BBC: Tea Party remains movement with a mission (Tea Party Summit in Phoenix)

[pampango]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12599957


Anti-Obama sentiment was abundant at the first annual Tea Party Policy Summit in Arizona

Two years ago, the Tea Party movement launched itself, noisily, onto the political stage. By last November, it could take credit for helping to determine the composition of the new US Congress. But at the first annual Tea Party Policy summit in Arizona, there was no sign of complacency.

The Tea Party Patriots, which organised this get-together of more than 2,000 activists (with another 1,500 joining on line), is the largest of the disparate groups that exist under the broad banner of the Tea Party movement."We're really digging deep into the issues," said co-founder Jenny Beth Martin, during the three day event that included breakout sessions on hot button issues like the debt ceiling ("Opportunities, Options and Action), immigration and healthcare reform.

But along with the perception of danger, waves of patriotic nostalgia wash over the summit. American exceptionalism - the belief that this is a country unlike any other, uniquely worth preserving - is deeply rooted here. Some people even chose to wear it.

The suspicion that Republicans, even members of the so-called Tea Party caucus, don't have the stomach for a really brutal assault on government spending, is one that stalked the halls here."Most people realise that the budget isn't going to be balanced for years and years to come," he (Ron Paul) told the BBC. "Nobody talks about what they have to talk about, and that is rejecting the notion that you can have endless welfare, from cradle to grave and endless support for an American empire around the world. You just can't do it."

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Gee, wonder how many Teabaggers there get some type of govt money?

[Javaman]

2. They're a movement alright.

:rofl: