GOP Flirts with Conspiracy Theorists
David Streeter — February 17, 2010 – 11:44 am | Domestic Policy | GOP Hypocrisies | Republicans | Separation of Church & State | Stop the Smears Comments (2) Add a commentYesterday, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele held a closed door meeting with representatives of the Tea Party movement. Many are describing the meeting as the GOP’s attempt to include, if not co-opt, the Tea Party into its rank and file membership. While Steele may think it’s a good idea for his party to include the alleged millions of Tea Party activists , here are some resources regarding the baggage that travels with the Tea Party:
- Newsweek correspondent and self-described conservative author John Kay’s account of just some of the conspiracy theories prominently floating around the Tea Party convention in Nashville.
- Tea Party convention keynote speaker Sarah Palin’s implicit accommodation of the birthers in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. Additionally, Palin has told the Tea Partiers to “pick a party.” Along with Steele’s overtures, she presumably means the Republican Party.
- MSNBC host Keith Olbermann’s suggestion that irrational fear is the prime motivation for the Tea Party’s popularity.
- Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina’s nod to the 9/11 truthers. According to both Little Green Footballs and The Huffington Post, Medina was the Tea Party’s anointed candidate.
- Texas Governor Rick Perry’s (R-TX) nod to secessionists.
- Professor Jonathan Weiler’s piece in The Huffington Post about the Tea Party’s “ugly side.”
- The documented cases of some Tea Party activists using anti-Semitism and Holocaust rhetoric. According to The Jewish Week, such instances as well as the significant numbers of ”Christian Nation advocates” at Tea Party rallies are turning Jews away from the GOP.
The bottom line: the GOP’s cooption of conspiracy-believing activists will be good for Democrats as rational voters realize how far toward the fringes the Republican Party is heading.
Comments
What’s the difference between republican and meshuggana? One begins with r and one begins with m. Otherwise, nothing.
I’m in Utah and all of those Mad Hatters are in force here. In the state legislature, we have an asylum run by the inmates. Come out here, and you will real lunacy.
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You can attempt to marginalize the Tea Party movement as being made up of “radicals”, but the truth does not support this assertion. There are always fringe elements of any movement, but the entire group cannot be defined by such fringe elements. If that is the case, we can then accurately judge Obama by the extremists and socialists he has picked to surround himself with.
Why not dispense with the hyperbole and stick to your positions on the issues, rather than the personalities? Unless of course, it is your positions that are the problem!