Tea Party Implosion?

November 20, 2009 / 2:27 pm • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

The Politico has an interesting article about the Tea Party groups dividing. Read the whole thing. I disagree with this conclusion:

The organizational chaos — combined with a widening apathy at the edges of the movement — has produced a growing consensus among local, state and national tea party leaders that for the movement to evolve from the loose conglomeration of fired-up activists who mobilized this summer to register their dissatisfaction with Obama and Congress at town hall protests and marches across the country into a sustainable bloc with the power to shape the GOP and swing elections, it will require the emergence of a national leader, group or structure.

Ned Ryun, president of American Majority, a nonprofit that has conducted organizer-training sessions for many tea party activists, said “the next three to six months” are going to be critical in determining “what’s going to happen with the tea party movement. Are they going to be a bunch of fingers, or are they going to come together to be a fist?”

The diagnosis is wrong. Why will someone have to be in charge? The movement has done fine and no one is in charge of the Tea Parties now. The national organizations could be best described as facilitators and supporters.

Do they want to be in charge of the Tea Party movement? I don’t even know. So I contacted Freedom Works to find out. Here’s what Press Secretary Adam Brandon said:

“FreedomWorks is looking to facilitate the Tea Party in any way that we can. We were never looking to own or control it. The focus needs to be on the issues at hand.”

And then, I contacted American’s For Prosperity Director of Membership and Online Strategy Erik Telford, who has been heavily involved with the Tea Party movement and asked him if AFP would like to be in charge of the Tea Party movement [Full Disclosure: AFP has sponsored me to go to some workshops and I won their 2009 Award for Online Excellence]. Erik said, “No, the Tea Parties are a grassroots, bottom-up movement. We feel privileged to be a part of it.”

Asking the “who’s in charge” questions about the Tea Party movement is to fundamentally misunderstand conservatives. Conservatives do not like being told what to do. The notion of subsuming self-interest for “the greater good” is anathema to them. That makes replicating the Borg-like work of ACORN and Moveon.org organizations nearly impossible on the right. When conservatives see a goal, they’ll take 50 roads to get there. The left will get on the Huffington Post highway and ride along together.

Because of the uniqueness of the conservative activists, there has been some jostling. Impassioned individuals, some with exotic backgrounds like paralegal or college student as examples, were thrust into the spotlight in their respective cities. No training. No experience. Boom! Life transformed in an instant by an internal feeling and desire to get the country going the right direction. Some of these patriots were unprepared for what it all meant. Others have grown and shone in their new-found roles.

And now, the movement as a whole is morphing. Without giving away details, I know of grassroots planning that includes going after corruption, tackling voter fraud and filling precinct chairs. New organizations are growing out of the Tea Party movement and it is all grassroots work.

The national conservative organizations have been trying to help–give training, give funding for venues, give advice for growing organizations. They have been invaluable, background players in a emotionally-charged, fired-up grassroots phenomenon.

The Tea Party movement isn’t imploding. It’s maturing. And that’s a good thing. There’s lots of work to be done. So now that everyone has found a like-minded community, well, the real work begins. So new outgrowths will sprout to fill the many needs out there. That’s what’s happening now.

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  • brewers_rule

    I completely agree. Organizing is only going to fuel the already-huge Media Matters, Daily Kos, etc. maniacal claims it’s astroturf. Plus, identifying groups w/one leader implies the tea parties are tied to a specific party or person when the idea has ZERO to do w/that. It’s idea-based and the Republican Party still hasn’t gotten the point to return to those values so unless they want to align w/Libertarians, which I suppose is always possible, it makes no sense and would hurt the organizing more than helping it.

  • http://iconicfreedom.blogspot.com/ ICONIC FREEDOM

    I agree with Politico to an extent. I am a meeting/event planner. My colleagues and I have attended over 15 meetings from April – November, town halls and rallies where organization, professionalism and polish is lacking in spades!

    We can dismiss the need for professionalism & polish but with a strong message of limited gov’t, personal responsibility and safety of the nation along with professionalism & polish, there would be no stopping the movement.

    If people think professionalism & polish are not worth addressing, try going to find a job and convincing the employer to hire you without them.

    We’ve ALL offered our services, FOR FREE, to help support the movement.

    However, there are many who just want to engage in political celebrity, who want to control, who want to push a personal agenda.

    Liberals have backgrounds that give rise to knowing how to put these things on.

    Conservatives could use the support, but too many want the spotlight – everybody wants to be up front.

    And we all thought this was about freedom, we had no idea the people we would deal with were like the clients & celebrities we’ve dealt with for some 20+ years in the event/meeting planning arena.

  • OBloodyhell

    > American’s For Prosperity Director of Membership

    Doc, one hopes that’s your typo, and that it’s actually “Americans For…”

    ;-)

  • http://melissaclouthier.com Dr. Melissa Clouthier

    Ooops! Yes, thanks for the typo heads up. I’ll fix it.

    Well, Iconic, that’s why some other groups are breaking off. The Tea Party and protesting is one thing, getting something done is another. And professionalism and polish is needed. So, some groups are restructuring and some people are creating new groups to address real needs.

    And there is no question that some in the movement have bought their own press and become mini-celebrities in their own right. They will have their 15 minutes and then diminish.

  • http://reasonbellpundit.blogspot.com daltonsbriefs

    I wish you were right, I really do. But alas the tea partiers, just like the Ron Paulers last year, got infiltrated by unprofessional loonies who don’t have America’s best interests at heart.

    In Indiana we have tea party leaders espousing violence if the government doesn’t listen. That’s too much, and shows the lack of organizational structure that would normally eliminate such a person from an active role in any legitimate group.

    I’m all for grass roots efforts, but I think the tea party groups need to refocus on local issues and work more closely with Republicans to do so. If the GOP in your area is recalcitrant, then by all means get a new leader for your GOP. If they are open and willing to engage, work and collaborate instead of attacking and hurting our own.

  • http://iconicfreedom.blogspot.com/ ICONIC FREEDOM

    I have to say, I’m relieved to hear such rational thoughts and ideas about this, I was starting to wonder, especially locally here, if there were rational people out there that really get: limited gov’t, personal responsibility and safety of the nation. :)

    Cheers!