The Tea Party Is More Corrupt Than The Government It Opposes

[applegrove]

The Tea Party Is More Corrupt Than The Government It Opposes

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/tea-party-corrupt-government-opposes/

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Earlier this year, Alexis Levinson reported that other Tea Party groups, that had raised millions, spent up to 80 percent of their money on operations, salaries, consultant fees, and mailing list companies, many of which were owned by the people who ran the groups themselves. If this sounds familiar, Rick Scott did something similar with channeling drug-testing money to his wife’s company in Florida. The Tea Party has essentially become a landlord class; its lordship is over the truly-felt convictions of others.

There is nothing new about this; it’s been going on for years. The Tea Party gained traction in an environment on the right defined by massive resentment and fear directed at the Obama presidency, disgust at the bailouts of the Bush and Obama eras, and the disillusioned wreckage of a Republican electoral defeat. All of this, combined with funding and organizing from major conservative forces like the Kochs and big industry, was an environment especially conducive to the growth of parasite groups like the Tea Party Express. In February of 2010, we had a “Tea Party Convention” here in Nashville, hosted by the for-profit group Tea Party Nation. Its leader, Juddson Phillips, left his job as a lawyer to draw a salary from the group. Tickets for this grassroots uprising cost more than $500. The motive behind it was transforming the organizers into richer men and political kingmakers in the state.

People who give themselves to full-time political activism deserve some recompense for their work and expertise. It’s a rare (and generally independently rich) individual who can get by without getting paid for their work. And, of course, even the most populist of political movements will attract, and may even require, leadership from outside professional sources. After all, even bands who scorn the business world require “suits” to handle their business affairs and pay for the soon-to-be-destroyed hotel room. People, to use the modern vernacular, gots to get paid.

But there is something especially galling about the level of self-enrichment and deception at the head of the Tea Party movement, particularly because the movement started as a disgusted response to the self-enrichment and deception in Washington… and unlike with our government in Washington, there are no elections to stand for and no recalls for Tea Party group leadership. Unlike our representatives, these people are responsible to no one, and have zero checks on their behavior, unlike our government - See more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/tea-party-corrupt-government-opposes/#sthash.gBgSzn1E.dpuf



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[HooptieWagon]

1. I don't have a problem with teabagging grifters.

If people are dumb enough to send them money, well... a fool and his money are soon parted. And far better the Tea Party leaders enrich themselves, than to spend the money getting their candidates elected.

[starroute]

2. It's been going on like that since the 1970s

Just google on direct-mail fundraising scams. It used to be mainly about Social Security or the homosexual agenda -- nowadays it's primarily tea party groups. And the sad part is that the grifters are getting rich while the little old ladies are being ripped of.