Tea Party fractures as protests turn partisan

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | February 4, 2010 at 07:57 am

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Beck and the Tea Party movement of which he is a central figure are often portrayed as a new and exotic political phenomenon. Pollsters treat the Tea Party movement like a third political party, and indeed, it is especially popular at the moment among unaffiliated voters new to politics.For all its apparent freshness, the Tea Party movement is firmly rooted, in its ideology, rhetoric and -- there's no polite word for it -- its paranoia, in the post-World War II American right.

J P Coolican, LV Sun newspaper / Jan 29, 2010

What began as a display of unified populist force against Obama big government has become a partisan uprising against the moderate ideologues of the GOP.

The Tea Party movement in America has also suffered from divisions within its own ranks.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the civil war which erupted between the two camps of Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Express, regarding an intellectual property rights conflict. See also 'Tea Party Civil War? Lawsuit, GOP friction splits leaders' from Huffington Post.

Other evidence of infighting can be seen in the warring factions surrounding the pending first ever annual Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

Adding to this is the person of Scott Brown, who is moderate on certain issues which makes him to the left of angry populists and thus unsuitable as a folk hero expect to libertarians and independents of a certain stripe.

The grassroots populism and the quiet order of the more corporate top down section of the Tea Party were headed for an inevitable showdown, and it unfolds as predicted.

What has been of import is that the archetypal images which came from the rising tea party movement - Scott Brown's victory crowd included a flag calling for a second American Revolution - are clashing with the slick corporate images which are also America and which show no signs of bending to populism.

The Tea Party movement has its roots in the post World War II uprising of the populist right.

As such, the movement parallels the uprising of the conservative populism of the John Birch Society of the 1950s, and has many features in common with it: Mistrust of the "new" (John F Kennedy and Barack Obama) , hatred of big government, and distrust and suspicion of authority.

Populist in its features, but connected to the mega-power of the traditional Republican Party, the Birch Society, like the Tea Party movement , found itself but outside the mainstream, but leashed and restrained within its confines. Much of the reactionary backlash talk and paranoia of social conservatism must be refined by the bigger corporate structure, making the populists feel once again victimized, this time, by their own father structure.

The polarization makes for a heady brew : the Tea Party populist hold the feet of the RINOS (Republican in Name Only) to the flames, and demand they become either hot or cold on issues: Lukewarm moderate stances are strongly discouraged.

Scott Brown, it is said, arrives in a fearful Washington, but he himself is "rudderless" : noone is sure of just where things are headed.

(CNN) -- As the Tea Party's first national convention gets under way, members are united in their anger but divided over the future of the movement.
The convention is marketed as an opportunity to bring Tea Party leaders from across the country together to network and support the movement's goals. But some see the high-ticket convention, organized by a for-profit organization, as contradictory to the group's bottom-up, grass-roots beginnings.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann were supposed to speak at the convention, but both dropped out, citing problems with the for-profit status of the Tea Party Nation, the group behind the event. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the convention's keynote speaker.

The Tea Party developed last year in protest to what its supporters saw as overspending in Washington -- by both Republicans and Democrats -- following the stimulus bill, the bank bailouts andPresident Obama's budget.

The anger over alleged fiscal irresponsibility in Washington was shared by a wider spectrum of voters, including independents, said John Avlon, author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America."

Over the year, the Tea Party grew from dozens to hundreds of loosely linked groups around the country.

But as it expanded, the protests became more partisan in nature, and the Tea Party established itself as an uprising to the right of the Republican Party. While independent voters were reacting against the polarization of the two major parties, the Tea Partiers wanted Republicans and Democrats to become more polarized, Avlon said.

"What happened over the course of the summer as the town hall [meetings] got hijacked, you started to see a new kind of activist taking over the Tea Party movement," Avlon said. "As the fringe has blurred with the base, you've seen more unhinged attacks proliferate, and there still hasn't been a transition to a positive agenda."

Some Tea Party members began directing their anger at Obama, calling him a socialist and carrying posters with his face altered to resemble Hitler or The Joker.

Special coverage: Welcome to the Tea Party

While the more radical activists made headlines, the voices of frustrated voters -- inside and outside the Tea Party -- were being heard across the country. The White House said Republican Scott Brown's win in last month's Massachusetts Senate election was "a wake-up call." While Brown captured the support of the Tea Party, he also won over the state's independent voters.

In November, Tea Party groups received credit for affecting the outcome of a special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District. Local Republican leaders backed state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava because they thought she would appeal to centrists and independents. But more conservative party members revolted and instead backed Doug Hoffman, who ran on the Conservative Party line.

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cconyersjr

at 08:25 on February 4th, 2010

It seems that what a lot of these Teabagging folks need to do is draw a thick line between real issues, and the rhetoric/bumper sticker soundbites that seem to speak louder than their true intentions.

There's also a problem of money. After all, SOMEONE has to pay for this stuff. There's only so far people are willing to take a "grassroots" movement. The passion is real, the commitment is not. We live in a society that CRAVES money and scoffs at volunteerism-- for the most part. And for a true political movement to take hold and grow without corporate sponsorship, it takes a lot more time and energy-- especially when you have little or no money.

It never seemed as if the "Tea Party" movement would last very long. It takes a lot more than a few rallies and clever posters and costumes to carry a movement through to fruition. People never really stick around long enough to do the long, unglamorous work involved to become successful. When you want a quick fix, you go after corporate money. And when corporations get involved, they take over and push their own interests, which eventually becomes antithetical to the soul of the "grassroots" movement.