Tom Tancredo: February 2010

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Tom Tancredo: February 2010

Return Of the Repressed? Birtherism, Homophobia, Racial Paranoia Rise To Surface At Tea Party Confab

Zachary Roth | February 8, 2010, 11:38AM

Tea party in Hartford, Connecticut in 2009

The National Tea Party Convention, which wrapped up Saturday night with a televised speech by Sarah Palin, offered an outlet for some of the fouler strands of modern conservatism that had long been bubbling beneath the surface of the Tea Party movement.

Tea Party leaders had worked hard to keep the public face of the movement focused tightly on a small government, anti-tax message, largely steering clear of social issues, and appeals based explicitly on race. But this weekend, from the podium at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel, convention speakers espoused birtherism, anti-immigrant nativism, homophobia, Christian fundamentalism, and an apparent nostalgia for racially discriminatory barriers to voting.

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Topics: Birthers, Joseph Farah, Racism, Rick Scarborough, Right-wing extremism, Roy Moore, Sarah Palin, Tea Parties, Tea Party Patriots, Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo

Tancredo: Obama Elected Because 'We Do Not Have A Civics, Literacy Test'

Zachary Roth | February 5, 2010, 10:44AM

Fmr. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)

Organizers of the National Tea Party Convention, who have been at pains to present their confab as a gathering of patriotic and mainstream Americans, may not have been pleased by the speech given by their opening-night speaker.

Former congressman Tom Tancredo declared that President Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."