Soundbite: Tea Partiers Are Not Just White Uneducated ‘Rednecks’!

by Glynnis MacNicol | 11:38 am, January 11th, 2010

» 12 comments

“I laugh, but also feel indignant, when I read that the tea parties are filled with angry white men, because it’s obvious that reporters are not attending the same tea parties I attended. The events were a mix of young and old, VERY mixed ethnicities (but yes, a majority white). Everyone to a person was courteous and polite, and the best part was the signs, which were funny and clever”

– The Daily Beast’s Tunku Varadarajan quotes “a Wellesley graduate, a widely traveled, thirty-something, multilingual daughter of Indian immigrants who lives in that most redneck of territories…Union Square, in Manhattan” in his defense of the Tea Partiers.

Get ready. Defending and/or warning against the prevalence the Tea Partiers is apparently the new media (dare we say elite?) parlor game. In today’s piece Varadarajan takes the NYT‘s David Brooks to task over his “cultural supremacist” attitude. And further points out that “when America was less of a meritocracy (and that was not so long ago), this solution was less damaging. Now that the country is run mostly by graduates of Ivy League schools, however, that they look down on the electorate is becoming not only vastly irritating to the electorate but also rather dangerous.”

It’s not made clear when exactly the period of time was that America wasn’t run by graduates of Ivy League school grads or the like (though maybe it coincides with the period of time Glenn Beck so fondly recalls during his “re-founding” moments), or how the non-meritocracy system, which was primarily based on class and wealth was somehow better than the one we have, but nevertheless! The point here is that the Tea Partiers, whether or not they like it, are being elevated by the media into a political force to be reckoned with in 2010 — think soccer moms, or Ross Perot without the bank account.

Tea Partiers, Tea Party Movement, The Daily Beast, Tunku Varadarajan

http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

“Everyone to a person was courteous and polite, and the best part was the signs, which were funny and clever””

And how many has the author actually attended? The ones I’ve attended were full of people with offensive, not clever, signs – loud, attempt to shout down speakers, don’t want to talk facts, just attack Obama and Democrats while defending Bush. And they do NOT like opposing viewpoints.
ImNotBlue

Bill Adkins says:
January 11, 2010 at 11:45 am

So essentially they’re you… just backwards and multiplied?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

Wow – Peewee Herman blogs!!
timzank

Somehow I find it hard to believe Bill Adkins attended a Tea Party rally. You say the “ones”you attended they (the tea partiers presumeably) wanted to “shout down speakers? Why would they shout down their own speakers? And they wanted to defend Bush? Why would defending Bush even be a topic at a Tea Party Rally? Making sh%t up aren’t you Bill?
http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

timzank wrote:

Somehow I find it hard to believe Bill Adkins attended a Tea Party rally. You say the “ones”you attended they (the tea partiers presumeably) wanted to “shout down speakers? Why would they shout down their own speakers? And they wanted to defend Bush? Why would defending Bush even be a topic at a Tea Party Rally? Making sh%t up aren’t you Bill?

The speakers that tea partiers shouted down were for the most part politicians who suddenly got religion when they saw the size of the crowds and made a show of changing their long-standing positions. There are several examples on YouTube of Republicans who are given the cold shoulder because they voted for the bailout and the stimulus and road the pork train until it became unfashionable, and then they trotted out speeches that adopted the terms of the protesters.

The best example of this is the appearance of South Carolina Congressman Gresham Barrett, which was by any measure a disaster.

And I do believe Adkins attended a Tea Party … most likely as one of those people watching from across the street with an Obama/Biden campaign sign and his middle finger held aloft.
http://www.uselessbeauty.com Vidiot

Of course tea partiers aren’t uneducated rednecks. Some of their signs were even spelled correctly.
http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

Darn. Not “road” the pork train, “rode” the pork train.

I’m catching Roxsteady’s Disease!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

I attended two parties, the first on April 15, 2009 when I walked out into the middle of one. Listened to the ‘organizer’ mangle and misrepresent facts and reality. He was cheered despite his failings. When he asked if anyone else wanted to speak, I said yes – when I pointed out the chronology of how our national debt moved from $5.2 trilion in 2001 to $10.6 trillion on 1/20/2009, they didn’t want to hear it – it didn’t fit with their agenda and people attempted to shout me down.

In July, a second one was announced and I again attended with the intent to speak. I was denied that opportunity by the organizers. So I wrote a editorial in the local paper stating my position. It was only after that appeared that the Teabaggers became ‘bi partisan’ in their criticism. I enjoy kicking their beehive.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

BTW, after my editorial appeared the local 912ers, Becknuts and Teabaggers between here and Cincinnati tried to organize a letter writing campaign. Local paper didn’t buy it.
TfT

So Bill, were you the one carrying the sign that Obama=Hitler?
http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

Bill Adkins wrote:

In July, a second one was announced and I again attended with the intent to speak. I was denied that opportunity by the organizers. So I wrote a editorial in the local paper stating my position. It was only after that appeared that the Teabaggers became ‘bi partisan’ in their criticism. I enjoy kicking their beehive.

Link?
SWWT

Bill Adkins,

With all due respect, maybe it’s just you and no one actually likes to hear you speak.

Sincerely,

SWWT