As passionate as the Tea Party folks are about politics, I think they should just embrace whatever biases move them. Their defenders, however, are trying to debunk stories, confirmed by multiple sources, of several racist and homophobic incidents involving Tea Party protesters who converged upon Washington, DC last week.
The Dana Show blog has posted 23 seconds of video that purportedly prove that no Tea Party participant hurled any epithets towards members of Congress. The video proves no such thing.
First, the footage is too short to capture everything that occurred during last week's protests. Also, and most importantly, because there were so many people chanting during this particular clip, audio could only capture clearly what the broader group was chanting (sounds like "kill the bill"). This does not disprove the reports that individuals in this boisterous group made racist and homophobic comments. Instead, it shows that with respect to one person's video recording, the louder shouting drowned out individual commentary. Individuals on the ground almost certainly heard more than the video captured.
I have not seen many conservatives agree that this audio disproves the allegations of bias. Perhaps they are not persuaded either.
Finally, The Dana Show went on and on about how persons making these allegations intend to discredit arguments against healthcare reform and the Tea Party movement generally. I disagree. People can have legitimate arguments on some issues while subscribing to racism and homophobia. Racism and homophobia, however, are deplorable and worthy of our attention -- just as much as government spending. The Tea Party movement is not exempt from scrutiny or criticism.
Here is the video footage:
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