Magister said:
While I feel that Ratigan was asking a somewhat valid question, perhaps it’s time for him to re-view an old clip from Morning Joe, where once again he had a point, but it got buried by the delivery.

Yeah. Just patiently keep asking the question. Was he asking this guy because he had specific evidence his particular group dies contain a racist element?

I’ve read at least two articles where members of the Tea Party have jettisoned members. One for racism and one for offensive homophobic remarks.

And because I know that some people like it when folks back up their assertions… I was living in New Mexico for part of this past decade, so I knew that they had a protest where the police arguably over-reacted, so I took a couple of minutes to find some links.

Unfortunately, I had some trouble going through the television station’s archives back to 2003, but luckily(?) a civil rights trial based on the 2003 Albuquerque protest has finally gotten into court, so it made this trial preview easy to find and once I had a name, I could quickly grab a link to a previous trial, which happened two years ago.

If nothing else, I guess the Tea Partiers could be happy they’re not getting similar treatment.

You were obviously better informed than I was thru the earlier 2/3 of this decade. I didn’t even know about these political blogs till July 2006 and I was a very slow study learning how to navigate it and I was therefore not aware until then how widespread that violent aspect was.

I am not saying in any way that only my political opposites have faults but I am saying that the MSM has a big say, even now, in what stories grow legs and how long the stories are trotted out on those legs. As evidence I remind you of Van Jone’s resignation and Acorn being defunded by the Feds.

BTW, i certainly enjoy your presence here.

@MartiniShark: As I said way up top, somewhere: I don’t believe the NYC/Washington-based media has an understanding of the movement and because the questionable imagery is easy to sell by partsans, plus it gets blog embeds along with ratings, a lot of the treatment is a meme that feeds upon itself.

But, it’s like they used to say… a lot of politics is perception.

Of course, I’ll start by saying that I could also pull up news stories about the protesters getting gassed, beat down or shot with rubber bullets by the authorities and I could even pull-up forum discussions from very early in the war, where reasonable people who were opposed were shouted down, but that’s besides the point.

For the most part, the anti-war protesters were never really given a seat at the table. I’m sure some did eventually work their way into the Obama Administration, but I assume that if there’s a pic of an admin official holding a “bad” sign, Glenn Beck will find it. Not to mention that it took a long time until the anti-war movement were “embraced” by the mainstream of the party and it occurred mostly after they started moderating their behavior by getting refocusing on the process and after they found an articulate, pretty face.

Oh, and as for the Pelosi quote on your linked page; I’d have to read the actual context, but my understanding was that it was mostly targeted toward the Town Hall shoutdowns (decorum) and less about the protests. Though, I could be wrong because I’ve never bothered to check.

I’m not a Tea Party devotee but I do agree with much of their platform, like scaling back the swelling government size. Watching the media reduce a policy-driven platform into race-baiting is disturbing.

Magister, IMO it is b/c the MSM does not give the story from the fringe left much coverage at all while seeking out and emphasizing the right fringe way out of proportion to its frequency and ratio to the whole.

Just check this out for a bit and tell me whether you were aware of the magnitude back in real time:

http://www.ringospictures.com/index.php?page=20090816

If I were Tea Party, I’d take a page from Ross Perot and get peacefully organized. Perhaps not necessarily into a third party for the reason rmbltmbl mentioned, but I could point toward several small town reports of local “chapters” who have tried to recruit people from both parties to field in the next election and others who plan to host political forums.

IOW: They need an articulate, pretty face and wash some of the dirt from their feet.

Look at it this way: there has been numerous speculations made regarding the potential of violence on the horizon coming off of the Tea Party movement, yet for years we have seen violent actions from leftist groups like ELF, many anti-war rallys resulted in skirmishes with police, and protests at G-8 summits have led to vandalism and cars getting set on fire. Yet fears of violence are directed at Tea Parties.

—

That is so true. While I often find myself at odds with the DLC and while I think its time may be ending, it profoundly changed the party for the better. I can point most particularly at Senator Webb, but there are many others, who found the party more inclusive, more welcoming, and the party is the better for it.

On the liberal or progressive side, we had the DLC and the rise of the Clinton wing to help distance the Democrats from some of the extremes. John Kerry famously told an interviewer that he hadn’t seen Fahrenheit 9/11, while Michael Moore claimed that he was at the DC premiere and for the longest time, no mainstream Democratic candidate would appear on the same stage as the controversial filmmaker. A couple of low level or fringe party members may have gone down to Crawford to meet with Cindy Sheehan, but she eventually challenged Nancy Pelosi in a primary and though environmentalists are a large part of the Democratic coalition, those who commit domestic terrorism or acts of vandalism have been rightly pushed to the side.

Center-right, center-left and right down the middle is where elections are fought and won. Neither party can kow-tow to the periphery and as you might imagine, the “netroots” haven’t been too happy about that lately on one side and if those in the Tea Party movement would a like a seat at the electable table, they’re going to have to do the same.

@rmbltmbl: I’m not going to pull them up, but there has been some racist signs, some implied racist statements and implied threats of violence at some protests. And, while I’m not a “Tea Party” member and don’t sympathize with their cause… what I think is not fully understood by the NYC/Washington-based media and thus isn’t being communicated very well is a point that I take from your comment.

There are some basic, “Beckian” philosophies that appear to be shared by all or most members of the “movement”, but they’re not an organized group with completely common beliefs, nationwide.

Each and every little, local “Tea Party” group seems to be operating as a separate entity and though there are some unifying principles; a group of housewives in New Hampshire aren’t in total agreement with those who attended the pro-gun rally in Las Cruces, nor does the lady in Baton Rouge who has publicly considered turning her local “chapter” into a purely educational vehicle necessarily see the same means to an end, as a bunch of farmers from Fresno.

da-wdc (above) and Ratigan are right and if the “Tea Party” wants to become “mainstream” and would like their positions to be better understood by the masses, they are going to have to do something to disavow the fringe elements. As da-wdc and myself have said and I’m sure other would agree, Ratigan didn’t do the discussion any favors with his one-sided tantrum, but somebody has to answer the question.

It never ceases to amaze me how out of touch with the country these people are, or the things they actually believe to make them behave in this way.

Now I offered to discuss anything you wanted to discuss. So you start it off and then we’ll see who breaks down and starts throwing out the juvenile insults. Fair enough?

Why is it that the RWers keep trying to tell Liberals what they think. Now who is it that’s trying to act smarter than the other one?

That charming little bon mot has been used here by TRRK, MrMcGlennKoldys… and one or two others based on something I said at Olbermann Watch about celebrating with a double Absolut on the rocks and has been dragged along with them everywhere. Then the wannabe in the loop with them hangerons pick it up. Mature these guys are definitely not.

I ignore them and have an extra double Absolut on the rocks with a Grey Goose chaser just in their honor. :)

Put the bottle away and go to bed. You didn’t even read my last comment about that, or you just couldn’t comprehend it.

John,
Why is it that Libs think they are so much smarter than the rest of us? You are so condescending. It’s pretty pathetic.