On Monday night, ThinkProgess hosted a film screening of Astroturf Wars followed by a panel discussion featuring the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, (Astro)Turf Wars filmmaker Taki Oldham, Americans for Prosperity's Phil Kerpen, the Wonk Room's Brad Johnson, moderator and ThinkProgress editor Faiz Shakir, and myself. Responding to the vitriolic racism openly aired at tea parties and captured in Oldham's film, an audience member asked Kerpen why he refused to acknowledge the possibility that dangerous propaganda could spur life-threatening violence. Kerpen said he opposed racism and hate in the Tea Parties, but admitted that racists "might find a more receptive audience [at Tea Party rallies] because of all the paranoia and concern out there about government."
In addition to the problem that Tea Parties are often open forums for neo-Nazis and white supremacists holding racist signs, I pointed out that Americans for Prosperity itself organizes events with proud bigots like Tom Tancredo and Jerome Corsi. Kerpen interjected, calling me a "full time conspiracy theorist," and claimed that Americans for Prosperity had never held an event with Corsi and has no presence in South Carolina:
rest at http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/27/kerpen-afp-thinkprogress/
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