Small Government or Small Minds?

The so-called “Tea Party” movement has claimed the last couple of years to be focused on shrinking government. But often the intolerant rhetoric of its leaders betrays such claims as terribly disingenuous. Case in point: Dallas Tea Party leader Phillip Dennis’ televised attacks on the faith of President Obama and on Muslims this week.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ee-Xrsvs1A]

MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews asked Dennis whether he thinks President Obama is a Muslim. Dennis apparently couldn’t help himself, replying, “I don’t know.”

Pressed further by Matthews, Dennis said:

“If he’s a Christian, I certainly don’t like the brand of Christianity he went to in Chicago for 20 years.”

Then he criticized the president for “reaching out to Muslims”:

“President Obama certainly has a soft spot in his heart for Islam.”

Dennis also attacked Islam, smearing all Muslims for the actions of extremists, before once again questioning the president’s clear and repeated statements that he is a Christian:

“I have a big problem with Islam. It calls itself the religion of peace when everyday it continues around the world to show itself to be anything but. So I think those people [who question President Obama’s faith] have a right. Certainly it’s understandable that they might have a problem that our president might be Muslim. Absolutely.”

We have pointed out before that the Tea Party movement in Texas often marches alongside the intolerant religious right. Dennis’ disgraceful statements simply reinforce our point.

(Hat tip: Talking Points Memo)

3 thoughts on “Small Government or Small Minds?

  1. We will see more of this as the 2012 election comes ever closer.

    The n-word haters are desperate beyond belief to get him out of office. You know what? If they were to repeal the health care bill tomorrow, I can guarantee you there will be no Republican health care reform bill—never. They have never even put forward the idea of doing it in a “pressure free” political environment, much less try.

    However, if they ever broke down and seriously tried, I can also guarantee you their bill will be 90 percent like the Obamacare bill, and the health insurance companies would make out like bandits just like they did with the Obamacare bill because those companies are desperate to get those extra insurance premiums from healthy young people who are forced to buy health insurance against their will. The insurance companies own the Republican Party (along with others), so they will be forced to give in on this point.

    Culmination: The Republican health care bill will be almost indistinguishable from the Obamacare bill. However, it will be praised as one of the greatest political and social triumphs of all time. Why is that? Because the ideas in it were not n-word ideas. Instead, a nice group of young republican white men thought it up.

  2. Good points, Charles. I cannot understand how the right simply ignores the hypocrisy of Republican angst over health care that occurred only after the Democrats stirred the pot. I have heard numerous references to that “n****r” in the White House from “devout” Christians. We live in unsettling times (although I am not certain when those “settled times” happened).