re: #171 Blind Frog Belly White

[Embedded content]

The mistake is thinking the Tea Party was ever about ideology.

Let’s remember where it started, with Rick Santelli ranting on CNBC, not about the bailout of Wall Street after having nearly destroyed the world economy with its greed and stupidity, but rather about the suggestion that the Administration might do a similar bailout of INDIVIDUALS who now found themselves with unaffordable loans, or who found themselves underwater as housing prices fell when the bubble burst.

Who, in the minds of what became the Tea Party, were those homeowners? Poor people. Minorities, mostly. People who had no business thinking they could afford a house. Look at the Right Wing rhetoric of the time - after a brief period of confusion and disillusionment when Capitalism revealed that it is NOT self-policing, somebody came up with the comforting, but completely false narrative that the bubble and collapse were caused by the Carter era Community Reinvestment Act, and that the poor bankers had had NO CHOICE but to write mortgages for minorities for houses they clearly could not afford.

By the time Santelli went on his rant, Wall Street was largely vindicated, in the eyes of the Right, and the whole thing was the fault of the Democrats, the Gummint, and Those People. And here was Obama, one of Those People, scheming to let Those People get away with it! And worse, he was gonna give them healthcare!!

No, the Tea Party was NEVER about ideology. It was ALWAYS about Those People. Trump was just the only candidate who was willing to go beyond dogwhistles, and stating openly that he’d be the white people’s champion against Those People.

Right. The tea partiers out and about were usually white retirees who likely had already paid off their mortgages.