The Conservative Bulwark

A few weeks ago, the vast majority of news stories were centered on the 'Tea Parties' across the nation. Millions of people gathered in small towns and large ones to display their dislike and disgust with the ever-growing federal government. Say what you want...think how you want...the general theme in the coverage of these protests wasted no time in casting negative stereotypes on those that attended them.

1. They're all white.
2. They are racists.
3. They are all rich.
4. "Home grown" terrorists are born in groups like these.

Any of those sound familiar? Do you remember hearing a few of those attributes bantered about? Do you remember the reporter walking up to a black guy at one of the rallies and asking him if he felt threatened and uncomfortable? Do you remember the effort to have liberals 'infiltrate' protests and act as idiotic as possible to further cast a negative light on the overall movement?

Despite all of those attempts to sweep millions of Americans and their views under the rug and to label them as a threat to the country, none of what many on the Left hoped for actually happened. There were zero arrests. There were no displays of racism. Nothing happened to help mark the 'tea party' protesters as degenerates who would jump at any opportunity to trash Obama because he's black.

You can disagree with their ideology all day long...but you can't color them harmful or threatening.

Now lets take a look at the rallies and protests that happened over the weekend. Once again you had millions of people take to the street to voice their viewpoints. Did anyone in the media comment on their ethnicity? No. Did anyone in the media laugh off their viewpoints? No. Instead the participants are painted as victims. No one can possibly know how many of those that marched were here illegally. Its also interesting to not that, contrary to the 'tea party' protests, a large portion of the banners, signs, and t-shirts, etc., had little to do with immigration reform. There was a varied assortment of socialist and communist paraphernalia scattered throughout as well. The majority of it centered on 'workers of the world unite'. Go figure.

There were riots (especially after Arizona passed their new law), people were hurt, and police officers were assaulted. The images coming from both sets of protests were as different as night and day. The very sad thing about all of this is that the ones that were law-abiding and organized were treated like criminals. The ones that were actually run by criminals, were treated like victims.

The depressing thing is that none of this should surprise anyone.