Doublespeak

Captioning Sarah Palin at a rally right now. She's saying shit like "let me take the opportunity to clear the air on what B.S. is coming out of the mainstream media, with the accusation that it is a group like this inciting violence. When we talk about gearing up for a fight to take our country back, we're talking about taking up arms -- meaning our vote in contested primaries."

Which is so obvious, when you think about it, that "take up arms and take these guys out" clearly means have a civil conversation and then vote according to your beliefs. Oh, you tea party hipsters with your irony.

[ETA: Listened again, and she didn't say mainstream media. She said lamestream media. Hipsters what have you done.]

a followup on an earlier entry

I wondered a little more than a month ago what "I believe in the constitution" translated to in the tea party movement, as it is clearly not related to believing in the whole constitution. I am not sure what took me so long to figure it out, since I pointed to the solution in the entry without seeing it myself. "I believe in the constitution" means I believe in the Tenth Amendment:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

They're tenthers. Which means libertarians, but more than that means states' rights - which means racism (and really significant ablism - I'd like to see anyone with a disability or chronic illness get by in a libertarian utopia). Same code, different words. Constitution -> 10th Amendment -> States' Rights -> Keep the defectives (i.e. minorities) out.

The tea party is desperate to be seen as not just white, but it mostly is. Mostly white and old and protestant. As Charles Blow helpfully pointed out, healthcare was pushed through the House by a woman, with the vocal aid of a homosexual and a Jew, and signed by a black man, all constantly namechecking a Catholic. Let's spit on them and throw bricks through their windows. And for god's sake, let's not enter our race on our census, because race doesn't matter if you're white.

Equality of opportunity as enshrined in the founding principles of a nation? Sounds like communism to me.