Co-opt? B/S. We on FR were tea partying long before the current tea party was even a twinkle in that stock broker’s eye.
The original tea partiers (1773) were pro-God and pro Christian values. Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Look it up.
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot be stripped from our American society and it remain a free society. And it cannot be stripped from the tea party and it remain a viable force. And I’ll be damned if a gaggle of godless libertarians and socially liberal RINOs are going to raise a big stink about it on FR!! Those who try are going to be invited to take their anti-Life, anti-Christian, RINO message elsewhere!
Today’s movement is not what you speak of from 1773. I get and respect your unwavering stand on your principles but the current movement was kicked off by Santelli (not a stock broker), Karl Denninger and many others who called for actuial tea parties or suggested sending tea bags to elected officials to show their anger. They used their positions in the media and blogs to stir things up.
With respect to your mentioning FR as a source for Tea Partt activism, sorry but no sale on that. FR wasn’t calling for rallies to stop the spending when Bush was in office, was it? Were you leading the movement to stop the entitlement (socialistic) spending? How about demanding that Republicans stop serving as the puppets of Wall St and allowing them to game the system at the expense of the average tax playing slob?