NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA?
David S. Bernstein asserts that Glenn Beck fans his audience’s fears, yet the headline for his piece on the Tea Party is “ ‘Tea’ Is For Terrorism” (April 9). That’s not fanning fears? For every Hutaree militia on the far right there’s a Bill Ayers on the far left. Neither party has a monopoly on crazy. Bernstein failed to point out in his piece that there are people close to President Barack Obama that openly encourage the redistribution of wealth. He also failed to point out that recent polls show a large percentage of people who call themselves Tea Partiers once called themselves Democrats. Those people did not leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left them. Call them racists, rednecks, terrorists, or whatever you wish. That’s the same type of hate speech that the left claims to decry.
We now have government control of an auto manufacturer, an insurance company, student loans, and a large portion of health care. The fact that a Republican is now sitting in the seat once held by John and Ted Kennedy, representing the people of the most liberal state in the nation, is no aberration. Wake up.
JAMES PIRCIO
HALIFAX
I’d like to thank David S. Bernstein for his thoughtful and informative article. As a descendant of an original Tea Party member, I take exception to the spirit of that moment being hijacked by right-wing hypocrites. The American Revolution did not take place because well-off whites were tired of paying taxes to support a welfare state they disliked. Taking a violent anti-tax stance while benefiting from Social Security and Medicare is bad enough, but the approval of domestic terrorism implicit in Tea Party rhetoric goes too far.
The right’s failure to condemn — and willingness to exploit — dangerous homegrown hate groups is analogous to conservative Muslim support for suicide bombers.
JOHN BATES
SALEM
The cover image of an M16/AR15 resting on a Bible shows just how disconnected your writers and readers are from mainstream society. Someday, when your readers take their bongs and guitars and move out of their attic apartments to get real jobs and pay taxes and start families, they’ll realize that it is the average American, the great majority of this nation, who are most aligned with the Tea Party movement, and not a few madmen living in a Rocky Mountain hideout with their guns and Bibles.
And since when is being opposed to government policies dangerous? Oh, that’s right, it’s only righteous and patriotic to do so when there is a Republican in the White House. When a radical liberal is sitting in the Oval Office, all is well.
JOHN SALEMME
WOBURN
I loved your “ ‘Tea’ is for Terrorism” cover! Seeing something so brazenly irresponsible, offensive, and downright silly reassures me that you liberal loonies are truly scared. Please keep up the great work. By continually marginalizing yourselves, you’re giving us conservatives a solid basis to make things right, even sooner than you fear. Much appreciated!
ANDY SIMMONS
EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
