Is there any meaningful difference between the teabaggers and klanners?

[Stinky The Clown]

The wearing of sheets - or not - is not a meaningful difference.

The presence of a few non white people is not a significant difference.

I see as a BIG similarity the notion of "taking back my country". It is little different than seeing the country as a white nation.

Listening to clips from the SRLC tells me that the Southern Strategy is back.

[bitchkitty]

1. Teabaggers are more devious.

The Klan makes no bones about their hatred. The Tea Partiers are trying to disguise their hatred as patriotism/freedom/whatever. Other than that, they're the same.

[Bitwit1234]

13. I agree with this 1000% they are sneakier and hide their racism

AND their prejudice against people who don't bow down to republicans.

[ShortnFiery]

20. Whoa!

That means that The KKK is more intellectually honest than the tea-baggers?

Whoa! It's hard to wrap my mind around that one.

They're OPEN and UNAPOLOGETIC about their bigotry. :scared:

[villager]

2. Mainstream "liberal" media props up the Teabaggers far more than they could the Klan

indeed, they're rather shameless about it...

[RKP5637]

3. It sure looks familiar to me and I lived through that era and had hoped it was gone. n/t

[TheWraith]

4. Of course there is.

The Klan was smarter and better organized.

[JuniperLea]

9. They still are...

They are an LLC now, and have a website... with an online store... I kid you not... Google it... freaked me the hell out.

[TheWraith]

18. What I mean is that there's no one single "Ku Klux Klan" anymore.

There's many small groups claiming the name or some part of it, but they're all fragmented these days.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. Lynching and cross burning?

[Dr Morbius]

15. Yeah.

I was gonna say, that so far at least, the Tea Party folks haven't hung strange fruit from poplar trees. That counts; they may be nutso and hurtful in those Tea Parties but largely haven't drawn blood.

[HopeHoops]

6. Yeah. The KKK doesn't want to be associated with those teabagger assholes.

[Iggo]

7. Teabaggers seem to show up better armed than the Klan does.

[maxsolomon]

8. people who are in the Klan know it, and know what it means

Tea Party dupes are just that: dupes. They don't know what their agenda is, except a vague sense that something is fucked up in America (and in this, they're right - something IS fucked up, though it's not who or what they think it is).

They're immensely different from the Klan, as they're a deliberate product of Freedom Works & Fox News, who's purpose is to harass and distract the Liberal Majority from governance.

[Lerkfish]

10. nothing significant, really.

I've made this observation many times.

[pinboy3niner]

11. Stinky, I think it would be a mistake to try to tar them all . . .

with the racist label deserved by some.

As much as we disparage and make fun of their "movement," not all are racists. Some are just concerned about deficits/national debt/jobs/economy/taxes--all legitimate concerns even if we disagree with their views.

Name-calling only hardens them in their position. I prefer reasonable, rational debate and persuasion to counter the BS they've been fed by wingnut media talkers. We can peel off some that way.

In any case, the teabaggers won't be around long--there's no viable third-party option, and though a few may succeed in primary-ing GOP candidates whom they deem not conservative enough, the movement will be subsumed into the GOP. They're a momentary flash in the pan. (Still mockable and good for some laughs, though, while they're around :-) .

[robinblue]

16. Well said . Broadbrushing an entire movement is wrong.

[Mike Daniels]

31. You may be correct but then again, where was their concern prior to January 2009?

Most of the problems they're protesting were around in spades during the final years of the Bush admin but they didn't seem to be concerned at that time.

While I'm sure there are a portion of the baggers that don't have a racist bone in their body they'll have a hard time proving it given that they only opted to get concerned around the time Obama took office.

[Lint Head]

12. The fight against racism and the klan made bigots drop their 'low

thread count' masks. Now racists and bigots cannot hide when they spout their ideology. We know their faces.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

14. Kluckers can spell.

[HughMoran]

17. TeaKluxKlan

[chollybocker]

19. The baggers ride in shiny corporate-sponsored busses.

And their mob lynchings have been mostly metaphorical - to date.

Also, the old local cable KKK channels never had as many salivating sponsors as Fox.

[KonaKane]

21. The Klan didn't name their movement with something easily mistaken for a sex act

"Klan job"

"Let me do your Klan hole"

"Klux me hard"

Nope, I'm not seeing it.....

[havocmom]

22. Only real difference I have noted is that Teabaggers are not nocturnal

and they wear more colorful duds.

[Incitatus]

23. The KKK is at least honest about their racism.

Heh, I just noticed the first post beat me to it

[Fading Captain]

24. Stop it. This kind of bullshit is stupid.

I don't like the knee jerk teabaggers much, if at all.
But comparing them to the Klan says worse things about you than it does about them.

[Stinky The Clown]

27. REALLY????

How so?

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stinky The Clown]

36. And they're blaming the black president

Put your thinking cap on.

[Cresent City Kid]

25. All racists are teabaggers, but are all teabaggers racist?

Racism is taught from childhood, teabaggery is dispensed in drips and drabs over the radio and TV. I agree with the previous point about the racists' clarity of purpose. Teabaggers have been told the government is the bad guy, and they've been left to figure out why. Their scattered answers to the question give the illusion of a natural grass roots movement. Racists know exactly why they hate the government: freed slaves, no Jim Crow, and welfare.

The teabaggers are being taught to hate liberals in a way that looks a lot like racism. Only the colors are red and blue, not necessarily black and white. The reason why is green, follow the money.

[EFerrari]

26. The Klan is more neatly dressed?

[Brewman_Jax]

28. Not much

except the KKK are proud of being racists, the teabaggers won't admit to it.

[Blue_Tires]

29. the klan at least has a unified and coherent message...

[bigtree]

30. dixiecrats

states rights party

[mitchum]

32. I believe the KKK had more military veterans in its ranks

[Hekate]

33. The difference is day and night, speaking tongue in cheek. Teabaggers roam around in daytime....

The KKK skulked around at night, flapping their sheets and lynching people.

Teabaggers are not ashamed of their behavior or afraid of social opprobrium -- they are out by day.

So far, Teabaggers only fantasize about what they would do to "that Kenyan" -- although their leaders are whipping up their hatred to the point they've been emboldened in some modest daylight mob behavior (spitting and name calling, shouting and bullying, but so far no lynchings that we know of).

KKK and Teabaggers both like to feel they are the victims here.

Hekate

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. Meaningful? No. Minimal. Yes.

[deaniac21]

37. They turned me into a newt!