Alicia Healy appeared on ONN’s Capitol Square talk show on Friday, July 16th to defend accusations by the NAACP that the tea party has “racist elements”. Ms. Healy has spoken at many tea parties including The Ohio Liberty Council’s LiberTea Party last August.
We have been denouncing racism and violence of any kind since the early stages of our movement. For example, here is a quote from an editorial one of our board members wrote in response to a smear-piece published by Terry Smith, Editor of Athens News:
“For the record, we completely and thoroughly disavow and condemn any comments or supporters based in racism or violence of any kind. We have, and will continue, to ask all tea party supporters to act with passion not anger, conviction not fear, and truth rather than slander.
There is no room for ad-hominem attacks when arguments based in substance will suffice.”
Several interesting comments made in this interview indicate that the media continues to get it all wrong as usual:
- They continue to try to appoint Sarah Palin as our leader.
- They continue to refer to the tea party as if it’s a political party.
- They ignore instances when we do denounce racism at our events.
- They continue to worry about blogs (like the one you are reading) and would love to have the government control and regulate them.
We will give ONN credit for bringing up the New Black Panther Party incident in the discussion and Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to prosecute them. Thank you, ONN, for recognizing the hypocrisy.
As an added bonus, at the end of the show, they consult with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. ONN introduces her as a person that stepped into a “land mine of controversial election issues”, but they instead ask her about the tea party’s influence on elections, which she completely sidesteps and claims that there is a “racist element to the tea party here in Ohio.” We’d like to remind Ms. Brunner that there are “racist elements” in every segment of society, including − yes − our own government.
The full video has not been made available by ONN, but they have posted the full audio.
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Listen to Full Audio |
30. July 2010 at 12:22 pm
I think it is a bad idea to defend the Tea party from the spurious racism charges without furiously attacking the NAACP for its racist elements. The best defense is a good offense. Don’t let yourself become defensive.
Defense only wins on the football field. Even there, someone has to score points.