Gee, I Can’t Imagine Why the Tea Parties Think the GOP Hates Them.

I had a conversation over Twitter with a friend of mine who is also a Republican party inside guy. We were discussing the relationship between the GOP and the Tea Parties and how there is a definite perception out here that there is more than a teensy amount of contempt from party insiders toward the upstart grassroots. Dan Riehl has more to say on that subject as does Erick Erickson and I recommend their posts as a preface to mine. They have heard a lot, mostly on the Q.T., that reinforces the dismissive or even contemptuous attitudes openly held by Republican leaders like Lindsey Graham.

Now my friend doesn’t think the contempt is there in any big way and I admit I don’t have a reason to doubt him. It’s entirely possible that the distaste for the grassroots inside the GOP isn’t systemic. I suggested that the party could mend a lot of fences by publicly backing the Tea Parties once in a while. Perhaps, I said, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, could put out a strong statement against the ridiculous and largely fabulous accusations of racism from the NAACP. It wouldn’t cost him much and would earn him a lot of points from the Tea Parties who, with some justification, feel abandoned by people who should be ideological allies in the war against big government.

Well, Mitch had his chance on national television today and blew it, big time.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stayed out of the debate over whether there are racist elements in the Tea Party movement, saying he had better things to worry about — namely, GOP efforts in the midterm elections.

“Oh my goodness — in the whole country is there racism?” McConnell responded when asked by CNN “State of the Union” host Candy Crowley if there was racism in the movement, as charged by the NAACP.

“I’m not interested in getting into that debate,” the leader said. “…There are all kinds of things in America that make me uncomfortable, both on the right and the left.”

His counterpart on the show, Steny Hoyer, didn’t miss the chance. He jumped on the Tea parties with both feet while McConnell sat by, smiling and impotent.

Here’s the thing. McConnell didn’t have to do much. He could have said, “You know, I’ve met a few Tea Party people and have been to a couple of their rallies. They are average Americans, some of whom are getting involved in politics for the very first time in their lives. They’re not more a collection of racists than the NAACP and I’m sorry to see them smeared.” Boom. Done.

Instead, he wobbled around, all floppy spine and jelly bones and made things worse by saying, implicitly, that they were racist because “in the whole country there is racism”. Thanks for that Mr. Minority Leader. I can’t imagine why us Tea Party folk think you and your fellow party bigwigs don’t like us very much. A friend would have defended us.

UPDATE: Linked by Linkiest. Thanks, John!

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Category: The Republican Minority