Meet the tea party movement

[Alpha]

The real movement, not the occassional nut who makes a headline.

Fractures emerge as Tea Party convenes - CNN.com

(CNN) -- As the Tea Party's first national convention gets under way, members are united in their anger but divided over the future of the movement.

The convention is marketed as an opportunity to bring Tea Party leaders from across the country together to network and support the movement's goals. But some see the high-ticket convention, organized by a for-profit organization, as contradictory to the group's bottom-up, grass-roots beginnings.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann were supposed to speak at the convention, but both dropped out, citing problems with the for-profit status of the Tea Party Nation, the group behind the event. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the convention's keynote speaker.

The Tea Party developed last year in protest to what its supporters saw as overspending in Washington -- by both Republicans and Democrats -- following the stimulus bill, the bank bailouts and President Obama's budget.

The anger over alleged fiscal irresponsibility in Washington was shared by a wider spectrum of voters, including independents, said John Avlon, author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America."

Over the year, the Tea Party grew from dozens to hundreds of loosely linked groups around the country.

"What happened over the course of the summer as the town hall [meetings] got hijacked, you started to see a new kind of activist taking over the Tea Party movement," Avlon said. "As the fringe has blurred with the base, you've seen more unhinged attacks proliferate, and there still hasn't been a transition to a positive agenda."

Some Tea Party members began directing their anger at Obama, calling him a socialist and carrying posters with his face altered to resemble Hitler or The Joker.

While the more radical activists made headlines, the voices of frustrated voters -- inside and outside the Tea Party -- were being heard across the country. The White House said Republican Scott Brown's win in last month's Massachusetts Senate election was "a wake-up call." While Brown captured the support of the Tea Party, he also won over the state's independent voters.

In November, Tea Party groups received credit for affecting the outcome of a special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District. Local Republican leaders backed state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava because they thought she would appeal to centrists and independents. But more conservative party members revolted and instead backed Doug Hoffman, who ran on the Conservative Party line.

Scozzafava dropped out days before the race and endorsed Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate and eventual winner. The split among Republicans contributed to Owens' win.

Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, pointed to that election as an example of how the Tea Party's support for more conservative candidates could hurt Republicans in the upcoming elections.

"If the 'birthers' [those who say Obama wasn't born in the U.S.] and the Tea Party people win most of the primaries in the Republican Party, that may not yield as much of a Republican victory in the general election as if their more moderate elements win," he said.

As the primary season begins, Tea Partiers disagree about where the movement is heading. Rival factions are battling over who will carry the Tea Party banner. Some members worry powerful groups are "astroturfing" what they think should remain a grass-roots group.

"I don't think the Tea Party knows what's happening to the Tea Party," Sacramento party activist Jim Knapp said. "I don't think there's any question the GOP has their tentacles into the Tea Party."

When wingnuts hijack a political party -- ultimately, they take it off a cliff.

Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin, founders of the Tea Party Patriots, say they are proud of what the movement has accomplished, but they are frustrated that other Tea Party groups are being run by Republican political consultants forking over lots of cash for recruitment.

The Tea Party Express, a conservative bus tour that crisscrossed the country last year, was run from inside a Republican political consulting firm.

This week's convention has also been dogged by infighting, with some protesting its $549 entrance fee and its hierarchical organization.

Meckler and Martin are not going to attend. "It wasn't the kind of grass-roots organization that we are, so we declined to participate," Meckler said.

Avlon said the concerns over the proceeds have undercut the event's attempt to be a rallying point.

"They like to compare themselves to the founding fathers. Well, imagine if John Hancock was trying to make a buck off the constitutional convention," he said.

Right now, Avlon said, the Tea Party groups are trying to flex their muscle and move the Republican Party further to the right.

But the unanswered questions are where that takes the Tea Party and how it affects the GOP in the long term.

"If it helps focus the Republican Party on a core message of a return to fiscal conservatism, which it abandoned when it had unified control of Congress ... then I think that can help strengthen the party's commitment to that core unifying issue," Avlon said.

"But if it just empowers the extremes in the party, then I think when extremes control parties, when wingnuts hijack a political party -- ultimately, they take it off a cliff."

[jfuh]

Originally Posted by Alpha

The real movement, not the occassional nut who makes a headline.

Fractures emerge as Tea Party convenes - CNN.com

So, teabaggers that supposedly are furious against backdoor negotiations screaming for transparency are now holding their own closed to the public for profit national convention? You're right, they aren't nuts, they're quite profit motivated.

[Dawildman]

Originally Posted by jfuh

So, teabaggers that supposedly are furious against backdoor negotiations screaming for transparency are now holding their own closed to the public for profit national convention? You're right, they aren't nuts, they're quite profit motivated.

The organizers are shrewd business people but i assure you that the rank and file and speakers like Bachmann are absolutely ready for the padded cell.

One can always get out of jurors duty by telling either defense or plaintiff's attorneys that you "just came back from a tea bagger rally".

Works every time.

[Underhill]

What never fails to amaze me is the way every time the right gets in a position to promote positive change they move in exactly the wrong direction.

[Lucas]

There's normal people in every movement and there's dumbasses in every movement. There's just about always more normal people than dumbasses, regardless of what this site indicates through its membership.

That doesn't change that the Tea Party's tenets aren't just near-dangerously reactionary, but they also first seemed to gain steam at a very curious time: they could've gained steam at any point during the Bush years when his actions seemed to fly ion the face of their desires, when his party was supposed to be most sympathetic towards their cause, but waited until he left. I mean, we all know Democrats are less likely to support the things the Tea Party folks want, why did they get mad when Democrats took office and not when 'their own kind' were betraying them? Makes it seem less reasonable and even more reactionary.

[Spyder Jerusalem]

[potter]

Originally Posted by Lucas

There's normal people in every movement and there's dumbasses in every movement. There's just about always more normal people than dumbasses, regardless of what this site indicates through its membership.
.

That's an asshole thing to say about the people of this board Lucas. If you feel that way you should leave.

[Lucas]

I feel that way. Have you looked around? For every donquixote or Zan, there's two people that have the intelligence of a goat.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I frequent real boards, too. But this place is good for comedy.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I feel that way. Have you looked around? For every donquixote or Zan, there's two people that have the intelligence of a goat.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I frequent real boards, too. But this place is good for comedy.

This is a great forum.

The reason you don't like it is that most people here won't put up with your shit.

[sinterest]

Originally Posted by jfuh

So, teabaggers that supposedly are furious against backdoor negotiations screaming for transparency are now holding their own closed to the public for profit national convention? You're right, they aren't nuts, they're quite profit motivated.

Wonder how they (especially Army) feel about the Senate stalling on reforms on banking and the formation of a Consumer protection agency to keep up with the “financial industry” we know the Republicans are 100% against both.

[MississippiMud]

The biggest problem with this tea party deal is the lack of involvement from liberal side.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

The biggest problem with this tea party deal is the lack of involvement from liberal side.

I wonder why?

Tea Party Fireworks: Speaker Rips McCain, Obama, 'Cult of Multiculturalism' | CommonDreams.org

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

The opening night speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."

[biblethumper]

Originally Posted by Underhill

What never fails to amaze me is the way every time the right gets in a position to promote positive change they move in exactly the wrong direction.

Heck yeah and Obama is changing us alright, right into a third world country.

[jfuh]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I feel that way. Have you looked around? For every donquixote or Zan, there's two people that have the intelligence of a goat.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I frequent real boards, too. But this place is good for comedy.

Yes and you lucas are personally with the legitimate authority of making a mockery of this forum to call out just how farcical you feel it is huh?

Psst, you're not a mod.
Here's an idea, instead of spamming here where people don't put up with your bullshit, why not just go and spam those "real" forums with your useless selfpromotion?

[jfuh]

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

The biggest problem with this tea party deal is the lack of involvement from liberal side.

Well that reasoning should be obvious shouldn't it? AS has already been mentioned, is it any wonder of how these supposedly furious teabaggers only came out after Jan. 20, 2009 rather than anytime before so?

[Lucas]

It's like you can't even read. It's also like the lady doth protest too much.

[MississippiMud]

Originally Posted by jfuh

Well that reasoning should be obvious shouldn't it? AS has already been mentioned, is it any wonder of how these supposedly furious teabaggers only came out after Jan. 20, 2009 rather than anytime before so?

At least they did come out. Unlike the other side who apparently weren't as angry with 8 years of Bush as the media would have us believe.


A combination of frustration with Bush and the changes in congress and the white house tipped the scales for many folks. Don't forget that a good many republicans had already turned their backs on their own party before Obama won. The initial feeling I had from the movement was anger at government in general. Sadly the dems/liberals were intimidated by idiots like Beck and have stayed away.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

At least they did come out. Unlike the other side who apparently weren't as angry with 8 years of Bush as the media would have us believe.

Huh?

February 15, 2003 anti-war protest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

United States

Protests took place all across the United States of America with CBS reporting that 150 U.S. cities had protests.[23] According to the World Socialist Web Site, protests took place in 225 different communities.[20]

The largest protests took place in the nation's largest cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, but there were also smaller rallies in towns such as Gainesville, Georgia; Macomb, Illinois; and Juneau, Alaska, among scores of others.


Organisers of the New York City protest had hoped to march past the United Nations Building. However, a week before the march, police claimed that they would not be able to ensure order and District Court Judge Barbara Jones ruled against allowing the route. Instead, protesters were only permitted to hold a stationary rally.

According to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York City Civil Liberties Union, judicial denial of a permit for a protest march was an unprecedented restriction of civil liberties, as marching and parading through New York's public streets to express various points-of-view is "a time-honoured tradition in our country that lies at the core of the First Amendment".

On the day, over 300 buses and four special trains brought protesters in from across the country. 100,000 protesters (BBC estimate) took part in a rally near the UN building. Among those taking part was the 9/11 Families For Peaceful Tomorrows, a group made up of some relatives of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Speakers included politicians, church leaders and entertainers, such as actress Susan Sarandon and South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
NYPD officers advance on protesters during a brief outbreak of violence

As people tried to reach the rally area they ended up constituting an unplanned march, stretching twenty blocks down First Avenue and overflowing onto Second and Third Avenue. In total estimates range from been 300,000 to 400,000 protesters (WSWS estimate) to over a million protesters (Berlin Heise estimate)

The protests were largely peaceful though a small group of protesters who were reported to have broken off from the main rally, caused damage to property in the Union Square district, and threw stones at police officers, which resulted in forty arrests.

There were numerous complaints that the police were too heavy handed. Many streets were blocked off and protesters reported feeling hemmed in and scared. By the end of the day, police reported that there had been roughly 275 arrests; organisers dispute this number, claiming that there were 348 arrests. The local Independent Media Center produced a short video claiming to show inappropriate and violent police behaviour, including backing horses into demonstrators, shoving people into the metal barricades, spraying a toxic substance at penned-in demonstrators, using abusive language, and raising nightsticks against some who couldn't move. However, NYPD spokesman Michael O'Looney denied the charges claiming that the tape was "filled with special effects" and that it did not prove the police had not been provoked.

A CNN journalist reported that the crowd was diverse, including "older men and women in fur coats, parents with young children, military veterans and veterans of the anti-war movement."

Other U.S. cities
60 - 200 thousand protesters of all ages demonstrated in San Francisco, (accounts vary as to the total number present)

At a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, 50,000 (WSWS estimate to 60,000 (GLW estimate) protesters (CNN said "thousands") marched down Hollywood Boulevard filling it for four blocks. Amongst the protesters were the actors Martin Sheen and Mike Farrell and director Rob Reiner. Martin Sheen, who at the time was playing a fictitious U.S. president in The West Wing, said that "None of us can stop this war ... there is only one guy that can do that and he lives in the White House."

Other activists in California originally planned to hold a protest in San Francisco on the Saturday but they changed to the Sunday in order not to conflict with the city's Chinese New Year's parade. The protest was held on Sunday February 16. One BBC estimate put the crowd at 150,000 people, while protest organisers and police agreed that the crowd count was 200,000 people. However, a San Francisco Chronicle photographic investigation estimated that the number in attendance at the peak period was closer to 65,000 people, although it did not state how many people were in attendance for the duration of the demonstration. This dispute highlights the continuing debate over the accuracy of crowd estimates in large public demonstrations.

There was some controversy over Rabbi Michael Lerner not being selected as a speaker for the rally at the end of the demonstration. Lerner claimed that he was not picked to speak for reasons of anti-semitism due to his support for the existence of the Israeli state. The organisers responded with a statement that he was not picked because of an arrangement between the groups that organised the demonstration that there would be no speakers that had publicly attacked any other anti-war group and that "since he had publicly attacked A.N.S.W.E.R. in both the New York Times and Tikkun community email newsletters, his inclusion in the program would violate [this] agreement." They also noted that two rabbis with views similar to those of Michael Lerner would be speaking.

In Colorado Springs, 4,000 protesters were dispersed with pepper spray, tear gas, stun guns and batons. 34 were arrested on failure to disperse and other charges and at least two protesters had to have hospital treatment.

In Seattle organisers aimed to have 20 to 30 thousand people join a march from Seattle Center following a giant blue planet, the emblem adopted by the march organisers. On the day 50,000 people (GLW estimate) turned out to protest under the dual slogan "Stop the war on Iraq; Stop the war on immigrants", more than on the Seattle protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999.

Demonstrations also took place in Philadelphia, where thousands (CNN estimate) joined a march to the Liberty Bell, and in Chicago where 10,000 people demonstrated (GLW estimate).

In Florida a small number of protesters staged a naked protest on Palm Beach. They initially had some problems getting permission for the action, but on the Thursday before, a U.S. District court ruled that the planned nude protest was legal at the public beach. Most of the attendees had come from the four-day Mid-Winter Naturist Festival that was taking place at the same time. There was also a demonstration of 900 people (USA Today estimate) on the island of Puerto Rico.

[jfuh]

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

At least they did come out. Unlike the other side who apparently weren't as angry with 8 years of Bush as the media would have us believe.

The otherside came out often during the Bush years.
The variation is that the other side did not have faux news promoting the events. Teabagger mantra, Obama is a socialist that is taxing enough already. Interesting given the fact that Obama has not increased taxes minus those at the top of the income pinnacle - to which I highly doubt any of these morons are.

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

A combination of frustration with Bush and the changes in congress and the white house tipped the scales for many folks.

This teaparty crowd that gave Palin center stage today? Hardly, it was only the change at the white house from republican to democrat that pissed these racists off.

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

Don't forget that a good many republicans had already turned their backs on their own party before Obama won.

Nevertheless the safe reds stayed.

Originally Posted by MississippiMud

The initial feeling I had from the movement was anger at government in general. Sadly the dems/liberals were intimidated by idiots like Beck and have stayed away.

When teabaggers were bitching about birth certificate conspiracies and socialist government?
Tea party - taxed enough already party? I think indeed that I am taxed quite some what but nothing has changed since Clinton in the taxes that I have to pay to get me rallied up and bitching. I'm not the uber rich.

[Helz]

Y'all are scared, aren't ya?

I went to a Tea Party last July 4th just to see what it was all about. The people there were really cool and not at all what I expected. After walking around and talking to people I was really surprised at just who was actually there... doctors, lawyers, military veterans, school teachers, moms, dads, grandparents, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, etc. Just a lot of ordinary people who seemed genuinely concerned about the way the country is declining. No one was talking about being from any particular political party... actually, if anything, they seemed to have equal contempt for both parties.

But, keep trying to marginalize them like Pelosi and Obama did since it worked out so well for them.

Face it, Libs, your ideology is a minority in this great country. The last statistic I saw held you folks at around 20% of Americans, and that is probably being very generous. You can take heart that you probably still outnumber the Tea Party people, though.

For now.