Monday, June 20, 2011

Tea Partying in Oklahoma, 1949

The mentality that we currently know as the Republican Tea Party has been around in some form or another since the Anti-Masonic Party got rolling in the 1820s. In 1949, the Oklahoma legislator began focusing attention of the dire threat represented by the possible presence of Communists at Oklahoma State University. So they held a hearing about it. Carey McWilliams relates in Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy (1950), p. 230:

Eleven members of the staff and faculty, accordingly, appeared before the committee on February 24, 1949. The chairman of the committee, a farmer with a fourth-grade education, conducted the investigation. The first witness, Dr. Lawrence Snyder, dean of the graduate school, was asked: "Where were you borned at? What organizations do you belong to? (The answer: "Only the Rotary Club and that is not secret.") "Do you know anything about Karl Marx and did you ever study his book?"
Let's give that legislator credit; he was more coherent than Sarah Palin probably would have been.

Tags: ,

| +Save/Share | |




FEATURED QUOTE

"It is the logic of our times
No subject for immortal verse
That we who lived by honest dreams
Defend the bad against the worse."


-- Cecil Day-Lewis from Where Are The War Poets?


ABOUT US

  • What is the Blue Voice?
  • Bruce Miller
  • Fdtate
  • Marcia Ellen (on hiatus)
  • Marigolds2
  • Neil
  • Tankwoman
  • Wonky Muse

  • RECENT POSTS

  • Juan Cole and the complications of "humanitarian" war
  • German Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière rejects...
  • Human faces of the EU/IMF austerity program in Greece
  • The future of NATO - that is, does it have one?
  • Libya, Gazprom, Eni and the Great Game over oil
  • US dependence on Saudi Arabia: oil and security
  • Jerry Brown's budget veto
  • Ian Haney Lopez on "reactionary colorblindness"
  • New aid package for Greece? Will a facing of reali...
  • Jerry Brown: a Democrat who fights - and fights Re...

  • ARCHIVES




    RECENT COMMENTS

    [Tip: Point cursor to any comment to see title of post being discussed.]
    SEARCH THIS SITE
    Google
    www TBV

    BLUE'S NEWS





    ACT BLUE











    BLUE LINKS

    Environmental Links
    Gay/Lesbian Links
    News & Media Links
    Organization Links
    Political Links
    Religious Links
    Watchdog Links

    BLUE ROLL


    MISCELLANEOUS

    Atom/XML Feed
    Blogarama - Blog Directory
    Blogwise - blog directory

    Blogstreet
    Haloscan


    Blogger

    hits since 06-13-2005

    site design: wonky muse
    image: fpsoftlab.com