so.. think the Tea Party is a flash in the pan?

[w8liftinglady]

There are over 200 Tea party groups in Texas alone
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/state/Texas#Paris

If you are curious, you can look your state up here

http://www.teapartypatriots.org/allgroups.aspx

Good luck, 99%ers! Keep the message strong!

[a kennedy]

1. Holy crap......

:wow: :wow: :wow:

[creon]

2. They are not gone

The 'tea party' has never been a flash in the pan.
The tea party is the RW of the GOP. This faction has been here from the beginning. It has been known by different names in different times.

[JoePhilly]

4. Exactly .... the GOP leadership and Faux News riles them up when needed ,,, and then ...

stops covering them if they start to get too engaged.

The idea is to keep the right wing crazies in a state of "low boil", so that its easy to turn up the heat quickly, as needed.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Once upon a time, they were the Know Nothings

The more things change, the more...

[pampango]

16. Great comparison. The Know Nothings grew quickly, had one good off-year election (1854)

then flamed out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

"Legacy

The nativist spirit of the Know Nothing movement was revived in later political movements, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the American Protective Association... George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign was said by Time to be under the "neo-Know Nothing banner". Editor Fareed Zakaria has said that politicians who "encouraged Americans to fear foreigners" were becoming "modern incarnations of the Know-Nothings".

[SpiralHawk]

17. The Know-Nothing TeaBaggers will be enfeebled

as their Billionaire Puppetmasters (R) shitcan them in favor of other occult means to obtain their anti-democratic goals.

[creon]

27. Yes

They were known as the 'know nothings'. The Southern part of them voted Democrat after the Civil War; some were KKK; some were 'White Citizens Council'.

The people are born and die. But, the attitudes remain with us.

[RoccoR5955]

3. I still think that they are a flash in the pan.

As the lobbyists who are funding them find that they are not getting results, they will bail on it.

[ThomWV]

9. Yep, and you're right on the other part too.

The only thing you got wrong was using the past tense. Its not that the money will abandon them, the money already has abandoned them. You don't see the big leased busses bringing them in these days and very very few of them will show up without someone else footing the bill and making it a fun day.

[Johonny]

20. I agree

They are just the rebranding of the Christian right from the 90s. No doubt they will get rebranded once again to get the same people once again to vote against themselves. There's now a clear cycle for these people.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. The Tea Party has been overshadowed

by the Occupy movement. The TeaKlanners are not going away because the MSM has been kind enough to give them power via publicity (well, them, the Koch brothers, Dick Armey and the Republican Party as well) but they'll ultimately have no long-term nor global affect. Their ignorance, racism and advocacy for the 1% did them in.

On edit: Corrected spelling and anyone know how I turn on DU's spellcheck PM me. Thanks. (Carry on)

[tanyev]

7. I picked one at random and their website hadn't been updated since June 2010.

Just because they got themself listed doesn't mean they're much of a group.

[Greybnk48]

23. Yes. I just found the same thing and posted it further down.

Fox Valley Initiative (WI) has no members and only one person posting.

[butterfly77]

8. They have infiltrated the OWS movement...

to sow seeds of doubts but,it won't work because...WE ARE LIVING IT TEABAGGERS!!!

[WCGreen]

10. Creation of the lobbying arm of the GOP....

A lot of ego driven web sites based on the ravings of one or two posters...

[Bosso 63]

11. There will always be a "brown shirt" reactionary element ,

but the OWS has already changed the conversation, and in my opinion this is just the beginning.
The Tea party is a flash in the pan in the sense that they will not have much to show for their efforts, because they are spewing a re-branded version of the same right wing crap we've heard for years.
The Left acts and the Right reacts.

[occupyeverywhere]

12. This is weird - Tea Party supporting Whole Foods

http://www.teapartypatriots.org/GroupNew/07893c4a-f39c-4d53-ba8b-20d273947694/BUY_COTT_-_Whole_Foods,_Reston_VA_Labor_Day

I've always been suspicious of Whole Foods.

[Zorra]

26. Here's why: (It was founded by a disciple of Ayn Rand)

Libertarian

In a debate in Reason magazine among Mackey, Milton Friedman, and T. J. Rodgers, Mackey said that he is a free market libertarian.<11> He said that he used to be a "democratic socialist" in college. As a beginning businessman he was challenged by workers for not paying adequate wages and by customers for overcharging, during a time when he was hardly breaking even. He began to take a more capitalistic worldview, and discovered the works of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Friedman.<12> Mackey is an admirer of author Ayn Rand.<13>

Mackey co-founded the organization, Freedom Lights Our World (FLOW, to combine his commitments to "economic and political freedom as well as personal growth, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship." <14> He supports such changes as green tax shifts, environmental trusts, world legal systems to allow the poor to create legal businesses, and a citizen's dividend to help the poor in the developed world.<15>
Healthcare reform

Mackey opposed the public health insurance option that ultimately did not become part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Mackey thinks a better plan would be allowing consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines and use a combination of health savings accounts and catastrophic insurance, as Whole Foods does.<16> Mackey's statement that Americans do not have an intrinsic right to healthcare led to calls for a boycott of Whole Foods Market from the Progressive Review and from numerous groups on Facebook.<17>
Unions

John Mackey is known for his strong anti-union views, having once compared unions to herpes in that "it won't kill you, but it's very unpleasant and will make a lot of people not want to be your lover." Whole Foods, along with Costco and Starbucks, teamed up in 2008 to attempt to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mackey_%28businessman%29

[LynneSin]

13. Oh sure there are plenty of groups. But are they doing anything other than a weekend gathering?

Just curious!

[dtexdem]

14. Well, there was the initial flash in that pan.

Now, the teabaggers are held in reserve for when the monied interests decide to trot them out again.

[zbdent]

15. isn't it amazing that their "strength" is that they're not "one central group"

and the "weakness" of the OWS is that it's not "one central group"?

(at least, according to the interviews of RWers I've heard ... they always point out that the OWS movement has problems because it's not one specific, centralized group ... but the TPers are a "grass-roots" movement ... despite the fact that, if it weren't for Faux pushing them down the "liberally-biased media's" throats to the point where THEY HAD TO BE COVERED, the movement would not be anywhere near where they are today ...)

[Jack Sprat]

18. Just viewed a family member on 1 of the sites..kid you not.

Picture on the site. No mistaking it. I can give you some background on this particular relation (non-blood in-law grateful to say). The couple has always lived comfortably from a private business. Never hire anyone. Just employ own children. Made 6 figure income but never saved for retirement. They have always spent freely and never lacked for anything, yet have nothing beyond social security to retire on. Thus, they cannot retire. Always enjoyed new homes, new cars, private schools for kids, vacation travel, etc. They have hated the government for as long as I can remember, mostly hating all taxes which they blame for keeping them from retiring in the lifestyle they're accustomed to. Always extreme rightwing repubs. Can't talk to them about politics AT ALL...or it's a huge shout-a-rama.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. Can't speak to Texas, but I clicked on a few local Oregon 'groups'

One 'group' is a guy moving from one area to another. Joining a 'group' that is hoping to elect Art Robinson, a candidate so crazy that last election, there was a vocal, visible group of Republicans opposing him and supporting DeFazio by default.
So long lists of 'groups' that may be 'me and my uncle' or 'the political people at the Baptist Church' does not make for anything but a long list.

[Greybnk48]

21. The Fox Valley Initiative (Tea Party) has no members?!

There's a website and they are counted as a group. There's only one person posting (something Murphy), and under members, nada. I wonder how many of these groups are like this?

[yellowcanine]

22. Most are Republican activists in tea bag clothing so no they are not going away.

I don't have any reason to think otherwise.

[Jack Sprat]

24. Yes, because if you know any personally

then you also are aware that they were repubs long before they became baggers too.

[yellowcanine]

25. And the other question is - is it a Tea Party Group or a Church?

Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

http://technorati.com/politics/article/tea-party-or-church-social/