An NPR report this morning confirms that Sarah Palin has been comparing the Tea Party movement to the US civil rights movement. So blacks (and whites) in the 1950s and 1960s who were beset by police attack dogs, blasted with fire hoses opened to full blast, jailed for politely asking that they be served in segregated lunch counters, bus stations, retail stores, and other establishments, and even murdered, are the spiritual forebears of a group that applauds Tom Tancredo for complaining that people who cannot spell "vote" helped elect President Obama? A group that seems to delight in "clever" name-calling ("Obamanation" anyone?) and which has nary a minority member amongst its adherents? A group that has full access to the political process in this country but is mad because it's no longer in power?
I can't decide whether to call on the spirit of George Orwell or the spirit of Lewis Carroll.
The Tea Party is not the spiritual heir of the battle for civil rights. The Tea Party doesn't want to expand the promise of America to cover all its citizens. The Tea Party is merely the current generation of the white supremacists who sicced the attack dogs and turned the fire hoses on the civil rights demonstrators forty-some years ago.
In a twisted way, then, Palin is right--she's just pointing to the wrong side of the historical equation. The Tea Party is actually the modern incarnation of the 19th century Know Nothing party, a group of xenophobic anti-immigration (and especially anti-Catholic) zealots who made a lot of noise but who, thankfully, amounted to not much. May the Tea Party suffer the same fate.
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