On election night 2008, I was glued to the television, flipping between Fox News, MSNBC and CNN as the results came. The differences in running commentary were fascinating and only became more so after it was clear Obama would win.

As commentators from each channel acknowledged the significance of electing the first African-American president, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews predictably gushed in joy and amazement while others downplayed Obama’s historic victory. One of these was Fox News contributor Karl Rove, who suggested America was actually beyond the race issue, that we had been for quite a while, saying, “We’ve had an African American first family for many years … When ‘The Cosby Show’ was on, that was America’s family.” Rove went on to suggest Obama was assuming leadership of a “post-racial” America.

Really?

We’ve certainly come a long way, but citing a fictional family on TV as evidence for racial tolerance and acceptance initially struck me as ridiculous. To Rove’s credit, a number of psychologists and political scientists have actually written about a “Huxtable effect,” suggesting that kids who grew up watching “The Cosby Show” likely would be more open to voting for an African-American candidate than those who hadn’t.

Rolling with Rove’s theory, I’m going to assume that a few of the Tea Party activists protesting before the historic healthcare vote at the House of Representatives last weekend didn’t spend enough time watching NBC in the ’80s.

If you haven’t heard yet, protesters associated with the Tea Party reportedly hurled insults and spit at African-American congressman Emanuel Cleever from Missouri while he was walking into the Capitol for a procedural vote on Saturday. Other Tea Party protesters shouting “Kill the bill!” reportedly directed racial epithets at two other members of the Black Congressional Caucus, Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, as they walked outside the Capitol.

Lewis began serving his country as a young college student during the civil rights movement and was instrumental in the nonviolent Nashville lunch counter boycotts of 1960. He worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and still bears the scars of being severely beaten in the head by police while protesting non-violently in a freedom march in 1965.

Lewis, a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1986, was in fact called the ugliest of racial epithets while walking outside the Capitol in ”post-racial” 2010 America. I’d prefer not to repeat it here.

I know some readers may argue these allegations aren’t true. Video of the incident does not include clearly audible evidence of the epithets, but they would be understandably inaudible due to the chaos, chanting and shouting of the protesters.

Moreover, I’m willing to take the word of a man like Lewis. A man with his history and accomplishments has nothing to prove and stands nothing to gain from making up an allegation like this. I believe him, just as I don’t doubt the report that someone called Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay congressman, an insult about his homosexuality on his way to cast a vote. This, too, I won’t repeat.

The continued lack of civility and hatred displayed at these protests across the country make these allegations more than believable — they’re becoming predictable.

GOP Chairman Michael Steele and GOP Congressman Paul Ryan have admirably condemned these verbal attacks — this hate speech — but other prominent Republicans have basically excused them. The Associated Press quoted Congressman Steve King of Iowa responding in this way: “I just don’t think it’s anything … There are a lot of places in this country that I couldn’t walk through. I wouldn’t live to get to the other end of it.”

King missed the point. One hypothetical injustice does not justify a real one, and the U.S. Congress is not Compton, Calif.

Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, brushed off these incidents with little concern, saying on C-SPAN, “I think that people have every right to say what they want. If they want to smear someone, they can do it.”

I suppose they can. But Tea Partiers and Republicans welcoming their support would do well to understand these tactics will not be successful in the long term. Violent speech is not only tasteless, it’s ineffective.

The civil rights movement effected monumental legislative and social change because the movement followed a small number of simple but challenging principles, each rooted in nonviolence. One of these was that violent means of expression — verbal and nonverbal — were off-limits because you cannot win people over with hatred, intimidation or humiliation.

The Huxtables can’t fix this one. Ultimately the folks attending Tea Party events must clean up their acts and comport themselves like respectable adults, and Republican members of Congress must not sink to Tea Party standards.

Breeches of decorum in congressional proceedings, such as the “Baby killer!” outburst by Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas and the hate speech that has become associated with Tea Party events are poisonous. If the Tea Party continues to use disrespectful speech, to choose intimidation and anger over respect and decorum, their party will be over, and the GOP might be crying louder than anyone.

Albert Lea resident Jeremy Corey-Gruenes is a member of Paths to Peace in Freeborn County. He can be reached at jcorey2@charter.net.