Tea Party’s rise fueled by fear-mongering and lies
Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 23:09
Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America on Jan. 20, 2009.
This day marked the beginning of a disturbing break from the ideals our Founding Fathers built this great country upon. It was the day our presidency was hijacked by a man who managed to hoodwink the masses with his false message of "hope" and "change."
This is a man we know less about than any president in our history. He has not even presented his birth certificate to prove his citizenship, probably because he was born in Kenya.
This Kenyan heritage, coupled with his childhood schooling in a Madrassa, is probably why he sympathizes with the Muslim terrorists who seek to impose Shariah law on our people.
Obama's ideology could best be described as a mixture of socialism, fascism, Nazism, Islamic fundamentalism and Black Liberation Theology.
It is this radical ideology that has lead to the continuous erosion of our freedoms that began when Obama took office.
This characterization of President Barack Obama is the fictional narrative that has fueled the rise of the reactionary, far-right wing of the Republican Party, better known as the Tea Party.
The Tea Party was born out of the anger of many on the right stemming from the perception that Obama is a radical whose agenda is to destroy the America they know and love.
They not only disagree with Obama's policies, but they view him as a threat to the freedoms that have set this country apart for the past several centuries.
In the wake of a string of electoral victories for Tea Party candidates in the Republican primaries, the Republican Party has continued to shift further and further to the right, and these conspiracy theories and fantasies about Obama are becoming more prominent.
According to a March Harris Poll survey, 57 percent of Republicans falsely believe Obama is a Muslim, 67 percent believe he is a socialist, 45 percent believe that he was not born in the U.S., 38 percent believe he is "doing many of the things that Hitler did" and 24 percent believe he "may be the Antichrist."
These troubling numbers highlight the advent of the notion that it's acceptable to debate facts. For example, despite the fact that Obama's birth certificate is available online for all to see, there is a sizable number of Americans who "believe" that he was born in Kenya.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. That's an unequivocal fact. You can disagree with Obama's policies, but you cannot "believe" that he was born in Kenya because that's factually untrue.
You can disagree with Obama's policies and still accept the fact that he is a Christian and not the African-Muslim spawn of Adolf Hitler.
It's amazing how many people have fallen prey to this concerted effort on the right to mis-characterize Obama as a foreign, un-American, fascist with a desire to destroy this country.
In the words of Newt Gingrich, Obama is "so outside our comprehension that only if you understand Kenyan anticolonial behavior can you begin to piece (him) together."
Gingrich is not alone. Whether it's a Facebook post by Sarah Palin about Obama's desire to "pull the plug on grandma," or a maniacal Glenn Beck rant comparing Obama to Hitler, high-ranking conservatives are actively engaged in this smear-campaign, and unfortunately, it has resonated with a large number of people.
Rather than presenting reasoned arguments about why the Democratic Party's policies are hurting America, they are shoring up fear and hatred of Obama and labeling Democrats as socialists.
Why wasn't George W. Bush called a socialist when his administration oversaw a huge expansion of the federal government's power, including an expansion of Medicare?
How can President Obama be trying to appease the terrorists when he ordered an escalation of the war in Afghanistan and initiated a covert war against al-Qaida in Pakistan?
These accusations are disproved by reality. The same people who now accuse Obama of being a "secret Muslim" were complaining about his ties to Jeremiah Wright's church before the election.
The same people who are screaming that they "want to take their country back" because of Obama's socialist stimulus and health care bills had nothing to say about George W. Bush's expansion of Medicare or the stimulus package he signed.
Thomas Jefferson once said that "whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." Election season is upon us, and midterm elections are right around the corner.
It's time for everyone to calm down, put down their pitchforks and make informed decisions about whom to vote for.
22 comments
It's time for everyone to calm down, put down their pitchforks and make informed decisions about whom to vote for."yep. If people had done that 2 years ago we wouldn't be in this mess as badly today. I think it's also quite hypocritical that everyone praises the 'grassroots' campaign that swept Obama into office yet ridicules the tea party. Omar- you're a liberal hack. Par for the course for the DA. But furthermore- I think you are racist. You have the perception that the Tea party is all angry white men (it's not, by the way), and you hate them because of that. Why do you have to be racist Omar? Why can't you be more tolerant of others with different opinions and different cultures? Why are you fear-mongering about the tea party?
is a member of the 
