From The Cincinnati Beacon
According to her public Facebook page, Anne Marie Harpen is a conservative Republican and a Catholic. She uploaded this photo to the Cincinnati Tea Party Facebook page. The picture features two white people, a man and a woman, holding a sign: "Obama Is Commie Scum." The sign continues to reference two web pages: natall.com and natallnews.com, both of which are pages for the National Alliance.
That group advocates statements like this: "We must have new societies throughout the White world which are based on Aryan values and are compatible with the Aryan nature." So it looks like the disgusting dogma of white supremacy felt right at home at this week's Cincinnati Tea Party!
Just take a look at the photo. You can see these party-goers are not counter-protesters -- they are included within the throngs of Tea Party advocates.
Their presence does not seem to be causing a stir. They appear to be very included into their surroundings:
Here's a screenshot of the photo displayed on the Cincinnati Tea Party Facebook page:
Here's the picture in question as seen within the context of other pictures uploaded by Anne Marie Harpen:
Photos courtesy of Image Shack.
The Republican Party likes to claim it is a "big tent," with room for all kinds of people within their ideology. Is it true? In addition to advocates for the National Alliance, the Cincinnati NAACP's Chair of Legal Redress made it out for the event.
But what does the presence of advocates for the National Alliance mean? What does it say when the ideology of white supremacy finds itself at home as part of the emerging Tea Party movements?
Hamilton County GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou really enjoyed this event. "The Tea Party yesterday was highly impressive with huge attendance," wrote Triantafilou today on his blog. "Congratulations to this group on a great job."
Is the presence of advocates for the National Alliance "impressive"? Is that part of the "great job"? Why do associates of that organization feel at home in the Republican Party?
Why is calling Obama "Commie Scum" worth celebrating? And while insulting presidents may be nothing new (as tons of people had years of fun insulting George W. Bush), what happens when these positions are also used to advance white supremacy? The signs clearly reference two web pages.
Republicans don't like to admit their party is a safe harbor for racist thinking and white supremacy. But when can we expect to hear prominent Republican leaders repudiating their followers who came out to this event?