A Message to all Members of Tea Party Nation: Setting The Record Straight

Tea Party Nation-Email ^ | January 30, 2010 | Sherry Phillips

[Syncro]

Tea Party Nation

A message to all members of Tea Party Nation

Setting The Record Straight

by Sherry Phillips 
 
Judson and I have stayed silent in the face of intense media scrutiny
and attacks by former members.  As a wife and a mother, I have stood
by my husband and family and stayed strong in the face of many baseless
accusations and criticism.  We have refrained from responding to many of the attacks that have been thrown at us from other "Tea Party" groups, in the belief we did not want to spread the divisions that are already hurting this movement even though that does not seem to be the consideration of some others involved in this movement.  Because of the many TPN members' requests
and encouragement, I have decided to provide comment about Tea Party
Nation and the National Tea Party Convention. We will stay silent no longer.  I hope my comments
and the issues I deal with in this note will provide some clarity. 
 
American Liberty Alliance - Eric Odom's American Liberty Alliance
is a for profit company that takes donations.  We agreed to a sponsorship
exchange where ALA would be a gold sponsor of the convention and we
would be a gold sponsor of the Tax Day Tea Party.  Shortly after agreeing
to this exchange,  Eric emailed Judson and me privately saying he was
supportive of us and this convention and did not want to pull out, because
he thinks this convention is going to be a huge success; however, some
his "influential supporters"  were not happy about ALA's participation
in the convention and asked Eric to withdraw.   
 
American Majority - After stating in the beginning they wanted
to co-sponsor the convention, they never answered repeated emails sent
asking them for confirmation of their attendance. They did not promote
the convention and did not put the convention on their calendar. 
In fact Ned Ryun spent 5 minutes in an interview on Fox News talking
about the Tea Party movement and did not mention the convention at all. 
Meanwhile, another training organization contacted us asking if they could
become a sponsor and if they could do a breakout session.  We gladly
accepted and gave them American Majority's spots.  On January 6, Ned's
assistant sent an email stating she was making travel arrangements for
them to come and participate in the convention and asked when did we
have their breakouts scheduled.  I told her because of their non-response,
we gave American Majority's slots to this other organization. They
then requested that their logo be removed from the Convention website. 
We complied with their request.

Tea Party Express - This group has been very supportive of us.  They intended to do a small tour, culminating in an event Saturday afternoon prior to the banquet.  Because of their efforts in the Scott Brown race and their intent to go after Harry Reid in Nevada, they simply cannot make the trip.  We received a very nice email from them explaining their actions and restating their invitation to join them when they kick off their next tour in March.  We will be there.  We fully support their endeavors as they open their next tour in Nevada this spring.
 
Campaign for Liberty - We actively sought out Campaign for Liberty
as a sponsor of this convention.  We were contacted several weeks ago
by the TN Director for CFL who wanted to co-sponsor the convention and
I put him in touch with our Sponsorship Chair.  We have not heard anything
from them since. 
 
Former Tea Party Nation Members - Several former members were
unanimously banned from our site for reasons running the gamut from
antagonism to passing on confidential information.  These members have
been blogging, as well as discussing their association with liberal media outlets
and conspiring with each other to, "Take TPN and this convention
down". 
 
In one of their more egregious statements a former member wrote that
Judson stated, "I want to make a million dollars from this movement." 
Judson has never made this statement.  He has stated on numerous occasions
that he would like TPN to have a million members all fighting for the
cause of conservatism! 
 
Bill Hemrick - Mr. Hemrick made a business loan to Tea Party
Nation at a commercial interest rate.  This loan has been paid back in
full.  That is the full extent of any relationship we have had with Mr.
Hemrick.   
 
Congressmen Bachmann and Blackburn - Both Congresswomen have
large targets on their backs and are rightfully concerned about backlash
they will receive from the left-leaning Democrat controlled House Ethics
Committee.  Because of the complexity of the Ethics Code regarding House
Representatives, we have no doubt the Democrats would have found something
in that code to cause them problems once the convention was over.  We
were also informed by Rep. Bachmann that both were being told two different
things by the House Ethics Committee in regard to their participation. 
This of course sent up red flags to everyone involved.  We do not blame
either Congressman for their decision to withdraw from the convention
and maintain a strong relationship with them both. 
 
Tea Party Nation - Last February after Judson held one of the
first tea parties in the country in downtown Nashville, he came up with
the idea for a social networking site for conservatives. Judson and
I created Tea Party Nation.  We formed the corporation. We financed the
corporation. We bought the domain name teapartynation.com, we purchased the servers and we pay for the
monthly expenses.  We are a C-Corp and do not accept donations.  Tea Party
Nation charges nothing to be a member and is run entirely by volunteers. 
Recently, we have been able to start charging for advertising on the
site to help defray the costs of running the site.

As TPN has stated since its formation, we are not a non-profit.  We prefer to offer free membership to conservative patriots so they may participate in the political process of restoring this nation to its founding principles without financial burdens, hardships or roadblocks to prevent their participation.  Members are then able to choose their own way to spend their money without any involvement from TPN. 

PayPal Account - We are using a business PayPal account for the convention.  An email address is required to notify a contact when
payment is received and we are using my TPN email account at sherry@teapartynation.com as that notification email address.  All money
in that account is transferred directly into the TPN business bank account. 
 
We fully expect to break even during this event.  We may even make
a few thousand dollars to cover local operating costs of TPN. 
We have made the best of a tight budget and scaled back the price of
attending this convention as much as we could without putting TPN into
bankruptcy.  The convention is sold out and we have a waiting list of
over five hundred people.  We never did this to make us rich or
famous. Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our
members and the people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great
event.   
 
For all of you who will be attending, we look forward to meeting you
this upcoming week and we thank everyone for the support and patriotism
in this fight against liberalism.  God bless you all and I thank
you for your prayers and words of encouragement.  

Visit Tea Party Nation at: http://www.teapartynation.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

[Syncro]

If you would like to see This Letter Posted at The Surge, go to this link

This website posted the letter and made many comments on the various groups involved.

Some I agree with, some I don't.

This is their forward to the letter and their comments:

In response to repeated liberal media attacks and other criticism of the National Tea Party Convention, the organizers in Nashville at Tea Party Nation recently broadcast the following message to supporters of the Tea Party movement to set the record straight. 

SurgeUSA enthusiastically supports this event, as it has from the earliest stages of planning.  The critics are just attacking it now because, after the Massachusetts election, the statists are starting to realize that the Tea Party movement is a real and growing threat to their progressive agenda and power in 2010.

Instead of the prior media template about Tea Party groups being a bunch of irrelevant, quarrelling, right-wing white racist wackos or idiots doing the "astroturf" bidding of special interest groups or Republicans like Dick Armey, Newt Gingrich or others, the attacks are becoming even more vicious.  They keep looking for individuals to isolate and attack.  Where have you heard about that strategy before?

The political threat to their power is now perceived as greater than when it was just a bunch of big protest rallies last year.  They don't fear very well-behaved crowds of conservatives.  They fear losing power if millions of conservative voters finally get organized behind candidates who can defeat them in November.

There are many really smart Americans outside the Beltway.  Hundreds will meet in Nashville to get even more organized and collaborate for victory by supporting good candidates in primaries and on November 2.  This event is sold out, with a long waiting list of people who would have wanted to be there, including news media who were never invited or the focus of this event.  This event is about getting individual local Tea Party organizers together, as the real leaders of this movement, to share ideas and improve their impact.

[999replies]

I liked the Tea Party movement before it had “leaders”. They dang sure did not need any “leaders” to march on Washington. I would be cautious towards anyone who tried to announce themselves a leader of a movement.

[tennmountainman]

Seems like everybody’s want’s to rule the world.

[reasonisfaith]

The “leaders,” whoever they are, have no effect on the tea party movement, because it is a set of principles.

A set of principles cannot be altered by anyone who thinks they want to lead it, regardless of whether or not they are sincere.

The principles of liberty are timeless and absolute.

[Lancey Howard]

I liked the Tea Party movement before it had “leaders”.

Who are these people, and why did they hijack the colloquial phrase, "tea party"?

"Tea partiers" are individuals from across the nation who briefly "organized" a few times in order to shout as one at a corrupt and disgraceful government agenda of communist health care and the drunken waste of tax dollars. The "tea partiers" are still out there and they will vote, because they are inspired to do so, but I doubt 95% of them give a rat's behind about being called "tea partiers", or having an "organization" of any kind. Sheesh. I know I don't.

This effort by some people to turn the "tea partiers" (aren't we all "tea partiers" here?) into a real live, ongoing "organization" with a convention and "leaders" and all the rest of the bells and whistles is simply stupid. It's old already. Time to put the phrase "tea partiers" to rest. The battle has been joined, "tea partiers" will continue to shout for sanity, and the mission will (hopefully) be accomplished after another election or two.

[airborne]

I liked the Tea Party movement before it had “leaders”.

"Lead By Example!"

BTW, welcome to FreeRepublic.

[world weary]

Even the right doesn’t seem to be immune to people who want to take things over “for the betterment of all”.

[Syncro]

liked the Tea Party movement before it had “leaders”. I would be cautious towards anyone who tried to announce themselves a leader of a movement.

Who is announcing themselves as "leaders?"

Did you read the letter at the beginning of this thread?

It's good to be cautious of anyone that tries to announce themselves as leaders of the Tea Party Movement.

So do you have a list of people who are proclaimed leaders from this post?

Or is your reply "baseless accusations and criticism?" (A quote from the letter above)

[Syncro]

Seems like everybody’s,(sic) want’s(sic) to rule the world.

If you desire to rule's the world, I suggest you don't try to do it here.

You are part of "everybody's" aren't you?

[bigbob]

No disrepect to patriots who are standing up for what’s right, but this kind of petty crap is what the liberals do.

As must as I respect the principles they stand for, the Tea Party bunch has the potential to do a lot of damage.

[Syncro]

You are correct, thanks.

[Syncro]

Even the right doesn’t seem to be immune to people who want to take things over “for the betterment of all”.

LOL, you have no idea!

I have to read your word right in quotes though...the real right is conservatives, tea partiers.

It's really humorous to see the leaders of the Republican party try to ingratiate themselves into the tea party ranks.

Plus some hosts on Fox too.

[Gene Eric]

Thanks for posting the message.

I find the Tea Party movement fascinating, and I’ve been curious about the various orgs providing support.

[999replies]

Amen.

[airborne]

The beauty of the Tea Party movement is that it is larger than any one person.

It is the result of the “silent majority” finally having had enough from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

The silent majority is silent no longer!

And may I say, it’s about time!!!

BTW, thanks for the thread. I’m looking forward to “seeing where it leads”.

[Brugmansian]

Who are these people, and why did they hijack the colloquial phrase, "tea party"?

Good question. Ladies in our Republican Town Committee organized one the first week of May (we were voting on a town budget the next week). It was crashed by one libertarian who ragged on the GOP and a few others who were promoting some statewide, national group. The Tea Party was successful, we got around 400 in a town where elections draw only about 3,000 but the RTC ladies said no mas. Everyone here knows of or knows each other and the outsiders alienated the locals we wanted to enlist in the cause. We didn't need the FEMA camp stuff, the libertarian making it partisan (we were very careful not to bash either party as we live next door to each other) and those who were selling stuff (small town New England is very skeptical of self-promoters with something to sell).

[999replies]

I would love to answer your reply to me, but it makes no sense at all.

[Syncro]

You are welcome, and thank you for your post.

[carolina71]

Lose spontaneity you ultimately lose it all.

We see it in our current parties — some are squashed as some force themselves and their agenda to the top. It might last a day, it might last a month but when there’s dissension it quickly falls apart.

Why can’t get just get along?

The Tea Party Movement is a wonderous gift but it all became about power.

Poof !

[bjcintennessee]

PIng