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Scary Tea Parties? [Jourbalists smear the citizenry]
The New American ^ | April 26, 2010 | Professor Ralph R. Reiland

Posted on 04/25/2010 9:42:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The Pulitzers for top-notch journalism aren’t what they used to be.

Here’s the way Pulitzer winner Eugene Robinson, an associate editor and columnist for the Washington Post, recently described the Tea Parties: “The overhyped Tea Party phenomenon is more about symbolism and screaming than anything else. A ‘movement’ that encompasses gun nuts, tax protesters, devotees of the gold standard, Sarah Palin, insurance company lobbyists, ‘constitutionalists’ who have not read the Constitution, Medicare recipients who oppose government-run health care, crazy ‘birthers’ who claim President Obama was born in another country, a contingent of outright racists (come on, people, let's be real) and a bunch of fat-cat professional politicians pretending to be ‘outsiders’ is not a coherent intellectual or political force.”

I was at the Pittsburgh Tea Party on April 15 in Mellon Square and Mr. Robinson, a Pulitzer winner for outstanding commentary, got it far from outstandingly accurate on several counts.

First, there was no screaming, but rather thoughtful speeches about taxes, debt, deficits, government waste, the nation’s founding principles, and the problem of burdening our children and grandchildren with unsustainable levels of debt and taxation.

Second, one could hardly say that the “Tea Party phenomenon” has been “overhyped,” except in a negative way by the mainstream media and by establishment politicians. Right from the start, Nancy Pelosi warned that Tea Partyers were Nazis because she saw a picture of a swastika at an event. There were a few swastikas and Hitler pictures (plus some occasional pictures of hammers and sickles and Lenin and Che), but those were anti-Nazi, anti-totalitarian and anti-communist expressions, examples of the threat to individual liberty from overblown government and overreaching politicians.

Third, I was there and I’m no devotee of the gold standard, no devotee of Sarah Palin, not a lobbyist for an insurance company or any other capitalist enterprise, not a Medicare recipient, not an outright racist or a masquerading one, and not a fat-cat professional politician pretending to be an outsider.

On the “birther” part, that’s not my issue. But if it were me and millions of people thought I was a foreign interloper, a pinko from Kenya, I’d just produce the original birth certificate.

I’m also no gun nut and not one of the “ ‘constitutionalists’ who have not read the Constitution.” I’ve read it and I have a pocket-size copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, courtesy of the Cato Institute, in my glove compartment.

Robinson concludes by saying that “American public opinion seems to have become an unguided Weapon of Mass Suspicion.” In fact, that’s exactly what Robinson has done in his ridiculing of the Tea Party. He’s allowed his suspicions to distort his objectivity and destroy his credibility.

The issue is that the money the American people have invested in Social Security has been squandered by the government, their 401-K money has been gambled away in high-risk insurance schemes, government mandates have forced banks to give mortgage money to millions of unqualified borrowers, Medicaid and Medicare are going bankrupt, there’s a gold-plated revolving door connecting the thieves on Wall Street with the political crooks in Washington, and now we’re supposed to hand over our healthcare to these government geniuses.

The result is that four out of five Americans now say they don’t trust the federal government to solve their problems, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey, and nearly one in three says the government is a “major threat” to their freedoms.

And the Tea Parties are the problem? Come on, Mr. Robinson, let’s be real.

*****

Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: birthcertificate; certifigate; economy; obama; palin; palinfreeperping; rabscuttle; recession; taxes; teaparty

1 posted on 04/25/2010 9:42:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Couldn’t they think of a few more ways to smear the Tea Partiers?


2 posted on 04/25/2010 9:49:37 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: The_Media_never_lie

“Couldn’t they think of a few more ways to smear the Tea Partiers?”

This is a new week. They will!


3 posted on 04/25/2010 9:54:51 PM PDT by Rembrandt (.. AND the donkey you rode in on.)
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To: The_Media_never_lie
Couldn’t they think of a few more ways to smear the Tea Partiers?

They're slipping. They left out "homophobic"./s

4 posted on 04/25/2010 9:59:09 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Scary Tea Parties?
[Jourbalists smear the citizenry]


Are Jourbalists reporters that cover gerbils?
5 posted on 04/25/2010 10:17:44 PM PDT by righttackle44 (Is Obama an Irish, Italian or Japanese name?)
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To: righttackle44

No, they’re gerbils tying to be reporters.


6 posted on 04/25/2010 11:26:58 PM PDT by haroldeveryman
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To: haroldeveryman

“No, they’re gerbils trying to be reporters.”

Or men who have never left their mothers’ skirts—boldy calling others names hiding behind the pleats they believe will protect them from something far bigger and far more prominent than they could ever stand next to.

Don’t call them elitists any longer. They don’t deserve the title. It’s glaringly obvious there is very little “elite” about them.


7 posted on 04/25/2010 11:43:19 PM PDT by CaspersGh0sts
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Well, wait until they hear about Oklahoma Tea Partiers trying to form a militia.
That’ll be great PR.

I wondered how long I would have to wait to find an example to prove my point. It was less than ten minutes.

8 posted on 04/25/2010 11:54:36 PM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local Communist or Socialist Party Chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All
On the Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Grand Prairie Texas, I took video camera in hand and interviewed attendees. I did this knowing it would counter the media misrepresentaion of the Tea Partiers.

PLEASE FORWARD these links to anyone who has been lied to by the media and politicians about the Tea Party Movement, which of course is everybody.

“The True Face of the Tea Partiers”

Click Here for Part One

 Click Here for Part Two

9 posted on 04/26/2010 6:42:13 AM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears (Pray for our leaders: Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The one thing that is undoubtedly driving libs crazy if the fact that virtually all Tea Parties have been free of violence, disruptions, hate speech, or exhortations to do so. So they had to invent the slurs supposedly directed at the Black congressmen and then tar all TPer’s by extension. I can imagine a lib newsperson covering the TPs fervently wishing for violence to happen.


10 posted on 04/26/2010 7:34:48 AM PDT by driftless2 (for long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

bump


11 posted on 04/26/2010 9:16:37 AM PDT by tutstar (Baptist Ping list - freepmail me to get on or ...off..)
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