The End of the Minutemen: Tea Party Absorbs the Border-Watching Movement

Yahoo News ^ | April 16, 2012 | Liz Goodwin

[lbryce]

Back in 2004, Jim Gilchrist, a retired Marine and the founder of the California Minutemen Project, emailed a few dozen friends and family suggesting that concerned civilians personally combat illegal immigration by traveling to the Arizona border with him. Gilchrist lives in Orange County, Calif., but the Arizona border was the most heavily trafficked and sparsely patrolled. That email reached thousands of people and touched a nerve.

[lbryce]

Read with caution. This article might not be what you'd expect.

Zeskind blames the tea party for absorbing a good chunk of the movement. Blames? Blames the Tea Party? (Notice the way "Tea Party" is not capitalized)

FTABut today, the once-thriving Minutemen anti-illegal immigration fraternity has all but died out. No one knows exactly why the groups fizzled so quickly, but researchers and former border-watching leaders say infighting and bad press have taken a toll. At the same time, the tea party movement started to rise, which usurped members and stole the groups' thunder.

Still, the movement's message and popularity have left an indelible mark on the Republican Party, whose leaders underestimated the anger in their base over illegal immigration. The GOP, which at the time was considering legislation to legalize undocumented immigrants in a version of Ronald Reagan's 1986 immigration reform law, rejected the popular movement at first. President George W. Bush dismissed the Minutemen as "vigilantes," while Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said he worried the volunteers would get hurt or hurt illegal immigrants.

[sten]

the minute man group is about government neglecting our borders and allowing foreign nationals to flood in and endanger Americans

the TEA party is about out of control govt spending, the absurd taxes being levied to pay for it, and the overall marxist tax mindset pushed by progressives

these are different issues... but if the press can spin them against each other ... it works to their benefit

[MichaelCorleone]

***Still, the movement's message and popularity have left an indelible mark on the Republican Party, whose leaders underestimated the anger in their base over illegal immigration***

Of course they understand - they just don't give a rat's @$$. W Bush could have easily taken care of the border just after 9/11 because there was widespread support. He even went against the minutemen by said there is no place for vigilantes on the border.

Meanwhile Hannity, Limbaugh, and others gave cover to W even though the people were SCREAMING to seal the border. Maybe under ‘orders’ from Rove, who knows. Tom Tancredo was treated like dirt by rove and the WH because he was serious about the issue.

Republicans are as open borders as anyone else, make no mistake.

[KantianBurke]

“President George W. Bush dismissed the Minutemen as “vigilantes,”

Bears repeating for those with short term memory loss.

[HKMk23]

Yahoo! News, eh?

Since when are they any more credible than HuffPo, or any other leftwing blog? You read their financial page, and you’d think the O’ster has a gilded ass, farts Chanel No. 5, and pees Moet and Chandon.

IMO, Yahoo! News ranks somewhere nearer the basement than Reuters; and maybe a stair step up from Media Matters.

Maybe.

[hinckley buzzard]

The menacing drug cartels and people traffickers were simply evidence to W that "family values don't stop at the river's edge." He appeared to have had this idyllic image of gentle humble Juan Valdez picking beans to send money home to his children so they could have breakfast and go to school.

What a sap.

[AuntB]

““President George W. Bush dismissed the Minutemen as “vigilantes,”

Bears repeating for those with short term memory loss.”

There were plenty pushing that kool aid!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1367339/posts?page=83