Manipulative and racist

What is the Tea Party? "Reforming all political parties and government so that the core principles of our founding fathers become...the foundation upon which America stands (theteaparty.net)." Who's in it? Some people I know are from Zernike's book, Rick Santelli, a financial news commemtator; Keli Carender, 29 yr. old woman; Michelle Malkin, conservative blogger; and Glenn Beck of course. The ones who aren't in this party will be President Obama, me, and anyone who disagrees with the party. Why join it? Well, if you agree with what the party claims it is doing on their website, which is: to limit federal government, promote individual freedom, personal responsibility, free market, and returning power to the states and the people. This as I have stated answers the question of what they want out of this party. As to what they get out of this party is to have a label put on them as a participant of the Tea Party. Hows does it work? You mean like joining the party? As easy as going to their website and giving them your name and address. What power does it have? They have as much power as the number of people they have. They use this power by organizing in protest rallies. Who's in charge? Well, the people of it would sure like to believe they are in charge of it.

Besides having answered all of the questions for the sake of the assignment and my own understanding of the Tea Party, I believe that a majority of the participants know just as little as I do right now. They have a clear outlined goal of what their party stands for on their website of course, but as seen on one of the youtube clips, sent by Jordan, called "9.12 DC TEA PARTY - MARCH FOOTAGE WITH INTERVIEWS", I couldn't help but find it extremely offensive. They literally called Obama a communist, fascist, etc. As part of the assignment, we are to make sense of what the tea party is right? I make sense of it that it is a party of racism. Towards the beginning of the clip, a white male stands and shouts, "35 percent of abortions by black American women-they only make 12 percent of the population." If his comment were to tie in the abortions to the health care plan then, what of the 65 percent? Are they committed by white females? Note that tea partiers are angry at the Obama health care and so it would only be 35 percent, not even half as much as the other 65 to cover the health costs of the minority blacks. I watched the clip twice too and did not see a single race other than white as far as I could see into the background of the clip. I was expecting maybe an Asian person at least right? But no, all white and mostly middle aged and older. Another guy had said, "His mother was white, so he's not African American but he's going that way because that's phase off for him." What? How rude and racist is that? If I were Obama, I would be like, "So just because I have a white parent, I have to be white and not black?"

On the other hand, I would believe that the Tea Party is utilizing some of the techniques that Adorno describes in his book about the psychological techniques of Martin Luther Thomas. The Lone wolf one came to mind not in the definition that Adorno gave, but in the sense that since the Tea party does not side with either the Democrats or the Republicans, the Tea party makes people feel like the lone wolf where they were ignored by both parties and had no one to turn to; they were alone, by themselves in this all along. Another tactic is the human interest one. The tea party appealing to people who work hard and deserve to keep what they make instead of throwing it at the health care for someone else who couldn't afford it.

And finally, gathering from the poll results from the Tea Party survey, I just think that a majority of the participants just don't like Obama in general. Maybe because he is black, or maybe for a more complex reason. The number three question asked, regardless of your opinion, what do you like least about Obama.19 people don't like him in general. Question number 12 asked what the opinion of the surveyee was and 84 of tea party supporters were not favorable about Obama.

My opinion and in trying to make sense of the Tea Party is that it is 1) manipulative according to my source of Adorno in utilizing psychological techniques to draw in supporters 2) is racist and prejudiced according to the primary source from a youtube clip with tea party supporters calling Obama Hitler, a fascist, and all other names and for the fact that almost if not all of supporters of that party are whites.

SOURCES: ZERNIKE, POLL DATA, ADORNO, primary source: youtube clip; secondary source: tea party website, I consider it a secondary source because I don't know who runs this website, and it could be a number of people and not specifically to the tea party.