The mainstream liberal media has been trying to marginalize and isolate ‘Tea Party’ groups as hateful violent people. By mainstream liberal media, I am referring to ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and more than 90% of the newspapers, magazines, TV stations and political Internet sites in the United States.
According to a firm that took aerial photos of the September 12, 2009 Tea Party protest, approximately 1,700,000 demonstrated against our government implementing Socialist programs against the will of the majority of Americans. The White House and most of its fawning media reported that there were only 30,000 protestors.
The Washington, D.C. park cleanup crews pointed out that despite the Tea Party being the largest protest group to ever grace the Mall, virtually every single piece of paper and debris had been picked up and bagged by the protesters before leaving. They had never seen such an orderly, well-behaved group.
My experience has been the opposite of what is being portrayed in the dominant Liberal media. I have experienced many liberals responding with very nasty and hateful personal insults, i.e., changing the subject, when you ask them questions that they cannot answer or when you give evidence that their deepest held beliefs are untrue.
Recently I was in San Francisco in a museum with a friend at an Alaskan art exhibit. My Liberal friend Doug started a good-natured kidding about Sarah Palin and laughingly said, “You know how dumb she is. She said her qualifications in national security were that she could see Russia from her backyard.” I chided back, “Doug, you know that was a vicious Tina Fay parody skit of Palin on Saturday Night Live.”
As he responded, “Yeah I know,” a woman standing near us shouted within credible venom, “No it wasn’t, I saw Palin say it!” We were both taken back by the hatred in her voice.
I explained to her that there was Rasmussen Poll taken after the election last fall of people who voted for Obama that showed that 99% of them thought that Palin had actually said this. She responded with hatred, “You’re lying.” We realized to pursue the conversation was pointless.
I spent a good portion of my working years analyzing the economic effects of government programs on a number of foreign countries. The evidence is overwhelming that the more the government interferes in a country’s economy, the poorer the people are.
More recently, I was discussing the Great Depression with some Liberals. One said, “President Hoover caused it because he did nothing to stimulate the economy as President Obama has.” I replied, “Yes I agree with you that Hoover made things worse. But are you aware that he increased government stimulus spending by 42% in his first two years in office, similar to what President Obama has done in his first year? And Hoover had the same results as Obama and the Liberal Democrats. Unemployment did not go down.”
She didn’t believe me, so I suggested that she could easily go online and find out if what I had just said was true or not. Her reply to me with unbridled hatred was to change the subject, “Don’t talk down to me.”
I replied that I did not think I was talking down to her, but if she was intellectually honest, she would check to see if what I had just said was true or not. Her reply was to continue to hurl personal insults at me.
I’m still looking for a liberal willing to sit down and look at the facts as are many in the Tea Party movement. Demonizing them is only an attempt to keep their concerns from being voiced and analyzed.
James F. Davis is the president of Accuracy in Academia.
