Harold's Left:

Tom Tancredo, perhaps the most openly bigoted legislator since George Wallace, opened the Tea Party national convention in Nashville with predictably divisive rhetoric. Tancredo claims that teabaggers must stop "the cult of multiculturalism" and that maybe Obama, who he called a "committed socialist ideologue", was only elected because "we do not have a civic, literacy test before people can vote in this country". He went on to say that " People who could not even spell the word vote (cheers), or say it in English (bigger cheers)" were to blame for Obama's victory.

People like Tancredo don't make mistakes when they use this sort of tone. He knew exactly what he was trying to say when he spoke about poll tests and the 'cult of multiculturalism". Tancredo knows that poll tests were used as a way to block blacks from voting for nearly a century after the passage of the 15th amendment. Poll tests, which were of course rigged for certain folks to fail, essentially excluded blacks from American politics until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Tancredo's comment was also aimed at Latinos as he says that some of the voters in the last election could not say "vote" in English. The Tea Party movement hates multiculturalism because it means that their idealized, and completely false view of America as a country that belongs solely to middle-class whites, is drifting away. It's not a coincidence that this movement sprang under Obama. They love to lie and say that this is purely about "voter rage" of "big-government spending and deficits", which I find amusing because these folks never had a national convention under Bush when he ran deficits through the roof. Moreover, this is not about big government, nor is it about deficits. We all know what this is about. It's a movement of 40+, Southern and Midwestern whites who feel that the America they idealize about is slipping away.

The comments of Tancredo highlight exactly the sort of core values that this movement possesses. Bigotry, an aversion to multicuturalism, a disdain for religious freedom, a loathing of tolerance, and a general hatred of a black man as President. Of course they will lie and say that none of these issues are relevant to their anger, but the proof is in the pudding. Tancredo says it's time for them to "rise up and take our country back"... from whom?

Share this: |Digg | Twitter | Technorati | Del.icio.us | StumbleUpon | Facebook |  Edit Post