Memo to the media: The Tea Party movement has collapsed

mediamatters.org...

Like rubberneckers on the misinformation highway, let’s slow down and gawk at the wreckage from last Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Philadelphia. Let’s look at the scattered debris and see what it says not only about the state of today’s Tea Party movement, but also what clues it provides for the political press corps in terms of how it should cover the anti-Obama rabble rousers.

The Saturday event was dubbed Uni-Tea, and was designed to feature mostly minority speakers as a way to send a message that not only isn’t the Tea Party movement racist, but that it seeks diversity amid its ranks.

Minorities in the Tea Party? I have only seen a couple of them, popping up randomly. It would not surprise me if they were paid to show up at the rallies just to give the image like they aren't 95% white.

But how many people actually showed up last Saturday for the national Tea Party rally? One local report put the number at 300. That’s right, 300, or less than one-tenth of the expected turnout. In fact, it’s possible more people showed up in Philadelphia last week to commemorate the opening of the new Apple computer store than showed up at the nationally promoted Tea Party rally featuring Andrew Breitbart.

And while they were in Philadelphia expecting 3 - 5 thousand people to show up they only got... 300! Yep that's right, the once infamous Tea Party which was sweeping the nation is now collapsing. They can't motivate anyone any more, their message is dead just like their infantile 'movement'.

They even had me believing that they were really going to start moving our politics around and making a huge impact on our political culture, but now we see they don't have anything anymore. The Tea Part is getting smaller and smaller and smaller until one day it will just be a group of disoriented old white men, about 500, still acting like there is the Tea Party. It reminds me a lot of what still happens in the South where they re-enact the Civil War that they lost and was over 100 years ago.

The truth is media red flags should have gone up in late March when Tea Party heroine Sarah Palin headlined what sponsors modestly referred to as the “conservative Woodstock,” an all-day outdoor rally in Searchlight, Nevada, the home of Sen. Harry Reid. You’ll recall that at the actual Woodstock, approximately 500,000 attended the cultural (and political) milestone. But for the Searchlight “Woodstock,” just 8,000 people showed up. (Naturally, that didn’t stop Tea Party backers from concocting a far more pleasing tally for the event --20,000!)

Can you imagine if, during the height of the anti-war movement in the winter of 2003, Al Gore announced he was going to appear at the "Liberal Woodstock," and then just 8,000 people showed up? How do you think the Beltway chattering class would have portrayed that event, as well as the movement Gore was trying to lead? For Palin though, very few reporters or pundits focused on the weak Nevada turnout.

The mass manipulation by the right-wing media has disguised the truth about the TPM and that truth is... the movement is dead, and has been dead for months now. Long gone the TPM just like Sarah Palin's ego.

[edit on 8/5/2010 by Misoir]

No one is willing to respond to this thread?

You should read the entire article and see the pictures of the basically empty fields.

I'm sorry to tell you, that not a lot of individuals will respond to this thread. Some of ATS's members are beyond intolerant and they are simply unable to discuss views that clash with their own, even worse, they are the type that will never allow their "kill the guberment" mentality to be questioned in any way, shape, or form.

Sorry...

I was under the impression that sara palin affiliated herself with the movement. I cannot understand how anyone who is not mentally ill would sanction more taxation, or even the status quo, regarding taxes. But sara palin torpedoed the movement, being a warmongering, braindead, criminal zionist. They ought never have allowed that torpedo to be fired at them. They asked for it, begged for it. No accident there.

Maybe the "Tea Party" is collapsing, but not the spirit of it. Take a look at the encumbants who are losing their primaries. Watch the Democrat blood bath in November. You can gloat all you want that the "Tea Party" is collapsing, but it has already served its purpose of waking up the masses and mobilizing them against the liberal agenda.

So, the Tea Party has already won!

I think the "tea party" was a gimmick from the beginning. I only heard about it through the MSM anyway. It was supposed to be a "peoples" movement and you know what I believe, "people" don't care about political affiliations anymore. I'm sure the turn outs for even dems and repubs for local events are small.

reply to post by Misoir


If they are collapsing it is because finally they realize their movement was infiltrated and spun by the Republican party for their own gain. Support corporate rights under the banner of individual rights. Support wars of aggression under the name of peace. This is now the message of the Tea Party through the Republican converts. Most Americans believed in the original Tea Party message, but it has been hijacked by the same people they once stood in protest of.

Read this the other day, Mi. I didn't see anything that I didn't already pretty much know from attending a few Tea Party events. The Tea Party is a failed experiment in my view. Saw that a long time ago.

There's no real cohesion there but for one point...hatred of or opposition to the government...to put it bluntly...on so many different levels and from so many different viewpoints and perspectives and with so many agendas and plans, that it's just plain confusing.

I've often said that if the GOP gets back in the steering pod, more than half their members would be outta there. For most it's just a perch and a platform to roost on until someone more to their tastes mans (or womans) the pod. Co-opted and coat-tailed on...it's all over but for the shouting on FoxNews. And if they keep putting up candidates like some of the Palin/Angle whack jobs, it's going to be bye-bye even sooner.

Not being a negative ninny here. Just calling it as I see it.

reply to post by Misoir


Comrade...Here's a dandy film about a normal day at media matters, which, ironically, doesn't matter. video.foxnews.com...
Say hello to everyone at communist party headquarters for me.

[edit on 5-8-2010 by astrogolf]

reply to post by kyle43

Au contraire, affiliation in politics is important. There are people on message boards, which allow uncensored rant and rave sessions, practically slitting their wrists because all anyone cares about are politics. Was it Heinlein who said that one ought care about politics, it is the thing closest to your next heartbeat? Even better~ everyone knows that the media are paid liars. No party can be safely bet upon to remain with integrity. Lobbyists do exist, legally, and have money. Corporate, and israeli, money.

Affiliations may be out, thank God, on an individual, non-representative basis, but the subject of political affiliation is seen as being of paramount importance with our 'rulers'. The game is for a glen beck or sara palin to inject themselves like a trojan virus into whatever threatens the 2 party charade. Once in, they unload their censorship plans, war plans, tax plans; they are comfortable with calling one of their media enemies 'traitor', 'pinhead', patriot or whatever, once they have convinced a majority of listeners that they represent the good guys (so long as they be 'democrat' or 'republican'). The game never ends. This is why lieberman keeps switching sides. Once they have a bead on what our personal affiliations are, they are in a good position to rig the deck, homogenize the 'choices'. If we hide our party labels from the media, they really can't rig anything. More polling work for them in order to get it right, to make both sides essentially identical. As such, without personal labels or affiliations, they really cannot count on our allegiance to one party or the other.

It is our country. Why would we not care about politics, or what one is 'affiliated' with, as a politician, when the Republic is under direct multi-pronged attack, and from within? One day the bottom will fall away, an election will miss being rigged, in a surprise victory, or perhaps the people will revolt, seeing there is no choice that represents them.


[edit on 5-8-2010 by davidmann]

[edit on 5-8-2010 by davidmann]

Misoir.......you still bring stuff from mediamatters....shame on you. I know that just because you are a progressive socialist teenager that does not make mediamatters right. They are OBVIOUSLY biased.

Originally posted by kozmo
Maybe the "Tea Party" is collapsing, but not the spirit of it. Take a look at the encumbants who are losing their primaries. Watch the Democrat blood bath in November. You can gloat all you want that the "Tea Party" is collapsing, but it has already served its purpose of waking up the masses and mobilizing them against the liberal agenda.

So, the Tea Party has already won!

I doubt the hand-picked Tea Party approved candidates will get very far. Once you associate loud, racist and poorly-educated W.A.S.Ps with a movement like the Tea Party, it's GAME OVER.

Originally posted by astrogolf
reply to post by Misoir

 

Comrade...Here's a dandy film about a normal day at media matters, which, ironically, doesn't matter. video.foxnews.com...
Say hello to everyone at communist party headquarters for me.

[edit on 5-8-2010 by astrogolf]

The throwing of the words "communist" and "socialist" as insults is just quite lame and quite the usual for someone that links to Faux Noise and cheers for the Tea Party.