Posted on 04/05/2010 5:36:26 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
They heeded a pamphleteer's call for "manly opposition to the machinations of tyranny" — the 60 American colonists who stormed Griffin's Wharf and emptied 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. And with that, a revolution brewed.
Now, more than two centuries later, come the angry throngs of the modern-day tea party. They've gotten the nation's attention. Can they foment their own revolution?
Not yet.
The Associated Press reviewed tea party operations in almost every state, interviewing dozens of local organizers as well as Democratic and Republican strategists to produce a portrait of the movement to date — and its prospects for tilting this November's elections.
The bottom line:
Though amplifying widespread voter anger at the political establishment, the tea party movement is unlikely to dramatically affect the congressional elections — unless their local affiliates forge alliances with Republican candidates. And how likely is that? Republican operatives look at the possibility of GOP-tea party collaborations with some anxiety, and many tea party activists frankly don't want to see them.
Born of protest and populism, the United States is a nation of movements — people galvanized by causes, summoned with the latest technologies. But none of those causes — not abolition, women's votes, civil rights or anti-war — was certain to succeed in its first fateful steps, or even to leave a lasting mark.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Forging alliances with RINO candidates is one of the things which got us into this mess to begin with.
...I don’t expect the Tea Party to hold together...we don’t understand racial solidarity or class solidarity very well...OTOH Blacks/Union/Jewish/Felons/Illegals know how to stick together...they give the Dems a “hard 20%” of the vote and that Hard 20 is all you need to win.
...oops....forgot to include teachers and the academy in the Hard 20
These people who doubt our capacity for action are looking at us, gathered together as though for church, in our suits, and assuming that's all there is. If they dismiss us now, they will be in for an unpleasant surprise.
"Republican operatives" - by which is usually meant "party hacks who care more about keeping their perks than they do conservative ideology" - SHOULD be worried.
Tea Party activists who don't want any collaborations with anyone in the GOP, on the other hand, are idiots who need to get bent, because at that point, all they are doing is fragmenting conservativism, and acting like useful idiots to hand power to the Dems for a generation.
The obvious answer is TEApublicanism - combining the strength of the Tea Parties and conservatives within the GOP to drive out the RINOs and rebuild the conservative Reagan coalition.
I'm not interested in perpetuating the party hacks and their business as usual. But I'm also not interested in encouraging the TPers to fragment conservativism by being a bunch of self-righteous, holier-than-thou jerks going third party, either.
This was an AP story. Whatever they said you are better off not believing any of it.
AP = Always Propaganda!
All Dems and some Pubbie weanie's are in for a scorching in November. It is wishful thinking on their part to expect their actions to go unpunished.
Useless article.
I believe the Tea partiers came about in response to the wild swing to the left that the current gov’t is taking us.
No matter their party, dem, independent, moderate pubbies, they have to vote against the dems who are now controlled by the far left loons.
So are you the Tea Party voter the writer is talking about? The guy who will stay at home and let the country sink rather than vote for his perfect candidate?
I hope not.
What critics don’t seem to understand about the Tea Parties is that the “party” designation is not political, but rather a reflection of anger and uprising, like the original Boston Tea Party.
Most of us don’t want another organized political party. We just want to throw the bums out and vote in some new faces who may — at least for a while — listen to us.
Therefore, as a voting block, the Tea Parties may prove a very strong force in changing Congress come September, working from outside the established political parties. A magnificently democratic thing to do.
Except for those idealogues who sit home and pout and call every GOP candidate who doesn’t agree with them 100% a “RINO.”
Republicans know they are just as complicit as the Democrats in most cases and they understand that when the tipping does occur, they will be gone just as well as the Dems.
The GOP only cares about the Tea Party to the point that they hope to swipe some votes out of us.
Consider the source.
Well I have got the days counted until election day on my calender and I’ve never done that before. That tells me there is something different going on. 211 DAYS TO GO.
Repeal or Rebel!
The MSM is so arrogantly sure of their ability to control the populous. They along with the leaders of the GOP still don't get the whole Tea Party thing.
The GOP establishment is a big part of the problem. They are evil and need to be replaced. It won’t be easy or pretty.
Ron Fournier is an assclown, that is my analysis.
Widespread voter anger is demonstrated by the Tea Party.
And Ron Fournier, if he could pull his nose out of Obama’s bum for a breath of fresh air, might take notice of widespread voter anger in Virginia, New Jersey, and (gasp) Massachusetts....
Gallup supposedly is the second organization to report the Tea Party movement is NOT merely a Republican front group, but that there are significant populations of so-called Independents and Democrats therein.
Fournier amazingly gets one thing correct: the Tea Party’s future is in the Republican party....there are just too damn few Democrats who are fiscally responsible to think they’d get a Tea Partier’s backing...there might be some, but they are EXCEPTIONS.
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