How would you make a liberal Tea Party?

[DonCoquixote]

I know there have been some attempts, and I know Nader has talked about it, but here is the idea: how can liberals form a faction that can determine the agenda of the democratic party? Note, the tea party has not left the GOP, though they threaten to. Is there a way for us to steal this trick from the Koches, and if so, how?

I can think of one person that coudl figure into it, AlGore. He has the credibility to speak to liberals. He also is independent from the Clintons, who still think they could have made him President if he embraced them.

[Kennah]

1. Green Tea Party!

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[provis99]

3. where's George Soros when we need him?

if there ever is a liberal tea party, the freepers will blame Soros for it anyways, so he might as well spread the money to astroturf a liberal tea party.

[MrSlayer]

4. Exactly,

There are more than a few deep pocketed liberals. Why aren't they buying the Congress the way the fascists have over the past 35 years or so?

[Luminous Animal]

12. Yes. Why aren't you rich liberals buying the democracy that I deserve.

[MrSlayer]

15. What is the alternative?

Only money can defeat money the way the system is rigged up right now.

[Luminous Animal]

11. Deleted.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Communicate wth the current ones.

They actually have similar complaints. Michael Moore for the past 20 years has advocated communication without the superior condemnation.

[99th_Monkey]

6. FUCK the Tea Baggers

workers, students and activists have been creating and sustaining REAL
"movements" for decades dude.

just brush up on your Sal Alinski and you'll do fine.

BTW - you may want to check out the action RIGHT NOW on OCCUPY WALL ST.
website: http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

[XemaSab]

7. Have a top-down approach

I've been to their meetings.

The big thing that separates us from them is that we have democracy and they don't.

In the meetings I've been to, there's one main speaker and a minor speaker, one "host," and a few other people. All of them are predetermined, and there is no opportunity for people to get up and speak. Then they go into subgroups, where there is some discussion but there is still a predetermined topic and a host.

Liberals could never do that. We're too focused on the concept of fairness. We're also too interested in being up-to-the-moment. For example, if there were a liberal Tea Party meeting tonight, the topic would be some issue from the last two weeks, and there would be people getting up every five minutes to advocate for the environment, women's rights, 9-11 conspiracy mumbo-jumbo, or who knows what.

They don't roll that way.

[Selatius]

13. Well, the right has always been better at falling in lock-step like the good citizens they are.

That was always their strength.

[RickFromMN]

8. Someone told me the Tea Party is actually two parties, one Libertarian, one Christian Conservative.

I was told the Tea party started as Libertarians. Christian Conservatives joined later.

The Tea Party are believers who won't let facts get in the way.
They follow their leaders with blind faith.

I'm surprised the Tea Party didn't turn against Rick Perry for that HPV vaccine executive order.
Libertarians should be outraged at the government intrusion.
Christian Conservatives should be equally upset.

I'm surprised they don't turn against Rick Perry for the Social Security Ponzi statement.
The elderly do not equate Social Security with entitlement programs, but they heard what Perry said.

Here is a question to ponder.
How long will Tea Party believers remember the HPV vaccine executive order?
How long will they remember Social Security Ponzi statement?
When will they start claiming it was Obama and the Democrats who did those things instead of Perry?

Rick Perry is one of their leaders. They have blind faith in him. He can do no wrong in their eyes.
Rick Perry could lead the Tea Party believers over a cliff. I believe they would willingly jump.

How does one reason with someone who has blind faith, who won't listen to opposing views or facts?

One can't reason with them.

They are going to shut down the government. It's a matter of time.

If not last month, this week. If not this week, next Spring. They will shut down the government.

The loss of Social Security and Medicare, the loss of money flowing to the states and cities,
these are the things that should shake the Tea Party believers' faith, if anything will.

I'm no longer certain even these things will shake their faith. They will find a way to blame Obama.

The rest of us will suffer too. We cannot escape the carnage the Tea Party will cause.

We can only hope everyone who is not Tea Party turns against the Tea Party and votes them out.

[JaneQPublic]

9. Learn from the organizing methods of Dean's 2004 campaign

While obviously not successful in securing the nomination, the Dean campaign was groundbreaking in many respects in terms of its methods of harnessing and growing grassroots support: the use of meetups, social network, autonomous groups organized in local communities, etc.

After all, the Dean campaign was first to use the "Take Our Country Back" theme, which of course the Teabaggers stole.

[Capitalocracy]

10. Secret billionaire funders and a cooperative media.

If we're to follow the Tea Party model.
I suggest we find another route, because that's not going to happen. We can find other ways to make ourselves relevant. But nothing will come easy like it did for the Tea Party. A Tea Party rally of less than 50 people gets national news coverage on all channels. Can you imagine anything like that happening for a liberal group? No, we have to have 1000 or 10,000 times as many people show up to even get a mention.

So let's do it.

[chillspike]

14. The Coffee Party

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/