Is the Tea Party racist?

No. Despite the brouhaha that has erupted since the NAACP's president said there are strains of racism and hate speech in the party, and he called on the leaders to:

Expel the bigots and racists in your ranks or take the responsibility for them and their actions. We will no longer allow you to hide like cowards.

But, as E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post wrote:

The minute you say there are racist elements in the Tea Party -- reflected in signs at rallies, billboards and speeches from some of its major figures -- the pushback goes from cries of persecution to charges that those who are criticizing divisiveness are themselves the dividers.

So let's dispense with the obvious: Most of the opposition to President Obama comes from people who are against his policies, not his race. The Tea Party is motivated primarily by right-wing ideology, not by racism.

But Sarah Palin was among the first out of the block, posting on her FaceBook page her usual claptrap babble, claiming how she was "saddened by the NAACP's claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of American's constitutional rights are somehow 'racists.'"

As Dionne points out, the NAACP only did what conservatives have always done in demanding that liberals separate themselves from left-wing extremists who burned flags, for example. Or, one need go no further than their demand that Obama denounce the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and disown any close relationship with Bill Ayers -- or else he would be tarred as a fellow traveler along the routes of socialism, violent anti-Americanism, and angry racial hatred.

I think we just have to accept that the current opposition to Obama from the leaders of the Republican party on down to the Tea Party crowd are just saying anything in knee-jerk opposition without any rhyme or reason.

It reminds me of nothing so much as what happens when you poke a wasp's nest with a stick -- the wasps come zooming out and sting the poker, if he doesn't run fast.

Ralph