The collective term "Tea party" encompasses all of them -- not just the 1994 Ohio outfit. If the Tea party was just the Ohio gang, it would have zero national influence -- as it has since 1994.
Originally Posted by pjorourke
Uh nope--check when the tax-exempt paperwork was filed for the organization and who the original founders (co-signors on the federal paperwork) of the group were:
Kuhn, Liddy, and Williams (the later two are national figures) in 1993.
Not painful at all -- we never disagreed on that historical fact. Just like we don't disagree that the first Tea Party occurred back in the 1700's. But neither of those historical facts have anything to do with the Tea Party movement that was being discussed in this thread -- a point that is apparently too painful for you to concede.
Originally Posted by pjorourke
They have everything to do with that first group--they are recognized as the first charter group. They initiated the networking of rag-tag groups in the a viable national organization in about 15 years.
It's funny you would say this when you thought it started in 2008.
Originally Posted by Doove
Might want to grab a remedial reading course when you take a break from whoring around. I did not state it began in 2008, I said it really started to concern me by 2008:
Being a conservative Libertarian, I have been quite troubled with the whole tea party movement since it raised it's rather ugly head in the 2008 elections.
Originally Posted by phatdaty
Up until then it was a rather amusing, folksy, grassroots movement. I actually was at Fountain Square the afternoon she pulled that row boat stunt that would later be recreated over and over again in various towns.
I became concerned when it got ugly by 2008 when either the backroom wizards of the RNC or the Fox News Entertainment Division, or both decided by giving them some backdoor funding, manpower, and most importantly exposure might turn them a buck and be manipulated into being the perfect bully pulpit. This is of course conjecture that borders on conspiracy paranoia, but it sure seems damn convenient for the republicans to now have a wild card like these folks that they can wince at and lightly denounce, but tag on the "I don't agree with how they made their point, but they do have a point."
If i were a betting man, this smells like the work of Atwater and Noonan.
They were behind the Buchanan tirade.
It could just be an honest to goodness
volksmarch, but I think careful manipulation is more likely the real cause.
I think the movement might have been honest back in those days it started in Ohio, but it has been perverted into something much uglier of recent.
