Summations Only

I'd say this is the perfect example of what petro is talking about. Those rangers are hiking around the park like they are on vaction, and are hoping to get paid for it later.

Of course it affected you!You are yet another of those layabouts who cannot inspect his own food supply, or test his own water, or who needs federal help to detect the progress of disease in order to keep his family from getting sick.Next you'll be telling me you cannot negotiate your own entry into a foreign country and you want the federal assistance in getting a passport.Try to enjoy the small government you've got for at least a month before you start your whining.

In North Carolina, I think we can put some blame democrats for our contribution to this sorry state of affairs. The state is fairy close to evenly split between dems and repubs, but the democrats got involved in a bunch of scandals and lost control of the legislature to republicans just in time for re-districting.

I'm not as familiar with Beck, but Limbaugh's racism is so blatant, pervasive, and nakedly expressed that I simply cannot give a free pass to people who listen to his show just for the conservatism. At a minimum such people are unforgivingly indifferent about racism. Surely there is a way to get your small government, anti-abortion fix elsewhere.It's like those joke claims that you are read Playboy and Penthouse just for the articles. I suppose it is possible that for someone those claims were true, but I could never take such claims seriously.I'm with you regarding your comments regarding the tea party, but I have to draw the line at Limbaugh.

I think there is some plausible deniability behind "take the country back". But there are plenty of racists versions of that statement that are out there. Take it back from the black guy. Or from the Kenyan. Or from the Stealth Muslim. Or he's not one of US.All of those expressions are of a piece, and the most plausible explanation is the racist one. Apparently being Canadian or having Canadian citizenship is perfectly okay. Being African is not.I just don't recall similar forms of expression being thrown at Bush or Clinton. Take America back seems fairly unique.

It is a highly specific type of xenophobia which does not apply to people with Canadian citizenship (i.e. Cruz) but that does apply to a person of African descent. I don't see much of a distinction between that kind of xenophobia and racism, but I'm open to hear one.

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I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up," said Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, a conservative political advocacy group.

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Of course this is one guy. We cannot and should not tar Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin with thus simply because they were at the rally and did nothing to distance themselves from this nutcase.Right?

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The rally, billed as the "Million Vet March on the Memorials," drew far fewer than a million people and evolved into a protest that resembled familiar tea party events from 2009, with yellow "Don't Tread On Me" flags throughout the crowd and strong anti-Obama language from the podium and the audience.

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It's just one guy after all. amiright?

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Anti-Obama sentiments echoed throughout the crowd Sunday, with one protester yelling out "punk" to describe the president and one speaker saying Obama is not the president of "the" people but "his" people. Multiple signs read "Impeach Obama."

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"His" people? Surely that means all democrats of every ethnic persuasion. Yes I'll have the Kool Aide.

Wait a minute. I thought racism was supposed to be worse than xenophobia. Instead I see that xenophobia provides a buffet of people to hate? Wow. A chinese-american president? Please.

I understand that veterans want to visit the memorial, but isn't the fact that disable veterans might not get their disability checks a wee bit more important? Why don't these partisans show up in front of Congress and rant about that?

And do we know what the tea party thinks about any of those people?

Sure. But if this were really the kind of percentages we are playing with, I think we'd just call them idiots and racists. You yourself say that Johnny is unlikely.But actually birthers make up only a fraction of the tea party, so your point is a lot more meaningful than is evident from your example. I'm sure there is a name for the logical fallacy in this argument. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

No Rahvin, it is not at all like asking what you and I think of you. It is more like asking what opinion EvC posters have of you, or me, or Faith.When we ask view a political group has of Colin Powell or Michael Steele, we are asking for a consensus view. No one would expect the response to mean that a view is unanimously held; few views are held that way. It is a perfectly legitimate question to ask what the Tea Party view of the ACA, or what Republicans or Democrats in general think of the representatives in Congress.You do have a point about the tarring of the tea party, but you've gone way beyond having a point with this last post. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Herman Cain was initially quite the favorite of the Tea Party. Perhaps we should note that when calling them racists.

I would suggest that anyone attracted to the Tea Party because they were actually libertarians is a clueless idiot. I'd also wonder if they'd actually read The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. But yes there are some political ideas other than hatred of Obama as a human being involved, so I'll instead pretend that you had suggested one of those ideas.I see your point. So as soon as the Tea Party kicks the racists to the curb, maybe their rep as something other than haters will improve.

I think it's simpler than that. The Tea Party doesn't shy away from anti-Obama politics and other rhetoric that is non-racist on its face. For example, the line between strong anti-immigration policy and xenophobia can be really blurry. That politics is going to resonate with racists. So that's where the racists going to hang.