ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)–When protests occur in support of homosexual activists, liberals laud the gatherings as inspirational. Let anti-war demonstrators slander U.S. soldiers and burn American flags and some on the left applaud the action.
However, let conservatives gather to protest the expansion of government, and some liberals are quick to castigate them as, of all things, racists.
Actress, comedienne and liberal activist Janeane Garofalo appeared April 16 on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” hosted by Keith Olbermann, to dismiss the TEA Party protests that had taken place all over the United States the previous day.
Olbermann introduced the segment with Garofalo by offering a couple of crude and sexually suggestive comments concerning the chosen title for the conservative protests. It seems tea-bagging is a reference to a perverse sexual practice of homosexual men. The day before, CNN’s Anderson Cooper made a similar reference. I am proud to say that Olbermann and Cooper’s efforts at inane and immature innuendo sailed right over my head.
When Garofalo joined Olbermann on camera, she wasted no time in trashing the TEA Party protestors.
“Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats. It’s not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about,” Garofalo opined, “They don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”
While there was not a single shred of evidence to support Ms. Garofalo’s accusations of racism, it doesn’t matter. In her twisted mind the situation is not up for debate. President Obama is black; therefore anyone who takes issue with his policies must be an ignorant racist.
Of course, Ms. Garofalo shows her complete ignorance of the current TEA Party protest when she tosses in a reference to the Boston Tea Party, which took place in 1773. When the colonists dumped tea into the Boston Harbor it was about taxation without representation. She dismisses the recent teabag protestors of being ignorant of history because, of course, U.S. citizens are not being taxed without representation.
If she would have bothered to take off her liberal blinders for one moment, Garofalo would have learned the letters T-E-A were an acronym for Taxed Enough Already. I know Ms. Garofalo might find it hard to believe but we ignorant conservatives actually know what an acronym is.
No one is suggesting that we do not have representation when it comes to matters of taxation. However, some might want to debate the competence and responsiveness of some of that representation. The objection of the TEA Party protestors is to the expansion of government and the increased taxation that is bound to come in the not-too-distant future.
Tax freedom day — a symbolic day representing how many days into the year the average person must work in order to fulfill his or her federal, state and local tax obligations — is now April 13. I agree with the protestors, I think we are Taxed Enough Already.
The most narrow-minded charge Garofalo leveled at the TEA Party Protests was that of racism. Throughout her appearance on Olbermann’s program, she peppered the discussion with charges that the protests were only about one thing — racism and hatred that a black man is in the White House. She even charged that conservatives’ brains were wired differently.
“These guys hate that a black guy is in the White House,” she charged.
Olbermann’s contribution to the so-called discussion was to sit with his heading nodding up and down like a bobble head doll repeatedly uttering, “Yes, that’s right.”
At one point Garofalo said, “I didn’t know there were so many racists left. I didn’t know that. As I said, the Republican-conservative movement has now crystallized into the white power movement.”
So, where’s her evidence? There is none.
The protests took issue with the president because it is he that is leading the way of the expansion of government. Racism had nothing to do with it.
The TEA Party Protests were peaceful. Everyone kept their clothes on, there were no drugs and there was no property damage. Perhaps if there were more of the aforementioned, liberals like Garofalo would have been OK with the tea party protestors.
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Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press and editor of the Baptist Message (www.baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
