The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."
Tancredo did not stop at the Democratic president -- ripping McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for shaping up to be a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2."
"Thank God John McCain lost the election," he said, voicing his belief that McCain would have presided over big budgets and lacked a tough stand against immigration.
Tancredo served 10 years in the House of Representatives and made a name for himself with his ardent opposition to immigration. He believes the 2008 election served to galvanize the right.
"This is our country," he told the crowd. "Let's take it back." (Just click the title for the rest of ABC's in depth report)
So, just to be clear, Tancredo is claiming that the ignorant, illiterate people are the ones who voted against Sarah Palin? Really?
Now the idea of having to pass an IQ test before you are allowed to vote is a pretty attractive idea to me. However I realize that it is totally un-American and would have a deleterious effect on the lower income citizens as well as to seriously impact potential Teabagging voters.
Exhibit A.
However Tom Tancredo is not REALLY trying to keep the dumb people from voting. Oh no, he needs the dumb people or else his whole movement will simply dissolve.
What he is hoping to do is take advantage of the fact that African Americans often get a substandard education in this country.
He wants to repeal the Voting Rights Act ,which was passed to protect the southern black voter from the tactics used so effectively to repress their right to participate in elections in the early sixties.
"Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white," a website for civil rights veterans explains. "In the South, this process was often called the 'literacy test.' In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote."
"Because the Freedom Movement was running "Citizenship Schools" to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965)," the site adds. "At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state. In theory, each applicant was supposed to be given one at random from a big loose-leaf binder. In real life, some individual tests were easier than others and the registrar made sure that Black applicants got the hardest ones."
So on day one of the great Teabagger Convnetion we have seen the true colors of the movment on dispaly: Nationalism, racism, and fear of socialism, oh my.
Did you think you'd see anything OTHER than their true colors? I've said its a racist thing from the beginning. They want THEIR "White country" back.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, Tancredo is right about the "melting pot" effect. We are now a more diverse nation than before, and I, for one, am damn glad of it!
Also, I agree with his suggestion about "voting tests". If there were requirements, half - at least - of those stupid and uneducated "Tea Baggers" would be unable to vote. They toss around the word "Constitution" like they actually know what's in it.
Assholes.
She will be speaking this weekend a the "convention" and it will be carried live.
ReplyDeleteThis will only ensure that her fanbase will go wild with enthusiasm and listen for the cries of "run, Sarah, run" to emanate from those gathered.
If she ever sits down again for an indepth interview with someone other than Fox, I would like her to tell us how much of the Constitution she knows ("all of it!") and what exactly is contained in the Bill of Rights ("lot's of good stuff!").
If she can answer those two questions I may then replace my impression of her from "dumb" to "dim". I am not holding my breath.
"we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
ReplyDeleteDoes this "person" not realize that a most of those he's speaking to would FAIL that test? Maybe there's something to it after all... (not)
Good gawd.
I am speechless. I was reading aloud and when I got to repeal the voting rights act, spouse and I gasped in unison. When we just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro, NC sit-ins to de-segregate lunch counters in the South. Wow...some "Americans" haven't come very far have they?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sitinmovement.org/
umm. Maybe I'm missing something, but if this guy thinks Obama is evil and will destroy the country and McCain is evil and would have destroyed the country, exactly WHO did he want people to vote for.
ReplyDeleteI mean if they voted for $arah, that would have put McCain as the top dog...not her.
So once he was in were they going to start advocating to have him snuffed out so she could be Pres?
I don't get it.
Also, his Snow Princess would not be able to pass a civics test. If one should be required to vote. One should certainly be required to hold an office!
These people make my head hurt :(
Get A BrIaN MoRMoM--- No no make another sign dammit!
ReplyDeleteTancredo seems to think (HA!) that being ignorant, fearful, bigoted, and LOUD are all civic virtues. He has to be one of the most moronic troglodyte teabaggers to ever slither his way across the national stage. Sluglike, Tancredo leaves a trail of slime in his wake.
ReplyDeleteTancredo is an odious turd.
Quick comment on IQ Tests.
ReplyDeletePossibly the most intellectually gifted person of the 20th C was Helen Keller.
Think about depth and breadth of the barriers she had to overcome in order communicate with the world on even the most basic levels
Helen Keller would have made a zero on both the written and and oral versions of the IQ test.
The IQ test does test for certain types of intellectual capabilities but is most certainly not a test of intellegence.
It is certainly not beyond belief that the current Supreme Court would cede the rights to determine eligibility back to the states effectively voiding the Voting Rights Act. This is what is certainly will do with Roe v. Wade as soon as it gets the right case presented to it.
ReplyDeletePalin is going to be in even more trouble due to this first speech. How is she going to campaign for McCain and answer to the Teabaggers? She is in more trouble than that though w/the tax issues, deceit of the structures being on the property and the fact Todd's emails were released today. Hopefully, she goes down and ends up in prison w/her husband! I feel so for their kids - what examples they have set!
ReplyDeleteWow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but I think the teabag crowd are a bunch of radical racists. I have seen a lot of footage from these events and I don't see any black people.Wonder why??
ReplyDeleteI am wondering now that all of this stuff has come out about Sister Sarah if she will use the "scorched earth" approach and make some really inflammatory towards the President.
I noticed that also about no minorties being present. jusat the KKK and the shaved heads groups her terrorist fans
ReplyDeleteTake this country back? To where Tom? 1950s Selma, Alabama when, in your sick mind, blacks, hispanics, etc knew their places? Yeah, we know all the veiled terms that are thrown at the other racists at the teabagging events and we also know you could care less about gov. spending, health care reform, etc. It all comes down to the color of the man in the White House and your paranoid racism.
ReplyDeleteWhen my AP US History class took one of those "literacy tests," none of us could come close to passing it. The questions were nuts. Yet, most of us passed the AP test later just fine.
ReplyDeleteWith the "Grandfather Clause," if your grandfather could vote, you were automatically allowed to vote. That made it possible for whites to vote without passing the nearly impossible tests.
Hey, "moran" and "mandation" are their creed. You go, guys!
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who wants a true story of the "literacy tests" that African Americans had to endure, watch (on DVD) the Rosa Parks story with Angela Bassett as Mrs. Parks. It's WONDERFUL!
I have many Jewish friends of a certain age. . .pre WWII and post.
ReplyDeleteI have listened to their stories, and been shocked at some of their opinions that. . .Facism and the Holocaust are not just a dim memory, but could happen again, in our modern world, in spite of universal education, especially during a time of relative economic distress.
Germany preWWII was a highly educated populace. . .which nonetheless marched lock step with Hitler.
These were not morons, they were "Good Germans" regular people, who, like the Palinistas, were incurious, defensive, and unwilling to do even the most basic of research. . .beginning with their own eyes and ears and. . .may I say this?
Smell.
Anonymous@5.10p - your point is a good one, but I'd like to bring it a little bit up to date. I'm an American Jew and a European History major in college (oh, so many years ago!) and have done extensive reading about the Holocaust and German history.
ReplyDeleteThere is one reason - and one reason only - that I don't think we could have a repeat of the 1930's German situation. That reason is the bane of Tom Tancredo's and the Tea Bagger's existence - the huge Melting Pot of America in 2010.
If you go back and look at Germany in the 20's and 30's and Hitler's gaining of power, you'd see that the German populace was overwhelmingly white and Christian - either Catholic or Protestant. The Jews made up a rather smallish percentage of the German population BUT were easily identifiable by their religious practices and relative prosperity and high education level.
Hitler needed an easily identifiable "Other" to use as a scapegoat, and the Jews WERE that easily identifiable "Other" in German society.
Meanwhile, here in the US we have so many "Others" and relatively fewer of the good ol' white majority. I think in 20 years or so, White Catholics and Protestants will be in the minority here. THAT'S what's pissing off the Tea Baggers, who want "their" America back. Well, it ain't coming back, not with demographics continuing the way they've been going.
And that's a good thing, because WHO will be the smaller subset of the population to be persecuted? And by whom? I don't think the Blacks are going to join with the Tea Baggers to go after the Jews. Or the Hispanics joining with the Tea Baggers to go after the Blacks.
So, for the reason of our great Melting Pot, I just can't see 1930's Germany happening again. Remember, too, that the Dems got together a great coalition in 2008 to put Obama in the White House. I'm hopeful we can come back together and keep our great country on an even keel.
So, enough of a history lesson.
Remember Grypen? When people our age were kids and they had the Jim Crow laws?
ReplyDeleteThey tried to make African-Americans take so-called 'literacy' tests. Only the tests were more than spelling and questions about the Constutution. They also had ridiculous tests. Like they would pick up a bar of soap and tell the person trying to vote that they had to know the numbers of bubbles the bar of soap could produce.
They also did tests about spelling and what not. They knew that most people would fail as the schools were heavily segregated and there was barely any funding for the African-American Schools. And not many people know every line of the Constitution.
It was nothing but racism that Tancredo was talking about. That's why they hate ACORN, obviously. And the crap about states rights. If you ever meet a racist from the south, he/she will swear that's what the Civil War was all about. It's all racism. Tancredo, the ex-congressman who is also an ex-con had Granparents that emmigrated here. Like most people in America. There are not very many original Americans left. Our government (and the invader Colubus) made sure to wipe out as many as possible.
These people make me sick.
Another thing to keep in mind, the people who are attending this so-called convention are not everyday people. Whenever anything of that size and made that public happens in Nashville, the room rates more than double at Hotel/Motels. Opryland is a high end Hotel anyway. But even the reasonable priced ones raise their rates sky high. Add in the ticket price and these people make a good living or they've spend all their money to attend. These are probably high end managers who don't want their income taxed. It's all phony.
Im sur some bots used all of their savings, but I'm also sure that the majority of them are doing very good financially.
I can't wait until all the emails have been gone through. I hope $arah & Todd look good in orange. She'll need some of that money sh'e making for her 'cause'. Bail money and looking pretty walking the perp walk. She's had practice in those pageants also too doncha know.
Tancredo calls for revolution, but you can be certain HE won't be doing any fighting! Just like when he weaseled out of going to Viet Nam when his turn came, he'll be too "depressed." Or maybe he'll develop an "anal cyst."
ReplyDelete