Who leads the Tea Party?

[xoxoxoBruce]

You might have heard the term 'tea party', some where along the way, and realized they weren't talking about Boston, or Wonderland.
Slate has listed the tea party's movers & shakers, with a brief summary of what each organization has attempted and accomplished.
Of course these are only the faces of these organizations, and not the power or the money.

FreedomWorks - Founded: 2004 - Leaders: Dick Armey, Matt Kibbe

Americans for Prosperity - Founded: 2004 - Leaders: David Koch, Tim Phillips

Independence Caucus (iCaucus) - Founded: early 2008 - Leader: Frank Anderson

Our Country Deserves Better/Tea Party Express - Founded: July 2008 - Leaders: Sal Russo, Amy Kremer

Smart Girl Politics/Smart Girl Nation - Founded: July 2008 - Leader: Stacy Mott

Senate Conservatives Fund - Founded: 2008 - Leader: Sen. Jim DeMint

Tax Day Tea Party/Liberty First/Liberty.com/American Liberty Alliance - Founded: summer 2008 - Leader: Eric Odom

Campaign for Liberty/Young Americans for Liberty - Founded: September 2008 - Leaders: Ron Paul

Grassfire Nation/ResistNet - Founded: 2008 - Leader: Debbie Dooley

Tea Party Patriots - Founded: 2009 - Leaders: Mark Meckler, Jenny Beth Martin

The 9/12 Project - Founded: March 2009 - Leader: Glenn Beck

Oath Keepers - Founded: April 2009 - Leader: Stewart Rhodes

Palin, Inc. - Founded: July 2009 - Leaders: Sarah and Todd Palin

Tea Party Nation - Founded: 2009 - Leaders: Judson and Sherry Phillips

Liberty Central - Founded: February 2010 - Leader: Ginni Thomas

Tea Party Caucus - Founded: July 2010 - Leader: Michele Bachmann

[glatt]

Karl Rove is the puppet master behind them all.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

Karl Rove is the puppet master behind them all.

Karl Rove is America GPS and America Crossroads. Note the founding dates. All this made necessary because of an activist Supreme Court that trashed all campaign reform laws. Who said it was good to have every TV show sponsored by attack ads, lies, and people who need not attach their names to those lies.

My god. The recession has ended. Job losses have severely diminished from when they were greatest - the last months of George Jr's reign. The economy is slowly and strongly in a ten year recovery process. And a majority are so manipulated by attack adds as to think our nation in complete economic default. Is anyone is the Cellar that foolishly deceived by attack ads?

Well if those myths were true, a footnote. This has been a spectacularly successful few years for any informed investor. How much better could it get?

[ZenGum]

Well, lower unemployment and not owing a mountain of money overseas would make it better, but so would a tasty sprinkling of mature cheddar cheese. That makes anything better.

Whoever is leading the Tea Party, they must be either a mad hatter or as loony as a March Hare.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Oh no, not loony, they know exactly what they are doing.
Now most of their followers, are just everyday people that have been frustrated with the politicians for a very long time. Seeing it get more blatant and feeling helpless to do anything about it... vote for the lesser of two evils, big whoop.

So this tea party thing comes along, and provides a glimmer of hope, a chance that they can actually do something to make things better. Mr & Mrs Average join up, get on the mailing/email list, and maybe even contribute a couple bucks, in hopes this will work.

In theory it would work too, if they worked within the system to make sure better candidates got elected locally, then worked their way up, all the while holding the politicians feet to the fire, to keep them (reasonably) honest. Knowing if they fuck up they're out, and they don't need the corporate money to get reelected.

But the tea parties have been conned by people like Karl Rove, who really is working for GOP/big money, telling them it's all Obama/Democrats fault. Pumping them and full of half truths, distortions, and blatant lies, by saturating the airways & internet. Telling them all the countries ills can be solved overnight, by following their lead.

It would be almost funny to watch the tea party being led down the path to complete corporate control, fucking themselves, if they weren't fucking the rest of us and the country, along with them. O'Donnell, Angle, Paladino, Paul, Webster, good grief, be careful what you wish for, they'd set this country back a hundred years.

Now maybe some of them would like to turn the clock back a hundred years, or maybe just 50, to when god fearing people were in charge, niggers & fags knew their place, and women did what they were told. But you know what, you can't go back, the cat ain't going back in the bag.

[Griff]

They seem to want to create the same conditions that put us in this shitter... not that the Democrats have a viable alternative.

[Trilby]

The tea party is run by Whitey.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Brianna

The tea party is run by Whitey.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Griff

They seem to want to create the same conditions that put us in this shitter...

It didn't put them in the shitter. Lower taxes, less regulation, American workers desperate for jobs, and willing to be "more productive" (more work for less pay). A large segment of the populace so pissed off at government for bailing out big business that they'll support exactly what big business wants directly.

It's their dream come true.

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

It didn't put them in the shitter. Lower taxes, less regulation, American workers desperate for jobs, and willing to be "more productive" (more work for less pay). A large segment of the populace so pissed off at government for bailing out big business that they'll support exactly what big business wants directly.

It's their dream come true.

Its the Tea Party Supporters blindness to that truth that is troubling. It doesn't say much for our race, that we are so easily misled.

[Pico and ME]

Ha! I say that, and then later read this perspective...

Why Business Should Fear the Tea Party.

According to a recent Bloomberg Poll...

...60% of tea party adherents wanted to overhaul or abolish the Fed (compared with 45% of all likely voters).

Almost two-thirds of tea partiers in the Bloomberg poll said they'd be willing to reduce research funds for Alzheimer's and other diseases to narrow the deficit; a similar proportion would consider cutting spending on roads and bridges.

...nearly 70% of tea partiers said that they're less likely to support a candidate who voted for the bank rescue.

Also...

Lesser known is that a higher proportion of tea party adherents believes that free trade agreements hurt the nation overall (61%) than does the general population (53%), according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month. In a poll earlier this year by the Mellman Group, a majority of tea party supporters favored putting taxes on imports from countries with lower environmental standards than the United States

Another tea party target is the Internal Revenue Service. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who has emerged as the Senate's leading tea party incumbent, says that his "main goal in the Senate will not only be to cut taxes, but to get rid of the IRS." Mr. DeMint's goal is echoed by many tea party candidates, including Arkansas Rep. John Boozman, now running for Senate.

Why should this alarm big business?

John Castellani, the former head of the Business Roundtable who is now running the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, told Bloomberg Businessweek this month, with remarkable understatement, "This kind of extremism makes it much harder to plan from a business perspective."

[tw]

Tea party in Delaware has shattered the Republican Party there. Apparently the rest of the Party will not 'celebrate' on Tuesday night at the same location that Christine O'Donnell will (according to polls) concede. At last report, nobody announced where O'Donnell will hold her election night party.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I heard an O'Donnell ad in the wee hours of this morning. It went along blah, blah, blah, Come on Christians, she needs your support (or vote, don't remember which).

[Undertoad]

John Castellani, the former head of the Business Roundtable who is now running the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, told Bloomberg Businessweek this month, with remarkable understatement, "This kind of extremism makes it much harder to plan from a business perspective."

"Both the major parties are kind of in our back pocket, so there's no need for business to run with one side or the other," Catellani added. "We're just basically against anything that rocks the boat."

[Pico and ME]

UT, you lean libertarian, right?