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You are here: Home / The NAACP is shrill

The NAACP is shrill

by Dennis G.|  July 16, 20105:05 pm| 71 Comments

This post is in: Flash Mob of Hate, Good News For Conservatives, Teabagger Stupidity

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And for the record, the NAACP has been shrill for over a century and the Confederate nostalgics have hated every minute of it. Since they began in 1909 the NAACP has always been attacked by the Confederate Party regardless of the alias they use. Today’s iteration of the Confederate Party uses Republican, GOP, conservative and Tea Party as their cover names, but the NAACP can still send these folks into fits of rage just by tugging at their sheets from time to time.

As they done countless times before, the NAACP called on a political movement in America to condemn the racist statements and actions by folks in their ranks. Nothing really new here, as the NAACP has been doing this kind of thing for 101 years. But because the movement they call out this time is the Tea Party TeaBagger movement it has caused an outrage from all the usual suspects making up the various strains of the modern Confederate Party.

It took almost no time at all for TeaBagger leaders to respond with claims of victimhood and, of course, fresh examples of the racism the NAACP call on the movement to refute.

Leading the way this time was TeaBagger grifter extraordinaire, Mark Williams. He started a TeaBagger cell group called The Tea Party Express and now serves as the mouthpiece for the group. And what a spokesman. He put up some racist bile and when he was called out on it he first called it ‘satire’ and then he took it down when it was clear that he was tripping over his own sheet.

Fortunately, Ta-Nehisi Coates has preserved a copy.

Many words have been written about the NAACP’s call to condemn any racism in the Tea Party, but I think TNC’s reading of the entire episode is spot on. Especially this:

If Mark Williams is not a racist, then there are no racists in American society–a position which many, some liberals among them, no doubt find plausible.

And this:

It’s been asked in comments, a few times, what good has come of the NAACP’s resolution. I would not endeavor to speak for anyone but myself when I say that I owe the NAACP a debt of gratitude.

And finally this:

When engaging your adversaries, that approach [thoughtful fair-mindedness] has its place. But it’s worth saying that there are other approaches and other places. Among them–respectfully administering the occasional reminder as to the precise nature of the motherfuckers you are dealing with. It strikes me that this is a most appropriate role for the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

Thank the FSM that the NAACP is still calling out these motherfuckers after all these years. Folks like Williams may not like it, but then again they are WATB assholes who always think it is unfair for anybody to hold them accountable for their words and deeds (they are sons of the Confederacy after all).

We are a better Nation because of the NAACP and they deserve respect and support, but I doubt that will be the outcome.

If I had to make a guess, I would suspect that the outcome of Mark William’s racist tirades will be that CNN or MSNBC will hire the little bastard any day now and give him his own show.

Why? Because the NAACP is shrill, that’s why.

Cheers

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Reader Interactions

71Comments

  1. 1.

    beltane

    July 16, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Last month NPR did a story about the NAACP which strongly implied that the organization was now obsolete. Unfortunately, as long as one of this country’s two main parties is controlled by white supremacists, the NAACP will remain relevant.

    I wish we had some kind of White Americans against the Tea Party organization to express our solidarity. We need to let the racists know that they speak only for themselves.

  2. 2.

    Daddy-O

    July 16, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    Shrill. And not coincidentally, they’re all colored, too.

  3. 3.

    freelancer

    July 16, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    Lucille: Michael. I was almost attacked last night, in my own home. I walk in and there’s a colored man in my kitchen.

    Michael: “Colored”? What color was he exactly?

    Lucille: Blue.

    Tobias: Hello, Lucille. (Grunts.)

    Air horn blaring.

  4. 4.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    July 16, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    Not nearly as shrill as the NAAOCP, John Boehner’s organization.

  5. 5.

    JenJen

    July 16, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    This kind of encapsulates all that the mainstream has been missing in their reporting of this story:

    And for the record, the NAACP has been shrill for over a century and the Confederate nostalgics have hated every minute of it.

    Exactly.

  6. 6.

    licensed to kill time

    July 16, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Well, in the ‘baggerbrain it’s the pointing out of racism that makes you a racist. Polite people just walk on by and pretend not to notice, like when someone farts in an elevator. It’s a version of “He who smelt it dealt it”.

  7. 7.

    Alex

    July 16, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    For the record: I don’t like it when Dems are called the “Democrat party” and so I don’t think we should go out of our way to call the Tea Party “teabaggers.” Is it just me?

  8. 8.

    beltane

    July 16, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    @Alex: A lot of them call themselves teabaggers. You will never hear a Democrat referring to the “Democrat Party”.

    “Teabagger” is far more respectful a term than these creatures deserve to be called.

  9. 9.

    S. cerevisiae

    July 16, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Shorter teabaggers: See, if’n they knowed their place they wouldn’t need an NAACP.

  10. 10.

    lamh32

    July 16, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Great post Dennis.

    I recommend ready all of TNC’s posts on this subject. Starting from the beginning, you can see the evolution TNC’s thought, that many higher profile Afr Am also went through. What I mean, is that in my neck of the woods, urban radio and such, have been behind the NAACP from the beginning on this resolution. TNC and other Afr Am in the media, and “upper elite” if you will, were more wary of the NAACP calling out these mofos, he didn’t go so far as calling it a stunt, but they were wary. But as the TPM began showing their asses, TNC, and even some “conserv” Afr Am I know began to change their minds, to as you finally see, TNC post on how he now he believes the NAACP was right to confront them head on.

  11. 11.

    mellowjohn

    July 16, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    hearing someone say “democrat party” is a pretty good indication that you can discount and/or ignore whatever else comes out of their mouths.
    tell ya what, alex. when they stop calling us the “democrat party,” i’ll stop calling them “teabaggers.” mkay?

  12. 12.

    danimal

    July 16, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    If the NAACP’s statement did nothing other than expose Mark Williams in such a spectacular manner, it has been a success. That bastard should be afraid to show his face in public.

    Unfortunately, the bidding between CNN, FOX and MSNBC for his services could set a record.

  13. 13.

    demimondian

    July 16, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    I can hear the questions now: “Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Confederate Party of the United States of America, Mr. Boehner?”

    It would be such a sweet revenge fantasy to treat them like they’ve treated us. Of course, we won’t do it — it was wrong when they did it, and it would be wrong if we did it, too.

  14. 14.

    kay

    July 16, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    I’m baffled why this is even controversial.

    I don’t know why elite pundits and media objected to the NAACP delivering a statement condemning the racism in the Tea Party.

    The Tea Party members made the signs, paid for the billboards, and issued the statements.

    Where else where the NAACP supposed to direct the condemnation? To….people in general? I didn’t make any signs like that.

    It’s somehow their duty to ignore all of it? So the racist speech remains unchallenged?

    Tea Party members can say whatever they hell they want, and the NAACP can and should push back against that racist speech with everything they have.

    Have the rules somehow changed? We’re going to have a debate where only one faction gets to hit, hard, and the rest of us have to pull punches? The Tea Party opened the door with those signs, those billboards and those statements.

    Now they don’t want to have this debate? Tough shit. That isn’t how it works.

  15. 15.

    Kryptik

    July 16, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    CNN’s already had him on twice to talk about the NAACP resolution, like he was an expert on them, not even bothering to bring up his own out there comments or even the letter.

    I’m seeing him get a job there in a month, tops, right beside Erik Erikson.

  16. 16.

    scott charmin

    July 16, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    as long as trolls call democrats “dumbocrats, dimocrats, libtards” etc (which is basically word play), i’m comfortable calling tea party people Tea Baggers (which is also wordplay, except that it’s substitution for an already existing word)

  17. 17.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    July 16, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    @Alex:

    Tea bagging is a term they used themselves, others just made fun of it.

  18. 18.

    LT

    July 16, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    @Alex:

    For the record: I don’t like it when Dems are called the “Democrat party” and so I don’t think we should go out of our way to call the Tea Party “teabaggers.” Is it just me?

    Have you ever heard of Democrats referring to it as the “Democrat Party”? Because the Teabaggers came out of the gate calling themselves teabaggers. Teabaggers.

  19. 19.

    Midnight Marauder

    July 16, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    And right on cue, another completely tone-deaf response from Weigel. This is seriously some weak sauce:

    You know, I don’t disagree with this. Coates and I are writing from different places. I don’t think the way that the NAACP’s resolution was covered was good at all.

    Wait. Do you mean like by people such as yourself, Dave? Because you would be amongst the people who covered the NAACP’s resolution poorly; in fact, I feel confident in saying that you would be chief among them, going so far as to propagate a comparison between the New Black Panther party and the militia movement that birthed Timothy McVeigh as somehow being equivalent cultural forces. But this is a good start, admitting there were some mistakes. Let’s keep pushing on…

    I don’t think any racial issues are covered well, least of all “debates” like this where the press creates a point-counterpoint between Ben Jealous on one end and Mark Williams on the other. It was with that assumption that I said this would “backfire.”

    So, again, I notice you are engaging in a time-honored Village practice of invoking “the press” as though you are not a part of said entity, specifically when discussing a subject on which you have an extended history of covering and just recently wrote several pieces on the subject. And the assumption you made was based on an already repugnant idea that the traditional media would drop the ball in their coverage of the issue by constructing irrelevant and inconsequential “subplots” and “narratives,” so you worked against this by…wildly misunderstanding the issue and then doubling-down on that gross misunderstanding? Ok, that’s an interesting approach, to be sure.

    In the long run, will it backfire? I don’t know.

    WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT EVEN MEAN TO BACKFIRE IF YOU JUST ADMITTED THAT THE PRESS DOESN’T EVEN COVER THE ISSUE WELL IN THE FIRST PLACE?! I mean, do you even read your paragraphs again after you press Return?

    Conservatives who disagree with the NAACP have no tolerance whatsoever for being called racists or supporters of racism.

    This has to go down as one of the most inane sentences of the year. No shit, Dave?! People with a history of engaging in and nurturing racist behavior and rhetoric have a problem when someone points that out to the public at large?! WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD HAVE EVER COME UP WITH SUCH A RATIONAL CONCLUSION?!

    Past NAACP attempts to shift the debate by using tough rhetoric — I am thinking of Julian Bond calling some conservatives the “American Taliban” — are remembered today not as things that shifted the debate, but things that torqued off conservatives and justified their suspicions about the NAACP. This doesn’t seem fair to them.

    First of all, I look forward to seeing how Dave Weigel handle’s Markos’ new book coming out soon entitled, American Taliban. Should be a fucking riot. And secondly, who, exactly, are the people that remember the NAACP’s actions as being something that “torqued off conservatives and justified their suspicions about the NAACP?” Are you talking about the traditional media again, the people who you admitted in your opening are incapable of analyzing or discussing the issue in any kind of competent manner? You are?! Well, maybe we shouldn’t use their admitted flawed judgment as the standard and starting point for your own analysis in the future. Such as writing ferociously insipid comments about the suspicions conservatives have about the NAACP. You mean suspicions that they think their political movements are motivated in large part by racism and racial resentments? Are you talking about the thing that is less suspicion as it is admitted fact? Hey, let’s check with Resident Republican Black Guy, Michael Steele, back in April of this year:

    “We have lost sight of the historic, integral link between the party and African-Americans,” Steele said. “This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass. The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP, and yet we have mistreated that relationship. People don’t walk away from parties. Their parties walk away from them.
    __
    “For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

    And then this amazing conclusion from Weigel:

    How is it fair that bringing up the 2000 election’s result reveals them as bitter conspiracy theorists, while Tim Pawlenty intimating that Sen. Al Franken may have been elected by felons is just proof that he’s a smart pol looking at 2012? It’s not fair. I guess I’m more a defeatist than Coates is.

    No, but what you are is a fucking joke.

  20. 20.

    Hal

    July 16, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    I saw Williams on MSNBC today and among other things, he said there are no racists in the Tea Party because they are all about freedom, and that the sign carrying people at various rallies were plants.

    I like how the Anchor, with dripping sarcasm, was like “oh, ok” when he said there were no racists in the Tea Party.

    BTW:

    hearing someone say “democrat party” is a pretty good indication that you can discount and/or ignore whatever else comes out of their mouths.

    I heard him say that. What’s the deal with that again? It means something to conservatives, but I can’t figure remember what.

  21. 21.

    Paul L.

    July 16, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    Ten Questions for head of the North Carolina NAACP, Rev. William Barber

  22. 22.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    July 16, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    @Paul L.: Good, attack the NAACP. That will show that you’re not a racist throwback extremist but just a reasonable modern conservative. Convinced me.

  23. 23.

    LT

    July 16, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    @Hal: DemocRAT. It’s Democratic Party properly.

    Pretty weak, though, yeah.

  24. 24.

    Allan

    July 16, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    Some wanker, at the National Review I think, bemoaned what had become of the NAACP, that “once honored institution,” to which I responded, “Tell me when the National Review has honored the NAACP.”

  25. 25.

    Kryptik

    July 16, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    @Hal:

    It’s a subliminal trick with language. Democrat ends with a harsher inflection than Democratic, and also is often pointed with the ‘rat’ ending. That’s my take on it.

  26. 26.

    wenchacha

    July 16, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    But, but, but. There are black people in the Tea Party! And MoveOn called Bush Hitler!

    Which leads all the Wise Broadcasters to say, “each side is guilty of poor judgment.”

    It is like the soaps where everyone watching knows who the villain is, but the villain keeps fooling all the other players. No matter how much you yell at your teevee.

    Not that I watch soaps.

  27. 27.

    Gozer

    July 16, 2010 at 5:47 pm

    Motherfuckers outraged that NAACP points out that they indeed fuck mothers.

  28. 28.

    slag

    July 16, 2010 at 5:47 pm

    Welcome TNC to the Ugly Party!

  29. 29.

    kay

    July 16, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    He issued the statements. They made the signs. If they don’t want to retract, they don’t have to, by all means, go out there and defend this garbage, we’ll have a fight, but I simply don’t understand why media has decided we all have to ignore anything they say or do that reflects poorly on them.

    If the head of the organization issues a statement where he says “the world is flat” and none of the members repudiate that statement when asked, can I then: 1. assume they share that belief, and 2. call them all dumb-asses?

    It doesn’t matter if they say “we are not dumb-asses!” If leaders and members continue to say “the world is flat” they’re by definition dumb-asses.

    I’m missing why media are having so much trouble with this.

  30. 30.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    July 16, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    What the NAACP said hardly constitutes a calling out.

    Unless you’re a hyper-sensitive dirtbag who is really afraid someone will open your wardrobe of Patriot Drag and notice the white robes in there.

    Williams will probably be SHOCKED to find the brown people aren’t queuing up to shine his shoes after he’s been so nice to them:

    I would suggest to those offended by the term “Colored People” (the phrase that made my article so controversial) please contact the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and join me in calling for an end to their use of the racial slur.

    I like this guy. I think he should appear on T.V. A LOT. Maybe CNN or FOX can make him the TeaBagger expert on race issues.

  31. 31.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    July 16, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    Whoops. Linkage: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/mark-williams-removes-racist-blog-post-calls-for-racial-harmonykind-of.php

  32. 32.

    Woodrowfan

    July 16, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    “teabaggers” works, but I rather like “teatards”

  33. 33.

    kay

    July 16, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    Is he retracting it or not? I thought he took the statement down? Now we’re back to whining incessantly about the opposition to the statement?

    The Tea Partiers are real weenies, at the end of the day.

    Someone finally challenged their bullshit, and they’re all over the place.

    The problem is that opposition to them and their stated beliefs exists? Jesus. This is a new level of cowardice.

    They may not be up to this speech thing. I’m not sure I can bear the level of self-pity.

  34. 34.

    Mark S.

    July 16, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    @Midnight Marauder:

    I agree, Weigel’s post is some incredibly weak sauce. One would think that if the NAACP says that a group has a problem with racism, and one of its prominent members responds with a series of incredibly racist statements, that would be game, set and match NAACP. Not in Dave’s world apparently, where the only thing that matters is whether conservative fee-fees get hurt. Mighty white of you, Dave.

  35. 35.

    Midnight Marauder

    July 16, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    @kay:

    The problem is that opposition to them and their stated beliefs exists? Jesus. This is a new level of cowardice.

    Indeed, this is actually a fundamental struggle for modern conservatism and the Republican Party.

    Indeed, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a statement to POLITICO, called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to “guarantee — right now — that they will not bring members back for a ‘sour grapes’ session after the election.”

    This is a feature, not a bug.

  36. 36.

    rf80412

    July 16, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    @Hal: Just like Kryptik says, conservatives use the word “Democrat” as an epithet – a swear – much like they use the word “socialist” … always with an exclamation point and devoid of any context, so that it can mean little else but “bad”.

    The pseudo-intellectual excuse that conservatives use is that “democratic” is a word that should only be used with a small ‘d’ to refer to the democratic process, while “Democrat” is a much more identifiable label. Calling us the “Democratic Party” is supposedly buying into our [nonexistent] framing that we are a democratic party and the Republican Party is not, and that we support democracy and Republicans do not … both of which are 100% true: reality truly does have a liberal bias.

  37. 37.

    Dennis G.

    July 16, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    @Midnight Marauder:

    This from Dave:

    Conservatives who disagree with the NAACP have no tolerance whatsoever for being called racists or supporters of racism.

    is half of a statement of fact. The other half is why they don’t like being called out. They don’t like it because somebody is tugging at their sheet and they would rather that any discussion of race is always on their terms, their frame and by their selective set of facts.

    If you hang out with racists and feel uncomfortable when that fact is pointed out, then stop hanging out with the little fuckers.

  38. 38.

    LT

    July 16, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    From Williams’ letter:

    Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

    The dude is fucking braindead. This is to prove he’s not rcist?

    The forces—led by Reagan and Co. and then Gingrich—that allowed these ever-present dregs of American society to rise to the top should be shot out of cannons into the filthiest mile of the Yellow River.

  39. 39.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    July 16, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    @Kryptik:

    Democrat ends with a harsher inflection than Democratic, and also is often pointed with the ‘rat’ ending. That’s my take on it.

    It probably also has something to do with the fact that they’re denying that the Democratic party is “democratic”.

  40. 40.

    Thoughtcrime

    July 16, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    NutBaggers running the GOP asylum:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpuJaTA7Txk

  41. 41.

    tomvox1

    July 16, 2010 at 6:20 pm

    He put up some racist bile and when he was called out on it he first called it ‘satire’ and then he took it down when it was clear that he was tripping over his own sheet.

    Mark Williams: Racist p*ssy.

  42. 42.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    July 16, 2010 at 6:22 pm

    @kay: It’s a spectacular example of the neo-con non-apology which he finishes by executing a flawless triple Salchow of racist bullshit.

    Try to follow along:

    1. He’s sorry about the letter.
    2. The only thing about the letter that was offensive was the use of the term colored people. Because he said so.
    3. Since the only offensive thing about his letter (for which he has apologized so SHUT UP) was the term colored people, and the NAACP uses the offensive term, THEY’RE THE REAL RACISTS.

    As I said, I hope this guy gets a lot of air time. And then buddies up with a lot of Congress-Critters. Barring that he can get fucked for me.

  43. 43.

    Midnight Marauder

    July 16, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    @Dennis G.:

    The other half is why they don’t like being called out. They don’t like it because somebody is tugging at their sheet and they would rather that any discussion of race is always on their terms, their frame and by their selective set of facts.

    Precisely, which is what makes Weigel’s entire performance in all of this so intellectually dishonest and appalling. I am supposed to believe that he is a bright, well-read individual, who is exceptionally well-versed in the ways of the conservative movement and right-wing lunacy in this country. Okay, I will accept that premise.

    But then you’re going to tell me that this guy is incapable of critically analyzing why conservatives behave like such petulant imbeciles whenever they are confront of accusations of racism? You are going to try and maintain like this is some kind of weird new phenomenon that is inexplicable? You are going to tell me that you are wholly ignorant of things like the Southern Strategy? Either you’re not as well-versed as you like to think you are, or you are just a poorly informed moron who is talking about issues and subjects waaaaayyyy out of his depths.

  44. 44.

    geg6

    July 16, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    The mask has dropped and the racist pigs are squealing with indignation, to mix some metaphors. I am, terrible person that I am, loving it.

    And fucking Weigel should just shut the hell up when he has been so completely and awesomely pwned.

    Dengre, as always, you give great post.

  45. 45.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    July 16, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    @kay: Also, yes. Isn’t it funny that according to them, they’re the only thing protecting America from 100% soshulust ss sharia law and they’re a bunch of cry-babies who run screaming when they encounter mild criticism?

    Hmmm. What sort of groups traditionally display a mix of cowardice and belligerence?

    Hang on. It’ll come to me in a minute…

  46. 46.

    Dennis G.

    July 16, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    @Alex:

    If I thought this astroturf movement deserved any respect I would give it some, but I don’t.

    This is a front group bought and paid for by the same old DC insiders who manage to use fear and appeals to the greatest demons of our fears (like racism and xenophobia) to hide their agenda, protect the powerful and harm the Nation that I love. For example, Matt Kibbe, who wrote the Tea Party Manifesto with Dick Armey took one of the first Abramoff junkets to the Marianas Islands to protect sweatshops, human trafficking, forced labor and forced abortions back in 1997. Kibbe, Armey and a host of other long-time beltway conservative fuckwads have created, funded and maintained this so called movement.

    I have zero respect for anybody gullible enough, fearful enough or hateful enough to buy into this incoherent astroturf movement that used to call themselves TeaBaggers until the rich humor of the name was pointed out. Now, they want to be called the ‘Tea Party’.

    Whatever.

    TeaBagger works for me.

    Cheers

  47. 47.

    Thoughtcrime

    July 16, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    @Midnight Marauder:

    I guess Weigel never must of just started following conservative politics, since he missed this http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE0DE1E30F93BA25754C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all :

    ”Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization,” said Mr. Mehlman. ”I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong.”

  48. 48.

    debbie

    July 16, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    TNC:

    It’s been asked in comments, a few times, what good has come of the NAACP’s resolution.

    Sometimes you just have to be righteous, no matter what it costs.

  49. 49.

    Dennis G.

    July 16, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    @Midnight Marauder:
    Weigel entirely dropped the ball on this one. Perhaps he is afraid of saying anything to hurt the feelings of any conservative because that recently cost him a gig with the Washington Post and he is afraid they will turn their fire away from the NAACP and back on him.

    Too bad. I think he is better that that, but on this story he is just full of shit.

    It really is OK to call out racist behavior in America. The fear to do so says more about how the Conservative movement is able to hold most journalists in a cockold state than anything else.

    Cheers

  50. 50.

    Michael

    July 16, 2010 at 6:43 pm

    @Alex:

    I don’t think we should go out of our way to call the Tea Party “teabaggers.”

    For a while, I went with “teabaggots” because that made the veins pop out on their foreheads. From that morphed the best term of all – “teabigots”.

  51. 51.

    Ross Hershberger

    July 16, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    Yes, they’re shrill. They should be. Society needs a certain number of truth tellers who will stand up, point out the idiots and call them out. Ideally this would be all of us, all the time, but motivation being what it is, the job falls to those who care the most.
    Carry on NAACP. Be shrill some more. Long may you wave.

  52. 52.

    matoko_chan

    July 16, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    @Midnight Marauder: Do you know what Weigel and Douthat and McMeghan and the rest of the bourgies have in common? A gobsmacking spectacular breathtaking contempt for their base.
    They dogwhistle the base, they pander to the base, they make fun of the base when they think they’re off line, like Weigel and David Hume….they treat their base like retarded children, incapable of reason or of knowing right from wrong.
    They can’t just say……hey, racism is wrong. let’s not do that.

    They think the base is too stupid to learn.
    /spit

  53. 53.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    July 16, 2010 at 7:08 pm

    @Dennis G.:

    The fact that the Tea Party is usually attended by people who are insane (The Mad Hatter for instance), I think it is a perfect title for them. They are either all mad or asleep in the tea pot.

  54. 54.

    kay

    July 16, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    It just makes me want to play with them.

    “Oh, you’re in the Tea Party? That’s that racist group, right?”

    ” Oh, I’m sorry you’re offended. I saw the huge signs you made and were carrying, is the reason I thought that”.

    I honestly think pundits stop trusting their eyes and ears, at some point. Is it really a big stretch from “picture of Obama with a bone in his nose” to “racist”?

    Look away! Write ten thousand words! Run around in circles!

  55. 55.

    asiangrrlMN

    July 16, 2010 at 7:11 pm

    @Midnight Marauder: This a million times. Again, it’s why I stopped following him on Twitter. He tried the same shit with Rand Paul. It’s OK to say racist things and be flagrantly racist as are many of the Teabaggers, but it’s not OK to call them out because that will make them maaaaaaaaaaad. And, now that the ‘baggers are maaaaaaaaaaaaad, Weigel feels all vindicated and shit.

    Whatever. I’m tired of this bullshit. I’m glad TNC dropped the hammer and said if Williams isn’t a racist asshole, then no one is.

    @Dennis G.: Exactly. At least call out the behavior as wrong, wrong wrong. There are some people over at TNC who say the Tea Party movement is not racist because they are genuinely worried about taxes and deficits and such. That’s a stopping point for me because I did not see these motherfuckers complaining for the last eight years.

    It’s very tiring to have to keep saying, “Yes, they are being racist” and to keep having it be discounted.

  56. 56.

    Pasquinade

    July 16, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    Someone over at DU came up with the acronym WART

    White
    Angry
    Racist
    Teabaggers

    It would make a nice hashtag.

  57. 57.

    BC

    July 16, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    This is just the modus operandi of the conservative movement these days. You accuse of us torture? Well, we will double down on the torture and complain long and loud that Obama isn’t following torture every time a Middle Easterner is arrested and accused of terrorism. You accuse us of having racist statements at our rallies? Well, we will double down on the racism and complain long and loud if you object to it. Being a conservative means you never have to say you’re sorry. And they can get away with it (but watch out when we have a conservative president, any criticism in that event is a sign of sedition and treason).

  58. 58.

    shortstop

    July 16, 2010 at 8:03 pm

    It’s a subliminal trick with language. Democrat ends with a harsher inflection than Democratic, and also is often pointed with the ‘rat’ ending. That’s my take on it.

    Yes and yes, and something else, too: a wingnut once explained to me that he and his partymates were not about to let the liberals get away with pretending to be democratic, which is a nice word describing an American value, and nothing to do with the rank Marxists that are the people on our side of the aisle.

    The comical thing about it is that most people who use the wrong name don’t know why they use it. They only watch Fox and only listen to right-wing radio and at this point they have no idea that the party is actually called the Democratic Party and has been since 1828. Thus they are bewildered when they get caught trolling while pretending to be “former lifelong members of and donors to the Democrat Party.” And just last month, I had one huffily tell me that just because I wished the party was called the Democratic Party didn’t mean I got to unilaterally change its name for my own preferences. I swear to dog someone actually said this to me.

  59. 59.

    Nellcote

    July 16, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    @Alex:

    For the record: I don’t like it when Dems are called the “Democrat party” and so I don’t think we should go out of our way to call the Tea Party “teabaggers.” Is it just me?

    I promise to stop calling them teabaggers when they stop calling it the democrat party. On the other hand I do get momentarily confused with “TPM” as I first think y’all are talking about Josh Marshall’s site. And while their headlines have gotten Huffpooish since they got that money infusion, they aren’t the teabaggers.

  60. 60.

    shortstop

    July 16, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    Normally I go along with the Golden Rule line of argument re names (I chastised a lot of my fellow libs for calling Bobby Jindal “Piyush” when that’s not the name he’s chosen to go by), but you know what? I no longer give a shit if these thundering jackasses don’t like being called teabaggers. These people are the least respectable and least rational people in America. They are a toxic and unfortunately quite dangerous combination of towering ignorance and visceral viciousness, motivated solely by bigotry and misplaced anger and completely lacking in any ability whatsoever to build. They’ve got the destroying part down pat, though.

    They refuse to hold themselves accountable for anything — they rushed like a herd of slack-jawed half-wits to join a Republican establishment-authored “populist movement” to avoid admitting that they fucked up by voting for Bush x2, so who is surprised that they’d whiningly refuse to cop to the racist signs, statements and comments we can all see and hear? We’ve seen this movie over and over: the Know-Nothings, the Poujadist, the teabaggers. These people are the absolute dregs of any society they inhabit and I really don’t give a good goddamn that they think they’re worthy of anyone’s respect.

  61. 61.

    Nellcote

    July 16, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    @shortstop:

    a wingnut once explained to me that he and his partymates were not about to let the liberals get away with pretending to be democratic, which is a nice word describing an American value,

    I’ve noticed more and more recently goopers declaring that we live in a republic not a democracy.

  62. 62.

    Nellcote

    July 16, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    This morning Newt was offering to mediate a “beer summit” between the NAACP and the teabaggers. Yeah right.

  63. 63.

    flounder

    July 16, 2010 at 9:45 pm

    @Dennis G, @ Midnight Marauder
    Re: Weigel
    Weigel has a decent history of quoting and appearing to get the lessons contained in Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland, which is basically a rather excellent book on ratf-ing the minds of 50-70 year old white men until they are pushing the KKK out of the way at cross-burnings.
    That is what makes his denseness on this topic so disappointing.

  64. 64.

    Ed Drone

    July 16, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    As to what to call them, I like ‘Tea Kluxers,’ to tell the truth.

    ‘Sons of Bitches’ works for me, too.

    Ed

  65. 65.

    PhoenixRising

    July 16, 2010 at 10:34 pm

    I’m pretty sure Coates had it at ‘motherfuckers’.

    The NAACP dared Mark Williams to moon a parade, and Williams did it–and now he’s crying, You made everybody look at my pasty white behind!

    Yeah, it’s ugly. Own it.

  66. 66.

    iriedc

    July 16, 2010 at 10:55 pm

    Thanks Dennis for another great post. You and TNC have it pretty much covered.

    My very proper & polite parents ( who are 70) like calling these MFers “TeaBaggers.” Cracks them up.

  67. 67.

    kdaug

    July 16, 2010 at 11:23 pm

    Gah. Sometimes (when I haven’t taken my proper dosages) I believe that in 200 years the last surviving breeding pairs of human beings will live somewhere above the arctic circle. When I am properly dosed, I believe that’s a feature, not a bug, and that plans are being made accordingly.

    Not seeing the positive trend lines, is all. Just sayin’.

  68. 68.

    mike in dc

    July 16, 2010 at 11:44 pm

    For some reason that “satire” made me think of this:

    http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/a7fde48976/kill-the-white-people-from-nino

  69. 69.

    Blowriley

    July 17, 2010 at 10:24 am

    @Alex:
    I don’t think we should go out of our way to call the Tea Party “teabaggers.”

    I refuse to let these whiners equate themselves to the people who risked their property, liberty, and lives to overthrow a real tyranny (not some made-up, self-serving delusion of one) and gave us the country we have today. They don’t deserve that. Teabaggers they are and will remain.

    The ironic thing for me is that if they’d been around back then they’d all have been loyalists anyway and their descendants would be Canadians today.

  70. 70.

    stevie avebury

    July 17, 2010 at 11:39 am

    As someone who was raised by some pretty bed racists, I have to say the reaction of the tea people is not that surprising. When I accused my mother of racism her response basically was to repeat every racial epithet she ever heard(including many now seemingly archaic ones like: wop, kike, pollock, slant eye, etc) she then called me a nigger loving little bitch and said I thought I was better than everyone else. To me reading that horrible ‘letter to lincoln’ that guy wrote was like listening to my mother all over again.
    I honestly think that the only cure for this is for us all to admit our own racist tendencies. My parents raised me on it and a part of me never believed it but you cannot have that shit shoved down your throat during your early years without some of it getting in. I hate it but it is there and it sometimes comes out when I am not thinking and I hate that too. It has over the years made me develop a sincere hatred for conservative white people.

  71. 71.

    dj spellchecka

    July 17, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    i enjoy both “talibaggers” and “teahadists” which i learned here at the old b-j…

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