[Nea Wood]

So what if the tea parties are mostly white? Anything that happens to be “mostly white” is now considered evil. Just why is that? Maybe the ones calling the tea parties racist because they’re mostly white are the racists. Seems to me many of the tea partiers are so busy bending over backwards to prove they’re not racist that they’re not much good for anything else. I heard a black man say once, “The only danger I was in at the tea party was being hugged to death.” Well, of course! Tea partiers are so terrified of the “R” word, they’re thrilled to see any black enter one of their tea parties. They pounce upon him, lavish him with attention, and usually drag him to the bandstand so he can give a speech. They make sure he’s in the pictures so they can say, “See? We’re not racist!” This is why the “R” word has so much power and sting...because we let it! We grovel and cower at the very sound of it. When we stop doing that, it will lose its power and we can get on with doing what needs to be done.

[Gargantua]

I don't believe the Tea Party gives a squinting whit whether the debauched punditry approves of its racial makeup or not. The Tea Party only exists now because its constituency have finally awakened to the fact that they don't care what the "powers that be" have to say, they know the real score, and they're fed up with the bullshit.

Neither is the author of this piece, as far as I can see, complaining about the Tea Party's melanin content; he's explaining why the imbeciles who pretend that it is a problem endemic to the Tea Party are a pack of lying out-to-lunch asshats.

But your other points are well taken, and legibly expressed.

8^D