Don Palabraz

The teabaggers are holding their first national convention this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee with Sarah Palin scheduled as keynote speaker. Though the ‘movement’ likes to say it is not motivated by racism in any fashion, its convention got off to an embarrassing start when Congressman Tom Tancredo – mostly known as an anti-immigrant xenophobe - lamented the loss of Jim Crowism, in effect, and blamed the lack of literacy/civic tests at the polls as chief reason for President Obama’s electoral victory in 2008! Ah, ‘post-racial’ America is so fun! Now, in that same speech, Tancredo likened Obama to a ‘Socialist ideologue.” This is the second core stupidity of the teabaggers. Who can blame them though when they are instructed by historically inaccurate documentary attempts like Glenn Beck’s “Revolutionary Holocaust?”

I never underestimate the power of stupid in American politics (eight years of Bush Jr. and six years of Schwarzenegger) so while we can get our laughs at the expense of these teabaggers, we must not underestimate their ability to affect the body politic. Therefore, cultivating an understanding of the movement is a necessary task.Two articles in February’s Zmagazine by two outstanding chroniclers of right-wing views are extremely helpful in this regard.

Bill Berkowitz outlines the tea party movement’s hospitality for white supremacists:
http://www.zcommunications.org/tea-party-movement-by-bill-berkowitz

While Chip Berlet properly contextualizes right-wing populist frames (available in the print edition and not online unfortunately)