According to The Huffington Post, Congressional Republicans are expecting a massive uprising of TEA Party members against the economic policies of Joe Biden, just like they did under Obama. There is just one huge problem with that thinking. The TEA Party was never about economic policies, at least not from its grassroots members. The TEA Party was an astroturf organization based on racism.
This was apparent from the acronym of TEA (Taxed Enough Already). Obama’s stimulus plan actually CUT the taxes of most Americans. But this whole BS theme was started by a CNBC reporter and hedge fund asshole Rick Santelli. At the time, Santelli argued that Obama’s anti-forclosure plan was actually the transfer of wealth from taxpayers who had managed their home mortages wisely to those who had been reckless. And in case you missed it, the stories going around at that time were those mortgage backed securities that lead to the financial crisis were loans given out to POC who lived beyond their means.
I remember hearing that talking point for myself by a group of white men at my gym.
Translation: lazy blacks created the financial crisis, and the N-word in the White House was going to bail those people out.
So Wall Street and other corporations were scared that the good times would be over with a Democrat in the White House, so they got the money together to organize the TEA Party. They paid for the buses and travel to have the racists show up and scream for the cameras and at town hall meetings. And the Media went along for the ride.
Here is a lovely video that got millions of hits and ended up on the nightly news of a woman screaming at Congressman Mike Castle at a townhall that “I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!”
As you can see, this was a meeting of Birthers who didn’t believe Obama was the legitimate president because he was “born in Kenya.” Nothing racist there. /s.
They were not animated by Obama’s fiscal policies. They just hated that a black man was in the White House. It was a huge signal that white supremacy was in danger.
But none of this was reported by the Media. Oh no. It couldn’t be all about racism. We turned a corner when we elected Barack Obama.
Anyway, fast forward to Trump, his openly racist policies, “good Nazis,” the murder of unarmed black men by police across the nation, and an insurrection lead by racists, and Lordy, some in the Media notice that there are still plenty of racists in America.
And what do Republicans in Congress want? More racists to rise up and attack Congress and President Biden. Oh Republicans don’t say, “Grab a gun and start shooting Democrats!,” but that is the underlying message. Just scream that Biden and the Democrats are “bankrupting” the country or some other shit when you bring your guns and any other weapons.
The problem with that strategy is that Joe Biden is not black. Oops. He’s an old white guy who has 50 years in politics.
Kinda hard to get all racist about Joe Biden, especially when he is spending money on undeserving white people too.