Must Watch! MSNBC Panel Traces Roots of Tea Party Hatred for President Obama (Video)

 Posted by Progressive Populist  

This is a fascinating take by an MSNBC panel on how Conservatives, particularly the Tea Party, came to hate President Obama. They argue that there is an entire industry and well-oiled network that is derived from the fear and hatred of President Obama and the misinformation campaign that contributes to it.
The host of MSNBC’s Disrupt, Karen Finney, discussed Obama ‘Haterade’ with the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim and Democratic strategist Joe McClean, and included several clips of people making false claims about President Obama as well as political figures calling him buzzwords such as “Muslim”, “socialist”, “Marxist”, “Anti-Christ”, etc. Not to mention those who think he hates white people, as Glenn Beck said in a clip in this video, and those who believe he was born in Kenya.
The panel also touched on how the Obama Haterade Campaign (my term) starts off with chain emails and heated but false rhetoric from politicians. One example was Sarah Palin accusing President Obama of “palling around with terrorists” during the 2008 presidential campaign. Then such falsities are passed around and perpetuated on Fox News, which by virtue of being a so-called news network, adds legitimacy to such claims about the president even though they are false. And the inflammatory rhetoric is designed to fit the worldview of those who see the president as someone that is far different than they are. And because President Obama is a black man with a Muslim-sounding name, they already have a head start on what MSNBC’s Finney called the “othering” of him.

It’s not just a political machine,” Finney said. “It’s an industry. You can literally follow the lies through the conservative networks and by the time the latest lie or conspiracy theory is touted as fact on Fox, it’s merely reinforcing a mythology that’s already been absorbed by its viewers and true believers for years.”

 “I don’t think there’s any question that there is an infrastructure that keeps the myths alive,” Democratic strategist McClean said. “The hatred probably springs from fear. America is changing very rapidly in ways that make people of a certain age very uncomfortable. And they feel that their world is swinging out of their control, and there’s nothing they can do about it. The tea party zealots who are taking advantage of this fear and this hatred that it’s caused, profess to believe that America teeters on the brink of  destruction.”

“The idea that the nation stands on the brink of destruction is a very old idea, and it runs back and forms part of the cultural roots of our civilization,” McClean continued. “The tea party isn’t necessarily made up of the Christian right. But a lot of the energy, a lot of the animus in the tea party springs from the Christian right. Their rhetoric just rings with these religious overtones. I call these folks, particularly people like Ted Cruz and Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, I call them the new American apocalyptic prophets. They’re prophesying the destruction of America, unless the son of man comes in his glory to save them, and they are casting Barack Obama in the role of the antichrist.”
Huffpo’s Grim pointed out the cognitive disonnance that Tea Party types have. He cited the belief that Obamacare would cover illegal immigrants and that no matter how many times you show them that Obamacare will not cover illegals, they will still believe that there is a way that illegals will get coverage. Because to believe otherwise does not fit their worldview.
The panel also talked about the belief that President Obama will bring on the destruction of America. “The idea that the nation stands on the brink of destruction is a very old idea, and it runs back and forms part of the cultural roots of our civilization,” McClean said. “The tea party isn’t necessarily made up of the Christian right. But a lot of the energy, a lot of the animus in the tea party springs from the Christian right. Their rhetoric just rings with these religious overtones. I call these folks, particularly people like Ted Cruz and Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, I call them the new American apocalyptic prophets. They’re prophesying the destruction of America, unless the son of man comes in his glory to save them, and they are casting Barack Obama in the role of the antichrist.”
Watch it below and tell us your thoughts in the comments.