TEA Party Toxic but Communists and New Black Panthers Are Not?

By Michael P. Tremoglie

This past Election Day I spoke with a Republican Party official who opined that the TEA Party is toxic.

This expression of disdain for the TEA Party movement, by someone who probably should have been more empathetic to it, caused me to wonder why. Could it be all the negative portrayals of the TEA Party by Democrats and their media claques? Could it be the internecine warfare between the “Moustache Petes” of the Republican establishment and the TEA Party “Young Turks?” Could it be both?

Who knows? But why is it that Democrats have no such problem? Why are factions within the Democratic Party not condemned by the media and “establishment” Democrats to the extent that they are considered “toxic?”

A perfect example of this occurred on Election Day 2008 in Philadelphia. It was that day the world was treated to a video of the Philadelphia Democratic Party’s two most infamous poll watchers. They were members of the Philadelphia chapter of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP). They were stationed outside a polling place in North Philadelphia dressed in their paramilitary garb. One was armed with a nightstick. They were later accused of uttering racial slurs at whites and intimidating voters.  

But the mainstream media minimized this incident. Little or nothing was said of the relationship between the NBPP and the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee - despite the fact that one of the men was not only a poll watcher but an elected Democratic Party committeeman.

Is it not disturbing that the Philadelphia Democratic Party has among its committee people and poll watchers members of an organization, the NBPP, which is labeled a hate group by the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)? Yet, somehow, there is no media outrage; no righteous indignation by “nonpartisan” groups; no abandonment of the NBPP by Democrats; no expressions of “toxicity.”

Quite the contrary, the Philadelphia media and the national media - with the exceptions of Fox News and my own Philadelphia Bulletin - did not condemn this incident. The Philadelphia Democratic Party political machine minimized or defended it.

Indeed, the Obama administration dropped legal action against the NBPP for the voter intimidation case they already won because the Obama Justice Department was told to do so for political reasons. This too went unreported by the mainstream media.

Why the difference in the media treatment of the NBPP and the TEA Party? Why is one soundly condemned and one barely acknowledged?

The TEA Party, unlike the NBPP, has never been accused by the Justice Department of voter intimidation; has never been labeled a hate group by the SPLC; and has never had anyone arrested for carrying a gun illegally.

But it is the TEA Party that is toxic?

Members of the  NBPP have been quoted in the media saying black people should terrorize whites, kill Jews, etc.

But it is the TEA Party that is racist?

I was at the Philadelphia headquarters of Republican presidential candidate John McCain reporting about the NBPP poll watchers for the now defunct Philadelphia Bulletin. One was videoed armed with a nightstick and both were accused of using anti-white racial slurs and harassing voters.

But it is the TEA Party that is a threat to the republic?

The NBPP is not the only group that has a relationship with the Democratic Party that is disconcerting. Several years ago it was revealed that some Democratic Party members of Congress were also members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Socialism is a repressive political philosophy.

But it is the TEA Party that is detrimental to the American political process?

The condemnation of a group of nonviolent citizens, of all races, religions, creeds, and economic classes - such as comprise the TEA Party - for organizing at a grassroots level and expressing their political beliefs is a testament to the efficacy of the Democratic Party's propaganda machine - and the feebleness of the conservatives. How else can one explain why the participation in the Democratic Party by groups like the New Black Panthers and by those who believe in a tyrannical political philosophy like socialism barely evoke comments from the media and the punditry, yet ordinary Americans are vilified?