Posted on 12/13/2009 3:34:08 AM PST by GonzoII
Organizers of the conservative Tea Party movement are forging plans to translate the anger that fueled nationwide anti-tax rallies and town hall protests into an electoral force that can boot incumbents in next year's midterm elections.
Their targets range from big names like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to county assessors.
The East Bay Freedom Fighters, a Tea Party group based in the Pleasanton area, is already vetting 43 Bay Area candidates, many of them first time office-seekers. Other branches in California are gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would restrict the political clout of unions.
Those sympathetic to the Tea Party and the 912 Project - nine principles and 12 values including God, marriage, freedom, honesty and thrift - trumpeted by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck are forming political action committees and rallying around screenings of the newly released "Tea Party: The Documentary Film."
But the biggest challenge facing the movement is how to organize hundreds of local groups, and dozens of Tea Party leaders nationwide with divergent interests, into a force that can influence elections - and how to fund that effort.
"It's a hard question to answer," said Mark Meckler, a Grass Valley (Nevada County) attorney who is a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which claims to reach 15 million people nationwide. "We are a leaderless movement and that's a good thing. I don't think you're going to see a unified movement yet."
Tea Party organizers acknowledge that most people in the movement are conservative but the group is open to supporting candidates of any party - even conservative Democrats - who adhere to their message of limited government.
There is a growing impatience brewing nationally. More people (23 percent) supported a generic Tea Party candidate than a Republican...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Watch out....just sayin.
No worries here. It’s the same as with Palin’s statement to that effect. It’s about signaling the RINO-GOP establishment that we aren’t their stooges. Look at NY23.
There, fixed it! =:-D
Go, us!
I do not see it as a sweeping all encompassing movement but there will be impacts.
We WILL be heard.
Reactionaries are CONSERVATIVE.
Radicals are LIBERAL.
Good point.
Since when is it radical to expect our elected representatives to actually represent our interests instead of their own? Since when is it radical to want to flush corrupt trash from the halls of government? Since when is it radical to want patriots in our government instead of people who hate our country?
lol cuz
Surprised they listed 12 points, not Becks 3Gs: God, Gold, and Guns so they could portray anyone associated with the Tea Bag movement a nut.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Rick Santelli who came up with the idea of going down to the Chicago river and dumping tea in on the 4th of July. I believe he was the first to come up with that concept which has galvanized a nation. Unfortunately, the bosses at NBC right up to the POS CEO Ismelt told him to cool it or they would be fired.
Now, that is what I call a radical, someone who stifles a free expression of fact.
I notice that the word “radical(s)” only appears in the headline and never in the article.
Notice the use of “radicals”.....pfffffft.
We had better also organize vote-counting processes, because George Soros is buying all fifty state secretaries and A.C.O.R.N. is undoubtedly going to do what they did in the last election to put an incompetent in the White House.
They’re following Stalin’s motto: “It’s not who votes but who counts the votes”. On yer toes, Tea Partiers!
It would be lost on him - he's probably choking some poor Gerbil now.
Isn't is just amazing.
For the past 6 months, Rasmussen polls( the most accurate polls in the business), has had 0bozo at negative Strongly Approve/Strongly Disapprove, and the past couple of months at negative Approve/Disapprove, without the San Francisco Chronicle ever reporting their polls.
Yet the moment Rasmussen comes out with a poll, which has the Tea Parties polling higher than Republicans, suddenly Rasmussen is being reported nonstop in every liberal media outlet you can find.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/12/13/MN3L1B34BA.DTL#ixzz0ZZTOsyKw
My effort is in getting Steny Hoyer retired.
Charles Lollar can beat him.
Maybe Tea Party Patriots...Voters...Conservatives...Normal People...Supporters...Activists...Reasonable People...but “radicals”? I don’t think so. If they were radicals, there would already have been a revolution with many liberal fools literally wandering the wilderness or no longer existing.
Yes. Since 0 "wasn't aware" of the Tea Party protests that involved at least tens of thousands of Americans, it strikes me more is needed.
I was listening to a radio show last night where a caller bemoaned the lack of civil disobedience these days, pointing out how effective it was for MLK.
That got me to thinking that the next Tea Party march on DC should involve exercising God-given Second Amendment rights, with most if not all of the hundreds of thousands of marchers carrying firearms. Since that's not allowed in DC, it would be civil disobedience on a grand scale, while remaining completely peaceful. One hopes, at least. ;-)
I'm quite sure 0 would notice that. Just a hypothetical idea, of course. :-)
Lol. I knew someone would.
Laz,
in reality, we ARE the real liberals. Just like the founders. Our opponents are collectivists/fascists.
He has since gone nationwide. Please catch his show! He is a brilliant economist that understands what Obama is really up to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.