The Tea Party's Takeover of the GOP

The Tea Party's Takeover of the GOP | Mother Jones

The anti-health care reform rally in Washington indicates the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement are increasingly one and the same.

Thu November 5, 2009 2:51 PM PST

You have to hand it to Michele Bachmann: She has succeeded in turning the GOP into one big Tea Party. 

This past weekend, the Minnesota Republican went on Fox News and called on viewers to show up on the Capitol lawn on Thursday at noon for a press conference and a last ditch attempt to kill health care reform.  The gathering that resulted was marked by the now-routine extremism of the Tea Party conservatives.  "I'm a bitter gun owner who votes," read one sign. Others questioned President Obama’s citizenship, portrayed him as Sambo, or called him a traitor. One said, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothschilds." Old ladies wore red T-shirts decrying "Obamao care." The crowd also took spirited swipes at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At one point someone yelled, "Put down your Botox and show yourself."

But what was most noteworthy was that the entire House Republican leadership was also in attendance—and their rhetoric was just as over-the-top as some of the protesters. House Minority Leader John Boehner declared the health care bill the "greatest threat to freedom I have seen." In essence, Congressional Republicans were merging with a movement that gives open expression to racist and anti-Semitic sentiments.....

[Many people I spoke with said they came because of "the babies," and their belief that the health care bill will fund elective abortions. Tony Perkins, the head of the evangelical group the Family Research Council riled up the crowd with claims that the bill is "another bailout of the abortion industry with your money" and that Planned Parenthood had helped draft the measure.]