Posted on 08/20/2013 11:20:21 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Reports of the tea party's demise are greatly exaggerated, or so its leadership would have us believe.
Sure, the 4-year-old movement is maturing and all those attention-grabbing headlines from 2009 are much harder to come by in 2013.
But conservative activist Brent Bozell, who is attempting to build support for defunding President Obama's health care law, said establishment Republicans are running away from their constituents, a sign that bucking the tea party's grassroots agenda is fraught with peril.
"Isn't it interesting how times change; that just three years ago, Republicans were rushing to have town halls and now they're running as fast as they can from town halls," Bozell, the chairman of For America, told ABC News.
"This is what happens when you know you're not representing your constituents; you know you're going to catch an earful from your constituents."
Gone are the days of raucous town hall meetings borne from organic outrage, although it's unclear how the number of meetings these days compare with previous years.
Still, conservative activists are now turning to strategies that traditional advocacy groups have used for years: calls to member offices, television ads and intensive central coordination.
Tea Party Patriots' co-founder and president Jenny Beth Martin has tracked down 250 town halls that are sponsored by lawmakers this month, a far cry from the 535 members of Congress up for re-election next year.
"They're not having town halls," Martin said. "How can you have a huge turnout at events if they're not having town halls?"
It's the now-perennial question asked by activists on both sides of the aisle since 2009's town-hall heat forced elected officials to beware the dangers of having their constituent meetings memorialized on YouTube.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Who's "us?"
Good
“They” wouldn’t be so afraid of town halls if the Tea Party had no influence.
As far as I’m concerned, RINOs need not consume oxygen and would better off radiating at room temp.
Yesterday there was a thread about ‘lindaG’/SC being on a milk carton as ‘missing’.
“Tea Party Patriots’ co-founder and president Jenny Beth Martin has tracked down 250 town halls that are sponsored by lawmakers this month, a far cry from the 535 members of Congress up for re-election next year. “
Must be a graduate of some political science program? Either that, or something has changed and now ALL of the Senate and the House are up for re-election next year?
And there was the Texas meeting where Cornyn was asked to show up for constituent interaction and when he refused, the meeting was held with a cardboard cutout representing Cornyn.
:)
Or, the illegal imigration fight,
or, the border fense fight,
or, the no Benghazi investigation fight,
or, ......
They are running for fear of their political lives and a distinct worry about riding out of town on a rail while covered with feathers and tar. An experience richly deserved I might add.
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It's a new day----the TP should use new tactics.
OKLAHOMA WINS FIRST OCARE BATTLE: AG Pruitt--- "Obamacare was meant to be so open-ended that it could mean anything. We are seeing thousands of pages of new rules being written, both by HHS and the IRS. The open-ended interpretation of Obamacare enables this.....if the law doesn't contain a particular provision, no problem. They just make it up as they go along."
Such is the case that involves the OK lawsuit.
“The court rejected the federal government’s argument that Oklahoma lacked standing to challenge the law, allowing us to proceed with this pivotal case,” “We’re optimistic the court will recognize what states have known for months that the IRS disregarded the law by making the large employer mandate effective in Oklahoma or in any of the 33 other states without a state health care exchange.”
REFERENCE Oklahoma challenged implementation of the Affordable Care Act after the IRS finalized a rule that would allow the federal government to punish “large employers,” including local government, with millions of dollars in tax penalties in states without state health care exchanges, which is not allowed under the health care law.
“Congress provided a choice for Oklahoma and other states in implementation of the health care law, and the IRS is attempting to take that away by rule,” General Pruitt said. “The administration miscalculated how many states would support this law, so now they’re using the IRS to push through provisions that Congress did not pass.”
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(1) We need to get the OK lawsuit going in every state. Contact the PTB in your state.
(2) Judging from the legal language AG Pruitt used, I would also conclude that Obamacare might be ripe for a RICO action.
NOTE: anybody can file a RICO. How-to sites are all over the web.
I liked the idea a Freeper had to call Obama”Care” Democrat”Care”-—it will help remind people that the republicans had NOTHING to do with voting for this piece of offal.
Republicans are blackmailed by the Hussein administration and hated by their constituents for being spineless. They’re caught in the middle.
Don't know what made me think of that.
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