[Vision2020] The Tea Party and African Americans

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Greetings:

In an article in "The New York Review of Books" (3/25/10), Jonathan Raban, a libertarian delegate to the Tea Party Convention, reports that 99.5 percent of the delegates were white.

With regard to Roger's assurance that these folks are primarily "libertarians," Raban and his fellow libertarians were offended by the fact that all sessions opened with prayer. The Libertarian Party of America is thoroughly secular in its orientation and most of them reject the idea of a Christian libertarianism, as I do at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/christlibertarian.htm  

I've challenged Roger before about his very loose use of the term "libertarian."  For me it means the maximizing of personal liberty in both the economy and social life, including personal affairs. Roger is just like some of the Tea Baggers: its economic liberty only.

If Roger is right that the "birthers" are a small minority of the Tea Baggers, why did one of the keynote speakers open his talk by reading from Matthew's genealogy of Christ (which conflicts with Luke!), and then asked where Obama's birth certificate was.  The crowd stood and cheered him. Again the minority libertarians were embarrassed.

Nick Gier