THE TEA PARTY’S (and the Media’s) INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

We all know the genesis of the current Tea Party Movement and how it came to be, or at least the version they would have you believe to be true.

According to the Tea Party crowd, after watching the Federal Government abuse the poor helpless taxpayer, true American Patriots decided enough is enough and organized a grassroots movement to stand up to a government that had run roughshod for far too long. Their mantra became ‘take our country’ back from a socialist administration and a Democrat-controlled congress that were leading this country to ruin.

Now of course, their version of the movement’s start ignores some very fundamental and troubling realities, such as:

• Out of control federal spending and growing budget deficits had been going on for eight years under a Republican congress and President (who was also white), and these Bush deficits will account for most of the projected deficits going forward. So where was the Tea Party then, when the real problem started?
• The administration to blame for the endless abuse of the long-suffering taxpayers, and that was running the country into the ground, had been in power a mere six weeks when the Tea Party rose up in self-righteous indignation. How the hell did Obama accomplish so much in such a short time?
• The spark that ignited the movement, Rick Santelli, was a paid shill for the same Wall St. fat cats that the Bush administration bailed-out in November 2008 with TARP. After being saved by government largess, these same fat cats used Santelli to deliver a scripted rant on CNBC railing against the government bailout of homeowners, which was followed by a campaign that created Tea Party chapters and websites overnight, much of it apparently coordinated and funded by major corporations, Fox News and interest groups like the Heritage Foundation and Freedom Works. So how does a movement created and led by the rich and powerful from Wall St., Dick Armey, Roger Ailes, and Rush Limbaugh get to be called grassroots?
• Supposedly a broad-based movement of average Americans taking a stand, the Tea Party turns out to represent only 18 percent of Americans, and they are overwhelmingly Republican, white, male, and older than 45. Sounds more like a movement of 1950’s America if you ask me.

Now these, and many other inconsistencies and contrary facts would normally be enough to raise all kinds of questions about the authenticity and validity of a so-called ‘grassroots’ political movement. However, the mainstream media was obviously faced with a conundrum when it came to reporting on the nascent Tea Party movement in early 2009, specifically…

Gee, when you look at it that way, I guess their choice was pretty easy.

But now, continuing to ignore reality and the truth about the movement is becoming difficult.
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