Tea Party Patriots has experienced tremendous growth and made great strides. They host candidate debates, organize volunteers to monitor the voting polls, sponsor a motorcycle club (The Patriot Riders), monitor legislation and other services to inform and engage the public.
Perhaps this success comes at a cost. Maybe it cannot be attained with an organization focused on the here-and-now.
I sense that Tea Party Patriots has lost the feel of the street -- the willingness for direct confrontation of those who threaten our liberties. I can't say what price they will pay for this abandonment of their roots.
“In an email obtained by TheDC, Meckler told the Board of Directors of Tea Party Patriots on Thursday night that he “fought long and hard” to maintain the group “as an organization that is run from the bottom up, with the intent of serving the grassroots.”
Mark Meckler was on Hugh Hewitt last week promoting his book, echoing the whole “we only have 1/2 of 1/3 of the govt.” capitulation, and saying that some tea partiers are too extreme. Good riddance; see you Mark; the Tea Party was never supposed to have a “leader”, so collect your money and go home.
Sounds like Mark is of the SAME “caliber” as that FAT Bitch “Amy Kemer(Tea Party Express)”, I DESPISE People like this!
Well said.
Sad to see Mr. Meckler has decided to step down but I’m glad George Washington didn’t. Not to discount to any degree the TEA party’s effort but the power elite establishment appears to be too big and too powerful for the true American patriots to tackle using peaceful demonstrations to change our government. Sure the TEA Party made a difference in the House of reps in 2010 but since then, what has changed in DC? Obozo is still in office and under Constitutional law he and Holder both should be under indictment and removed immediately. Putting this country back under the rule of law is going to be costly and not just monetarily.
Thanks for this report.
Without commenting on any one particular Tea Party organization, and not attempting to hijack this thread, I want to say again that, as I remember it, the recent Tea Party was and still is a movement that coalesced around one candidate between 2008 and now. Especially by 2010, many others were attracted to the movement and put down claim stakes as members of the Tea Party This or the Tea Party That.
Now, there are several Tea Party denominations, each with some differences of opinions. But the Tea Party designation since 2008 has referred to a movement, a spirit of like-mindedness among many Conservatives to bring about sensible reforms, elect agreeable candidates, and initiate stops to a beastly national government.
Like Franklin Graham said on msnbc this week, “What is a Christian?” He then gave a personal response indicating how he, Franklin, is a Christian. It involved being changed in every way by totally accepting the person and Spirit of the Biblical Jesus Christ, by being completely infused with that Spirit and belief.
A member of the Tea Party Movement is like that and cannot be nailed down to a particular organization no matter it’s name. A member of the Tea Party Movement just knows when he finds a candidate with the same spirit. Fakes are sensed first and confirmed later.
What happened to the Tea Party Patriots is what happens anytime a label is attached to an idea and people try to nail it down. It becomes something other than the idea.
Any official organization that pretends to represent the Tea Party is a fraud.
Whoa...
My husband and I attended a small-ish side-session at CPAC - I think it was February 2010, a year after the Tea Party came into being. This session was led by the very pleasant Colin Hanna, President of Let Freedom Ring USA, Inc, Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler of Tea Party Patriots.
I barely remember what Meckler said, but I'll never forget meeting and listening to Jenny Beth Martin. She had this sour-faced Nurse Ratchet-like coldness about her. She asked everyone in the room who they thought "invented" the Tea Party, or where they first heard about the Tea Party. I can't remember her exact words. Everyone in the room answered unanimously: "Rick Santelli's rant on CNBC on February 19, 2009... we'll never forget it!"
The look on Jenny Beth's face was priceless - an "if looks could kill" expression. She appeared to be really ticked off. She then rather smugly went on that, no, the Tea Party did not start with Rick Santelli's rant... her group - Tea Party Patriots - were the "creators" of the Tea Party movement. She literally said she and Tea Party Patriots started the Tea Party movement. TPP had been "The Tea Party" for years, yada, yada.
Right then and there my husband and I wanted nothing to do with TPP, although we know that local chapters around the country do great work - there are a lot of great people under the TPP umbrella across the US.
My husband and I participated in rallies around the Capitol during the fateful weekend that ObamaCare passed - in March 2010. Some group originally had organized a mass rally on the Capitol. My husband and I didn't care who was organizing the rallies, we wanted to participate, and drove from CT to DC.
By the time we joined the crowds on the Capitol lawn, the rallies that weekend were somehow co-opted by Jenny Beth Martin and Tea Party Patriots - I have no idea how this happened, but she ran "the show" - she was up at the podium several times with many Congressmen and other speakers.
At the time we didn't care who was running the rallies - we were (and still are) so angry about ObamaCare being rammed down our throats... we just wanted to be there so our voices could be heard. As time went on over that weekend, however, there was MUCH grumbling among the crowds at how the rally had turned into "The Jenny Beth Show", and how it didn't turn out to be the rally that was originally planned. I have no idea if the original organizers of this rally would have done a better or similar job. Obama had the votes to pass the bill - there was nothing more we could do.
As I said... this is all my anecdotal two cents. I'm still currently not a fan of Jenny Beth Martin, based on my experiences with her. I don't know much about Meckler.
MARK MECKLER RESIGNS
Last night Mark Meckler tendered his resignation from the National Tea Party Patriots organization and its Board of Directors. At almost the same time two other resignations were submitted, including Ginny Rapini's of NorCal Tea Party who was a voting board member.
Rather than speculate on what occurred, we are reproducing below the full letter of resignation Mark wrote to the Board of Directors.
While, at first glance, this may seem a negative event, in the long run I feel it will result in a very positive outcome since Mark will remain as committed as always to the cause of the Tea Party and particularly committed to supporting the grassroots groups.
For an update on the story attend Mark's "TEA PARTY PATRIOTS" book signing March 1st at 6:30 PM - Auburn Grace Community Church, 3126 Olympic Ave., Auburn.
"Ernest (and the rest of the TPP Board),
Thank you for taking the time and effort to convey the Board's desire to terminate my association with TPP, and the terms upon which TPP desires to make that separation. I also now understand that you have withdrawn your offer prior to any response from me. That's fine, because I am afraid that your email fails to even begin to comprehend the point I have been trying to make with the Board for a very long time. My desire is, and always has been, to advance a scenario where I am able to use the substantial fund raising infrastructure we have developed at TPP to funnel significant money and resources to the grassroots. I have sought, unsuccessfully, to push TPP towards this as a primary mission. I have always believed this to be the primary mission of TPP, but as we have raised more and more money, now into the many millions of dollars, only a very small and insignificant portion of those funds are directed to grassroots on the ground. The proposal you made not only would not enable me to assist the grassroots in this way, but would actually hamper me from accomplishing that mission. I am, and will remain dedicated to working to provide resources to the grassroots regardless of whether or not I am associated with TPP on an ongoing basis.
I have repeatedly expressed, over a long period of time, my discomfort with the way the financial affairs of TPP have been handled, and that I believe that TPP is fiscally irresponsible in the way that it spends and manages donor monies. The expenditure of $250,000 of donor money to sponsor the Southern Republican Leadership Conference debate was only one in a long line of expenditures which I have opposed and which I believe are contrary to the obligations we have to be a good tea party steward of donor funds. That $250,000 could have done an enormous amount of good if it had been distributed to local tea parties to help them with their ground games in 2012. Instead, it was a colossal waste, which served to foster the narrative that TPP is a tool of the Republican party, while providing minimal PR value at best.
It is clear that I no longer have any viable input on the direction of the organization, either philosophically or in its corporate operations. As Treasurer, I have been excluded from the distribution of critical financial information, and critical discussions about the finances of the organization. All personnel matters, including the recent inappropriate termination of Dawn Wildman (due to her complaints about the same matters) are being handled without any input from me. Over my objections, we have hired an executive level employee, Scott Crockett who is a former professional lobbyist with DCI in Washington, DC, a former Republican campaign operative, and formerly associated with AFP and the Koch Brothers as the director of their "Spending Revolt" project. While TPP publicly states to the State Coordinators that Crockett is only responsible for "staff management" he is, and has been for some time, intimately involved with the TPP PR messaging team, and has been deeply involved in developing the plan according to which we now operate. According to Jenny Beth, Scott is the "primary author" of TPP's current business operating plan.
It is also clear that my personal fight to see that TPP remain a bottom-up, grassroots organization has failed. As you know, I am not the only board member with this opinion. However, I understand that we are not in the majority on the Board, and have been outvoted on these issues. I have fought this fight largely in private, hoping to convince the TPP board to remain true to its founding culture. Clearly, it is impossible for me to function with TPP in any official capacity any longer.
The statement in your recent email that it is somehow "derogatory" for me to publicly disagree with Jenny Beth Martin when she calls the current Republican Presidential candidates a bunch of "losers," makes it clear that we could never enter into a mutual non-disparagement agreement that would work. The suggestion that I would enter into any such agreement runs contrary to the responsibility that each of us has to the movement, and to the country at large. I must be able to speak freely when I believe that anyone is doing anything to damage the movement, and the majority of people who were watching the interview on Cavuto agreed that it was a bad thing to say. While the folks running for the Republican Presidential nomination are a lot of things, they are certainly not "all losers," as stated by Jenny Beth on air. When it was pointed out in a major blog, by a reputable blogger (Gateway Pundit) that such a statement was wrong and damaging, I stepped up to take responsibility and agree. If you note, in my responsive post, I criticized myself as well, for not stepping up in that moment and making my opinion clear, that I do not agree with Jenny Beth's statement that the Republican candidates are "all losers." Your recent email to me indicating that if we entered into a non-disparagement agreement that I would not be able to make such statements, means that we can never enter into any such agreement. I would never agree to be fettered in my ability to criticize politicians for saying things that damage the cause of self-governance in this country, and obviously I cannot be fettered in regard to speaking my mind when Jenny Beth or anyone else calls all the Republican candidates "losers." The idea that you want to bind me to an agreement not to say such things runs contrary to the ethos of the movement itself.
The only thing I have ever tried to do in my public statements as a representative of Tea Party Patriots is to reflect the sentiments of the movement at large, in the best and most honest way I know how. Though I will no longer be speaking on behalf of TPP, I will continue to speak my mind publicly, honestly and objectively.
I sincerely regret that I have been unable to represent these faithful and devoted grass roots groups' interests to the Board in a manner to sufficiently convince a majority of you that building up their capability to act independently should be the top priority of TPP. It seems at this point that my attempts to serve their interest at the board level have reached an impasse and now my attempt to negotiate a severance that would equip me to serve them by utilizing the TPP donor list to help them raise funds for local endeavors now also seems impossible. It was my intent to use any severance package and a copy of the TPP donor list to allow me to embark on serious efforts to provide such support to local grassroots organizers across the country.
Based on the above, and a now long history of being excluded from the day to day operations of Tea Party Patriots, I hereby tender my resignation both from Tea Party Patriots, Inc. and Tea Party Patriots Foundation, Inc.. as a board member, officer and National Coordinator. I will find other ways to serve and build up the grassroots by equipping and enabling them to foster true self-governance. I will work to do this in any way I possibly can. Please forward any paperwork necessary to effectuate the legal transfer of my obligations to others still within the organization.
I am armed with the truth, and am equipped and able to tell it as necessary. However, my first priority is to serve our great country and its citizens in restoring our great heritage of self-governance. I sincerely hope the leaders of Tea Party Patriots will not expend any further resources seeking to oppose or disable me. There are plenty of enemies of the Republic for us to focus our attention upon. I hope you see that further attacks against me will only undermine TPP's already damaged credibility, and will that you will work to stop Jenny Beth and Sally's continuing assault against me. The abusive and threatening text messages that I received from Jenny Beth's husband Lee (and of which I retain copies) are evidence enough. As you are aware, there is much more. I would personally prefer not to have to get into such a public display. I think that for the movement and the organization, at this point it is best to simply part ways and move on.
I am and will always be co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. It is something I hope I will always be proud of. I would like nothing better to see TPP succeed and be able to cheer your accomplishments. Unfortunately, I believe that with the questionable path you have chosen, against my repeated advice and admonitions (and the advice and admonitions of other officers and board members), you have a very bumpy road ahead. I hope that in the future you and the rest of the Board will apply all your resources and energies toward supporting the grassroots citizen activists who really are the movement.
Best wishes in your continued endeavors.
Mark Meckler