Monday, April 17, 2017

Nothing says “organic” and “grassroots” like being partnered with MoveOn and CAP





The progressive left’s grudging admiration for the Tea Party is evidenced in their intense efforts to recreate our successes. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their various manifestations of “leftist Tea Parties” implode and sink into obscurity. From the “coffee party” and “no labels party” to Occupy and Black Lives Matter, the progressive left has tried again and again to manufacture its own Tea Party equivalent.


The irony, of course, is that their current efforts are transparently astroturfed, while ours had/has truly grassroots origins. Their first mistake is in believing their own press about us back in ’09 and ’10. Headline after headline bleated desolately and desperately that the Tea Party was “bogus astroturf,” that it was the brainchild of the Koch brothers and/or Rupert Murdock (and even Jim DeMint), that protesters were paid, that it was neither spontaneous nor grassroots, and on. And on.

Because they didn’t understand or believe that the Tea Party movement was very real, their attempts at recreating its power are focused first on outside organizers and massive funding rather than on tapping into something that will actually speak to a large enough base to inspire a true grassroots movement.

Their second problem is a lack of focus. Instead of focusing on one issue and clear messaging, the progressive left simply can’t pull its disparate demographic segments together....







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