Sunday, September 13, 2009

Thoughts on the Great DC Tea Party of 9/12 2009

The tea party protest in DC yesterday was a smashing success.  It's interesting to see the Left's usual Machiavellian strategies to counter the bad publicity this generated for the Democrats.

Here's the way I see it:
1.  Although the UK Daily Mail Online reported that the attendance was in the neighborhood of 2 million people, the Democrat media is today spinning much lower numbers, e.g. 70,000 people.  The lefttards are claiming that the video cam webshots showing a much larger crowd were somehow faked.  Michelle Malkin refutes this B.S. here.

2.  Leftwing blogs like Matthew Ygelsias and Think Progress are trying to spin the protests as "racist" and/or "extremist."  They have published a photo of one woman carrying a cheap, silk Confederate flag, like the kind you can buy in novelty shops.  The Confederate flag means many things to many people.  For bikers and many others it is a symbol of rebellion; for Sons of Confederate Veterans, a cherished symbol of home, family and heritage; for liberals, a symbol of racism.

Whoever took the photo apparently did not ask the woman what the flag meant to her and the Left just assumes it was meant to be symbolic of race hatred.  (There's always the very real possibility that the woman was a leftist posing for a propaganda photo -- remember the union thugs showing up at previous protests with signs depicting Obama as a Nazi?).

In any case, let's assume that the lady really was a racist.  So one out of 2 million protesters proves the whole crowd was "racist"?  Drawing a general conclusion from a specific example is a logical fallacy; but no one has ever accused the Left of being logical -- or ethical for that matter.

Powerline discusses CNN's shameful race propaganda here and convincingly refutes it.

3.  Other lefties, like Alan Colmes, are trying to spin the rally as being a creation of big corporations and not really a "grass roots" uprising.  The idea is to taint the rally's success as being somehow illegitimate.

4.  The left continues to use faked "evidence" that the protesters were hate-filled extremists.  Alan Colmes and one other website ran a dubious photo of a "protester sign" that read "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy."  Allegedly the poster was being handed out to the masses at the intersection of 14th Street and E Street NW.  However, the photo of the alleged poster appeared to be a photograph of a computer screen; there were no photos of the alleged poster being handed out or used by anyone at the rally.  Conclusions:  another fake by the mendacious Left.

5.  The Tea Party protesters are hypocritical because they didn't organize mass protests against Bush when he was running up the deficit.  However, one commenter at the Kansas City Star noted that there is a difference between 63 and 173 miles per hour.  Obama has quadrupled the deficit in only eight months in office with greater deficits planned.  Further, the GOP's base did protest the Bush deficits by staying home on election day, 2006 -- thus returning control of Congress to the Democrats.

In summary, the left is trying to spin the DC Tea Party as this:
1.  The crowd was much smaller than reported
2.  The crowd was "racist," "hateful" or "extremist"
3.  The tea party protesters are hypocritical and follow a different standard for Obama than they did for Bush
3.  The crowd was organized by corporations or other nefarious groups, not a true "grassroots" movement, and not representative of the majority of Americans (in other words, illegitimate).

Today all leftwing blog commenters, mainstream media and Democrat talking heads are attempting to spin the DC rally using the above talking points.  They fight an uphill battle, for one good reason:  the DC rally really is a grassroots movement and reflects a genuine rejection of Obama's socialist policies.  It is hard to see how that will translate into more Democrat votes when it counts.

Image Credit:  Left Coast Rebel via KOOK's Manifesto
Via:  Michelle Malkin
Via:  Memeorandum

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