Sqrl said:
Yeah I think less than 1% is probably quite accurate. My question would be what are you basing your estimate of 20% on? I can tell you my assessment is based on my own conversations with the people you see in these crowds...I'm friends with at least a dozen of the 400k (likely more tbh) and they were all excited and pumped up after the tea parties. But what were they excited about though?? How positive the message was, that they felt like this movement was taking the right approach by saying it is BOTH PARTIES and that frivolous spending is a problem no matter who does it and that they are going to fight any politician who is not fiscally conservative and support any politician who is..regardless of the other policies they might support (including canvasing, donations, fundraising, etc..). At no point did they ever bring up race or even Obama alone as an issue and I can tell you they are extremely offended by comments like Garofalos and found it to be a pathetically ignorant comment. They've been deliberate and explicit in their efforts to point out that it isn't just Obama, that this problem is much bigger than one politician or one party. In fact when racism did rear its head in Papillion the crowd is the one who reacted the strongest towards it according to my friend Kairi who I have no reason to doubt. She isn't exactly a conservative by any stretch of the imagination either....the bottom line is that the these events were of a very different tenor to what was being portrayed in the media. Do you understand that their plan for the next set of events is actually a 4th of July picnic/BBQ setup? I mean I'm sure racists like picnics and BBQ's as much as anyone else but the fact is that the kind of vitriolic hatred that racism is based on doesn't produce a protest via picnic parties...there is just a fundamental disconnect between the tone being put out by the grassroots organizers of these events and their supporters compared to their portrayal by folks like Olby and Garofalo. Consider that by your estimate you think that statistically it is likely that 2 to 3 of my friends are racists....I strongly beg to differ. I will probably be participating in the 4th of July festivities if the movement stays on the same message and tone it has right now. I wanted to see how they handled themselves at this first round before I got involved and I'm more than pleased. But don't worry I don't take offense to the idea that you think there is a one in five chance that I'm a racist |
.Man, you actually don't get it. You base your percentage off your friends. Not nearly anything remotely like a random sample, but yet you can base your judgements off of it without second thought.
This is what I mean, when I kind of agree with Garofolo where you really just don't understand.
My point has nothing to do with racism btw and I know you read the OP. It is about the message of the original tea party being no taxation without representation. I just thought it was interesting to follow that thought through into these tea parties. It would mean they are protesting the taxes, and the person who was taxing them. MY point does not reside on 20% of the people being racist. But yours strongly relies on the fact that your friends accurately reflect the entire population. I'll let you think about that for a minute.
