Dave Weigel is guest-blogging at Sully’s place and I’m not highly impressed. Start with this:
You can already see Democrats opting to triage on some Senate races they talked about making this year, like South Carolina. Republicans aren’t even giving up on the Byrd seat. It’s in situations like these that Scott Brown’s victory did more for his party’s confidence than the passage of health care did for Democrats.
Perhaps some Democrat somewhere talked some smack about Jim DeMint going down in flames, but nobody sane ever thought his was anything but the safest possible seat. Alvin Greene’s victory is pretty solid evidence that Democrats weren’t taking that seat seriously. Greene won the primary because no one with any name recognition stepped up to run for the office, and the designated nobody who did run was hoarding his few shekels for 15-second radio ads and couple of lawn signs come November.
Weigel also calls the NAACP’s move to denounce tea party racism “silliness”, and evidence that “there isn’t much real racism to worry about”. I don’t understand that at all. Does Weigel think, for example, that Jews shouldn’t have an Anti-Defamation League, and instead should just keep quiet in the face of slurs because there are other, more important things for Jews to worry about? As far as I can tell, fighting shit like this is directly in the NAACP’s wheelhouse and they were right to take a swing at it.
I didn’t read Weigel regularly. He obviously got screwed out of a job, and I was sorry to see that happen. But I hope he did a better job at the Post than he’s doing at the Atlantic.
Redshirt
Yeah, it feels like he’s trying to prove his Conservative cred after the liberal debacle that was Weigelgate.
kommrade reproductive vigor
I read the whole thing and starting with the title (The NAACP’s ‘tea party’ stunt backfires), he tries really hard to condemn the NAACP but he doesn’t seem to understand why he’s doing it.
Lev
Weigel is a good reporter, but all of a sudden he’s an opinion journalist? All of a sudden he wants to be Garry Wills? That’s pretty clearly not going to happen. That whole post is bullshit. The NRSC does some sort of form attack on Joe Manchin, and that indicates some massive level of confidence somehow? As if putting out a press release costs anything.
I did enjoy his post on why Sully’s Trig birtherism is stupid. Doing at the guy’s blog takes balls.
Corner Stone
Dude’s a douchebag.
All in all, I would’ve much preferred someone on the actual reality side of reporting/punditing had benefited from the twatterati freakout.
I couldn’t give a shit less what happens to Weigel. He should be an extra on The Office or something.
Lev
@kommrade reproductive vigor: How did it backfire? Because the Tea Parties said the NAACP was wrong? What sort of standard is this?
lamh32
I was just saying that I’m already over David Frum before he started guest blogging at Sully, but the NACCP post you bring up pushed me over the edge for Weigel.
Here’s the thing, I agree that there are more pressing things that NAACP needs to address as well, but to call it “silliness” and the other quote ya gave, was just too flippant for this card-carrying NAACP member (well not really card-carrying but the NAACP is totally the Holy Grail to me an my peeps).
If that makes me too sensitive, then I guess I’m just too sensitive
Frank Chow
@Lev I agree, he is a solid reporter. Between his Twitter feed and opinion pieces, I don’t think he offers much intellectually….makes sense though because he is a self-proclaimed glibertarian….
Adam Collyer
@lamh32:
This needs to be repeated over and over and over again. Somehow, Frum has become to voice of “sane conservatism.” No, no. NO. Frum is the voice of “polite conservatism,” which is to say that you can speak to him like a normal human being and have a conversation that doesn’t end with two people screaming at each other.
But Frum worked for GEORGE W. BUSH. He’s the voice of neoconservatism. Fundamentally, he doesn’t believe that Tea Party views are “wrong.” He believes that their message and demeanor are ineffective. That’s a huge problem, and rationally people should stop nodding along when Frum is described as a “sane conservative” because he’s involved in a media squabble with Rush Limbaugh, who’s totally certifiable.
As for Weigel, I don’t even see the comparison. Dems will have a very difficult time winning in South Carolina, and Jim DeMint is the king of Tea Party conservatives. Meanwhile, West Virginia is a state that is trending conservative. It’s not a terrible stretch to imagine a Republican winning a general election there. What’s the mystery?
Lolis
I agree. Plus his whole denunciation of Andrew Sullivan’s Trig questions seemed very defensive. I agree with him that Trig is Palin’s, but he came across as very afraid of offending Palin supporters. Color me not impressed. Sully is just asking for a birth certificate which has never been produced. If Obama didn’t have to dig his out, I wouldn’t see the need for Palin to, but he did. The premise that Obama was born in Kenya is based on a far nuttier and disprovable conspiracy theory than the conspiracy theory that Palin is lying about the circumstances of Trig’s birth.
Lev
@Adam Collyer: I’d encourage you to actually read the post. The reasoning is deeply stupid. Weigel takes some sort of form press release as a tremendously revealing detail about the State of the Nation, that the NRSC is somehow in good shape because its press shop didn’t take a long lunch and its internet connection didn’t go down. As if everything would be different if the DSCC sent out something on Jim DeMint.
It’s not necessarily the conclusion I disagree with (though Manchin seems to have it sewn up) so much as the vacuous reasoning. Weigel is the rare person who starts pushing bullshit memes after working for the MSM.
Anne Laurie
@Adam Collyer:
Ten thousand times “yes, this” to you! Frum is a craven careerist, slightly brighter and/or more fastidious than his fellows, who jumped ship for can’t-we-all-get-along platitudes when it became obvious that the puppeteers of the Tea Party Tribalists were losing control of the rhetorical strings keeping the peons more or less within the bounds of rational discourse. He’s a would-be Grima Wormtongue, a born remora, happy to promote whichever point of view looks to provide David Frum with the best ROI during the current business quarter. I don’t believe Frum’s ‘conservatism’ goes any deeper than David Horowitz’s ‘marxism’ — if the GOP is sufficiently beaten in 2010 or 2012, I fully expect Frum to discover his long-lost ‘small-d-democratic roots’ and start agitating for John Boehner to be declared a political criminal. (But not Newt Gingrich, because Gingrich and Frum are members of the same political phyla.)
kid bitzer
you’d like to like him, he did get mistreated by the mainstream, it almost seems like his heart is in the right place….
and yet when the chips are down, he spews right-wing talking points and goes for cheap hippy-punching.
huh. sounds like the perfect fill-in for sullivan!
Meg
@Lev:
Even at the Trig piece he was doing a shitty job.
First, he wrote that piece because some right wingers were upset with him on tweeter. Now he rushed to show them he is REALLY on the RIGHT side.
Second, the title itself sounds like a parody to me “Believing Sarah Palin”. Yeah right, Sarah, the pathological liar.
Finally he went out of his way to make this bold statement “All of the evidence indicates that Trig Palin is Sarah’s son, and none of it suggests otherwise.”
So far all the “evidence” is from Palin’s own words. There wasn’t even a hospital record. The reason the MSM won’t touch this matter is because this story is a “private” issue and they want to protect their reputation. So even nobody knows for sure what the true story is, most people just avoid this subject to be safe. But he must be the first person who is so sure about it.
Over all, from all the posts he wrote today I consider him a lazy and sloppy journalist. None of his points made much sense.
kay
I’m sick of people kissing tea party ass. The NAACP can weigh in if they want to. As mistermix says “this is right in their wheelhouse”
God knows the media won’t shut up about tea parties. Millions of words have been written.
The NAACP come out with one statement and the punditry are mortally offended. How many goddamned really offensive signs have we seen? I’m amazed the NAACP held out this long.
Andrew Sullivan gives him a forum and he uses it to grovel his way back into conservative’s good graces. Disgustingly cowardly.
jacy
I didn’t regularly read either Frum or Weigel, only caught them from links from other sites. Color me not impressed from what I’ve seen at the monkey house that pops up whenever Sully vacations. They both make want to hit them with a shovel.
The thing I hate about all the junior wankers who blog in Sully’s absence is that they only post in two fashions:
a) Look at how contrarian I am!
b) Ooh, these other bloggers who are just like me are so cool and hip! Let me link to them!
I admit that I read Sullivan regularly ( for which there should be some 12-step program), but he’s like the familiar crazy uncle that sometimes froths at the mouth uncontrollably. The guest bloggers all tend to start seeming like Patrick Bateman without the charm.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Yeah, I read that trying to figure out how, exactly, anything had “backfired”. Also, this idea that WVa trending Republican is new and suddenly worrying for Dems is pretty weird. And what everyone said. I definitely get the impression that he’s been burned and he’s trying to prove something to…. someone.. Donnie Graham, Sarah Palin, the ‘Baggers, I don’t know.
ETA: he had that same combination of bland and incoherent at the Post, so I was kind of surprised that his Journolist posts were so pointed. I do find him pretty good on TV, though.
wasabi gasp
Dude’s totally fucking Bristol.
Adam Collyer
@Lev:
Per your suggestion, read the post. I almost wish I hadn’t. I’d like those three minutes of my life back.
It’s a laughable comparison. Maybe the Dems should send out a press release, or even make an ad about DeMint’s fervent opposition toward the President. Oh wait….
You know, ads like this, maybe?
That research took me a grand total of a minute and a half. I know people love Weigel’s reporting skills, but come on.
Adam Collyer
And while I’m a bit riled up…
No, Mix. You don’t get it. The NAACP needs to ignore racism. That’s what worked so well for the organization for decades. After all, ignoring racism is the only way to legitimately fight it.
These people are stupid.
BR
I think he needs to sit down and watch a few of Tim Wise’s lectures over on YouTube and then reconsider whether his post makes any sense whatsoever…
kay
@BR:
I maintain that the election of the first African American President has been more disconcerting and deeply upsetting to media than to the public at large.
Media may never get over it. They’re really rattled.
I don’t think they’re bigots, they’re just deeply and completely conventional. They don’t deal with change well.
Still processing it, apparently. May be a while. We’ll wait.
matoko_chan
@kommrade reproductive vigor: its creepy. its like Frum and Weigel moved in and ran up the confederate flag. Right now they are wearing Klan hoods and having a drum circle to raise Undead Ronald Reagan. Bodenner wrote TWO posts today bitchslapping the NAACP.
One might think they are trying to shape the narrative.
There are OBVIOUSLY racists in the TPM. The NAACP called them out on that.
Get rid of the racists or forget the minority vote, teabaggers.
but…..i don’t think they can….i think the TPM is >50% racists.
Lolis
The guest writers are lucky there is no comments section. It is very disappointing that Andrew Sullivan never allows liberals to guest host his blog.
matoko_chan
Here you can observe teabaggers discussing Is the Tea Party Racist? in their natural, lily white, judeoxian environment.
the comments are about what you’d expect.
Hunter Gathers
@kay:
They are using the same language against Obama that was used against Dr. King. And we know what happened to him. It’s going to take the destruction of a government building or some dead secret service agents for the MSM to connect the dots. It’s like it’s 1967 without the rioting. But it’s all right, ’cause it’s all White.
Hunter Gathers
@Lolis: Hilzoy covered for him over there for a while in 2008.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Lev: Honestly, I have no idea. Perhaps he thinks the thousands of TPers who are also members of the NAACP will burn their cards?
Apparently Wiggy found one instance of one TP group that showed one guy the door after he attended a rally carrying a sign with the N word (misspelled), which proves all of the other little incidents at TP rallies that don’t result in expulsion are … Um …
Yeah. I don’t get it. Read it and let me know if you figure out WtF.
He also does not address some of the crazy (and I guess not racist) things the TPers have said in response, or the details of the NAACP’s position.
The best interpretation I can give this (don’t ask me why) is he’s one of those dudes who is super uncomfortable talking about race and racism, which is fine. Where he fucks up is when he ignores that nagging feeling of discomfort and pinches out a loaf like Exhibit A.
Mike in NC
Jim Bob DeMented can stay in office forever since he represents South Crackerstan, the most backward and generally fucked up state in the Union. Strom Thurmond would still representing SC in the Senate if he didn’t have the bad form to drop dead at age 100.
Mike in NC
@kay:
It was reported today that Newt Fucking Gingrich will announce whether or not he’ll run for President in 2012 sometime next year. Stand by for much media hyperventilation over that. Maybe Jeb Bush will throw his hat in the ring, too.
kay
@Hunter Gathers:
As I said, I agree with you. I see the tactic, here. Go look at the FOX video below us, it’s all race-baiting, all the time, over there. It’s about as subtle as a brick to the head. But we can’t mention it, so keep it quiet.
Pundits are cowards. They go all to shit the minute they start getting a regular paycheck. I sort of understand it. Everyone needs a paycheck, and I’m absolutely convinced that Tea Partiers RAISE HELL when anyone writes anything uncomplimentary. I think we have no idea of the volume of phone calls and emails they generate.
Media are scared to death of them.
kay
@Mike in NC:
I hope not. He’s a legit threat.
I’m pulling for 1. Palin or 2. Gingrich
I’ll take 3. Huckabee, happily.
We can beat any combination of those three.
Anne Laurie
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Thanks, I needed that laugh!
Bella Q
I thought a lot more of Weigel’s writing before I read the garbage today. All I could do was wonder WTF? And Frum is polite, but that’s just a cover for the neocon interior. He’s rare in that he sounds coherent and civil, but the ideology is still below that polite veneer.
I’ve thought that all along, and that Megyn Kelly DOJ fear mongering shit is just more of the same. It’s (more than) a little scary, considering that there are people who lack the information to understand that it’s all just hysteria.
Dave Weigel
Well, it seems clear to me that the NAACP picked a headline-grabbing and silly fight. Conservatives don’t respond to being called racists. They respond to the sort of stuff ThinkProgress does, taking video cameras to rallies and exposing what happens. There is racism in the tea parties but members self-police the obvious stuff, and the obvious stuff isn’t really the problem.
I’m having fun at the blog although I’m doing commentary more than reporting because I’m on a personal visit to Unalaska, AK, four hours behind DC and with limited phone and Internet access. Would love tips for stories I’m missing — I’m reachable in a few different ways.
DW
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay:
They’re also (and of course there are exceptions) deeply confused by right-wingers and by anyone who doesn’t share their center-right, civility-first ideology. Besides what Josh Marshall accurately described a couple years ago as their embarrassed bemusement that there are people who actually care about issues, as opposed to politics as a grand but inconsequential sport, Teh Reds vs Teh Blues (JMM was talking about their reaction to the Netroots, but the broader idea applies here). On top of that, there’s the Broderist insistence that these are “real Americans, Heartland Americans”, a gooey Romanticism dictated to them by their profession, that conflicts with their personal class (financial, educational, social) biases, and makes their pointy little heads hurt. They look down on Tp’ers, but they can’t admit that to themselves, and they see the racism in those signs and at those rallies, but given a choice between Conventional Wisdom and their own lyin’ eyes, they don’t hesitate for a moment.
kay
@Hunter Gathers:
I think it is going to be a wild ride, the next few months.
I’ve been aware of the subtle stuff my whole adult life, but this is a whole new level. My husband doesn’t watch the news, ever, and he mentioned it today, based on the 10 minutes of cable news he caught while looking for a baseball game. He reads newspapers for information, and it isn’t in there.
He was a little taken aback.
WereBear
Had a discussion with MIL who shared that:
A few friends, who have politely met People of Other Shades at their house in the past, have now been overheard making remarks about the President and his family. Essentially, if a white family had done the same thing, it would be cute or touching… when the First Family does it, it’s “inappropriate.”
A group of white Born Agains had been in their town, rehabbing a church in a black neighborhood. During a discussion, she was shocked to discover that if one of these local church members were to travel to the church who was sponsoring the rehabbing… they would be discouraged from entering, let’s say.
And if any of these people in question were told they were racist; they would argue with you that they are not.
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think that’s dead-on. My daughter is only 20 and she and I have discussed the silly fantasy media people have about “real America” (rural areas, or small towns). She knows. She grew up there. She’s already fully aware that it’s a class thing.
I feel slightly ill when I listen to Chuck Todd and Chris Matthews expound on the “lunch bucket” crowd. What does Chris Matthews pull down every year? Several million, right? I’d bet he’s lived within an easy commute of a major city for the last 40 years. It’s like after the 2004 election, when David Brooks wrote a long column about “red America” based entirely on a baseball trip he took with his son.
WTF are they talking about, and isn’t Chick Todd really young to be pretending he grew up in the 1950’s?
DougJ
I like Weigel. This was an off post for him.
MikeJ
@DougJ: That was my thought too. He was the sane republican, untill he was too sane in public. Now he’s trying prove he’s as batshit as the rest of them.
Wile E. Quixote
@kay:
If Huckabee has any smarts he won’t throw his hat in the ring. If he does throw his hat in the ring he’s going to be absolutely destroyed by Maurice Clemmons and Wayne Dumond. There’s no fucking way in Hell that any other candidate wouldn’t use the issue of Huckabee’s stupidly disastrous pardons to just beat the living shit out of him. And what’s he going to say to the base “Whoops, yeah, I pardoned a black guy who killed four cops. Would you guys get over it already?”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dave Weigel:
Maybe they’re not trying to reach self-ID’d Conservatives, but TP apologists in the media (and I don’t mean you), and the apologists’ apologists, the far larger and more toxic subset of the punditocracy and political media (probably 95% of it). If they have to grab a headline with a “stunt” like this to get through to Broder, Cokie and all the little Russerts out there (and I don’t for a moment think they will) I say, grab away.
Adam Collyer
@Dave Weigel:
Welcome to Balloon Juice, Dave.
I think it’s a fair question to ask whether that’s the NAACP’s real motive. They aren’t out there to get conservatives (specifically the Tea Party; plenty of conservatives are not racist, obviously) to “respond.” The job of the NAACP is to expose racism.
Of course the Tea Party movement didn’t respond well to being called racist. Who responds well to that? But when the NAACP exposes racism in the Tea Party, the movement’s credibility collapses. This is, of course, assuming the movement has any intellectual credibility to begin with; a faulty proposition at best.
This isn’t a “he said”/”she said” proposition. Either the Tea Party has racist elements or it doesn’t. If it does, then the NAACP’s job is to expose them. Because the Tea Party denies being racist doesn’t mean that the NAACP’s response backfired. Their purpose for being is to expose racism and remove it from American society. How would this have hurt their cause?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Wile E. Quixote: Personally, I think Palin, Huckabee and Gingrich are only interested in boosting their profiles (and thus their speaking fees, book sales, etc) by hinting about 2012. My virtual quatloos are still on Pawlenty/Jindal, but it would be interesting if Jebbie and Romney got in. Who could tell them apart? Do you think if they were in the same room they would each get confused about who was who? Maybe they could do one of those Harpo/Groucho mirror acts at the convention.
Hunter Gathers
@Dave Weigel:
What. The. Fuck. Ever.
It’s all fun and games and ‘look at the silly TP’ers with their misspelled signs and inartful statements and yada, yada, yada.’ These racist fucks are using the same language that got a man who preached peace and harmony brain’s splattered all over a Memphis motel balcony in 1968. The same language that was on pamphlets all over Dallas before Jack Kennedy’s wife was scraping his brains off the trunk of a convertable. The same language that contributed to a destroyed federal building in Oklahoma City. The obvious stuff matters most of all. Unchecked, it leads to unspeakable horrors. And you know that, Mr. Weigel. But you’re too much of a coward to admit that, lest you upset a group of insane assholes who are pissed off that a black man is the leader of our country. You know, the same people who leaked the address of your girlfriend’s place of work. Do you think they did that so people would drop in and say hello? As a libertarian, I know you’d like to think we are all above that sort of thing, and certain laws aren’t really needed in the 21st century. But for those of us in the real world, who have seen and continue to see racism and bigotry, words do matter. Words get people killed.
kay
@Wile E. Quixote:
I think his base are fundamentalist Christians, and they won’t care. He’s their candidate. They’re believers.
He’s probably good news, because (around here, anyway) the “real” Christians love the Huckster and the non-churchgoers who spout a lot of Christian-lite babble are Palin fans. Another split! She’s the faux-Christian candidate. if you’re serious about Jesus, you back Huckabee.
I keep close tabs on the factions for you-all, Wile. It’s a complex calculus. I may need a chart before it’s all over.
Bella Q
@kay: I need a chart already.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay:
That’s interesting. Palin’s faith is interesting to me in general. She believes in Jesus because Jesus believes in her. What the rest of see as dumb–in every sense of the word–luck, she sees as The Divine Will. Again, Dumbya in a skirt.
Corner Stone
@Hunter Gathers: Damn. Bring it.
Lolis
Looks like Weigel is not as sensitive as Greenwald. At least he is not arguing with every single poster here. Still, I am sick of all the cheerleading for conservatives like Weigel, cause while they may mildly criticize their own, but when it comes down to it, they have the same kooky core beliefs as the Tea Partiers.
So now liberals can’t call out racists, cause their feelings might get hurt? Racism is so prevalent in the Tea Party movement it goes far beyond a few signs, and Weigel knows that better than anybody. This racism is a key part of the Republican Party and has been for decades.
Glibertarians are even worse than Republicans as far as I am concerned. Glibertarians say they are not racist but when it comes down to it everyone chooses a side and votes. Plus, their utopia world of “individual freedoms” is totally based on a white guy’s fantasy of the world, with white and male privilege built into that.
goblue72
Sully’s stunt double crew he picks up from the pundit temp agency whenever he goes on vacation is usually pretty lackluster, hit-or-miss, which is what you’d expect from temps, but this latest crew is just full on wanker. The downward spiral of the once-interesting Atlantic into a circus tent of Israel-fetishists, airheaded glibertarians, and conservative numbnuts is just so sad. How TNC works over there and keeps his sanity is anyone’s guess, but I expect the glass ceiling for writers of color in the lily-white world of monthly newsmagazines is part of the reason.
I mean, c’mon, David Frum? He’s just another run of the mill, Bushite sycophant who lost his wingnut welfare job because he farted one too many times at his corporate pimpmaster’s party. And this is supposed to mean he’s some sort of thoughtful conservative?
asiangrrlMN
@lamh32: I had been following Weigel on Twitter until he defended Rand Paul against charges of racism–saying, essentially the same thing. He said it was silly to think Paul was racist. Well, I dropped Weigel after that. His grasp on racial issues sucked, to put it mildly. I’m not surprised but still disappointed that Weigel is still spouting that crap. And, after reading the actual item by Weigel, he can go suck it.
b-psycho
Dave, the reason why people scream at the “tea party” about racism isn’t because they assume only racism could explain conservatism in general, it’s because the specific types that make up the “tea party” have literally no fucking argument that makes any more sense than racism. When they DO make effort towards non-rashialist* (note the distinction…) criticisms, the complaint doesn’t remotely match what they think is the proper solution.
(* – forgot the fucking retarded word-within-a-word moderation)
M. Bouffant
Almost the first thing Frum typed after his “Hi, I’m David” introductory post was this:
St. Nick on a Stick!! The poor, suffering INVESTORS! The horror!
How can we get his Green Card lifted?
b-psycho
Dave, the reason why people scream at the “tea party” about racism isn’t because they assume only racism could explain conservatism in general, it’s because the specific types that make up the “tea party” have literally no fucking argument that makes any more sense than racism. When they DO make effort towards non-rashialist* (note the distinction…) criticisms, the complaint doesn’t remotely match what they think is the proper solution.
(* – forgot the fucking retarded word-within-a-word moderation. Ignore the previous.)
Mayur
Yeah. What HG said.
You know what, Dave? You have not a leg, foot, toe, or goddamn hangnail to stand on. The Dick Army is a bunch of idiotic fucktards whose entire animus is either open racism, repressed racism, or a basic repudiation of the struggles that underclasses both economic and ethnic have waged from the dawn of time to enable progress toward equality.
Goddamn it pisses me off that this site seems to devote more space toward punching hippies (i.e people who are right about pretty much every single fucking political issue of the last twenty years but just aren’t being quiet and polite enough to wait their turn until Big Bad Blue Dogs and Sister Queens Snowe and Collins have had their say) than to even trying to criticize so-called reasonable conservatives like you and yours.
matoko_chan
@Dave Weigel: There are three posts bashing the NAACP on the first two pages of Sully’s blog, two by Chris, and one by you.
The NAACP has every right to call out racists within the TPM.
The TPM is forever whining that that they are being caricatured as racist by the media and liberals, when there are only a few racists in its ranks. Well…..if that is true, all the TPM has to do is say publically, racism is wrong and we don’t want your racist votes.
I don’t see that happening.
The NAACP resolution is neither “sillie” nor a “tempest in a tea pot.”
It is a shot across the bow.
The NAACP is simply saying, if you want minority votes, reject racism.
hamletta
So, the NAACP isn’t supposed to call out racism.
If not them, who?
If not now when?
It’s their fucking job, you shit-for-brains.
Midnight Marauder
@kay:
This is pretty much what I walked away with based on his performance today.
Really, just one of the most pathetic displays I’ve seen in a long time.
matoko_chan
@Dave Weigel: and if you RELLY cared about conservativism…..you would try educate the teabaggers instead of supporting their denialism and idiocy.
‘Splain to them that the reason they get called racists is because they harbor racists. The simple fix is to reject racism, like they say they reject excessive government spending (lol).
Instead you all are wallerin’ around trying to say the liberals are the real racists or the racists don’t exist.
No one believes that, ‘specially not the NAACP.
The NAACP is doing their job.
Do yours.
asiangrrlMN
@asiangrrlMN: And now I see he’s dropped in to defend himself. I would have to say his comment here makes more sense than his write-up on Sully’s blog, but still, no one responds well to be called racist. That doesn’t change the fact that the tea party is a manifestation of racial hatred and fear that a black man is in charge. We can dance around it all we want, but it’s true. And, for all the screams of reverse-racism being thrown around by the right, I’m more than a little tired of people getting the vapors when actual racist behavior is called out.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Yes, they respond by claiming the people waving the offensive signs are liberal moles. Oddly enough this happens after someone else points at the footage and says “WTF?”
Two suggestions:
a) Check out what the NAACP is actually saying; or
b) Blog about your trip if you’re too busy to do any research.
Allison W.
THANK GOODNESS!!! I thought it was just me who wasn’t happy with Frum and Weigel being a guest blogger. The NAACP thing really pissed me off. And so did Weigel’s statement that if Palin got into the WH and we found out she was lying about her baby – it wouldn’t matter. WTF???!!!
Allison W.
Hi Dave, a little clarification. When individuals or groups call out the Tea Party or the GOP or Republicans, their aim is to defend the offended NOT to convince conservatives. They are aiming to warn onlookers of the real motives of this group. And like hell they respond to what ThinkProgress does. When confronted, they deny it or claim it was a liberal mole. Or claim it was isolated. No it wasn’t. This is the type of behavior they encourage and reward.
This morning I saw reports of a billboard put up by the North Iowa Tea Party featuring Hitler – Obama – Lenin claiming that they are all the same. I know the point of it is to call Obama a murderous dictator commie, but try explaining how THIS vitriol aimed at the first black president isn’t racist. I am fuming right now. Stop defending these people in any way. They are not scared little children so afraid of change that the MSM and their conservative friends need to keep coddling them. They are destructive and poisonous – PERIOD.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/13/north-iowa-tea-party-displays-billboard-comparing-obama-to-hitler/
kay
@Allison W.:
Bravo, Allison. Exactly.
But, you must understand: it’s always about conservatives.
The NAACP is about conservative reaction to the NAACP. Their goals or mission are unimportant, as are their members.
Health care reform will benefit 45 million Americans.
But the media focus is on the 5% of the Republican base that have government-sponsored health care, and object to the 45 million getting it.
We live to serve, Allison. Conservatives drive the narrative. Our job is not to upset them.
Really, I think the NAACP should submit an apology and try to set up a beer summit. What’s crucial is that they understand the Tea Party grievances, and find what’s behind the blatant and daily race-based baiting.
Bulworth
Frum posted something about the forming of yet another right-wing neocon group devoted to “defending” Israel against the refugee camps that is Gaza and made it sound like some new, novel non-partisan civil rights group. Blegh. But he sounded very polite.
Waynski
@DougJ —
His name was Al Greene. I heard a lot of people thought he was the singer, so it seems the name recognition may have actually won.
Bulworth
Well, I’m sure that some of the teabagger’s best friends are black.
matoko_chan
im starting to think Weigel is unbright, AND a spinner.
Does he really think Sully’s readers won’t call him on this?
Brown told Palin and the teabaggers to stay away.
Hoffman was the tea party candidate.
He lost.
DMcK
@Bulworth: Ha! Yeah, Frum has “polite discourse” down to an art form. I had to read through that horse hockey a couple of times to realize the mission of the group he was describing makes AIPAC look like an Upper West Side book club.
BlueFranco
Dave Weigel is damaged goods. He has become an apologist for anything the teabaggers say. He needs to get out of being a journo for a long time and get back his balls. I say meh…to his hideous posts.
jd
Mr. Weigel,
Weigel also calls the NAACP’s move to denounce tea party racism “silliness”, and evidence that “there isn’t much real racism to worry about.”
As a journalist you must favor civil discourse. Yet you have made a strike against it by claiming that racism is negligible in the US that the NAACP is “silly” for having spoken out against egregious language and sentiments expressed openly by some attending Tea Party rallies. Perhaps your understanding of life in the US has been thwarted by your lack of experience living here; in any case widening your range of inquiry and deepening your understanding of the culture and history, current and past , of the US will serve you better.
As a practicing journalist your charge is to investigate and observe the society you comment on. Yet you miss the fact that White privilege in the US is still extant saying, “there isn’t much real racism to worry about.” Just a few examples that come to mind of what racism has yielded in American life:
US jails are disproportionately filled with African-Americans; Whites tried for the same crimes (mostly non-violent crimes against property, drug offenses) are not given jail time or they receive lighter sentences.
African-Americans still are discriminated against in the housing and job markets, they have higher infant mortality and death rates than White cohorts. They are poorer. Black teenagers are at a far higher risk of death than white teenagers. And so on….
While overt racism may be rarer, there are still racist groups who promote White supremacy and xenophobia. It is highly disturbing for those of us who remember the Civil Rights movement to hear racial epithets shouted at members of congress and the president, and in his case death-threats. Such outbreaks should not be treated lightly and the NAACP is right to speak out against such behavior.
Especially in time of economic uncertainty, care should be taken that anger and resentment are not further inflamed by irresponsible and dangerous rhetoricians, blind opportunists, political actors, etc. As a journalist, Mr. Weigel, you are bound by the unseen but ever-present command to tell the truth and uncover the facts. Anything less than that is a betrayal of the social contract and intellectual and moral honesty.