Official Republican Party Line on the word 'teabagger': It's as bad as the N-word

[BurtWorm]

And by that, I don't think they mean "nutcase." (And by the way, yes, I am exaggerating about this being the Official Rpublican Party Line. No, it's not down on paper as being such. But when the Times does a piece on it using Grover Norquist as its mouthpiece for it, you can bet this turn of phrase will start turning up on Fox News and in Republican remarks on the floor of the House, etc.):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/washington-times-compares_n_564229.html



Washington Times Compares 'Tea-Bagger' To N-Word

by Jason Linkins


This "Inside the Beltway" column from Jennifer Harper in the Washington Times begins, "The term 'tea-bagger' is like uttering the 'n' word, some say." Oh, really? Well, "some people" are wrong!

Granted, I understand perfectly well that people in the larger "Tea Party" movement consider the term to be mean and diminishing. And I understand that those who use it are basically shorthanding the meanness and diminishing. The word has a sexual connotation -- which, by the by -- the Tea Party movement embraced for itself before it became used as a brickbat against them.

But is it the equivalent of the "n" word? Uhm... you'll notice that nobody shorthands it, "the 't' word," don't you? That should tell you something. On the spectrum of insult, "teabagger" seems to me to be the equivalent of "moonbat" or "wingnut," which are also popular shorthand insults embraced by political factions who use them as shibboleths -- a tidy signifier of groupwide self-satisfaction.

Here's Grove Norquist, mewling about this in an utterly perspective-free fashion:

"This remark is the equivalent of using the 'n' word. It shows contempt for middle America, expressed knowingly, contemptuously, on purpose, and with a smirk. It is indefensible to use this word. The president knows what it means, and his people know what it means. The public thought we reached a new low of incivility during the Clinton administration. Well, the Obama administration has just outdone them," ATR president Grover Norquist tells Inside the Beltway.

Norquist wishes that "middle America" has something to do with this, but it doesn't. The Tea Partiers are basically affluent people with elite educations who didn't get what they wanted in an election year and who now parade around with signs that read "Listen to me!" as if it's the rest of the country -- who voted in larger numbers, by the way -- that needs to take a seat at the back of the bus.

...

[Bolo Boffin]

1. So it's a way to project their own racism onto Obama and his supporters.

Whatever, Grover.

[walldude]

2. "The Tea Partiers are basically affluent people with elite education"

Really? Is this guy serious?

I understand his point but does he really believe that "The Tea Partiers are basically affluent people with elite education" because all I see are angry poor people with misspelled signs being easily manipulated by the affluent people with elite educations.

[Tempest]

3. It's based on a dubious survey of tea baggers

http://www.theledger.com/article/20100417/news/4185030

[BurtWorm]

4. Does this look like an affluent person with an elite education?

[Lint Head]

5. Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger!

Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger! Tea Bagger!Tea Bagger!

[libodem]

6. OMG

Then they should just spit those dangling nut sacks out of their mouths and STFU. N-word, my ass. When someone buys and sells their asses, rapes and beats them, gives them a sack to pick cotton into from dawn to dusk they can cry about being discriminated against verbally. Okay, I'm stepping away from the laptop. I don't need to smash it against the wall cuz I hate the stupidity of the ball sucking, Teabaggers. (*crash*):banghead: :grr: :nuke: :argh: :wtf: :mad:

[SoCalDem]

7. They were the people who coined the word to use for their group

They wear the goofy tea-bag hats. No one is making them do it:)


They are all just a bit miffed because their racism is showing, and they all thought they would be lauded for their patriotic fervor:rofl:

[LynneSin]

8. So what should I call all these people with tea bags hanging from their head?

It wasn't me that coined that word. I think the Free Republic started it.

[BurtWorm]

9. I wish we could find a word for them as offensive as the N-word.

I'd use it all the time.

[LynneSin]

11. If I walked around with Rusty Trombones hanging from my hat I deserve mocking too...

You guys picked the word you earned it!

[dmr]

15. I can't stop laughing

Silly, silly teabaggers!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[lpbk2713]

10. Then why did they come up with the name in the first place?

It must really hurt to be that fuggen stupid.

[LynneSin]

13. There was a post at Free Republican about using the Tea Bag as a symbol

and at one point they wanted to send tea bags to their elected officials.

Even some members from the Free Republic saw that to be the dumbest idea but it was too late- the MEME stuck with the organization.

[TEXASYANKEE]

12. LOL!

This from a party that constantly calls us the Democrat Party. TEABAGGERS!!!!

[LeftinOH]

14. "Teabagger" is just easier to to fit into a sentence than 'ignorant white trash cracker';

although, they all mean the same thing.