Are the Tea Parties an Independent Movement?
Posted by Al @ 9:36 pmJul 4
They surely were, at some point. Don’t get me wrong. I think the idea of public protest against a fiscally inept Federal Government, especially congress, is a necessity as a wake up call to all wasteful governments and an apathetic public. The Tea Parties, unfortunately, have a become the new pulpit that the Republican party is using to bash the Democrats and Obama, and perpetuate the divisiveness amongst the American public that’s created by the (D) and (R) parties in the first place. Yes there is a problem with the (D) and Obama, but the same applies to majority of (R) leadership as well.
What do I mean by stating the Tea Party movement has been taken over by the (R) party. I’m not even going to include the current politicians who are using them to woo voters for the next election cycle and make up for for the past wrongs they’ve committed against their constituents. The biggest financial supporter and promoter of the Tea Parties is American for Prosperity
American for Prosperity is primarily funded through Koch Family Foundations. The company is owned by two of the richest men in America,” David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch, who’s personal fortune estimated at more than $3 billion and who have emerged as major Republican contributors .
And while the Koch Foundation is a non-profit and donates primarily to purported Libertarian non-profits, these libertarian non-profits are also donated to by some of the biggest corporations in America that support both (D) and (R). Many of the members and current and former directors of Americans for Prosperity are/were employed by the Koch Corp.(the for profit side).
Their first President was Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer
-former senior and chief economist at the Republican National Committee
-directed the Washington Office of Koch Industries
-served in the Bush administration in the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women
If you keep going through the bios of members and directors, you find so many ties to the (R) party. So my point here is, since the Tea Parties have been hijacked by the (R) party, even though it wasn’t supposed to be, it has become target for the (D) controlled media and will be marginalized. This of course runs counter of the movement’s purpose, which was to give all voters the chance to assemble in demonstration to show the disgust of both major political parties.
What to do about? My only answer is to try to form as independents for independence and make it absolutely clear both major political parties are the subject of our anger. Continue to educate the public about the left/right paradigm created by the political party illusion.
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Comment by Scott on July 6, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Good points made by all in this thread.
One thing that I've noticed is than many organizers of the Tea Parties are making use of a website called..
http://teapartynexus.com/
It seems that if someone is interested in organizing a Tea Party, they can contact the folks at teapartynexus.com and they will provide the organizer with a professional looking website, at no cost.
I can't seem to find out any information about the folks at teapartynexus.com. Their website is very vague in terms of who exactly they are.
A whois lookup shows the web design company is actually the owner/registrar of the domain name teapartynexus.com.
This is a odd because the web design company is not normally the same as the domain name owner (registrant) of a website, which makes this a dead end lead. I think we can be sure that Stadia Studio is not footing the bill for this.
So, the question arises as to who exactly is footing the bill for this. I can't find any information relating to this and would ask that you take a little time and help me track down this info. Or, if anyone reading this post happens to know the answer, some enlightenment would be appreciated.
Comment by Travieso on July 5, 2009 at 6:50 pm
It is a good thing that you are looking behind the scenes and finding out who is back there with money. Surely, money buys influence. Definitely something to be aware of.
Would tend to agree with Scott's points though, that we are trying to move politicians in a direction, and that TEA parties are a vehicle to do that.
It would be nearly impossible to keep the TEA parties as 'pure' as you describe. Anyone can join, or claim to join, and then what happens to your purity? Regarding the TEA movement being bad mouthed by the media, it doesn't make any difference WHO criticizes Obama, the media will attack them. So 'purity' wouldn't really be an advantage, from that standpoint.
Don't know that it is possible to gather enough folk together of the 'right' philosophy, to effect change. Probably have a heck of a time getting 10 people to even agree what it was. It might be that the best we can do is to gather enough folk dissatisfied with this general direction to halt or modify it.
Baby steps, but being too exclusive might just lead to endless debate, with no action. And we desperately need action.
Comment by Scott on July 5, 2009 at 3:20 am
I guess I don't really get that mentality. The whole point of a grass roots movement is to move politicians toward a specific point of view. The fact that politicians are signing on to this point of view is a good thing and it's actually the goal every grass roots movement seeks to achieve.
The point of the tea parties is Taxed Enough Already so when a politician steps up to the plate and agrees, it's a victory for the movement.
Using your logic, if a group who wishes to discredit a movement can simply “support” it and render it tainted (or perceived to be tainted) , then that's exactly what they will do.
If the GOP, Dems, Libertarians, Independents or anyone else wants to organize a rally that supports the Taxed Enough Already movement, then I see that as a sign the movement is working and politicians are listening.
It almost sounds like you have another agenda aside from the Taxed Enough Already movement. If the agenda to promote a 3rd party/Independent party and sweep out the Dems and GOP, I can support that but that's not what the TEA party movement is all about. I'm interested in moving politicians of all stripes toward my point of view on taxes and big government so any politician who wants to come onboard is welcome. I don't want to exclude anyone because of their current party affiliation.
Using your argument, there is just as much of an opportunity for a 3rd party to “co-op” or “hijack” the TEA party movement for their political gain, as there is for an existing party to do so.
If a 3rd party grows up out of this movement, that would be great but it's not the ultimate goal of the movement. More likely than not, we will have to rely on those in the existing two major parties to come onboard if we ever want this to happen.
Otherwise, we just consider it to be tainted or discredited and go back to business as usual, with the movement failing. Just because some in the GOP decide to organize a rally, doesn't mean the movement is tainted or discredited in any way. On the contrary, one could argue that it's working if they do that.
Comment by Al on July 5, 2009 at 1:48 am
All it takes the smallest bit of support from any questionable source and it taints the entire message/movement. I know this consistent and grassroots citizens' protest movement is nothing like we have seen seen in some time.
The media (corp. Amerika) is scared and they will use anything to discredit this great movement. We will keep fighting for it's prosperity and longevity. You know, as I, most of America buys the MSM/Hollywood BS and until more sheep wake up, the media will continue to, albeit desperately, control and taint the perception of these protests as to keep our numbers from growing.
I don't have any problem of a politician from any political party speaking or making a presence if he's speaking out against government abuse, including those from both party affiliations. Otherwise, the message and movement is being used by hypocrites to further their own personal gain and hurts the cause.
I guess it would be nice for some independent candidates to use these rallies for announcement of their candidacy.
Comment by Scott on July 5, 2009 at 1:03 am
I don't agree at all. Perhaps some are organized as you suggest but the vast majority are organized by regular folks.
The tea party in Columbia was organized by the SC fair tax peeps.
There were speakers there from various political parties and affiliations. There wasn't much mention of political parties, save equal amounts of criticism directed toward both the GOP and Dems, as well as plenty of criticism toward the direction our government has moved.
I'm sure the media and those in power would like everyone to believe that all the tea parties are organized by “corrupt money”, or hijacked by the GOP, or attended by racist “teabaggers”. They want to see the Taxed Enough Already rallies disappear so they perpetuate this kind of narrative to disenfranchise those who would attend.
It must be true because that's what Pelosi said. You know, “AstroTurf”. We also heard the same thing on MSNBC, CNN and all the other lame-stream media outlets.
I'm not buying into that nonsense because I know better.
I personally don't care who speaks at these rallies. As long the politicians who do choose to speak are walking the walk, I could care less about what letter they have by their name.
Comment by Al on July 4, 2009 at 10:47 pm
We are a persistent bunch and I think this is just a bump in the road. Even though America has become a nation of self-serving, zombified, immoral, sheepe (baaaaaaaaaaaa), I see more and more people connecting the dots and coming around.
I would still like to think more people are waking to up to all the well-connected gov't fraud through the 501(c) system, but its very deep and it's where the power is. These non profit octupi are attached to every governmental dept and politican, then dictate U.S. public policy and finance behind closed doors. Their tentacles are wrapped very tight around all the taxpayer honeypots. Follow the money!
Comment by Arch Dixon on July 4, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Well done and well said.
Tea Parties have been hijacked by the same corrupt money that has caused the problems.