In defense of the Tea Party movement

An excellent op-ed originally published in The Pottstown Mercury from a Chester County resident who points out the many lies perpetuated by the far-left media bout the Tea Party movement.

Liberals orchestrate attacks on Tea Party

As an active Tea Party participant, I thought Donna Brazile's column in the March 29 Mercury calling for civility in public discourse seemed a little one-sided. Ms. Brazile confined her examples of alleged bad behavior to people presumed to be aligned with the Tea Party movement.

When I think of incivility, though, what I think of first are the folks on the other side of the political fence who express their opinions of us Tea Party folks with extended middle fingers or by rolling down their windows as they drive by and screaming things like "Idiots!" or "Morons!" or, of course, the F-bomb. We even had one fellow get out of his car and start spitting on people at a Tea Party at King of Prussia, and in contrast to the alleged incident in which a congressman was supposedly spat upon by a protester on Capitol Hill, this man was arrested by police and can thus be identified.

But it's not just people driving by in their cars who have expressed negative views of the Tea Party in a less than civil manner. The crescendo of accusations against us began with Nancy Pelosi's assertion that we were "Astroturf," meaning we were an artificial rather than a true grassroots movement. She additionally accused us of carrying swastikas. Then Harry Reid chimed in with the characterization of us as a "mob." President Obama said we were spreading "lies and misinformation." Finally, Jimmy Carter hurled the ultimate accusation: he said we were racists. In other words, we wouldn't mind President Obama's spending the nation into near-bankruptcy if only he were white.

Now we hear from the same quarter the charges that we either "chanted" the N-word at some congressmen, or as Ms. Brazile tells the story, one man "screamed" the N-word at Congressman John Lewis. I wish folks could get that story straight. Was it a group of us, and when I say "us" I do include myself, because I happen to have been in that crowd in front of the Cannon building when Congressman Lewis came through, or was it just one guy screaming? Funny thing, I was there, but I didn't hear anyone at all utter the N-word. I didn't hear anyone use any racial slur that day.

What most people probably don't realize is that it's a little unusual for congressmen to pass through throngs of chanting protesters in order to go vote. I used to work on Capitol Hill, and the normal way to travel from one building to another is to take the elevator down and go through the underground complex known as the catacombs. There's even a little electric subway down there to speed you on your way.

Although several Republican congressmen came out to shake hands and speak with the crowd, few pro-health care bill congressmen showed themselves that day. Among them were Barney Frank and the black congressmen who were allegedly spat at and called names. Barney Frank was reportedly verbally abusive towards at least one woman, hurling the F-bomb at her with no apparent reason, and Congressman Lewis proudly announced to people chanting "kill the bill" that he was going to vote for the bill. It appeared that they were hoping to incite incidents that they could then report to the sympathetic news media to be broadcast all over the country. Whether any of the alleged resulting incidents actually occurred is a matter of dispute.

Only the incivility of those opposed to President Obama's agenda seems to be an issue for Donna Brazile and most of the news media. It is presumed that the persons who threw bricks through windows were somehow associated with the Tea Party movement, but whoever did these things certainly did, inadvertently or otherwise, serve the purpose of what appears to be an orchestrated smear campaign against the Tea Party.

KEN MCCORMICK
Birchrunville

Also check out my earlier post, Gallup Poll: Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream