Coffee Party v. Tea Party – Facebook Turf War
The Tea Party need no introduction, but what is the Coffee Party? The Coffee people stemmed from the frustration of Annabel Park. Yes, editorially speaking it is annoying to hear all the “fiscal conservatives” emerge after 8 years of massive deficit, military expansion, and degradation of civil rights, attempting to claim a moral high-ground of “out of control government”. Bothered by the widespread coverage of the Tea movement as the only grassroots political effort in America, she countered with the Facebook status update heard around the word.
let’s start a coffee party . . . let’s get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion
The birth of a movement. This movement differs because it is not about a political ideology, but a dedication to rationale dialogue. Instead of the Tea Party’s older (and doctrinal) members, the Coffee Party has a surge of youthful contributors eagerly waiting to meet-up for rational political discourse.
Newsflash, no one supports a government that continually operates outside its means. Instead of some tepid reaction to the Stimulus Package as blatant socialism, the conversation would be rationally directed to the economics of the bill with emphasis on how such measures can be avoided in the future. What an enlightened perspective, approach politics with an open mind, avoid dogmatism; Think.
Marketplace of ideas don’t fail me now! The two groups are now in a Facebook Face-off;
- Join the Coffee Party Movement currently has 104,000 members.
- Tea Party Patriots currently with 107,000 members.
The epic struggle sees both sides frantically requesting people join their cause. Friends communicating with like minded people to join a Facebook group as to signal a battle for the best idea. While the Tea Party started out with a strong lead, the Coffee people are no less emboldened to strike a strategic defeat. And a major defeat it shall be. It will undermine the media hype about the importance of the Tea Party, that it was just a some half baked myth of neoconservative lore. Will Fox News cover the inevitable Coffee rally with the passion and enthusiasm as it did the Tea Party? While Romney and Palin advocate Tea integration in the Republican Party, the Coffee Party will continue to woo moderates with the promise of intellectuality discourse.
In the event of a Tea Party Facebook loss, Colbert would say the Market Has Spoken. But, wry as his writers are, they will note that Facebook group “Boner in your jeans?.. Try running downstairs with no bra on!” has 111,000 members. This lady for president – 2012! But in all seriousness, over 100,000 fans is a big number for a political cause.
UPDATE 1
107,868 fans to 107,790 fans at of 5:06 PM , March 10th 20010. Coffee Party has nearly surpassed the Tea Party!
UPDATE 2
The Coffee Party is ahead: 109,047 fans to 108,455 fans as of March 11th. From the rate of expansion the Tea Party will have trouble keeping up.
UPDATE 3
The Coffee Party has a consistent flow of members. 117,801 fans as of March 12th. In three days ten thousand people joined. Considering it will be featured on CNN today and the launch date is planned tomorrow, this number should quickly surpass 120,000. For reference the Tea Party has 109,456 fans.
UPDATE 4
Shocking. As of March 13th at 7:07 PM, the Coffee Party has 141,026 fans. The Tea 110,639 fans. While virtual support is always probative. The first mass event had nearly 350 meet-ups. For an opening debut this is powerful. If people don’t understand this yet, the hierarchy is forming. Leaders are stepping forward to become organizers – those first crucial connections are forming. Don’t expect to correlate event attendance with Tea Party event attendance until these people are formed a salient group. Remember, the Coffee Party is in its infancy compared to the Tea Party movement.
H
ere is a photo of a March 13th event with Annabel Park. No signs, no Obama pins, reasonable people sitting around discussing important politics. She had a great suggestion that each group pick a single topic and approach it from all directions, from all angles. I do miss the “Don’t Tread On Me” obligatory sign that appears everywhere.
UPDATE 5
March 14th 9:14 pm , 156,286 fans. Tea Party : 111,690 fans
UPDATE 6
March 15th 9:40PM 164,140 fans 112,573 fans.
The Republican Party is really risking it big by embracing the tea movement. They are certainly going to pick up a few loose House seats from it and even a few Senate seats. But if they fail to win the presidency in ’12 (which is exactly what will happen if Palin is on the ticket), they will spiral into Whig Party land.
Personally, I hope the tea movement keeps pressing on only to fail. I hope the Republican experiment of absolute non-compromise fails and does so on a grand scale—if only for moderate Republican voices to have a voice again.
Eh, after what Republicans have done to this country in my lifetime alone, and after what so-called “moderate” conservatives on the Supreme Court continue to do, I’m not losing any sleep over the possibility of moderate Republicans losing their voice. I just want the Coffee Party movement to succeed. The CP offers the best hope we have right now for a national dialogue about important issues. That said, I think that if we do succeed, moderate Republicans once again will have a voice because the incoherent fanaticism of the Tea Partiers will be wiped away.
“The CP offers the best hope we have right now for a national dialogue about important issues. ” – have you *looked* at the “comments” posted on the Coffee Party FB page? The “dialog” most of the fans seem to favor is bashing their enemies.
I had some very interesting and thorough discussions with Coffee Party members. And that’s what the ideal is, the point is not have an ideological stance but reasonable discussion. While certain people don’t live up to, others do. The exception isn’t the rule.
But what you do mean bashing their enemies? For instance there is this one guy, a Ron Paul libertarian, who keeps ranting about the abolition of social programs and returning them to churches, where they traditionally were kept. It is such an absurd assertion on so many levels that often it is difficult to express them all at once – intellectually. But maybe he is an enemy because he refuses to have a rational conversation.
At any rate, have you been to a Coffee Party event? Because in all honesty, the internet is troll paradise. The difference is readily apparent between them and say, the Tea Party.
For democracy though, how great is it that we have a group of people who refuse to take ideological picket lines and chant “We want to have intellectual and rational discourse before we make judgment, lets meet up to discuss”.
I love this Coffee Party idea. I was recently dragged into a discussion about whether Obama hates profitable companies or not and I ended up lecturing the blogger about rational discourse. The driving idea behind the CP seems to be the same thing that I am always after when I debate others online or off. Rarely do I really care about convincing them to change positions, but I do want everyone to actually think about what they believe and to be able to defend those beliefs rationally.
http://mymoratorium.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/1132/
I think you hit the nail on the head
“I do want everyone to actually think about what they believe and to be able to defend those beliefs rationally”
I stole a comparison from the idea of legal sufficiency of a claim, that a claim with 4 elements is like a table. You knock one of them out and it falls. Similarly, a political assertion that drops a leg will begin to waiver. If you support E, are A/B/C/D actually viable themselves?
I just thought, come on could anyone really be against that slogan above? And yes, many people are feed the idea that subscription to authority suffices as sufficiency for any claim – i.e. my preacher said it or whole family believes it , or whatever. So actually, the idea of intellectual and open discourse offends people are take comfort in the wisdom of others. “God said it, it must be true!”
Mike, I love the chant “We want to have intellectual and rational discourse before we make judgment, lets meet up to discuss.” I love coffee too.
David, you crack me up sometimes. I think you use people like “Dude” and “Roland” as target practice to sharpen your debating skills. They either don’t understand what you’re saying or have a hard time admitting that they’re completely and utterly irrational – which is probably what makes them irrational.
I find it interesting that you all call for substance and compassion yet mock members of the Tea Party – I am not one. But I am looking, hoping for a place where “all” viewpoints can be heard. I can very seldom have a discussion with anyone about politics without being asked what my affiliation is. The bottom line, the people in Washington D.C. need to be held to a standard. What We the People don’t need is another method of pitting one group of people against another group of people. They’ve done that quite well in Washington and everyone suffers. I say join the Coffee Party and the Tea Party. But most of all get engaged in the political process – pay attention don’t just discuss also vote! And for God’s sake don’t pit one group against another the country can’t stand this constant bickering.
The idea that you can’t put the Tea party down because you call for substance is like the people who say you can’t put intolerance down when you call for tolerance… it never makes sense. The point of tolerance is to discount intolerance. The point of substance is to discredit craziness.
Forgive me LBurton, but I’ve no compassion for sheer idiocy. The Tea Party as an idea could be productive and popular; however, that is anything but the case. It is certainly popular, but it is anything but productive. What leader do you think of when you say Tea Party? The two people who come to mind right away are Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck (to name just a few). They represent what might be genuine populist frustration. However, they channel this frustration in a semi-incomprehensible, totally irrational, eerily paranoid way. They are a perfect case study in right-wing paranoia politics in America. Respect for such movements is unwarranted.
What you seem to be alluding to is the “free market place of ideas.” However, you forget to mention one essential element of this idea: the marginalization and de-legitimization of irrational, fraudulent, and distorted ideas, e.g. the mainstream ideas of the current Tea Party movement.
What you seem to be asking for is the respect for stupidity. It’s one thing to call for healthy, critical debate. It’s another thing to ask people to respect the unrespectable.
This is funny, but not at all surprising. A lot of Tea Party people are unemployed and on government handouts.
“When Tom Grimes lost his job as a financial consultant 15 months ago, he called his congressman, a Democrat, for help getting government health care…Mr. Grimes is one of many Tea Party members jolted into action by economic distress. At rallies, gatherings and training sessions in recent months, activists often tell a similar story in interviews: they had lost their jobs, or perhaps watched their homes plummet in value, and they found common cause in the Tea Party’s fight for lower taxes and smaller government. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28teaparty.html?pagewanted=1
“The Great Depression, too, mobilized many middle-class people who had fallen on hard times. Though, as Michael Kazin, the author of ‘The Populist Persuasion,’ notes, they tended to push for more government involvement. The Tea Party vehemently wants less — though a number of its members acknowledge that they are relying on government programs for help.”
Can you say non-sequitor?
I will make one last comment. The point is, we don’t need to pit one group of americans against another group. The Politicians in Washington have been doing it for years. If you are concerned about this country hold the politicians accountable. Name-calling because you disagree with another person is simply childish and more importantly it does nothing to hold the people in Washington accountable. You people need to GET IT!! This is not about whether or not you believe people in the Tea Party are moronic that is a non-issue. Tell me what your views are, how can this country be improved? Do you want more government or less and why? What about the tax structure? What about immigration? The war in Iraq?
Or is the purpose of the Coffee Party simply to oppose the Tea Party?
To be honest I’m not all giddy about joining any particular group or movement. My point is that it’s futile to deal with the “Tea Party” as a rational, negotiable group.
I agree simply name calling is probably not the best tactic to bring about structural change. But I think I’m just calling a spade a spade here. Nevertheless, in the end I’d rather just ignore Tea Party people. They are misinformed, somewhat marginalized group of people anyway. It’s better to simply move on without them. Problem is they think those actually proposing solutions are the engineers of their problems.
Moving on, you’re right, it’s better to simply bring about tangible results. I’m all for that, too.
coffee party v.s tea party, who will triump?