Tea Party Express Is No Longer a Member of the National Tea Party Federation

The National Tea Party Federation ^ | 17 Jul 2010 | Christina Botteri

[Sasquatch the Original]

Effective Immediately, Tea Party Express Is No Longer a Member of the National Tea Party Federation

Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 at 3:43pm

Last night, the members of the National Tea Party Federation participating in an "All Hands" conference call unanimously decided the following:

The membership of the National Tea Party Federation has this evening suspended and will immediately expel Tea Party Express from any further association with the Federation should they fail to publicly rebuke Mark Williams and remove him from their ranks by 3 pm eastern time Saturday July 17.

The rebuke must take the following form:

1. Mark Williams must be officially removed from the ranks of the Tea Party Express.

2. Notice of Mark Williams' removal must be placed prominently on the official Tea Party Express website.

3. Tea Party Express must issue a press release articulating points 1 and 2 above.

* * *

Last night, a member of the National Tea Party Federation communicated our decision directly to a member of the leadership team of Tea Party Express. That leader's response was clear: they have no intention of taking the action we required for their group to continue as a member of the National Tea Party Federation.

Therefore, effective immediately the National Tea Party Federation is expelling Tea Party Express from the ranks of our membership.

Contact:

Christina Botteri

christina.k.bo@gmail.com 916-315-8989

[HighlyOpinionated]

Anyone connected to any “official” TEA Party organization needs to scrutinize them VERY carefully.

There are too many using the TEA Party to further their own agenda.

And there are a LOT of Liberal Libertarians hiding in the TEA Party ranks.

[excopconservative]

Williams knows better. He should know that it never pays to argue when someone makes an accusation of racism. You just deny and move along. Any attempt to mollify, justify, or prove your innocence will be a victory for the accuser and probably the worst thing you can do is to accuse the accuser. Gov. Palin took the appropriate action, a denial of the charge and a statement that it’s unfortunate that people are making such charges.

There is a reason that the Tea Party Federation is a loose affiliation of groups. It appears to be devoid of experienced leadership. A leader does not make ultimatums. That’s much like Obama is doing. It sounds like Williams understood he was getting close to the line and was modifying his statements. The Tea Party Federation just committed suicide over one person making one questionable statement. That is poor leadership and not an organization I want anything further to do with as presently constituted.

[Hostage]

Poat some links if you have them so that we can see the alleged offensiveness. TIA.

[NautiNurse]

No real surprise that a popular ideal has prompted organizers into jockeying for various levels of leadership roles. This was easy to predict through the sociology of group dynamics. A fledgling movement experiences growing pains and power struggles as it seeks to define itself and justify its existence.

[Hostage]

The point of is that politics makes strange bedfellows. We sometimes have to ‘ally’ but not necessarily ‘unify’ with elements that are enemies of our enemies.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Oh, this started when the NAACP called Williams a racist? Seems they are ripe for being tagged back as hypocrites.

[firebrand]

It seems to me I have heard worse things from Williams than this characterization of the NAACP. My audio is not working, or I would find them for everyone on YouTube (if they haven’t been scrubbed).

That said, we should not squabble among ourselves. If Williams needs a nice fatherly talking-to about making statements that are extreme, then let’s do it, someone, but let’s stick together here. There’s too much at stake.

[Kimberly GG]

National Tea Party/Tea Party Express ‘leadership’....YOU DON’T SPEAK FOR ME.

[Lorianne]

There is no one leader of the Tea Party. However, various spokespersons and self-identified ‘leaders’ have repudiated racism over and over. As have many people who identify with core Tea Party tenets.

It will never be enough. You can repudiate racism until the cows come home and it will never be enough.

The NAACP statement was a marketing ploy to discredit a set of principles that are in opposition to Dem/Lib ideology.

The ploy works by repetition. Make the same claim over and over. Make it in different ways, including in the passsive voice (like the NAACP statement). Blanket the media with it and never let up.

It works best against a group of people who are loosely aligned and do not have a heirarchal structure, no one leader, etc.

No matter how many people step up to repudiate racisim, no matter their stature, you can still keep asking the question ... over and over and over. “Why doesn’t THE Tea Party repudite racism?”. (Begging the question that there is no “THE” Tea Party).

No amount of repudiation will stop the questioning because stopping racism is not the goal. The goal is to cement the words Tea Party + racism in people’s minds to discredit anyone with with differing ideas and to stop debate on issues cold.

Repetitive negative stereotyping of groups of people is a very effective tactic to marginalize them. (Ask blacks, Jews, Latinos, Asians, Christians, Southerners ... on and on).

[Iscool]

“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.

I was the Tea Party before the Tea Party was cool...

The Tea Party isn't a political party...IT isn't a Federation...

It IS one person who wants his country back...And it's the guy across the street who also wants his country back...And it's a good share of the neighborhood who all want their country back...It is millions of like minded people who are realizing they are not alone in their beliefs and realizing there is power in numbers...

[Windflier]

Poat some links if you have them so that we can see the alleged offensiveness.

I don't have any links, but I saw some posted on this thread. You can check those out, if you need to see the actual text.

I read it when it was posted at FR yesterday. From what I recall, it was an attempt to show how racist the NAACP is, but seemed to backfire because of the way it was written (Ebonics and all).

I got what the author was trying to say, and I agree with him. The NAACP is a racist organization who are projecting their own racism on the Tea Party. I just think he botched the message.

[CedarDave]

The Rats have done thousands of things this bad or worse.

So very true. But you don't hear of them through the MSM who fawn over Obama and take every word uttered by a Rat politician as gospel (with the exception of Fox News). Once again it demonstrates that conservatives and Republicans always have to be squeaky clean and Democrats will get a free pass.

[Lorianne]

Exactly!
I’ve been saying this for over a year but no one will accept it. The media has won placing THE Tea Party in the minds of the public.

To me, it’s not a political party, it’s not an organization, it’s an idea.

[Domandred]

So if I understand correctly the NAACP calls the Tea Party racist. This Mark Williams guy from Tea Party Express then points out that the NAACP itself is racist. The Tea Party Federation then kicks out the Tea Party Express for Mark Williams pointing out the racism in the organization that called the Tea Party racist.

I’m so confused...

The NAACP IS racist, so what’s the problem?

[Domandred]

So if I understand correctly the NAACP calls the Tea Party racist. This Mark Williams guy from Tea Party Express then points out that the NAACP itself is racist. The Tea Party Federation then kicks out the Tea Party Express for Mark Williams pointing out the racism in the organization that called the Tea Party racist.

I’m so confused...

The NAACP IS racist, so what’s the problem?

[Chode]

BRIAN:
Are you the Judean People's Front?
REG:
Foff!
BRIAN:
What?
REG:
Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
FRANCIS:
Wankers.
BRIAN:
Can I... join your group?
REG:
No. Pizz off.
BRIAN:
I didn't want to sell this stuff. It's only a job. I hate the Romans as much as anybody.
PEOPLE'S FRONT OF JUDEA:
Shhhh. Shhhh. Shhh. Shh. Shhhh.
REG:
Schtum.
JUDITH:
Are you sure?
BRIAN:
Oh, dead sure. I hate the Romans already.
REG:
Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.
BRIAN:
I do!
REG:
Oh, yeah? How much?
BRIAN:
A lot!
REG:
Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.:
Yeah...
JUDITH:
Splitters.
P.F.J.:
Splitters...
FRANCIS:
And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
LORETTA:
And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.:
Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
REG:
What?
LORETTA:
The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG:
We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA:
Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG:
People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS:
Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG:
He's over there.
P.F.J.:
Splitter!

[Hostage]

Excellent post. But the millions of pubs, dems and indies that identify with a TP movement are smart enough to understand out of control government spending and suffocating taxation.

Therefore, they are smart enough to see the branding attempts as political ploys.

I don’t believe the branding propaganda is going to diminish the ranks of the TP movement before they have their say in November;s elections.

[Arizona Carolyn]

1) Williams was/is correct

2) Tea Party Express has been most active IMHO

3) who voted and put anyone in charge of any tea party org? I didn't, and there is a bazillion tea party offshoots... I think this started to come off the rails when they held that damned convention earlier this year.

[Arizona Carolyn]

So... according to this... 50 online "conservative" activists decided for all of us who was in charge of the tea party movement....... hmmmmmmmmmm I wonder how all the indies and even so-called dems who joined the movement will feel about this?

http://www.nationwidechicagoteaparty.com/about.php

[Lorianne]

I hope not. But we must stay focused on the SPENDING and unconstitutional policies ... and not get dragged into other issues (social issues etc) or dragged down in the muck with namecalling.