Tea Party – Forming PAC’s and Growing Membership – so much for the Death Knell of the Tea Party. Op-Ed mixed with Activism

Photo from a Cincinnati, Ohio Tea Party Rally in 2012 - image wn.com

As of late there’s a lot of vitriol aimed at the “Tea Party” – (That’s a loosely framed moniker for the multitude of groups within groups that are prevalent in every single state in the Union.) There are articles such as Rob Quinn of Newser’s “Weakened Tea Party Changes Focus”, which discusses the national Republican’s blame of the Tea Party for losses in 2012. There is an interesting article from an “international watchdog group” ”What to Expect from the Tea Parties in 2013 - And How to Stop it”which said article starts with the “fact” that John Boehner is a Tea Party Republican.

Which, from the outside looking in, one might more believe the Tea Party, which has never claimed to be a political organization, rather, more of a “movement”. That movement, which began with a few national groups, and morphed into individual “Tea Party” groups around the country, was more “educational” in nature, then something changed. The more they learned, the more members of individual groups became aware, the more they wanted to effect change. What occurred next was a push on a huge grassroots level in 2010 to get members elected to Federal Office. They ran on the Republican Ticket, trounced incumbents that were more Democrat than Republican, and became neatly affiliated with the Republican Party. That Political Party was thrilled, as it saw a chance to expand its power base, however, when push came to shove, the differences between strict Constructionists and any Washington Republican, got in the way of the perfect Washington DC order. What’s a major party to do? Blame those insurgent Tea Party members.

Herein lays the problem. There are a lot of Tea Party Members. More than one can shake a stick at, and if one believes they have no clout, think again. As in fledgling organizations there is always a risk that power plays would get in the way of progress (See Dick Army and his Republican Get Out the Vote efforts while working with the Tea Party.) The fact that Army was paid off by those members to get the heck out of Dodge (contracts), speaks volumes about the integrity of those who are running one of the groups – Freedom Works. There is a second group, The Tea Party Patriots, who are about to start their own P.A.C. (TheHill Blog) What we have, therefore, are two organizations that both are “Tea Party”, a “movement’, which are looking more like a political party by the minute. In forming a Political Action Committee, they are a political organization. If they can break from the Republican Party and take the time and energy to form their own party, what a boon that would be for the American People. If that appears to difficult and they have the P.A.C. to garner funds to elect Tea Party Members, then they may be able to fund those members who run as “Tea Party” Independents.

They are the only Independent options in the foreseeable future as regards candidates; it’s a question, therefore, of whether or not they will unit to become one political party. In the meantime, if one is looking for an alternative. The following are the two major organizations with links to local and regional Tea Party Groups.

Tea Party Patriots

And

Freedom Works

Ironically most of the local groups are affiliated with both organizations.

This gives them a huge voting bloc. One might not think of the “Tea Party” as anything but extreme. They are the people standing on street corners, and holding signs, when there isn’t even an election! What this does, however, is plant the seed. There are the activists, and they are the only political organization (call it what it really is) that would make our framers proud.