The Tea Party crowd has finally found the marrow. With Congress set for the dramatic weekend passage of a fairly undramatic reform package on some aspects of the health insurance industry, the vocal right-wing fringe descended on Capitol Hill crying socialism, threatening gun violence, mocking gay people, shouting racist epithets and hurling spittle on elected representatives.
The full-on freak of the right, goaded by Elmer Gantry fascists like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, would be entertaining if it didn't carry the explicit promise of violence. At the conservative blog Political Byline, one blogger seems to discern a reason for the defamatory and despicable behavior in Washington:
I mean, and I how to do I put this? Ah, I know! The liberal media and I mean the one’s who are reporting this; You should be glad it was just words. I mean, it could have very well been worse. Luckily and thankfully, it was not. But it could have very well have been. So, to the Race hustlers and Gay Blades; be glad it was just words, signs and insults. Because the alternative could have been much worse.
But again, to the more important point —– What the hell do you people expect? I mean, you want to destroy this Country’s health-care system, all to fulfill a stupid, idiotic socialist agenda; and you wonder why some people are pissed off about it?
Yeah, they're asking for it - for spit, for "faggot," and for a bullet.
There are two forces driving the tea party protesters, outside of encouragement by the insurance industry and the conservative radio entertainers: ignorance and bigotry. And yet it's not all that surprising.
Homophobia and racism are pervasive social forces, and fear and anxiety often bring out the worst biases in people. Hence, these developments, though quite disturbing, are not shocking. Furthermore, the Tea Party movement began its healthcare protests in a circus-like atmosphere; apparently, things will remain that way until the bitter end.
