Ya think?!

Newsweek's article on the teabaggers states the bleedin' obvious.

Surveyers asked respondents in California and a half dozen battleground states (like Michigan and Ohio) a series of questions that political scientists typically use to measure racial hostility. On each one, Tea Party backers expressed more resentment than the rest of the population, even when controlling for partisanship and ideology. When read the statement that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites," 73 percent of the movement's supporters agreed, while only 33 percent of people who disapproved of the Tea Party agreed. Asked if blacks should work their way up "without special favors," as the Irish, Italians, and other groups did, 88 percent of supporters agreed, compared to 56 percent of opponents. The study revealed that Tea Party enthusiasts were also more likely to have negative opinions of Latinos and immigrants.

As to the reason why these reactionary recneck bigots and outright crackers are so pissed off? When the teabaggers holler "we want our country back!" they mean they want their county back...when they were the majority in American society, as this revealing chart on future U.S. growth in population projects.

Among the other key population projections:

■ The Latino population, already the nation's largest minority group, will triple in size and will account for most of the nation's population growth from 2005 through 2050. Hispanics will make up 29% of the U.S. population in 2050, compared with 14% in 2005.
■ Births in the United States will play a growing role in Hispanic and Asian population growth; as a result, a smaller proportion of both groups will be foreign-born in 2050 than is the case now.
■ The non-Hispanic white population will increase more slowly than other racial and ethnic groups; whites will become a minority (47%) by 2050.

This is what it all comes down to for the teabaggers: they're afraid of being the minority party. It scares them that, in 40 years, they won't be the majority (ethnic-wise) anymore, and now the race is on to cling to their old prejudices and majority, foolishly believing that it will be enought to stop what what will eventually happen. In this sense, I feel sorry for this group. Almost.

Of course, many teabaggers are furious when they get painted as a hateful, racist group of pissed-off rednecks venting becasue the president is black, as Tom Fitzhugh states.

"It really makes me mad...They have tried to portray us as a bunch of radical extremists."

And here's Fitzhugh's beleifs about President Obama as the section continues on:

He considers Obama an abomination—possibly "the most radical-voting senator that ever was" and someone likely to "takeus down the path of destruction." He believes the administration is intent on taking away his guns, trampling on states' rights, and opening the borders with Canada and Mexico. He has serioanyone with a functioning brain belives that you ignorant fucks are anything but racists!us doubts that Obama was born in the U.S. and suspects that the president is a closet Muslim.

Yet Tom and his ilk want me to beleive that this group's outrage isn't motivated by race? A quick note to him and teabagger nation: comments, like the one Fitzhugh trot out, are the reason why African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, gays, and anyone with a functioning brain belives that you ignorant fucks are anything but racists!