Coming Soon: The Progressive Answer to Tea Parties

[Pangloss]

Great article by Roger Simon at Politico, talking about how a number of progressive special interests are forming their own "movement". The groups include unions AFL-CIO and that whacky, always-getting-into-trouble SEIU, the NAACP (who recently declared the tea party movement "racist" in one of the boldest pot-kettle-black moves in recent politics) and the National Council of La Raza. Most people have probably never heard of the latter, but it's a hispanic activism group ("La Raza" means "The Race"). Simon compares the collection to the tea parties, saying that while the tea parties are a movement in search of a leader, progressives are many leaders in search of a movement!

 

And what do you suppose the new coalition is going to spend its money on? Poverty? The environment? Education? Of course not. None of those things is exciting or energizing. None creates mojo.

 

“The coalition’s first goal,” the article said, “is to plan a march.”

 

The planning has not been easy. In fact, it has been “arduous, debating everything from the name of the coalition to what the branding and logo should look like.”

 

After much arduous debating, the coalition has been named One Nation. I am on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what the branding and logo will look like.

 

The tea partiers already have the tri-cornered hats, the rattlesnake flags and firearms as their branding.

 

Maybe the liberals could adopt sushi, a latte and an iPad.

 

Cute. But it hits a nail pretty squarely. The left is lacking in fire at the moment after putting all its hopes in Obama, expecting "sea change" and "tipping points" and whatever other phrases are popular with New York Times columnists this week, and then deciding that he's let them down. Perhaps a new movement will change that. What do you all think?

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39700_Page2.html

[DJBruce]

I doubt that this new party, "One Nation" is going to be successful. It seems to me to basically be a re-branding of the Democratic party, and it defiantly is not good for President Obama. When your party is in the White House you want your followers to form rank, and support the president through everything. Not out trying to create a new party.

 

Aside from this I also see two other major problems with it:

 

-It seems that this party is very "astroturf". I mean yes the Tea Party had some leadership, but a large part of the parties culture was created spontaneously by the people in the rallies. The Tea Party never created a committee to consider the name and logo of the party. It simply took its identity from the things people brought to the rallies.

 

-What does this party have to rally and protest about? The major success of the Tea Party has come from the fact that they can rally a group of individuals against President Obama and many other politicians. As well as things like health care and bail outs. This new party cannot rally against any of this stuff because as the party in charge they will be the ones who are responsible for the legislation passed.

 

All in all I doubt One Nation will make any difference in the upcoming elections or the political arena.

[Moontanman]

Any progressive tea party equivalent would be just as repulsive as the original...

[rigney]

Any progressive tea party equivalent would be just as repulsive as the original...

 

C'mon! Don't tell me that you've forgotton the "original" reasons for that Boston thing? Maybe no war paint, buckskins or feathers this time, but the reasons are still the same. Taxation without representation. Mediocrity, Is that what this country is eventually hoping to find?

Edited July 20, 2010 by rigney

[ParanoiA]

I suspect as the tea party continues to evolve it will shed its fleas, which at the moment are the conservative oblivions that are too spaced out on god and their precious "traditional" values and skewed constitutional exceptions to even notice they're the obnoxious neighbor that doesn't know when it's time to leave the party and go home.

 

Then, the tea party will return more to the grass roots, big government federalist road block I believe they originally started out as before the conservative oblivions branded it and took over.

 

I'm basing this partly on the smear campaign to make tea partiers about racism since their threat of freedom and liberty still sell so well with the unconditioned population of the country. This will work against GOP candidates that wish to align themselves with the tea party - they will run away as the spineless weasles that they are. Propaganda and political games work well on politicians.