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Gov. Mark Sanford addresses Tea Party activists in Columbia, Spril 15, 2009 (TPS)
MORE INFORMATION TO BE RELEASED MONDAY
The South Carolina Republican Party is teaming up with the folks behind the local Tea Party movement and other activists in an effort to make a renewed push for limited government, lower taxes and less spending.
The new coalition will include local Tea Party groups as well as the Campaign for Liberty, a libertarian group associated with Congressman Ron Paul.
The announcement, which came on the day the National Tea Party Convention culminated with a speech from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in Nashville, Tenn., almost never happened.
A disagreement arose between Tea Party activists and the Greenville County Republican Party’s proposed ideological purity test. County Executive Committeeman Dan Herren said the GOP should vet candidates, but Tea Party activists disagreed.
“The overall objection was the fact that the Tea Party movement absolutely does not want to be identified as a political party,” Harry Kibler, spokesman for the Upstate Coalition of Conservative Groups. “We want to remain independent.”
Greenville County Republican Party Chairman Patrick Haddon eventually diffused the situation by withdrawing the idea, leading the way for the coalition’s creation.
More news on the partnership is expected to be released on Monday.
I salute your politeness, Adam.
Though one should be careful to remember the Tea Party is not a uniform group. A sizable portion of it is top-down astroturf from washington (largely on display in nashville). Then there are all the different single issue factions with viewpoints that are sometimes conflicting to one another. The SCGOP is going to have a very difficult time finding the compromise they are looking for; though if they restrict themselves to state issues then things could actually work.
Also, a heads up, there is a typo in your picture caption. “Spril” instead of “April”
“the Tea Party is not a uniform group…” just uniformly white.
The new coalition will include local Tea Party groups as well as the Campaign for Liberty, a libertarian group associated with Congressman Ron Paul.* Story
Good Grief! If the Ron Paul group is associated with the Tea Party local Republicans, they should be Polar Bear whip by a Sara Palin idiot who really believes that she is the coming Jesus to save the Republican Glenn Beck looney Paradise….
Oh, right. I forgot that the only category necessary to distinguish between individuals is their color.
Actually what I do not understand is why the Tea Party keeps pretending they are not a policical arm of the GOP. They are GOP inspired, GOP funded , GOP promoted, and the only people they invite to speak at events, other than to attack them for not showing up to be attacked, are GOP candidates.
While I do not agree with Stu, that the Tea Party is a racists organization in its intent, I suspect a large portion of its SC membership is somewhat racist.
That said, I also do not agree membership is not uniform. Add a few more adjectives and you will come up with a fairly homogeneous group, i.e. angry, white, christian right, generally vote Republican, hate Obama, don’t understand Medicare is government health care, believe Obama wants to set up death panels, don’t know the difference between Socialism and Fascism; think the great philosophers of our time are Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, and O’Reilly.
But the number 1 unifying factor is the seeming inability to comprehend the fact that Sarah Palin is “not smart”.
There are definitely some people who go to tea parties who have those characteristics; enough so that media coverage only focuses on those tendencies.
What makes a more compelling photograph, the sneering bearded white man holding a sign that says “the president likes fried chicken,” or the 30 people standing nearby giving him the stink eye because he’s embarrassing everyone?
I guess that’s a big reason why I don’t go anymore; i am sure there is a large demographic of reasonable fiscal conservatives that have been turned off by the excesses of the tea party.
Won’t be able to change anything either; the only choice is between a party that tells the truth when they say “we’re going to spend all the money we can!” or a party that is lying through their teeth when they say they will spend less. That’s another problem with the current batch of tea party hypocrites; 90% of them would say Bush was a good president.
[...] Palmetto Scoop | SCGOP, TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS TO TEAM UP [...]
[...] named Patrick Haddon to oversee the effort and lauded his work with the Greenville County GOP to build coalitions with conservative groups statewide in the [...]
[...] Palmetto Scoop | SCGOP, TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS TO TEAM UP [...]