If the Tea Party were as racist and angry as the left claims it is ...

... then America would look like this:

Members and supporters of Golden Dawn chant the national anthem in front of the
Greek parliament. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Racially motivated violence has soared to such a degree that European officials blasted Greece for failing to take adequate action. Nils Muižnieks, the European commissioner for human rights, recently felt moved to point out that democracy was at risk in the birthplace of democracy because of "the upsurge in hate crime and a weak state response". It was vital, he said, that domestic and international anti-racism laws were enforced to crack down on violence that had been "linked to members or supporters, including parliamentarians, of the neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn".

The irony of some unelected EU apparatchik calling something "anti-democratic", in the same paragraph of the mention of the mooting of laws to explicitly outlaw political parties - that irony seems to be wasted on the Guardian writer.  To the point raised in the title of this post, I'm keen to know if there has ever been a photograph like the one shown here taken at a Tea Party rally.

The Greek police and justice systems – both of which have been accused of colluding with the extremists – also had to be reformed, he said.

Indicative of the far right's growing political grip, the conservatives fear that legislation proposed by their leftwing partners will further alienate traditional voters who have migrated to Golden Dawn in disgust at the political establishment blamed for the country's crisis. The party's spectacular rise has been attributed, in part, to defections from the Greek orthodox church and the army.

Gee, ya think?  Maybe an increasing number of people see the same old Political Elites as bereft of ideas and legitimacy?  That they're seen as fiddling while Athens burns?  And it's not just Greece:

On 22 February 2013, a large crowd of 800,000 people attended the final rally of Beppe Grillo before the general election, in Piazza San Giovanni in Rome.^[52] On 24 and 25 February 2013, [MoVimento 5 Stelle, M5S] contested all Italian constituencies: Beppe Grillo was listed as head of the coalition, although he was not an electoral candidate.

The vote for M5S in the Chamber of Deputies reached 25.55% of the vote in Italy and 9.67% for overseas voters, for a total of 8,784,499 votes, making it the second most voted list after the Democratic Party (which acquired 25.42% of the votes in Italy and 29.9% abroad, or 8,932,615 votes), obtaining 108 deputies. The M5S vote for the Senate was 23.79% in Italy and 10% abroad, for a total of 7,375,412 votes, second only to the PD (which garnered 8,674,893 votes), obtaining 54 Senators. This was a successful election for M5S as the party gained a higher share of the vote than was expected by any of the opinion polls. The M5S won 25.6% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies, more than any other single party.

The M5S is a very interesting juxtaposition with Golden Dawn.  While Golden Dawn is explicitly fascist (nationalist and socialist)  in word and deed, M5S is pretty libertarian.  But both are joined in a success fueled by the collapse of the legitimacy of the current European political Elite.  And quite frankly the Tea Party shares that same impetus.

The rage and fear on the left is not that the Tea Party is racist and angry, it's that it's out of patience with the American political "Elite" that is seen as fiddling while the Republic slowly collapses.  The good news for these shores is that while jack boots seem to be already echoing from the walls of the Herodes Atticus Odeon, things have not progressed nearly so far down that road here.  We shall see how that changes if there is not a real reckoning at the IRS.

(via)