April 17-18, 2010: Tea Party Event Features Insurrectionist, ‘Birther’ Rhetoric

Pastor Stan Craig. [Source: Choice Hills Baptist Church]A “tea party” rally in Greenville, South Carolina, features a great deal of rhetorical violence, with one speaker telling the crowd he is ready to launch an armed assault on Washington, DC. The event is hosted by the Upcountry Conservative Coalition. The keynote speaker is former Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO—see September 9, 2006), who tells the assemblage that Americans are “going to have to pray that we can hold on to this country.” Of President Obama, he says, “If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don’t we just send him back?” Tancredo is referring to widespread beliefs among the right that Obama is of Kenyan birth. It is unclear what Tancredo is referring to regarding Obama’s wife. Pastor Stan Craig of the Choice Hills Baptist Church, a Vietnam veteran, tells the crowd that he “was trained to defend the liberties of this nation,” and, apparently referring to his choice to participate in an armed insurrection, says he is ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” Dan Gonzales of Florida’s Constitution Party seems to agree with Craig, saying “this is the end of America right here,” and if the tea partiers “don’t get to work we’re going to be fighting in the streets.” Gonzales seems to have little love for the Republican Party either, claiming it is owned by the Rockefeller family. Speaker William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) continues his assertions that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is being blackmailed by the Obama administration because he is gay (see April 20, 2010), saying: “I’m a tolerant person. I don’t care about your private life, Lindsey, but as our US senator I need to figure out why you’re trying to sell out your own countrymen, and I need to make sure you being gay isn’t it.” Gheen later releases a statement reading: “US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington, DC, know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not. I personally do not care about Graham’s private life, but in this situation his desire to keep this a secret may explain why he is doing a lot of political dirty work for others who have the power to reveal his secrets. Senator Graham needs to come out of the closet inside that log cabin so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret.” [The State, 4/18/2010; TPM LiveWire, 4/19/2010] Other speakers at the event include longshot Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson (R-NM) and “birther” author Jerome Corsi (see August 1, 2008 and After, August 15, 2008, October 8, 2008, October 9, 2008, July 21, 2009, and September 21, 2010). [The Conservatist, 4/12/2010]