Posted on 01/02/2015 1:04:36 PM PST by PROCON
Academics and pundits have many criticisms of the Tea Party, e.g., its members are racists, sexists, homophobes, etc. These are unfounded claims, but there is one criticism that is true and it is holding this movement back: the Tea Party is disorganized and lacks sophistication and cohesion. This lack of organization has benefitted the Tea Party in some ways, but the time has come for this passionate but underdeveloped movement to reach its full potential. The Tea Party's goal for the new year should be to once again become a visible and vocal actor in American politics.
Claiming that the Tea Party needs to ramp things up again is not to say that the movement hasn't accomplished anything in the last few years. It does, however, mean that the Tea Party needs to return to its origins as a protest movement that exerts pressure on establishment politicians. The movement has had an influence at the ballot box, taking the House away from Democrats in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. However, electioneering has become the main, if not only, function of the movement. Instead of switching back and forth from protest to electioneering mode, the Tea Party needs to become a multi-faceted movement that constantly and relentlessly attacks its opponents from all angles. In the HBO miniseries "The Pacific", a character named Snafu gives advice that the Tea Party should follow. As Tea Partiers begin to undo Progressives' agenda -- something that has been in the works for a century -- their opponents will get even nastier, as difficult as that is to imagine. To combat this, Tea Partiers need to be willing to fight.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
But since individually we're human too, we tend to split into self-interest factions which seems to divide rather than unite us.
If you need proof, just look at the lively debates here on Free Republic regarding 2016 GOP Presidential candidates.
But debate is necessary and healthy, I just hope we can come to a consensus, as the 2016 election cycle looms.
Do you have the Tea Party Ping list?
We need to go on the offensive online in a big way, and start exerting major influence on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit and YouTube. The places where the left formulates most of their talking points and positions, and communicates them quickly to others.
Also, we need a bigger presence on their favorite news sites in the comment section. HuffPo, Daily Kos and other should have an army of us there commenting on those stories.
Don’t give these people a safe place where they can funnel their BS without comment. It’s a simple and effective long-term effort that will pay off in a big way by 2016.
The beauty of the TP is that it needs next to zero dollars to achieve its goals. TP people do not get their info from TV ads. They inform themselves, then they either vote or not.
So however much twang the TP generates over the NBC/CBS/CNN media cesspool matters not one bit. Those guys can all rot in hell as far as I’m concerned, and yes, I DID vow to be nicer in 2015.
Anyone know where to pick up a copy of the rules for radicals written by and for conservatives?
What would make Layne think that the TEA Party is dead?
I don’t that much agree with that, but that’s fine. The FB’ers and the Twitterers need to feel real world pain from hanging out in the cesspool they live in and until they do, they’ll conform to the milieu they’re used to.
Many people are attracted to that environment where everything they believe is reinforced. It’s a near-religion to them. Verbiage from the side does not, in my experience, produce much. Somewhere, somehow, these folks will get a clue that their side believed everything the stupid neanderthal Republicans said was a lie about 0’care and everything they believed about it was fabricated by Grubbels, and they bought it. Somewhere, somehow, they will grow weary of the endless Black victimhood meme.
Or they won’t.
If they cannot come to some sort of realization as to the full-on absurdity of what they believe, they will remain LIVs. External persuasion rarely seems effective to me.
But I don’t see it doing any harm, either. So if you wish to engage over those media, don’t let me discourage you.
If we aren’t careful the media will choose our nominee. We need to get fully behind the most conservative candidate as early and as loudly as possible.
Open air Tea Party rallies and protests is where the TP gained its power and momentum, and most suddenly they began working a behind the scenes low profile program and it ain’t working so well, there is no need to be intimidated by the MSM, Dems, and Rino’s there assaults just serve to strengthen and grow the TP, time to hit the streets again; some one said if you build it they will come.
He isn’t saying dead, he’s saying we need to get organized.
"Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"
To paraphrase for squishy moderates"
And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be proud to tell your grand children that you had a chance to keep them free, that you could have called your representatives or sent a fax, but DID NOT?
Will you feel no shame in telling future generations that when the time came to act you sat silent and sold their freedom?
Unfortunately, debate about one candidate is being squelched on FR.
What the hell do they think happened last November? As opposed to "coming alive," The TEA Party flexed its apparently vein-bulged muscles and let loose a roar that even the most self-blinded Obama toe-sucker couldn't ignore.
Many well-intended people still mischaracterize and misunderstand just who The TEA Party really is. We are the vast majority of the American voting public who work each day, pay our taxes, cling to our guns, pray to Jesus and love this Nation created in His image.
We are quite alive, quite well, quite busy and demonstrably the single-most-powerful and productive voting bloc in American political history.
And we ain't going nowhere.
His main point is to get more organized for 2016.
I don’t think one can gauge the traction of the TP by street demonstrations nor media coverage.
No matter how many times I hear Nancy Pelosi say what a great guy Harry Reid is, or hear Debbie Washerwoman-Schultz tell me how rotten Republicans are, and no matter how many times 0bama tells me that there is so much work to do and we should be proud of what we’ve accomplished so far but no longer can we do this and how accountable our elected officials should be, I’m unimpressed and unconvinced.
I don’t own a TV, but if I did and I saw endless political commercials for Democrats, it wouldn’t affect one iota whether I would vote for a Democrat. That said, the GOP running Jeb Bush might just convince me to vote for a Dem. But that’s another story.
The TP rallies are not that much of a big deal, at least in my estimation. If 100th the effort put into those rallies were put into trying to convince a neighbor or acquaintance, it would be equally effective and much cheaper.
Above all; we should know by now that TP rallies should not be judged on the media coverage they get, because there won’t be any media coverage except to ridicule them. So if you or I are counting on media coverage to persuade the persuadeables, it’s just as likely that a negative impression of the TP will be left as a positive one. That’s just my .02.
Time for the ate a Party to strike out on it’s own, IMHO.
It would be nice if we could unanimously agree on a plan A candidate, a plan B candidate, and a plan C candidate. We all want plan A to pan out but Mitt and Jeb and Chris and the MSM are going to attack the hell out of that plan. We can’t get so hung up on plan A that we can’t fall back on plan B should it fail.
More people identify as belonging to the TEA Party than identity as Republican?! yet the GOPe treats us worse than red-headed stepchildren?! It doesn't make sense....unless the GOPe and RATS are one and the same...
TeaPartyFtLauderdale is still going. It went beyond rallies on the corner. They have meetings and speakers etc.
Just wish I had money. Usually it’s at a restaurant or something and you have to pay. The hope and change wiped me out. I’m dead broke. Can’t even afford the gas to drive there.
So true. In 2012, one TP faction supported the Huckster. One faction supported Santorum and so on.
We were divided on who to support.
As a result, Romney slipped by.
That must change. We must unite behind one and only one.
We must find a way to make that work.
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