Tea Party Convention Squeezes Fans

Submitted by Anne Landman on

The Tea Party movement is putting on its "First National Tea Party Convention" next month in Nashville, Tennessee, but the event is drawing the wrath of some Teabaggers. The convention will be held at a swank hotel where room rates start at $189 per night, and admission to the conference costs $549 -- a lot for a movement that purports to consist of ordinary grassroots Americans. Also, one faction of the party called the Tea Party Patriots, is irritated that another faction, the Tea Party Express -- which is strongly linked to a Republican consulting firm -- is attending, even though the "Patriots" faction doesn't mind working with FreedomWorks, a front group backed by ExxonMobil and billionaires Steve Forbes and Richard Scaife. Fox News commentator Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak at the conference, too, but Tea Partiers who can't afford to attend the whole conference will have to pay $349 to hear her speak.

Main Source: 
Creative Loafing, January 12, 2010
Topics: 
Activism
Right Wing
Lobbying

Comments

JZ replied on

Individuals need to add their own creative contributions by thinking and working alone until they are ready to eventually get together with people they trust and can rely on and create something 'movements' can never do.

When people join 'movements' it seems that too often they are willing to move to a beat drummed up by a hierarchy where they can lose their own identity and potential to add their creative contributions. Joining movements and doing things thought up by other people is more convenient than it is effective for the long term.

We need a more open format that can integrate a huge number of ideas from a largely diverse number of persons. I don't think any movements are sophisticated and well-funded enough to overtake the two-party 'tyranny' system at this point. Persistence, learning, and growing into something that is not pre-planned absolutely are needed just to begin to attempt to develop a hopeful force to be reckoned with.

Tickets for over $500?! Already a mistake from the start. Again, a hierarchy...this resembles the "personal democracy" forums/conferences here in NYC where I think the entrance fee has gone up every year. It is also hundreds of dollars. Democracy if you have the money. Democracy if you are of a particular demographic. It's obviously all ridiculous.

miami hotels ne... replied on

It is a very good offer but $349 is still exspensive for student like me anyway thank for the post. Keep it up =)