If you're a journalist who has written about the “tea party” movement ever, chances are you've been added to a half-dozen e-mail distribution lists affiliated with it. At least, after covering the party in Santa Ana last April, I was. Or maybe I signed up for these e-mails during a patriotic reverie after watching the trailer for The Tea Party Movie. Don't quite remember.
Usually, these messages, whose subject lines come with twists on Obama-is-ruining-the-country sentiments, go into the junk mail folder. But you can't not open a message that starts like this:
WARNING – TEA PARTY IN DANGER!
It gets better.
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The e-mail is a 1000-or-so word missive from Tea Party “founder” Dale Robertson. While the popular notion of the Tea Parties is often thought to have begun in Feb. 2009 with Rick Santelli melting down and lambasting “losers” on CNBC, Robertson apparently bought the domain name TeaParty.org in 2004. His organization, though, represents only one of a few factions in the movement. Certainly, a good number of tea partiers would disagree with the idea that he's the one in charge.
[Update, 2:04 p.m.: Okay, a lot of tea partiers would vehemently disagree that he's in charge. See the comments below.]
The gist? The party's being hijacked by another party: the Republican Party. And Sarah Palin is a Demon Sheep.
Choice excerpts:
Sarah Palin's well delivered speech and her attractive demeanor is little more than a veneer for her less attractive political philosophy. She seems more like a duck out of water among true Conservative Constitutionalists. Palin demonstrates her NeoCon flippant viewpoint and her naivete as she seems envious of the swelled numbers of Patriots pledging their allegiance, to of all things, AMERICA and not a to kool-aid ridden political dinosaur.
[snip]
Sarah Palin is not dense or erroneous in her view of the Tea Party, just the opposite. She represents a growing insider's attack to the heart of the Tea Party. Very much like a wolf in sheep's clothing entering in at the gate as an ally, but for all intents and purposes there to seize and capture, not only one or two stray sheep, but the whole flock!
In case you haven't noticed yet, this Robertson guy can write:
However, what I am witnessing is an attempted defilement of the concept of what the Tea Party's purposes are and where we are going. The bastardization of our message I find bilious and disingenuous on its face.
Tea Party members are being eyed as just another piece of voting meat. Tea Party members are targeted for filling the rank and file of minion laden political operations, most of which are lead by failed Republican hacks.
Some are saying NO Way! Yet, who is objecting to high ranking Republicans trying to grab the Tea Party and call it their own? Do I hear voices shouting NO, NO Stop! This is our party?
Has the Tea Party become so impotent that we can not see how millions of Tea Party members are being lead down a slippery slope into the abyss of political complacency?
Are the ears being trained to adore the mindless blither which drools from the sweet tongues of the politically anointed?
Again: “The bastardization of our message I find bilious and disingenuous on its face.” That's the kind of diction you find in the Federalist Papers.
For anyone still wondering what the Tea Party stands for, here you go:
Illegal Aliens are illegal.
Pro-Domestic Employment is indispensable.
Stronger Military is essential.
Gun ownership is sacred.
Government must be downsized.
National Budget must be balanced.
Deficit Spending will end.
Bail-out and Stimulus Plans are illegal.
Reduce Personal Income Taxes a must.
Reduce Business Income Taxes is mandatory.
Intrusive Government Stopped.
English only is required.
Traditional Family Values are encouraged.
Common Sense Constitutional Conservative Self-Governance is our mode of operation.
….and Yes, we are a Christian Nation!
The Tea Party must stay independent or we shall die.
Informative! I gotta read my e-mail more often.
