7 February 2010

The Tea Party movement: five highlights

We pick out the movement's controversies, following Sarah Palin's keynote speech to the first nation

Sarah Palin said last night that the US is “ready for another revolution” and condemned Barack Obama’s budget as “immoral” in her keynote speech to the first national Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Tea Party movement is a grass-roots network of conservatives, a protest movement that sprang up in early 2009. But while they are united in their opposition to Obama’s health-care programme, public spending and the growth of government, the 600 delegates who gathered at the Gaylord Hotel (I know . . .) are a rather disparate group of angry right-wingers.

So, as Palin calls for a revolution and taunts Obama (“How’s that hopey, changey stuff workin’ out for ya?” — a direct quotation), I thought it was about time to pick five highlights from the Tea Party movement’s short history.

1. Palin’s notes

The more observant among you might have noticed some scribbles on Sarah Palin’s palm, in photos of her giving her speech, in which she mocked Obama’s use of a teleprompter.

Oh, irony is a beautiful thing. It appears that Palin, while eschewing a teleprompter, has written herself some helpful notes on her hand.

Stefan Sirucek at the Huffington Post provides this blown-up image:

It’s arguable how useful these notes will have been, but then, Palin works in mysterious ways. Ben Smith at Politico translates it thus:

It appears to be an outline:

Energy
Budget Tax Cuts
Lift American Spirits

Fiscal hawks will note that the difference between budget cuts and tax cuts is pretty much the core of the criticism of Republican economics.

2. Opening-night bigotry

This one’s not so funny. The convention’s opening speech by Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman from Denver, focused primarily on illegal immigration. Amid the standard bigotry about “Islamification” and the “cult of multiculturalism” was an even more worrying historical reference to racial segregation.

He said that Obama had been elected only because “we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country”. This refers to the practice — banned by the 1964 civil rights legislation — of setting prohibitively difficult tests to prevent black people from getting the vote in segregated Southern states.

Tancredo received a standing ovation for his speech.

3. Money-making

There was controversy around the convention before it even began. It emerged at the end of last month that Palin’s fee was in the region of $100,000, while tickets to the weekend were $550 a head.

If that doesn’t seem like it’s in keeping with the whole “grass-roots” thing, that’s probably because it isn’t — the event was also sponsored by corporations, making the whole convention look like a nice little money-spinner.

Palin said she won’t benefit from the fee, and told the adoring crowds last night that “This isn’t about money”, although that’s easy to say when you’ve just been paid more than $1,000 a minute to make a speech.

4. Questionable placards

Tea Party rallies attract a broad range of reactionaries, and the movement has become notorious for the offensive signs displayed. The Huffington Post has photos of some choice highlights, including: