Blog: The Tea Party, Anger and the Upper Providence Supervisor’s Race

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Last week, I made some that was scheduled in Oaks between the two folks who are running for Upper Providence supervisor.

I pointed out that one of the candidates, Republican Lisa Mossie, and the forum moderator were both strong Tea Party supporters, and I said that the Tea Party was “making a conscious effort to sneak itself into the mainstream by running candidates that try to hide their affiliation with this far-right fringe group” and that “the intolerance and the hatred spewed by Tea Party members is extemely dangerous."

The reaction to those two statements was a bit heated, to the say the least, and I was challenged to defend what I wrote. So here goes:

Why do you say that the Tea Party is marked by “intolerance and hatred”?

It’s not just my opinion. It’s what countless others, way more qualified than I am, have also concluded.

Like, for example, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiezel, who after a 2010 Tea Party rally said of the protestors (who, among other things, compared President Obama to Hitler), “This kind of political hatred is indecent and disgusting.”

Or the Anti-Defamation League, which has reported “many of the ideas they (Tea Partiers) promote fall outside the mainstream, especially the more conspiratorial ones. Angry protesters have frequently made claims ranging from proclaiming Obama’s 'socialist' intentions to making explicit Nazi comparisons to suggesting that the President is defying or even subverting the Constitution.”

But what does any of this have to do with a local township supervisor race?

As far as the issues that the Tea Party is concerned with, very little. As far as the attitude that it represents, quite a lot.

If there is one emotion that has marked the Tea Party movement since day one, it is anger. Strong, often white-hot anger. The  New York Times talked about the “seething anger that seems to be an indigenous aspect of the Tea Party movement” and Peter Fenn in US News & World Report warned that “the angry Tea Party will destroy the Republican Party.”

And in fact, that same anger has infused the blogging of the Tea Party’s Supervisor candidate over the years, with items that have included a caption reading “Aw Jeez, not this Liberal crap again;” a picture of a Nazi soldier with a Democratic insignia on his armband and the caption “It’s not Fascism When We Do It”; and the use of the word “libtard” to describe liberal Democrats.

In my opinion, that is not the kind of attitude we need in a supervisor. I would hope that any person who represents the township would treat all township residents with respect, regardless of what political party they belong to or what side of an issue they support. A township supervisor needs to represent the entire township.  

OK, but why do you say that the Tea Party is trying to “sneak itself into the mainstream by running candidates that try to hide their affiliation”? Certainly, Lisa Mossie hasn’t made a secret of how she feels.

Yes, it’s very true that Lisa Mossie has been extremely outspoken in her blog and in columns she has written for local newspapers … for anyone who wants to go through the task of looking it up. But because (according to polling) most voters have a negative opinion about the Tea Party, Tea Party members and supporters in this area do not include their affiliation in any of their campaign info.

If you visit the website (http://www.uprov-gop.org/) or read any of the material that this candidate has supplied to the League of Women Voters / Smart Voter websites (http://www.smartvoter.org/2011/11/08/pa/mny/vote/mossie_l/) there is not a single mention of this candidate’s support for and affiliation with the Tea Party.

And yes, that affiliation does really exist. In fact, just about a month after President Obama took office, Lisa Mossie wrote online, under a headline reading “Tea Party Time in Philadelphia!” in February 2009:

All you folks in SE PA not going to CPAC, there's a Tea Party protest at Independence Mall on Saturday, 2/28 at noon.

Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...

...the tough get goin'!

Who's with me?

Sign up here.

Her blog was recruiting and signing up Tea Party members beginning with the very first protest demonstration.

It doesn’t really make sense then that there is absolutely no mention of this as she runs for office this year in Upper Providence. Don’t voters deserve to know this about her?

Aren’t you just a Democrat making personal attacks and throwing mud?

Guilty as charged as far as being a Democrat. In fact, until last year I was the Upper Providence Democratic Chair. But I’m not anything now; I’m no longer a committee person and I hold no official position in any campaign. However, I do most certainly support the Democratic candidate, George Faris, and I make no secret of that.

But this Tea Party issue isn’t mudslinging and it isn’t a personal attack, not at all. In fact, I am certain that if you ask the Republican candidate about her affiliation, she will certainly tell you she is proud to support the Tea Party and what it stands for. 

I just don’t believe that it’s something a potential supervisor should be involved in.