Hate hiding in plain sight

Gautama Buddha once said, "There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." Chauncey DeVega goes all the way, and unloads both barrels on the Tea Party. Some excerpts:

While the black blogosphere (and even Twitter) has been bubbling with this issue for some time, the mainstream media has been dancing around a fact which remains hidden in plain sight. Just as they did with their poor coverage of the Birther issue, and out of fear of a Conservative backlash, the mainstream media is loathe to speak truth to power and point out the obvious: racial hostility is one of the primary forces driving the opposition of the Tea Party GOP to President Obama. This has been evident during the debt ceiling debate and on policy matters across the board. To fail to understand this most basic of realities is to fail to understand American politics in the Age of Obama.

Why the Surprise? The Tea Party is Exactly Who They Have Always Shown Themselves to Be.

The Tea Party movement is the latest echo of the Southern Confederacy. In all, they are neo-Secessionists whose language of “States Rights’,” “nullification” and “Second Amendment remedies” hearkens back to that of the old Confederacy. Because the Tea Party are in fact neo-Confederates, the federal government is viewed with deep hostility, and they are heirs to a political tradition that views the preservation of Jim Crow segregation in the name of “States’ Rights” as more important than civil rights for black Americans.

The symbolism embodied by America’s first Black President is too much for many in the Tea Party GOP to bear because it signals a sea change in America’s demographics, and the ushering in of a world in which white folks may not be the center of all things, and for all time—thus the Tea Party Conservative yearnings to “take America back” to a more “simple” past of White hopes, dreams, and nostalgic memories. ... Do not be mistaken: this is also about “much more than race.” Here we cannot forget how African Americans have long been the “the miner’s canary” for this country. While white racial resentment is driving Tea Party hostility to President Barack Obama, the effects of their intractability and legislative hostage taking will be felt by Americans across the color line.

In all, the Tea Party GOP is a faction, whose abandonment of normal politics is deeply motivated by a profound discomfort with the fact that America is led by a Black American.

This is one of those powerful pieces where it's wiser to step aside and let it speak for itself. Read DeVega's entire column here. It's worth your time.