Thread: Tea Party today's Know Nothing movement

Tea Party today's Know Nothing movement

By DeWayne Wickham

With Labor Day behind us, the nation's voters now are expected to treat more seriously the election campaigns they thus far have given short shrift.

To say that up until now Americans have not paid much attention to the election process would be a reassuring explanation for the success of the "Tea Party" candidates who espouse views that threaten to turn this nation and its founding document upside down.

Tea Party-backed candidates who have won the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Kentucky, Alaska, Utah, Nevada and Colorado harbor views on a range of issues — like immigration, and the Second and 14th Amendments — that ought to frighten thinking voters into the arms of their opponents.

Rand Paul, the Tea Party-backed GOP Senate candidate in Kentucky, blurted out during post-election interviews that he thinks Congress went too far in outlawing racial discrimination by owners of private property. He also said that neighborhood associations and private business owners should be free to discriminate on the basis of race. He has backtracked on both these positions with doubletalk that falls far short of what sounds like a true change of heart.

And Paul has yet to retreat from his support of a call for Congress to find a way to undo the Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship. In 1856, the Know Nothing Party's platform called for a waiting period of 21 years before an immigrant could become a citizen. Paul and other candidates, such as Utah's Tea Party-Republican Mike Lee, say children born here to illegal aliens shouldn't automatically become U.S. citizens.

Never mind that the Constitution says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" are citizens. They want to undo that constitutional provision. The Tea Party-GOP fusion candidates in Kentucky, Alaska, Utah, Colorado and Nevada back Arizona's immigration law, which for them is an acceptable usurpation of the federal government's authority.

And then there is Sharron Angle. In a throwback to the Wild West, the Nevada GOP Senate candidate has repeatedly talked about the possibility that people who dislike the actions of Congress might resort to "Second Amendment (right to bear arms) remedies" to assuage their discontent. It's the kind of warped sense of entitlement that plunged this nation into a bloody civil war.

With the general election fewer than 60 days away, voters ought to focus on reversing the meteoric rise of the Tea Partiers, who are the linear successors to the aptly named anti-immigration Know Nothing movement that flourished for a brief time during the 1850s. It elected eight governors, 43 members of the U.S. House and five U.S. senators during that time. But it ultimately collapsed from the weight of its own intolerance and blurred political vision.

The Tea Party movement claims to be rooted in the traditional — but long compromised — Republican ideals of fiscal responsibility, small government and free markets. But its support of Arizona's immigration law signals an intolerance of Hispanics that mirrors the Know Nothing movement's attempt to keep Catholics out of this country.

Left alone, there's a good chance the Tea Party will sputter out of existence as quickly as the Know Nothing movement did. But that may not be fast enough, given the stand Tea Party candidates are taking on issues. Voters should speed up that process on Election Day.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.
------------------------------------------------------
Post comments @

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/fo ... titialskip

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Tea Party today's Know Nothing movement

By DeWayne Wickham

With Labor Day behind us, the nation's voters now are expected to treat more seriously the election campaigns they thus far have given short shrift.

To say that up until now Americans have not paid much attention to the election process would be a reassuring explanation for the success of the "Tea Party" candidates who espouse views that threaten to turn this nation and its founding document upside down.

Tea Party-backed candidates who have won the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Kentucky, Alaska, Utah, Nevada and Colorado harbor views on a range of issues — like immigration, and the Second and 14th Amendments — that ought to frighten thinking voters into the arms of their opponents.

Rand Paul, the Tea Party-backed GOP Senate candidate in Kentucky, blurted out during post-election interviews that he thinks Congress went too far in outlawing racial discrimination by owners of private property. He also said that neighborhood associations and private business owners should be free to discriminate on the basis of race. He has backtracked on both these positions with doubletalk that falls far short of what sounds like a true change of heart.

And Paul has yet to retreat from his support of a call for Congress to find a way to undo the Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship. In 1856, the Know Nothing Party's platform called for a waiting period of 21 years before an immigrant could become a citizen. Paul and other candidates, such as Utah's Tea Party-Republican Mike Lee, say children born here to illegal aliens shouldn't automatically become U.S. citizens.

Never mind that the Constitution says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" are citizens. They want to undo that constitutional provision. The Tea Party-GOP fusion candidates in Kentucky, Alaska, Utah, Colorado and Nevada back Arizona's immigration law, which for them is an acceptable usurpation of the federal government's authority.

And then there is Sharron Angle. In a throwback to the Wild West, the Nevada GOP Senate candidate has repeatedly talked about the possibility that people who dislike the actions of Congress might resort to "Second Amendment (right to bear arms) remedies" to assuage their discontent. It's the kind of warped sense of entitlement that plunged this nation into a bloody civil war.

With the general election fewer than 60 days away, voters ought to focus on reversing the meteoric rise of the Tea Partiers, who are the linear successors to the aptly named anti-immigration Know Nothing movement that flourished for a brief time during the 1850s. It elected eight governors, 43 members of the U.S. House and five U.S. senators during that time. But it ultimately collapsed from the weight of its own intolerance and blurred political vision.

The Tea Party movement claims to be rooted in the traditional — but long compromised — Republican ideals of fiscal responsibility, small government and free markets. But its support of Arizona's immigration law signals an intolerance of Hispanics that mirrors the Know Nothing movement's attempt to keep Catholics out of this country.

Left alone, there's a good chance the Tea Party will sputter out of existence as quickly as the Know Nothing movement did. But that may not be fast enough, given the stand Tea Party candidates are taking on issues. Voters should speed up that process on Election Day.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.
------------------------------------------------------
Post comments @

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/fo ... titialskip

First of all the "know Nothing Party" was secret in nature. To compare them with the Tea Party of today is ludicrous. There is nothing secret about the modern day Tea Party, and this Tea Party is not going away anytime soon. You kick God fearing, hard working, tax paying, patriotic people in the teeth long enough and you have rattled the wrong cage. The tea party does not espouse hatred of any race or religion. Their main message is objection of the financial burdening and control of the individual by the federal government. Many Tea Party members are Libertarians, and many Libertarians are Tea Partiers. What some people fail to realize is that there are Libertarians who believe in open borders, and just as many or more who don't. The other huge item Mr. Wickham fails to mention is that even though the Know Nothing Party objected to the Irish who would be willing to work for much less than their American counterparts and the Germans who were also Catholic, both of these groups came to these shores legally ...... Gosh, what a huge elephant in the room to overlook!

Know Nothing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts met with little success. Membership was limited to Protestant males of British lineage over the age of twenty-one. There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class and entirely Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery. Most ended up joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 presidential election.[1][2]

The movement originated in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party. It spread to other states as the Native American Party and became a national party in 1845. In 1855 it renamed itself the American Party.[3] The origin of the "Know Nothing" term was in the semi-secret organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, "I know nothing."[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Know Nothing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts met with little success. Membership was limited to Protestant males of British lineage over the age of twenty-one. There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class and entirely Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery. Most ended up joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 presidential election.[1][2]

The movement originated in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party. It spread to other states as the Native American Party and became a national party in 1845. In 1855 it renamed itself the American Party.[3] The origin of the "Know Nothing" term was in the semi-secret organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, "I know nothing."[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

Wow! I learned something new!! The original Ron Paul tea party movement was great, but this FOX "news" RNC sponsored tea party is a joke!