TPMMuckraker Michael Patrick Leahy
Tea Parties
Is There A Tea Party Movement?
Zachary Roth | March 24, 2010, 12:59PM
Tea party in Washington, D.C.
At first it seems absurd even to ask the question in the title. After all, the emergence of the Tea Partiers has been among the hottest political stories of the past year, and the group just came within inches of stymieing President Obama's major agenda item.
But lately, it's begun to appear that the Tea Partiers -- at least as defined by the media -- aren't so much a new force of previously apolitical regular folks, stirred from their apathy by an expansion of government and Rick Santelli's famous rant. Rather, they're essentially conservative Republican base voters, who were demoralized by the failures of the Bush years and have been re-energized by Democratic control of Washington. And they're part of a strain of the conservative movement that has long been driven by cultural resentment and racial paranoia.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (105) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)Topics: Bailout, Barack Obama, Michael Patrick Leahy, Michael Steele, Racism, Republican National Committee, Rick Santelli, Right-wing extremism, Tea Parties, Tea Party Express, Tea Party Nation
Tea Parties
All The Tea In China: Conservative Activists Gather At Hunan Dynasty For Anti-Reform Press Conference
Zachary Roth | March 9, 2010, 6:01PM
A coalition of Tea Party groups will gather in a Chinese restaurant on Capitol Hill tonight to announce plans for one final Washington showdown over health-care reform.
The event, dubbed "Take the Town Halls to Washington," is designed to bring Tea Party activists to Capitol Hill during the month of March, in order to target 50 House Democrats who have not yet announced their vote on health-care reform, according to a press release. It's being put together by Mark Skoda, a prime organizer of last month's controversial National Tea Party Convention, where Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker, and by Michael Patrick Leahy, a Tea Party leader and GOP consultant.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (27) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Health Care, Health Care Reform, Mark Skoda, Memphis, Michael Patrick Leahy, Tea Parties, Tea Party Nation, Tennessee
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