What? No mainstream media covering this? Shocking!

[kandrathe]

They've never asked anyone to prove they are not racist. They have pointed out specific acts of racism and called for people with voices within the Tea Party to stand up and say that these types of actions and statements are not only unacceptable within the Tea Party but also unacceptable within proper political discourse.

How do you police attendance to a rally at the Capital? Well... you let the police handle it. In the incident where the Congressman was allegedly spit upon, the guy was arrested by Capital Police, then released, and the Congressman declined to press charges. I read that the Republicans who were involved as speakers at the anti-health care rally offered their apologies for any offenses by the crowd. The tea party web sites I've reviewed do repudiate racism, and most of them have very vocal minority conservatives as well. There is no head of a national Tea Party Movement, so do you want every local chapter to issue a statement?

Unfortunately the go-to response from the Tea Party is to just say this is a minority and doesn't represent the entirety of the Tea Party. Ok, fine, it's a minority. But that doesn't make these acts any less racist. And by not openly addressing it and discounting it as if it isn't important they give an implicit message that it is acceptable.

Who organized the events in question? Will the *racists* please stand up? Of all the photos taken and posted on thousands of web sites and blogs.... hardly a blip. I've seen the alleged incident on March 20th, 2009. I've seen the ones where the people have been booted from events with distasteful signs. Whenever, and every time an incident has been accurately described the response from the local organizers has been to repudiate the miscreants. What more do you want? Probably the best approach would be to keep the events roped off, and make people go through some kind of check in, other than that, I don't know how you sift the crazies (fringe groups seeking attention) from the normal people who care about the issues. Just like the Catholic priesthood is not defined by certain pedophiles who abuse their positions of authority, any response from the Vatican is never enough to satisfy those who are looking for more. But, every incident is damaging, and the movement will need to figure out how to define what it does stand for more clearly.

This is not a new phenomenon for the left either. How about protests at the G8 events? All the peaceful left wing protest groups get smudged by the anti-social, violence prone radicals (you can tell them from the others because they cover their faces and bring protective head gear). It works, and gets news coverage whereas it would probably not get any attention.