The anti-health care reform rally in Washington indicates the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement are increasingly one and the same.You have to hand it to Michele Bachmann: She has succeeded in turning the GOP into one big Tea Party.
This past weekend, the Minnesota Republican went on Fox News and called on viewers to show up on the Capitol lawn on Thursday at noon for a press conference and a last ditch attempt to kill health care reform. The gathering that resulted was marked by the now-routine extremism of the Tea Party conservatives. "I'm a bitter gun owner who votes," read one sign. Others questioned President Obama’s citizenship, portrayed him as Sambo, or called him a traitor. One said, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothschilds." Old ladies wore red T-shirts decrying "Obamao care." The crowd also took spirited swipes at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At one point someone yelled, "Put down your Botox and show yourself."
But what was most noteworthy was that the entire House Republican leadership was also in attendance—and their rhetoric was just as over-the-top as some of the protesters. House Minority Leader John Boehner declared the health care bill the "greatest threat to freedom I have seen." In essence, Congressional Republicans were merging with a movement that gives open expression to racist and anti-Semitic sentiments. <snip>
The crowd was several thousand strong, many bused in by Americans for Prosperity, a group created by the owners of Koch Industries, a huge oil and gas conglomerate. The AFP chapter from New Jersey reportedly sent 29 buses. Four AFP buses came from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and more came from Richmond and North Carolina. Lots of people in the crowd carried AFP signs or stickers warning "Hands off my health care."
During the rally, all the prominent House GOP legislators wanted a shot at the mike, including Boehner, whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, Roy Blunt of Missouri, presidential aspirant Mike Pence of Indiana, and what seemed like the entire Texas GOP delegation. There were so many Republicans blow-bagging that dozens of hungry patriots were heading for the exit long before the speeches ended. But aside from Bachmann herself, only South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson won overwhelming adoration from the crowd—he could barely get a word in over the rousing cheers of "Thanks Joe!"
Most attendees looked old enough to have already experienced government-run health care themselves. (Walking to the Hill from Union Station along with people headed to the rally, I could hear some of them wheezing and joking that their aging spouses should have rented Segways to get them to the event.) This demographic was reflected in the celebrity lineup apparently arranged by Bachmann, who said that her "good friend," the actor Jon Voight, was the first person to call her at home after her Fox appearance.
Voight and John Ratzenberger—better known as "Cliff from Cheers"—shared the same message: The Democrats’ health care plan will send the country down the path to European socialism. The crowd erupted with chants of "Nazis! Nazis!" Ratzenberger insisted that the Democrats’ philosophy doesn’t come from America but from "overseas," where, he said, quoting Churchill, they embrace the idea of the "equal sharing of misery."
Voight warned darkly that President Obama wants to use the health care bill to create national socialism, and that Americans would end up like Europeans where health care "leads to many deaths." Standing in front of them was a protestor who carried an enormous sign that read, "National Socialist Health Care—Dachau, Germany 1945" over a large photo of a stack of naked bodies piled up at a Nazi death camp.
More:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/11/tea-partys-takeover-gop
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