The Tea Party movement is being ripped apart by bitter internal rancor, highlighted by a lawsuit against a former leader, vituperative name-calling, and charges of financial mismanagement and corruption. (via Party Foul!)
I watched personally last spring as first the #TCOT movement, then the Tax Day Tea Party, and other Tea Party wanna be's attempted to generate grass roots activism, only to disintegrate into arguments and online sniping. The Indianapolis tea party people tried to take over the whole state, the flat taxers argued that the tea partiers were just Ron Paulies in a new name, the Republian Liberty Caucus rushed to join the patriots/partiers here only to find that it's tough to raise money when you're against everyone.
I even wrote quite a bit last spring about the seeming inability of conservatives to collaborate. Progressives/liberals seem quite the opposite, willing to take some orders from on high ... and march to the beat of the director.
There are two possible directions to take going into the 2010 election cycle:
- Join with local Republicans, including candidates, to run President Obama's party out of office at the Federal, State, and local level.
- Or, make a legitimate move to a third party, by joining forces with the Libertarians or some other third party.
30 people and some of the leaders have been using hate talk, and even advocating violence. These aren't leaders, or even solid citizens, these are activist loonies. So, what's it going to be ...Update: Some tea partiers are now burning democrat leaders in effigy ... need i say more? No this photo is not a tea party, it's an Anti-American rally ... is that what tea partiers want to look like?
