Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
The 2010 elections which gave the Republican Party the majority in the House of Representatives was seen as the elevation of a “Grassroots Movement”, composed of the spontaneously combusted wrath of ordinary citizens fed up with a bloated government. It was indeed a seminal moment for those people who disdained taxation, government handouts in entitlements, and the seeming waste of our tax dollars. The initial angry explosion was a reaction to the proposal and passage of the Health Care Bill. Rallies were organized, town hall meetings disrupted and a “hit list” of both Republican and Democratic members of Congress circulated.
The initial mainstream media reaction to this nascent movement was one of disdain, particularly because it was seen as an “out of the Beltway movement”, thus not to be taken seriously. However, this changed in a large part led by FOX News and copied by its “wannabe” CNN. Led by these Cable outlets, thirsting for sensation to fill their 24/7 news maws, all media began to follow suit, not wanting to be left behind. I find it interesting though that as late as April 22, 2010, Politico, hardly a left wing outlet, noted that unwarranted attention and media frenzy had begun, elevating the status of this purported movement: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36185.html It is ironic that this article, while laying out the irrational amount of attention given to the Tea Party, at its end discounts the effect the movement would have on the election. Its authors certainly were not prescient.
Lost in the tumult of media exaggeration and sensationalism was the fact that this was not at all a grass roots movement of average Americans, but a crafty example of political manipulation laid out in tandem with the compliance of Rupert Murdoch’s news network’s assault upon all things they deem liberal. The prime mover in this is Richard “Dick” Armey, a former Texas Republican Congressman, House Majority Leader, and major senior lobbyist at a worldwide lobbying firm. Armey created the mythology of a grass roots movement, guided its progress, arranged, and then paid for its “spontaneous” events.
Dana Millbank, in the Washington Post related the involvement of Dick Armey in this movement. “Dick Armey is intellectually versatile: The former leader of House Republicans went from being a rainmaker for a Washington lobbying firm to being the unofficial leader of the anti-Washington “tea party” movement. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031503730.html
After the 2010 election victory, sweeping away as many “old school” Republicans as well as Democrats, the media both expressed shock and provided substantive background on what had just taken place.
“There is particular irony in Mr. Armey — who has spent three decades in Washington, where he has become one of the city’s most enduring insiders — mentoring a movement that wants to hold on to its outsider ethos.” http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/a/dick_armey/index.html
The vehicle for Mr. Armey’s maneuverings is an organization called FreedomWorks, which if you go to the link below you will see a picture of Glenn Beck and a link to receive kits to be used in August disruptions of Town Hall Meetings. http://www.freedomworks.org/ FreedomWorks has its origin in an organization called “Citizens for a Sound Economy” which is not surprisingly a creation of the Koch Brothers that was tactically split into two entities, one being FreedomWorks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy
In trying to make sense of politics and the forces competing within it context is everything. By its nature politics is the art of using popular mythological themes (i.e. No New Taxes, less government, terrorism, etc.) to rouse the populace to given action. The Tea Party Movement, FreedomWorks and even Dick Armey have every right to try to influence our political system. They also have every right to utilize what mythology they please, or can create, to advance their cause. Whether there is danger to our political system in their belief in, or promotion of, their myths should not result in suppression of their rights. That is not the Constitutional way in our country. Indeed, their aims and their backers are not hidden, but easily researched, as I’ve done cursorily here.
My concerns are that for this country to remain democratic and viable under our Constitution we need the information and context supplied by a free press, bolstered by freedom of expression. When the popular punditry and the mainstream news media do not supply context, but actually play a role in creating myths about the forces engaged in struggle for the hearts and minds of people, our democratic institutions suffer.
That the so-called Tea Party is a movement backed by some of the most powerful forces in this country to put forth an agenda that is beneficial to them and represents their ideology, should be contextually a part of any news report, media sound bite, or internet article. The myth of this movement being a spontaneous uprising of average citizens is well represented in media reportage. For the average citizen struggling to keep their families and themselves together, getting their news from small doses of mainstream media, it serves to reinforce the myth by omiting context. That this amalgam of people, led cunningly by a Washington Insider and lobbyist, is confused as to their purpose and misled by an ideology that is possibly antithetical to their needs is best represented by that well known poster, prominently shown at a Tea Party Rally: “Keep your Government Hands off of my Social Security and Medicare!” Such is the effect of political mythology on the minds and actions of people.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Where’s the attack on the George Soro’s machine… oh wait, your all liberals… I forgot for a moment!
Ed B.,
“…BHO’s anti-business attitude…”
Can you explain what you believe is BHO’s anti-business attitude?
I must say your comments are way to emotional and not very factual — you provide zero facts/URLS!
I am a TEA PARTY supporter. No one gives me $.
I believe a smaller government is what America needs. I believe that
without most of the current regulations [not all!],
without BHO’s anti-business attitude
and actions, America would be on the ascent, not the descent. Explain, in great detail why I am ‘misguided’, please. Otherwise, you just seem to
be bloviating, to me.
I doubt you will respond to this, but here are my thoughts on 2 stmts you make:
1. “My concerns are that for this country to remain democratic and viable
under our Constitution we need the information and context supplied by
a free press, bolstered by freedom of expression. When the popular
punditry and the mainstream news media do not supply context, but
actually play a role in creating myths about the forces engaged in
struggle for the hearts and minds of people, our democratic
institutions suffer.” YES!!
But you miss the All the information, not just some of the
information you like part. Tell me please, does ABC,NBC,CBS make
any effort to present both sides? If so, show me.
2. “That the so-called Tea Party is a movement backed by some
of the most
powerful forces in this country to put forth an agenda that is
beneficial to them and represents their ideology, should be
contextually a part of any news report, media sound bite, or internet
article.” — NO!!
#Wiunion, #WI Unions? #Progressive ideaology?
Explain why Pub Sect Unions should be able to
hold all citizens hostage to their demands. I bet $100 [all
I can afford to lose] you cannot do it to a random jury!
No Voir Dire! – Am I wrong?
Teaparty is about Fed Gov not interfering in my life. If I hate TX, I can vote with my feet. How does voting with my feet integrate into your ‘thinking’?
I have immense respect for your understanding of the law [nevertheless, I
do have one question I would pay dearly for an answer from you on].
I think your policy judgments should be tested in the arena of public discussion. I doubt you have done that. Am I wrong?
Ed
Ph.D. Physics
Retired from IBM
@egbegb
egbegb2@gmail.com
“The simple and obvious problem with the two-party system is that labels such as ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ have essentially become meaningless. Neither party is built on a sound platform of preserving or restoring personal liberty; instead merely endeavoring to pick and choose what personal freedoms to champion (or grant depending on who you ask) vaguely aligned with what their party ideologies supposedly envision. The aftermath of this being liberals who fervently defend a woman’s right to choose while simultaneously seeking to limit how much salt she can have on her fries or whether her child can have a toy with his or her Happy Meal. Equally as sickening are the logically challenged conservatives who spout small government, but want to regulate who can marry who and support SWAT teams kicking down doors looking for drugs.”
http://rightrant.com/2011/07/16/another-viewpoint-of-the-two-party-system/
rafflaw,
I feel kind of sorry for some of them … it’s the only way they get to actually go somewhere however, I don’t excuse them for the damage they’ve done to others.
Blouise,
Now that is one hell of a vacation!
It’s as if Dick Armey and his minions sat around his version of the Bat(ShitCrazy) Cave tm. wondering how to unify and consolidate all of the extreme and low information splinter groups of eligible voters: racists, gun nuts, misogynists and elderly that pine for the 40’s and 50’s, and mold them into a voting bloc of stealth Republicans.
If there were otherwise ‘normal’ people, that felt disenfranchised, angered and frustrated by the political process that joined them initially, and stayed this long, then they lost the presumption of doubt from me. It is fitting that Mr. Armery may have hoist the Republican party on its own petard.
For many of these older teabaggers, somebody paid for the bus ride and food … sad to say for many of them it’s a vacation and probably they only one they’ve had in years.
AY,
Are you playing the tea race card?? 🙂
I am praying for all of the Black Pekoe tea too…
Swarthmore,
those people have nothing to worry about because the Tea party member is praying for them. So they have that going for them!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/01/britain-resist-tea-party-thinking
Blouise, you should have seen the glare. He and his wife were very plus sized so I quickly retreated and found another seat. Next a handicapped woman was made to cry and then the teabaggers harassed a lady that testified about her husband’s parkinson’s disease and his lack of health insurance. She left in tears ,also. A fundamentalist christian man yelled that he would pray for her on her way out. I left after that.
They should do a little grass so they could actually contemplate their roots.
I’m waiting for the masses of the tea party faithful walking down the streets of Washington DC with their signs saying”we got what we wanted ” in this debt ceiling deal.
Tea Party’s tough tactics on debt alienating moderate voters, polls show
Pollsters expect backlash against Tea Party movement following unwillingness to compromise on US debt ceiling talks
Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 August 2011 19.01 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/02/tea-party-us-debt-talks
SwM,
A safe assumption … at least he waited till you’d gone to the restroom … some would call that kind of waiting cowardice … me.
Never forget going to the healthcare rally. An angry man tore my sign up and took my seat. I assume he was tea party.
Blouise, very appropriate title change!
Weed roots movement
Great article Mike. it is amazing how an alleged “grassroots” movement has so many big money Washington regulars involved!