The role race plays in the Tea Party (by Leonard Pitts. Jr) as it relates to another OP.

[pampango]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x202702

http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/columnists/leonard-pitts-jr-race-plays-a-role-in-tea-party-but-theres-more-to-it-570390.html

One is reminded of the 2008 campaign in which many of Barack Obama’s opponents insisted people only “supported” him because he was black. It was an offensive claim, in that it assumed black was black was black and that people were so imbecilic that skin color — alone and of itself — was sufficient to win their votes. The truth, it always seemed to me, was more nuanced. People liked Obama’s policies, his eloquence, and his fierce intelligence and the fact that he was black, that his election would turn history on its ear, was a desirable bonus, but only that — icing on the cake, but not the cake itself.

I submit that a rough inverse of that dynamic now helps define the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party people distrust Obama’s policies, his eloquence, his fierce intelligence and the fact that he is black then becomes the final straw, the difference maker and deal breaker. To put that another way: I doubt most of the Tea Partiers hate Obama strictly because he is black, but it sure doesn’t help.

Yes, race is obviously a component, and a major component at that, of the reaction against the president. The recurring use of racist imagery and language, the attendance at Tea Party events of a racist group like the so-called Council of Conservative Citizens, settles that definitively.

But ultimately, people seem moved by something even bigger than race. This is race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, “culture,” and the fact that those who have always been on the right side, the “power-wielding” side, of one or more of those equations, now face the realization that their days of dominance are numbered. There is a poignancy to their responsive fury because one senses that the nether side of it is a choking fear. We are witness to the birth cries of a new America and for every one of us who embraces and celebrates that, who looks forward to the opportunity and inclusiveness it promises, there is another who grapples with a crippling sense of dislocation and loss, who wonders who and what she will be in the nation now being born. - It seems to me that older middle class whites may have thought the "power wielding" side was "their" side because they benefited from it. They are beginning to realize that the "power wielders" were never on their side and are lashing out because they "feel" that they are no longer on the "power wielding" side, when in fact, they never were. The irony is that rather than taking it out on the "power wielders" they are going after "big government socialists" which, of course, is what their recently estranged "power wielders" want them to do.

[ixion]

1. the former 'distrusts' are simply cover for the latter

that he is black, because the Tea Party movement is a thinly-veiled rebirth of the KKK, from what I can see.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Why won't people understand that the tea bags are another

name for the updated KKK. It is time we all acknowledged that.

[whistler162]

3. Because we aren't that stupid!

[NNN0LHI]

4. How many white presidents they teabagged?

[heli]

5. Racism is a big draw for them

They will never admit it, but the black Obama is a necessity for their existence.