They claimed to have “thrown the rightwing bloggosphere [sic] into a tizzy” with their dog-and-pony show announcement of “infiltrating the tea parties” on April 15th. Problem: pretending that you’re Harriet the Spy and infiltrating tea parties only works if you’re covert about it, otherwise, you’re just showing up.
WHO WE ARE, Crash The Tea Party style, is a lesson in Marxism 101: “A nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement which calls itself “The Tea Party.”
Fake grassroots? Racists? A lesson in Marxism 101? It’s elementary enough that I’m further intrigued.
Their Twitter stream is rife with the sharp, lip-smacking sounds of liberal plebeians sucking up to government media elites:
@KeithOlbermann I love your work! Hope you like mine too: www.crashtheteaparty.org
about 8 hours ago via web
@dailykos we’ve thrown the rightwing bloggosphere into a tizzy! Please check out our website: http://crashtheteaparty.org
@maddow if you haven’t already, please check out our website: http://crashtheteaparty.org
The tea party didn’t give a flying at’s rass about paying homage to the media in exchange for coverage; they issued public statements to attract like-minded, frustrated constituents and marched, determined, to rally locations. The bewildered media covered the events initially because a conservative protester was a wonderment not unlike a two-headed calf, or Dr. Johnson’s walking dog. They continue to cover them because what began as a grassroots movement has emerged as a force.
Say the crashers:
HOW WE WILL SUCCEED: By infiltrating the Tea Party itself! In an effort to propagate their pre-existing propensity for paranoia and suspicion…We have already sat quietly in their meetings, and observed their rallies.
What was the point of sitting in the meetings? Just to say that you were there? Had they observed something, I’m sure we would have seen the video footage of it, just like the video footage from John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver — oh, wait…
We will act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TV interviews, etc.) to further distance them from mainstream America and damage the public’s opinion of them. We will also use the inside information that we have gained in order to disrupt and derail their plans.
Right, misspelled signs:
This isn’t a movement anymore, this is the general public: more Americans say they identify with the tea party than with Obama. They want to distance mainstream America from itself? I’d advise that they’ve got some bad strategy there, but I’d rather sit back with some popcorn and watch this unfold.
Using the term “infiltrate” is a comedy gold because it presupposes a) that their motives are in any way secretive as the term implies and b) that the tea party is exclusive and resistant enough to warrant secretive (or in this case, non-secretive), inside observance. I’m sure they were let down when they took their handy pocket cams along to catch what I’m sure they thought would be secret revolutionary planning only to see organizing limited to talk about where to get the cheapest poster board for placards. “Office Max or Office Depot? Suzy, have you done a price check?”
GRIPPING.
Freepers have identified one Jason Levin as the individual behind the idea.
We here at Big Journalism have already deduced that the Tea Party Crasher (let’s be fair, it’s founded by one dude) has more in common with the tea partiers than he likes to admit, being that at the bottom of his page he includes donation links (five ways to pay!):
Really, though, what is the purpose of the idea rather than reinforce the narrative that the left is the home of disruption and violence when it concerns political public gatherings, even if you claim to want to do so in a “nonviolent” way? At least the “coffee party” faked a sort-of halfway defined purpose, when Annabel Park wasn’t scrubbing all the “teabagger” Tweets from her Twitter timeline and the connection to United for Obama and the NYT from her Linkedin account.
Really, I find the tea party crashers to be entertaining and benign.
Still, all of that energy just to disrupt the peaceful gathering of regular American folk … I hope socialists aren’t taking cues from Al Qaeda.
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