-By Frank Salvato
If you thought the class warfare tactic was being used successfully by the Progressive Left to instigate strife between the upper and lower classes in the United States you need to re-examine what you think you are seeing. With declarations by three Congressional Black Caucus Progressives that target the TEA Party, we witness a pathetic attempt by special interest Progressive Leftists to re-package the contrived charge of racism against what is essentially Middle Class America.
Over the past two weeks we have experienced some incredibly caustic declarations by three Congressional Black Caucus members: US Rep. Maxine Waters (P-CA), US Rep. Frederica Wilson (P-FL) and US Rep. Andre Carson (P-IN). All three, evidently, have little respect for their own President who, just after the shooting of US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), called for “toning down the rhetoric.”
On August 20, 2011, while speaking to a friendly audience at a Los Angeles “community summit,” Maxine Waters, a member of both the Progressive and Congressional Black Caucuses in the US House said:
“I’m not afraid of anybody…This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to Hell.”
On August 22, 2011, at a Miami, FL, town hall meeting, Frederica Wilson, again, a member of both the Progressive and Congressional Black Caucuses in the US House said:
“Let us all remember who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Tea Party…The Tea Party holds the Congress hostage. They have one goal in mind, and that’s to make President Obama a one-term president.”
Also in attendance was one Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH, a community organizing group that pressures institutions – both financial and otherwise – into doing things that would otherwise be considered ridiculous, like offering low-interest housing loans to unqualified buyers and coercing municipalities into hiring lower-scoring minority applicants to positions regarding public safety in the name of “diversity.” Rev. Jackson, a leader in the community organizing movement of social justice before he was eclipsed by one Barack Obama, compared the TEA Party to opposition to the civil-rights movement. “The Tea Party is a new name on an old game…Dr. King fought a ‘tea party’ in Alabama.”
It should be noted here that Democrats vehemently opposed the Civil Rights Act (a Republican Congress was necessary for the passage of this act) and all the brutality committed against Blacks throughout the Ku Klux Klan Era South happened under the governance of Democrat Governors (Orval Faubus, George Wallace, Ross Barnett, Lester Maddox, to name but a few).
And again on August 22, 2011, at a “jobs event” in Miami, Andre Carson, once again, a member of both the Progressive and Congressional Black Caucuses in the US House said:
“We have seen change in Congress…The TEA Party is stopping that change…This is the beyond symbolic change…This is the effort that we are seeing of Jim Crow. Some of these folks in Congress would love to see us as second class citizens. Some of them in Congress of this TEA Party movement would love to see you and me…hanging on a tree.”
Interesting to note, Progressive leadership in the US House, i.e. Nancy Pelosi, and at the White House, i.e. President Obama and his chief minion Valerie Jarrett, have been stunningly silent regarding these statements, illustrating a tacit approval of the attacks.
What is particularly egregious about these coordinated attempts to – for a second time –tar the TEA Party as racist and uncompassionate is that they have completely misrepresented the TEA Party. I know, shock of shocks, the Progressive Movement misrepresenting something to achieve their goal (the end justifies the means).
The TEA Party – the TEA part of the moniker, by the way, stands for “Taxed Enough Already” not “Tar the Evil Africans” – is essentially a voluntary assemblage of middle class Americans – upper middle class, middle-middle class and lower-middle class – who are tired of the federal government over-spending to the point of needing to borrow grotesque amounts of money, each and every year – from foreign entities that don’t necessarily have our best interests in the forefronts of their minds – to cover all of the campaign promises made by scheming political opportunists – from both sides of the aisle. The TEA Party’s only key demands are fiscal responsibility, limited government and tax reform.
Additionally, when one honestly – and that’s the key word, honestly – examines the people who align themselves with the TEA Party Movement they find that those who identify with the TEA Party cross all demographical lines. TEA Party people are Republicans, Libertarians, and Democrats who understand that government cannot always be the solution to society’s ills. They are Conservative and Liberal, Black, White, Red, Yellow and Brown. They are young and old. They are male, female and gay. In fact, the only demographic that cannot be found in a TEA Party crowd is a Progressive.
Now, why would Progressives not want to be part of the TEA Party? The answer is simple: Progressives find the United States of America and its Capitalist system flawed; they find the Constitution flawed; they find religion abhorrent and stupid; and they believe that government has the right to touch every aspect of your private life…without restriction. Progressives believe they are more intelligent and better than you; than the middle class; than the overwhelming majority of Americans. In the Progressive mind, the elite should rule and the ruled should not only conform to the edict decried by their intellectual superiors, they should thank them for the opportunity to be ruled.
So, if we accurately examine just who the “players” are in this political battle we have a group of elitist Progressives, who dream of a transformative oligarchy come socialist democracy, ginning-up discontent among the lower class (read: governmentally dependent class or “government trough feeders”) to manufacture a politically motivated and seething hatred for middle class Americans – the demographic that constitutes the overwhelming majority of taxpayers.
In a nutshell, it is this:
Elitist Progressives & Their Dependent Voting Block vs. Middle Class America.
And, as far as Maxine Waters is concerned, we can all go to hell.
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Frank Salvato is the managing editor for The New Media Journal . He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative. His pieces are regularly featured in over 100 publications both nationally and internationally. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, and is a regular guest on The Right Balance with Greg Allen on the Accent Radio Network, as well as an occasional guest on numerous radio shows coast to coast. He recently partnered in producing the first-ever symposium on the threat of radical Islamist terrorism in Washington, DC. His pieces have been recognized by the House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict. He can be contacted at oped@newmediajournal.us