The Republicans have embraced the teabaggers as their means of having an energized base and visible public support. But, while it offers short term gains to the Republicans, it will prove to hasten their demise. The teabaggers may bring energy, but, they also bring ignorance, hatred and violence, which will repel most Americans. Most Americans want people to behave civilly, even when discussing emotional issues. This was one of the great appeals of Obama. He said that he wanted to stop the hyperbole and solve problems. The American people agreed.
The incidents yesterday where a gauntlet of teabaggers taunted members of Congress with racist and hateful epithets and spit on them will not broaden the appeal of the Republican Party. The vast majority of American people are repulsed by violent racist hatred. But, the Republicans have chosen to make just these people their most public face.
It is a choice that the Republicans can not back away from. Looking at the polls in the Florida and Arizona races we can see that the wingnuts are a huge portion of the Republican primary voters in Arizona and a majority in Florida. Therefore, the Republicans can not distance themselves from the wingnuts without committing political suicide. If a Republican, in most parts of the country, was to distance themselves from the wingnut hate and violence, they would not win the Republican primary. Therefore, they must embrace all of the racist craziness. But, every time they do this, they drive themselves further away from the majority of the American people.
We should help the Republicans do this. We need to make it clear who these teabaggers are and what they really represent. Let's call for Republicans to repudiate the spitting upon and screaming of hateful words at members of Congress and demand an explanation if they don't. Let's highlight the racism and violence of the teabaggers. Make the issue "Do you support racism and violence?"
If the Republicans say "yes" or refuse to answer (which will be seen as a "yes"), they will lose the support of the majority of Americans, who are not rabid racists. If the Republicans say "no", then they lose the support of a huge and necessary chunk of their base. Either way the Republicans are defeated and America reasserts itself as a country dedicated to eradicating racism and violence. It is a great win for us all.
We must look for opportunities to highlight who the Republicans have become, who they represent and who they answer to. Yesterday's incident is one such opportunity. Unfortunately, since hatred and fear is all the Republicans have to fuel their base there will be many more such opportunities.
The fight for comprehensive immigration reform will certainly offer this opportunity. The teabaggers will come out in full fury to attack reform and the racist hatred that will be unleashed will make the health care rhetoric look downright civil by comparison. If we highlight this, the American people will not support them. Because the majority of American people do not want to follow a charge of racists.
The American people showed this fundamental humanity in the past. In the 1960s, when all of America got a good look at the hatred and violence of the Southern segregationists, the tide turned on civil rights. The uninvolved became horrified, came to understand the issue and the support for civil rights soared. The result: the great civil rights legislation of the 1960s.
The Republicans have given us a great opportunity. They have tied their future to these people propelled by hate, whose views are antithetical to what Americans want to believe about themselves and their country. It will be their undoing.