the underground Capitol Hill subway when going from their Senate and House office buildings (if that’s where they were coming from) to the Capitol for a vote. And if they are arriving by car, the car usually pulls right up to an entrance of the Capitol, so in that case they wouldn’t be walking a gauntlet through the crowd. Call me Mr. Suspicious, but it sort of looks to me like they wanted to provoke a reaction – not such a stretch for members of the Black Caucus. Call me Mr. Conspiracist, but I think I smell a set-up.
So, show me the videotape or recording evidence – not of vehemence, but of actual racism. If you produce it, I’m ready to condemn it. Short of that, I condemn the people who smear their opposition – without evidence – with such labels. That sort of group-smear may be politics as usual, but that’s why most Americans hate politics as usual.
A note to my liberal friends:
If you are uncomfortable with the vehemence of the protests, all I can say is, get used to it. It’s only going to get worse in the years ahead, on both the Left and the Right. As the nation heads toward bankruptcy, “entitlements” will be drastically cut and taxes will be drastically raised. There are going to be a lot of pissed-off people.
David Franke was one of the founders of the conservative movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He is the author of a dozen books, including Safe Places, The Torture Doctor, and America’s Right Turn.This essay originally appeared at LewRockwell.com.
Great article David. Unfortunately, playing the “Race Card” is a common thing with the Liberals, but it doesn’t always win the day.
I have read a half-dozen articles by Conservative apologists trying to save face in regards to the accusations of racism and supposed threats of violence by Tea Party activists, but I liked your article because it wasn’t a politically motivated apology that is so popular right now…rather, it questions whether the accusations are actually true (which they don’t seem to be).
It seems the very people that cry the loudest about racism and bigotry use racism and bigotry to score political points even when crying wolf waters down the legitimate cases.
So what if the “n word” did get tossed out? It would almost certainly have come from an activist “plant” in the crowd – that’s the oldest trick in the book. And even if it came from a legitimate tea-party protester, again, so what? Am I obliged to set reason aside and support Obamacare because one out of the millions of my fellow activists is a rude racist? Not on your life. But I’ll agree to a rethink when my leftwing friends start applying the “spotless” standard to every lamb in *their* flock.
Libs/Progs use charges of racism because it works. You could have written an excellent article about the unconstitutionality of forcing Americans into private contracts with government-approved businesses. You could have written an excellent article about the blind religiosity of libs’ faith in progressive government. However, instead, you wrote an excellent article about how there is no proof that liberty-minded protesters are racists.
Walking through that crowd was a brilliant move by the black caucus. They’ve been playing this game for a long time, and they know how to use an audience. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when they came up with the idea– amidst knowing chuckles. THAT would make for some great cinema. Maybe we’ll learn about how it went down in some future memoir.
Mr Franke’s suspicions about smears of tea partiers certainly ring true – this is how anybody outside the bounds of Respectable discourse is routinely treated. Certainly it was how the mainstream press and media generally treated antiwar protests during the Bush years (when they weren’t ignoring them).
The smear is the first line of defence against Outsiders.
One of the oldest plays in the book. Remember Hitler used the burning of the Reichstag supposedly by the communist to catapult himself into power. I honestly believe that is what we are seeing here with the accusations against the TP. If you watch the video one of the congressmen or an aide is holding up a smartphone in each hand panning the crowd as if taking video. If indeed something did happen and they actually got video it would be all over the MSM and internet. I have been to several TP events and did not witness any racism in actuallity at the last one most of the speakers were conservative blacks.
What I find interesting in the comments so far, as well as Mr. Franke’s article, is that apparently none of you actually looked at the video on the McClatchy News website. Mr. Franke naively asks and opines “a video of the Tea Party protesters shouting at the congressional Black Caucus (see if you can hear the “N” word).” Well, I looked at the video, and guess what? Towards the end, between 1:35 and 1:39, I hear, plain as day, not once, but twice, the shout “nigger go home!” Are you now ready to condemn it, Mr. Franke, as you said in the penultimate paragraph of your post? “So, show me the videotape or recording evidence – not of vehemence, but of actual racism. If you produce it, I’m ready to condemn it.”
Even more amazingly, Mr. Franke seems to suggest that members of the Congressional Black Caucus don’t even have the right to walk where they please, lest it incite the poor, misunderstood tea party protesters to express themselves with “vehemence.” But why should a vote on a bill that has no connection to racial matters whatsoever, incite anyone to shout racial epithets at anyone else? But of course, any racist — ohh, excuse me, vehemently expressed racist-sounding — epithet must have been deliberately provoked 1) by walking past the protesters, and 2) being black at the same time. And we all know that the only way to express our “vehemence” towards a passing black Congressman is to shout “nigger” at him. But lets forgive the TP protesters for being just plain folks, not as sophisticated in their self-expression, as we might expect, shall we say, from the writers at The American Conservative.
By the way, I hoped this bill would fail as well. I don’t like individual mandates, or taxes on workplace health plans. However, I have very little sympathy for ignorant behavior, or those who make excuses and alibis for ignorant behavior. This kind of writing is not why I chose to subscribe to The American Conservative.
I would also like to add that Mr. Franke would do better to address the generalized level of ignorance that exists in the Tea Party movement, rather than try to defend it from accusations of a particular type of ignorance (racism). As an opponent of the Democrats health care bill, I can tell you in all honesty that I could NEVER bring myself to go near a Tea Party rally with the generalized level of ignorance I have seen demonstrated by many of the attendees, even without reference to real or alleged racial epithets. I have yet to have seen any TPer at these health care rallies actually even address the primary problem of this legislation: individual mandates and taxes on health plans. I haven’t seen all of them, of course, but it appears not to be a primary focus.
Instead, I see people referring to “death panels,” still others continue to ask for Obama’s birth certificate, and some referring to it as a “government takeover,” which it certainly is not. I have seen interviews with TPers who could not even say what parts of the bill they were opposed to. These people seem to believe that anything the government does is “socialism,” although I’ve yet to see one of them attacking Obama for continuing Bush’s “socialist” wars, or “socialist” airport security, or even “socialist” VA health programs. One lady I saw on a YouTube video actually vehemently accused someone of being “unpatriotic” simply because he favored the bill. I have never seen that with proponents of the bill, or even leftist (single payer backers) opponents of the bill. there is a fanaticism evident in these Tea Party crowds that makes them scary. They are so sure of themselves while often not knowing a thing they are talking about. These people could almost drive me to support the Democroaches unreservedly. But I promise that won’t happen!(-:
I’m an interloper here, since my politics are quite a bit left of liberal, but I want to applaud this article for some basic truths in what I believe to be completely hypocritical in it’s trashing of the Tea Party Movement. I can’t say one way or the other what racial slurs were actually used, but I have noted some distinctly racist signs in crowds. In this sense, liberals may be “playing the race card” by emphasizing them, but don’t kid yourself there isn’t racism out there.
That said, the slurs against the Tea Party Movement, including “wing nut”, “ignoramus”, “lunatic fringe” have been sticking in my craw every time I hear them. As a college lecturer, I suppose I’d be called a number of things here if I was writing on another issue, but I think the inability of liberals to listen to the legitimate fears that “big government” is eroding our rights and damaging our Constitutional protections does speak to the close mindedness of a large part of the left in this country – particularly liberals.
I still believe government can be a positive good at times, but only if we consistently question the amount of power we allow it to assume. The main gripe – besides racism – is that the Tea Partiers are ignorant because they lack college educations. Knowledge doesn’t equate to wisdom and we too often teach people what to think and not HOW to think for themselves. Education, like anything else, is no guarantee of good decision-making skills, nor of wisdom or heart.
@ Chuck Carlson,
Don’t you think the Tea Party movement brings these “slurs” of “wing nut”, “ignoramus”, “lunatic fringe”, etc. upon themselves by their own behavior? You’ve just said “I have noted some distinctly racist signs in crowds.” Have you also noticed the distinctly “birther” signs in these same crowds? Or the accusations (at Obama) of wanting to murder grandma? Or the Hitler moustache superimposed over Obama’s face? Or the association of liberalism of any sort with treason? Knowledge may not equate to wisdom, but it does not therefore follow that wisdom is any more prevalent amongst the ignorant.
Franke, you’re an idiot.
Love,
Jeff
Thanks, AGPhilbin, for your continued common sense. Anyone who believes that the TPers are the aggrieved party and victims of the racism of their opponents is being willfully delusional.
I’d suggest people read
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/opinion/27blow.html?scp=10&sq=March+27+2010&st=nyt
[...] an interview with Justine Sharrock, Naomi Wolf shows that she doesn’t completely buy into the Left’s stereotype of the Tea Parties as racist. Not only that, she endorses states’ rights and taking on the Fed: NW: I used to [...]
You’re full of BS Phillbin, unsurprisingly, since you’re a leftist troll. Sounds to me like Cleaver, go home. The Tea Partiers aren’t racist, but Charles Blow, Paul Krugman, and Bob Herbert sure are, as anyone who reads them knows. They WILL BE death panels; panels of bureaucrats rationing care. It’s an accurate and legitimate description.
@ A.C.
You are either an idiot, nearly deaf, or a bald faced liar, and probably all three. I challenge anyone here to honestly support your rendering of the video. The word before “go home” didn’t even remotely sound like “Cleaver,” other than that it had two syllables. But perhaps you hallucinated the presence of the late(?) Black Panther leader, Elderidge Cleaver up on that balcony. At least this exchange shows that you are capable of being embarrassed, or you wouldn’t have attempted this lame defense.
[...] In an interview with Justine Sharrock, Naomi Wolf shows that she doesn’t completely buy into the Left’s stereotype of the Tea Parties as racist. Not only that, she endorses states’ rights and taking on the [...]