Media unable to voice what Tea Party really is

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/sarah-palin-will-headline-first-ever-tea-party-convention/blog-233159/

Almost 1-1/2 years since she shook up American politics with her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is set to headline another landmark political event: the first-ever Tea Party Convention next month in Nashville, Tenn.

On its face, the gig would seem a step down for Ms. Palin, one of conservative America’s most popular and polarizing figures (not to mention major thorn in the side of the Obama White House).

But with an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll ranking a generic “Tea Party” as more popular than either Democrats or Republicans, and Palin herself rivaling the charming Mr. Obama in poll popularity, many experts see the Tea Party event as a potential milestone for a mounting, even transformational, force in US politics.

“[W]ith two wars, a continuing terror threat, huge federal deficits, and a major healthcare overhaul in the works, there is no shortage of disaffection out there … and that could prove to be political dynamite,” writes the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. Against that backdrop, writes Mr. Kurtz, “The tea types can either blossom into a Perotista-style third-party movement or be subsumed to some degree by the GOP.”
Can the Tea Party movement unify itself?

Indeed, the Nashville event is not about chartering a new political party to represent conservative ideals like low taxes and states’ rights, but more about unifying to take on “Obama, Pelosi and Reid this year,” writes Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation, one of many Tea Party groups and the lead sponsor of a convention that will feature conservative firebrands such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota.

Already, tea-colored races are appearing around the country, including the looming matchup between Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (seen as Republican Lite by many conservatives) and Cuban-American conservative Marco Rubio, who has gotten the stamp of approval by Tea Party folks.

But courting what many call a fringe and inchoate movement carries huge risks, argues Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, in Atlanta.
He says a Republican shift toward the Reaganesque Tea Party ideal could lead to a sort of pogrom for moderate Republicans, forcing out those (think Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe) who don’t hew precisely to rock-hard conservative principles around economic freedom and limited government interference.

“The Republican Party is trapped by their base, which is going increasingly conservative,” says Mr. Abramowitz. “Yes, Republicans can do fairly well in the 2010 elections – it’s entirely possible that they could pick up 20 to 30 seats in the House – but they could read the wrong message from that. In 2012, if the economy is doing reasonably well again and Obama’s popularity has stabilized, that strategy is going to be very risky and this could all come back to haunt them.”
Democrats will target Palin and Tea Partiers

Solidly behind that assessment, Democrats are aiming to vilify the rising Tea Party movement as woefully old-school and out of touch. “Labeling their GOP candidates as being part of the Sarah Palin or Tea Party wing of the GOP will be the key element” of Democratic attacks in 2010, writes John Fund in The Wall Street Journal.
But if the Tea Party movement stays largely independent and uses its grass-roots network to help swing contested elections, other analysts say, Democrats may want to reconsider that tack and try to tap into a movement that has quickly gone from liberal laughingstock to what New York Times columnist David Brooks grudgingly calls “a major force in American politics.”

“Looks like both grand parties will have to court the tea party supporters because many of them are independents from the purple states,” writes Ellie Velinska at RightPundits.
Now enter Palin. The former Alaska governor has already expressed her simpatico feelings for the Tea Party movement, and her high-profile presence and Facebook-touted preferences for the individual over the collective will help guarantee that eyes and ears will focus on Nashville next month.

Agreeing to appear at a major Tea Party event also gives Palin a larger platform to criticize the president and Congress, and it guarantees news coverage, potentially building momentum for a future campaign.
“This is perfect for her, made for her,” says Abramowitz

Edit: This is an e-mail that I received from the Tea Party Nation this morning 1/30/2009

Setting The Record Straight

by Sherry Phillips

Judson and I have stayed silent in the face of intense media scrutiny and attacks by former members. As a wife and a mother, I have stood by my husband and family and stayed strong in the face of many baseless accusations and criticism. We have refrained from responding to many of the attacks that have been thrown at us from other "Tea Party" groups, in the belief we did not want to spread the divisions that are already hurting this movement even though that does not seem to be the consideration of some others involved in this movement. Because of the many TPN members' requests and encouragement, I have decided to provide comment about Tea Party Nation and the National Tea Party Convention. We will stay silent no longer. I hope my comments and the issues I deal with in this note will provide some clarity.

American Liberty Alliance - Eric Odom's American Liberty Alliance is a for profit company that takes donations. We agreed to a sponsorship exchange where ALA would be a gold sponsor of the convention and we would be a gold sponsor of the Tax Day Tea Party. Shortly after agreeing to this exchange, Eric emailed Judson and me privately saying he was
supportive of us and this convention and did not want to pull out, because he thinks this convention is going to be a huge success; however, some his "influential supporters" were not happy about ALA's participation in the convention and asked Eric to withdraw.

American Majority - After stating in the beginning they wanted to co-sponsor the convention, they never answered repeated emails sent asking them for confirmation of their attendance. They did not promote the convention and did not put the convention on their calendar. In fact Ned Ryun spent 5 minutes in an interview on Fox News talking about the Tea Party movement and did not mention the convention at all. Meanwhile, another training organization contacted us asking if they could become a sponsor and if they could do a breakout session. We gladly accepted and gave them American Majority's spots. On January 6, Ned's assistant sent an email stating she was making travel arrangements for them to come and participate in the convention and asked when did we have their breakouts scheduled. I told her because of their non-response, we gave American Majority's slots to this other organization. They then requested that their logo be removed from the Convention website. We complied with their request.

Tea Party Express - This group has been very supportive of us. They intended to do a small tour, culminating in an event Saturday afternoon prior to the banquet. Because of their efforts in the Scott Brown race and their intent to go after Harry Reid in Nevada, they simply cannot make the trip. We received a very nice email from them explaining their actions and restating their invitation to join them when they kick off their next tour in March. We will be there. We fully support their endeavors as they open their next tour in Nevada this spring.

Campaign for Liberty - We actively sought out Campaign for Liberty as a sponsor of this convention. We were contacted several weeks ago by the TN Director for CFL who wanted to co-sponsor the convention and I put him in touch with our Sponsorship Chair. We have not heard anything from them since.

Former Tea Party Nation Members - Several former members were unanimously banned from our site for reasons running the gamut from antagonism to passing on confidential information. These members have been blogging, as well as discussing their association with liberal media outlets and conspiring with each other to, "Take TPN and this convention
down".

In one of their more egregious statements a former member wrote that Judson stated, "I want to make a million dollars from this movement." Judson has never made this statement. He has stated on numerous occasions that he would like TPN to have a million members all fighting for the cause of conservatism!

Bill Hemrick - Mr. Hemrick made a business loan to Tea Party Nation at a commercial interest rate. This loan has been paid back in full. That is the full extent of any relationship we have had with Mr. Hemrick.

Congressmen Bachmann and Blackburn - Both Congresswomen have large targets on their backs and are rightfully concerned about backlash they will receive from the left-leaning Democrat controlled House Ethics Committee. Because of the complexity of the Ethics Code regarding House Representatives, we have no doubt the Democrats would have found something in that code to cause them problems once the convention was over. We were also informed by Rep. Bachmann that both were being told two different things by the House Ethics Committee in regard to their participation. This of course sent up red flags to everyone involved. We do not blame either Congressman for their decision to withdraw from the convention and maintain a strong relationship with them both.

Tea Party Nation - Last February after Judson held one of the first tea parties in the country in downtown Nashville, he came up with the idea for a social networking site for conservatives. Judson and I created Tea Party Nation. We formed the corporation. We financed the corporation. We bought the domain name teapartynation.com
, we purchased the servers and we pay for the monthly expenses. We are a C-Corp and do not accept donations. Tea Party Nation charges nothing to be a member and is run entirely by volunteers. Recently, we have been able to start charging for advertising on the site to help defray the costs of running the site.

As TPN has stated since its formation, we are not a non-profit. We prefer to offer free membership to conservative patriots so they may participate in the political process of restoring this nation to its founding principles without financial burdens, hardships or roadblocks to prevent their participation. Members are then able to choose their own way to spend their money without any involvement from TPN.

PayPal Account - We are using a business PayPal account for the convention. An email address is required to notify a contact when payment is received and we are using my TPN email account at sherry@teapartynation.com as that notification email address. All money
in that account is transferred directly into the TPN business bank account.

We fully expect to break even during this event. We may even make a few thousand dollars to cover local operating costs of TPN. We have made the best of a tight budget and scaled back the price of attending this convention as much as we could without putting TPN into
bankruptcy. The convention is sold out and we have a waiting list of over five hundred people. We never did this to make us rich or famous. Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great event.

For all of you who will be attending, we look forward to meeting you this upcoming week and we thank everyone for the support and patriotism in this fight against liberalism. God bless you all and I thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.

Sigh.

The nooz keeps reporting the Tea Party to be some sort of hardline ultra-conservative group, looking to force their values on everyone else.  That they are the bedrock of the Republican Party, somehow.

Most tea-partiers I've come across are neither right nor left.  They are FAR more concerned with 10th amendment issues and too powerful of a Federal Government.  Some are rabid leftists, but they are States' Rights leftists.  They want direct control at home for any social programs they put in place.  I've yet to meet a tea-party rabid right wing neocon.  Or Obamite tea-partier neocomm.

Most are middle of the road folks that subscribe to the theory that the FedGov is a money pit that never fills in, that they want the deficit eliminated immediately, and the debt paid off in their lifetime so they don't hand it over to their grandchildren.  THAT is their issue.

[MicroBalrog]

And yet the Campaign For Liberty had apparently been denied presence at the event.

[Perd Hapley]

I've yet to meet a tea-party rabid right wing neocon....Most are middle of the road folks

The Tea Parties are very much a reaction against middle-of-the-road, neo-con Republicanism.  I think you may be confused. 

[AZRedhawk44]

The Tea Parties are very much a reaction against middle-of-the-road, neo-con Republicanism.  I think you may be confused. 

The core of the Tea Party axis that I see is a reduction in federal power and spending.

Neo-cons love to build that up.

From a left/right perspective I've seen strong religious "right wingers" and social tax/spend "left wingers" meet at Tea Party events.  Their common goal?  "FedGuv, leave us the hell alone!"

I fail to see how neo-cons are middle of the road.

I see RINO's as middle of the road, sure.

But Tea Party transcends left/right.  It brings in the missing axis of politics:  up/down, statism/individualism.

[MicroBalrog]

I fail to see how neo-cons are middle of the road.

I see RINO's as middle of the road, sure.

RINOs love neocon ideology, though, because this rhetoric gives them cover.

[Perd Hapley]

I fail to see how neo-cons are middle of the road.

I see RINO's as middle of the road, sure.

Pretty much the same group.  The neo-con believes in a strong (perhaps too strong) national defense, but is not strongly committed to the ideals of either left or right.  Hence, middle of the road.

It seems you view "middle of the road" as a positive, and "far right" as a negative.  My view is the opposite.  I view the Tea Parties as a far right movement, which is why I joined it.  If they're in the middle of the road, I have no use for them. 

[Monkeyleg]

I see the tea party movement as too loose-knit to have a real ideological core. There are people who are conservative, moderate or even liberal on some issues but vice versa on others.

That's a blessing and a curse.

[Waitone]

The Tea Party movement is viable as long as it is a pox on both establishment parties. 

[Standing Wolf]

...Tea Party transcends left/right.  It brings in the missing axis of politics:  up/down, statism/individualism.

Amen!

The Tea Party movement is viable as long as it is a pox on both establishment parties.

Amen again!

Never minding I'm a lifelong tea rather than coffee drinker, I have two doubts: 1.) the name "Tea Party" can be taken seriously by the vast majority of coffee drinking Americans, and 2.) the Democans and Republicrats won't find or concoct so-called "legal" ways to subvert the emergence of a second party. No, I didn't mean to write "third party." We're a nation in desperate need of a second party—or better still, ten or twelve fiercely contentious, clearly differentiated political parties.

[azmjs]

Putting Sarah "the quitter" Palin at the *derogatory term deleted* convention makes the *derogatory term deleted* movement into the Sarah Palin movement in the eyes of anyone who isn't already a *derogatory term deleted*.

Sarah Palin is loathed by a lot of people as the worst kind of republican. Might as well have George W Bush run for a 3rd term.

[Monkeyleg]

Oh, you're going to be downright popular here.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Calling it the "*derogatory term deleted*" movement is an easy way to lose any credibility you might have on the subject.

 

[MicroBalrog]

Putting Sarah "the quitter" Palin at the *derogatory term deleted* convention makes the *derogatory term deleted* movement into the Sarah Palin movement in the eyes of anyone who isn't already a *derogatory term deleted*.

Sarah Palin is loathed by a lot of people as the worst kind of republican. Might as well have George W Bush run for a 3rd term.

Who are these magical people?

IME, most of the people who hate Palin wouldn't vote for Republicans anyway.

[freakazoid]

IME,...

Institute of Makers of Explosives? http://www.ime.org/  

[taurusowner]

Putting Sarah "the quitter" Palin at the *derogatory term deleted* convention makes the *derogatory term deleted* movement into the Sarah Palin movement in the eyes of anyone who isn't already a *derogatory term deleted*.

Sarah Palin is loathed by a lot of people as the worst kind of republican. Might as well have George W Bush run for a 3rd term.

That's a bold thing to say with your first and only post.  Regardless, welcome to APS.  You'll find the conversation to be generally pleasant and free of ranting and insults.  But we also like to have statements backed up by fact.  I don't mean to come off rude, as it is nice to see new people from time to time.  So truly, welcome.  I do hope you elaborate on your previous statement though.

[Scout26]

I think the Tea Party movement is merely the old Reagan Coaliation in search of a Leader:

The core of the Tea Party axis that I see is a reduction in federal power and spending.

Their common goal?  "FedGuv, leave us the hell alone!"

 

[longeyes]

The tea parties represent the silenced majority.  These are people who have learned they have no choice but to be politically active and aware lest they be steamrollered into serfdom.  Where this movement goes is less important right than that it goes.  Maybe it's really, at present, more about pushing back, showing a war face, scaring the bully statists.  Politics is animal behavior, and a cornered animal is dangerous.

[azmjs]

Calling it the "*derogatory term deleted*" movement is an easy way to lose any credibility you might have on the subject.

 

The first 'big thing' was sending tea bags to elected reps to have a 'tea party.'

They called it 'tea bagging' *giggle* *giggle* their reps.

I have always maintained that tea parties don't count unless you dress up like wild indians.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

No, haters and juveniles call it "teabagging" and them "*derogatory term deleted*".

I've learned that anyone who can't talk about tea parties without resorting to immature vulgarities probably doesn't have anything else worthwhile to say on the subject.  Perhaps you'll be able to prove me wrong, but I'm not betting on it.

[azmjs]

That's a bold thing to say with your first and only post.  Regardless, welcome to APS.  You'll find the conversation to be generally pleasant and free of ranting and insults.  But we also like to have statements backed up by fact.  I don't mean to come off rude, as it is nice to see new people from time to time.  So truly, welcome.  I do hope you elaborate on your previous statement though.

The Quitter is a litmus test for a lot of people, maybe not, I'll concede, to the same degree that Bush ended up being, but she still elicits strong reactions.

If the 'tea party' is really anything besides republicans discovering protest rallies, then it needs leaders who aren't big huge "R" republicans.

In any 3 way race between the teabag brigade, the republican party and the democratic party, the democrats will win hands down if the teabag crew is just disgruntled republicans.

Sarah Palin is, in terms of her political persona, right about on par with Sean Hannity.

[MicroBalrog]

The first 'big thing' was sending tea bags to elected reps to have a 'tea party.'

They called it 'tea bagging' *giggle* *giggle* their reps.

You mean: http://teabagcongress.com/ ?

[azmjs]

You mean: http://teabagcongress.com/ ?

A quick google search also turned up this:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/apr/14/nation/chi-talk-tea-partyapr14


And another article from back then:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/15/politics/main4946264.shtml

Another related link

http://teaparty.gop.com/

And about the tea bags at the inagural tea party

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5160655/Tea-parties-take-place-across-US-against-tax-increases.html



The moral of the story- lamebrain stunts stick with you.

Be it mailing people tea bags to "teabag" them for your "tea party" or quitting your job as governor so you can make bank signing books and giving speeches.

[Monkeyleg]

Has anyone seen Shootinstudent today?

[taurusowner]

Sarah Palin is, in terms of her political persona, right about on par with Sean Hannity.

Ummm...did you mean that as a negative thing?

[azmjs]

It is what it is.

Not going to pull any votes from the other side.

A right wing republican conservative media figure.

There's a reason those kind of people stay in the media.