Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention

Time ^ | February 8, 2010 | Jay Newton-Small

[2ndDivisionVet]

Things can get awkward when protesters have to put down their placards and tackle the business of building an organization — networking online and recruiting reliable volunteers, precinct captains and even candidates. The transition is even more uncomfortable when undertaken in the glare of the national media spotlight, as the national tea-party movement attempted to do at its first convention, held in Tennessee over the weekend.

As with any protest movement, consensus proved elusive in two days of debate, but they seemed to agree on five key points:

1. Don't Tread on Me

The tea-party folks are innately suspicious of any institutions. "Keep the change ... I'll keep my freedom, my guns and my money!" read a T-shirt for sale in the lobby. The very term national convention might imply the existence of a leadership, but the activists proudly insist that there is none. "I'm a facilitator; we don't have leaders," one lady told TIME when asked if she heads her local tea-party chapter. "We're all equal in this movement."

In a panel discussion on "Where the Tea Party Goes from Here," Memphis tea-party organizer and convention spokesman Mark Skoda urged delegates to raise the tone of their protests and to avoid unnecessary name-calling of elected officials, including Democrats. "Do not discount the fact that they are still Americans," Skoda said. "Have to have some empathy for that without degrading their noble desire to serve."

"But, wait," a woman in the audience piped up, sounding flabbergasted. "I agree with you, Mark, but some of these guys are a lost cause." Skoda quickly agreed that, indeed, many members of Congress had to go. "Do not ever believe that you are below anybody in elected office," he added.(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

Comments?

[Brugmansian]

Fair account. Time even mentioned Palin is putting her speaking fee back into the movement.

[SandRat]

 

[Blue Collar Christian]

I agree that we in the Tea Party movement need to keep focused on what I thought was the original intent; put in conservative representation where it has been lacking and remind this govt of ours that we are paying attention, and we want less govt control of our lives, not MORE.

[DGHoodini]

he Tea Party have two rulers, and the Dems can’t beat either one. The true leaders of the Tea Parry are the U.S. Constitution, and the American Way. Doesn’t matter that they don’t have a titular head.

Sarah Palin misspoke when she said that Republicans should be doing everything they can to “absorb” the Tea Partiers, into the Republican party....What they need to do is convince the Tea Partiers that they share Tea Party values, and will represent their values if the Tea Partiers decide to support them.

We are *Americans*. We will not submit to being *owned*
By a Party or by a Government. We are not like the Democrats who have been trying to convince everyone they should be owned and “Taken care of” “For their own good”, until they are no good to anybody any more.

[Al B.]

Fair account.

The author, Jay Newton-Small wrote the Time cover story when Palin resigned. She also has known and covered Palin since before she came on to the national stage.

She's as fair a writer as Time has when it comes to Palin.

[WVNan]

I do think that there needs to be one Tea Party web site where every group can go to transmit and receive information on events. There was a tea party right in my town and I didn’t even know about it and missed it. We need to stay independent, but we must communicate in order to be effective.

[Monorprise]

Ticket price was too high, and the idea of a signal national convention for a highly decentralized broad-based movement is a bit in conflict, they would have been better off calling it the national southern TEA party convention.

Could then hold several of them in all the different regions.

That being said it was a fair attempt at person to person meetings and contacts, and that in itself is commendable.