The vicious underbelly of the right-wing "tea party" movement was on full display in the run-up to March 21 vote on health care in Washington.
Supposed "grassroots" tea party groups organised protests in Washington with references to US President Barack Obama as a Nazi, dressed in Hitler garb; questions about where he was born; and references to the health care bill as a communist plot that would mean "death panels" for senior citizens.
On March 20, tea party protesters verbally abused Georgia Representative John Lewis, calling him "nigger".
Lewis, a civil rights movement veteran who was brutally beaten by a white mob in 1961 when he participated in the Freedom Rides, was outside the US Capitol building when protesters began chanting at him "Kill the bill, nigger".
Another Black Democrat representative, Emanuel Cleaver, was spat on by protesters.
Openly gay Representative Barney Frank was called "faggot" by tea party protesters.
After the vote, Representative James Clyburn, another veteran of the civil rights movement, said his office received racist faxes, including an image of a noose.
Democrat offices were vandalised before and after the vote in several areas. The Tucson, Arizona office of Representative Gabrielle Giffords appeared to have been shot out with a pellet gun, and bricks were tossed through windows of other offices nationally.
In some cases, Republican lawmakers incited the crowds. Diana Milbank wrote in the March 21 Washington Post that before the vote: "Republican members of Congress stood on the balcony of the people's House and stirred an unruly crowd ...
"Some lawmakers waved handwritten signs and led the crowd in chants of 'Kill the Bill'. A few waved the yellow 'Don't Tread on Me' flag of the tea party movement. "
Most Republican officials were smart enough to distance themselves from the racist and homophobic slurs. But Republican California Representative Devin Nunes blamed the Democrats for the incidents, stating on CSPAN: "When you use totalitarian tactics, people begin to act crazy. And I think, y'know, there's people that have every right to say what they want. "
A Gawker.com article noted that while top Republican officials condemned the protesters, these are "the same protesters who they encourage and inspire with dog-whistle phrases and sly hints".
2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, meanwhile, twittered to her followers: "Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: 'Don't Retreat, Instead RELOAD!'"
She linked to a map of Democratic districts with rifle targets on them.
Such rhetoric is a barely disguised attempt to whip up the worst elements of the right wing. For all the claims that the "tea partiers" are an independent "grassroots" movement, the truth is that they represent, for the most part, the same old reactionary core of the Republican Party.
The tea party movement is propped up — sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes openly — by various political action committees tied to well-connected Republicans.
In February, a CNN/Opinion Research poll found that 11% of US people said they had engaged in some form of "active support" for the tea party movement.
Of those "active" supporters, 60% were male, 80% white and 66% made more than US$50,000 a year. The largest income group of tea party activists (34%) was those making $75,000 or more per year.
Some 87% said they vote for Republican candidates for the House of Representatives and 77% described themselves as "conservative".
In other words, tea party activists are not working-class populist independents, but one of the core demographics of the Republican Party — the same reactionary base that the Republicans have appealed to in nakedly racist fashion for decades.
However, rather than call out these racist and bigoted attacks, the leadership of the Democratic Party has been all-but-silent.
Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the president did not believe the criticism directed at him was "based on the color of his skin", but rather a reasonable frustration with government.
Rather than focus on the Republicans' incitement of bigotry, the Obama administration took one opportunity after another to talk about how much Republicans should appreciate the health care bill — because it delivers major items on their wish list.
Racism and hate are left to fester.
A recent Harris poll found 67% of Republicans (and 40% of people overall) believe Obama is a socialist; 57% (32% overall) believe he is a Muslim; 45% (25% overall) believe Obama was "not born in the United States, and so is not eligible to be president".
Also, 38% of Republicans (20% overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did" and 24% (14% overall) say Obama "may be the Antichrist".
Such right-wing extremism has to be challenged. There can be no common cause with bigotry.
[Abridged from the US Socialist Worker.]