TEA PARTY SHOWS ITS TRUE COLORS; THEY ARE NOT OF THE RAINBOW KIND


















One Nation Working Together rally participants vent on the National Mall in D.C. on October 2.  (Photos by Ove Overmyer)

Rochester, N.Y.-- The tea party movement was supposedly born in anger over the recession and the Obama White House bailouts (which were actually caused by the Bush administration) and built largely on a platform of lower taxes and smaller government.

If you haven't already noticed, this is also an anti-middle class and anti-labor movement initiative. And, some of its candidates are getting tripped up on social issues of late-- the true nature of their divisiveness, classism, racism and homophobia are now in plain sight for everyone to see.

The tea partiers have also created a coloring book for it's next generation of right-wingers. Unfortunately, the only crayon in the box is white.

In New York, Carl Paladino, the tea party-backed Republican candidate for governor, caused a furor among Democrats when he said children shouldn't be "brainwashed" into thinking being gay is acceptable.

In Colorado, GOP Senate nominee Ken Buck has tried to deflect questions about his stance against abortion rights. In Delaware, Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell has come under fire over the conservative religious views she espoused as a TV commentator, including preaching against the evils of masturbation.

And in Nevada, Senate candidate Sharron Angle, a Southern Baptist, has called herself a faith-based politician. She opposes abortion in all circumstances, including rape and incest, and doesn't believe the Constitution requires the separation of church and state. Her opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeks to portray her as outside mainstream America. Well, duh.

One by one, tea party challengers have veered away from the issues of taxes and spending — or in some cases were pushed off message either by the media or by the Democrats who have portrayed the insurgents not as populist alternatives to the mainstream GOP but as the Republican standard-bearers of the right.  The sad part here is that the tea party folk, the ones who truly believe in their ideals, are going to turn around and vote for Republicans-- the same party that got us into this mess in the first place.

Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said his research shows tea party activists are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans. What a surprise.  He added, rather than an outside alternative to the GOP, the tea party is a movement from within the Republican Party's most active members.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that social issues were always an important component of the tea party movement all along. It has only been common knowledge of late because these nutjobs now have to answer to a bigger audience rather than to their dedicated narrow base.

Candidates are now being questioned on their social views by reporters much more often-- and really have no where to hide. Some tea party candidates are trying to moderate their social views or deflect attention from them back to the economy but I think the cat is already out of the bag.  They are being exposed for their truly extreme radical views.

Plus, more independent and blank registered voters are starting to pay more attention to their local races too.  This is when and where the labor community must intervene – in the media and at thousands of front doors-- explaining extreme candidates' fringe positions and radical beliefs.

In Kentucky, tea party Republican Rand Paul, a candidate for Senate, opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and a proposed mosque near ground zero in New York City. But he doesn't talk about it much because he knows he can't win on those issues.

Last May, just hours after the political novice won a landslide primary victory, Paul took heat for a rambling interview in which he expressed misgivings about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and appeared to suggest that businesses be allowed to deny service to blacks without fear of federal interference.

In Alaska, tea party candidate Joe Miller says he is "unequivocally pro-life," and also opposes hate crime laws as violations of free-speech and equal protection under the Constitution.

New York's Crazy Carl Paladino

The Columbus Day Parade is a staple for Italian-American politicians seeking votes in New York City. Tea party candidate Carl Paladino spent most of the day trying to fend off a stream of criticism from Democrats for his pandering to a group of Orthodox Jewish leaders about gay people. When he was advised to deliver an apology to the LGBT community for his outrageous remarks, the Orthodox Jewish leaders sideswiped him and pulled their support for him. Poor crazy Carl doesn't know which way is up right now.

Paladino's Democratic opponent for governor, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, called Paladino's comments "reckless and divisive ... (the) worst cynical politics," especially since they come as New York City police investigate reports that three men were tortured in a night of anti-gay bias in the Bronx.

"It is repugnant to the concept of what New York is," Cuomo said at the parade. "We celebrate our diversity."  State Sen. Thomas Duane, an openly gay Democrat, said he was "enraged" by Paladino's "despicable rhetoric, which does cause people to hate themselves and commit suicide."

Paladino, who trails Cuomo by double digits in the polls, insisted his opposition to gay marriage and "brainwashing" in schools about gay life is a view held by millions of New Yorkers. How can someone who represents a major political party be so out of touch with everyday New Yorkers?

19 days to go

Talking heads in the media have already written the narrative for next month's election. They say that Democrats are doomed, that Republicans will take back the House of Representatives and that corporate sellout John Boehner will be the next Speaker of the House. John Boehner and the Republicans want to destroy the American middle class. This week, Boehner professed his desire to eliminate the minimum wage and unemployment and to privatize Social Security. We can't let that happen.  This is not the America I have grown to know and love.

Progressives from California to Florida to New Hampshire and everywhere in between are running people-powered campaigns. People power, defenders of the middle class and the labor community are a force that has beaten big corporate money before -- it's the only force that ever will.

Don't get me wrong. Some Democrats will lose in November -- the corporate Democrats that worked against us on healthcare, on climate change and on Wall Street reform -- Democrats who sided with Republicans over the American people. It's vitally important that our pro-labor progressive leaders win on November 2.  Get out and vote.

Photos and article by Ove Overmyer.  (Click on images for a larger view.)