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Tea Party! One Lump or Two?
Author: velveeta jones
Date: 2010-06-13 13:50:02
Is the Tea Party showing signs of fatigue? Are they packing up their party hats, table cloths and misspelled signs and going home? I think so.
It all began harmless enough. Let’s gather some frustrated, slightly racist, slightly under-educated people and put them with some hate-filled, rabidly racist, well-spoken and well-read people and stir the pot. Voilá! A Tea Party movement - all very “grassroots”. Even though FOX “news” and other partisan groups pushed and organized from behind the scenes.
I’m all for grassroots. Boycotting BP, for example, seems like a natural thing to do when one is frustrated with something or someone that has power over us. I’m doing it and many of my friends are as well. That would be grassroots. Seems many people just naturally started boycotting BP.
The Tea Party movement has problems in that area. There are so many issues to protest/hate that the Party cannot seem to stick to one idea. Government = bad is to be the main theme, but some of the Party members like the Government when they it comes to Prolife causes or kicking Gay people out of the military. It conflicts with those that just want their personal freedom (even, I suppose, if it infringes on YOUR personal freedom).
And so, we have several Tea Party websites and Tea Party views and Tea Party “sponsors” and Tea Party Conventions and Tea Party “Bill of Rights” and Tea Party Blogs and Tea Party logos and even a Tea Party faux Facebook page. Basically, there are many Tea Parties (Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Nation being the two biggest. For the moment).
And worse, they have a variety of Tea Party aligned candidates that cannot seem to toe any Party line. While this may seem very “rogue-y” of them, it also makes for a confusing movement. As in “I wonder what my sign should read for the upcoming protest” kinda way.
From an article by Amy Gardner in yesterdays Washington Post
This is usually what happens before the big breakup. It goes something like this: A bunch of friends come together to put on a show in a barn. We all bring our tools and some other people to help us. We build the set and practice the lines and sew the costumes and then someone says, “hey! I wanna direct the show and we should do it like this….”
Before long hammers are being thrown at people and the Set and Lights go tumbling down and the barn catches on fire.
It all began harmless enough. Let’s gather some frustrated, slightly racist, slightly under-educated people and put them with some hate-filled, rabidly racist, well-spoken and well-read people and stir the pot. Voilá! A Tea Party movement - all very “grassroots”. Even though FOX “news” and other partisan groups pushed and organized from behind the scenes.
I’m all for grassroots. Boycotting BP, for example, seems like a natural thing to do when one is frustrated with something or someone that has power over us. I’m doing it and many of my friends are as well. That would be grassroots. Seems many people just naturally started boycotting BP.
The Tea Party movement has problems in that area. There are so many issues to protest/hate that the Party cannot seem to stick to one idea. Government = bad is to be the main theme, but some of the Party members like the Government when they it comes to Prolife causes or kicking Gay people out of the military. It conflicts with those that just want their personal freedom (even, I suppose, if it infringes on YOUR personal freedom).
And so, we have several Tea Party websites and Tea Party views and Tea Party “sponsors” and Tea Party Conventions and Tea Party “Bill of Rights” and Tea Party Blogs and Tea Party logos and even a Tea Party faux Facebook page. Basically, there are many Tea Parties (Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Nation being the two biggest. For the moment).
And worse, they have a variety of Tea Party aligned candidates that cannot seem to toe any Party line. While this may seem very “rogue-y” of them, it also makes for a confusing movement. As in “I wonder what my sign should read for the upcoming protest” kinda way.
From an article by Amy Gardner in yesterdays Washington Post
The national tea party movement has never had a central organization or single leader; in fact, it has boasted the opposite. But Tuesday's primary results provided fresh evidence of the amorphous network's struggle to convert activist anger and energy into winning results. Frustrated and lacking agreement on what to do next, self-identified tea party leaders say the movement may be in danger of breaking apart before it ever really comes together.
"No one owns the tea party brand, and that's kind of the problem," said Brendan Steinhauser, grass-roots director for FreedomWorks, which organizes tea party groups. "In Virginia -- it breaks my heart. You've got six self-appointed tea party candidates and one establishment guy. You're not going to beat the establishment guy in that situation."
Judson Phillips, founder of another national organization, Tea Party Nation, said some activists are starting to act like mainstream politicians. "It's supposed to be something other than politics as usual, but some of these folks are only looking out for themselves and not for the country."
This is usually what happens before the big breakup. It goes something like this: A bunch of friends come together to put on a show in a barn. We all bring our tools and some other people to help us. We build the set and practice the lines and sew the costumes and then someone says, “hey! I wanna direct the show and we should do it like this….”
Before long hammers are being thrown at people and the Set and Lights go tumbling down and the barn catches on fire.
