Signaling A Change in Tactics: Will the Real Tea Party Step Forward
By Michael Boyajian
Frank Rich reported in the New York Times that Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers were bankrolling the Tea Party. It was ironic to me that foreign born billionaire Murdoch would be the force behind the most xenophobic movement in American history turning brother against brother in a political civil war in a country in which he had no birth right leaving many to wonder if he himself should be deported.
But it didn’t stop there. I had just received an email from the Fishkill Tea Party “personally inviting me” to their meeting on the Town’s $4.9 million deficit as reported by the New York State Comptroller Audit. In the email they went out of their way to point out that they used personal money to rent out a stadium for one of their events something I have yet to reconcile in my mind especially in light of the revelations about funding in the Rich piece.
They also alleged that they were not Republicans but for the fact that two of the four founders were chairman of the Fishkill Republican party at one time or another. You know the line, we are bipartisan but we are all registered Republicans, “who want to take back the country.” From a duly elected Democratic President and Congress I might add or as my wife would say, “we just got done taking the country back with the election of President Obama.”
I theorized that my invitation and the toned down religious revival Tea Party event in D.C. signaled a change in tactics so as to woo moderates for the general election now that they had rope a doped Republican primary voters around the country with their extremism. So you can’t blame me if I was a little skeptical. My question though at this point in time was, are they now extremists, bigots, religious kooks, moderates or eccentric Ross Perot types?
Well my skepticism proved wrong because this is what happened at the meeting in the words of concerned citizen Ozzy Albra. A group of around 50 people from all walks of life, both Democrat and Republican, got to together in a sincere effort to do something about the Town’s $4.9 million deficit. There was no spin control here just people expressing their feelings on the dire situation.
And though the problem could not be solved in one meeting the group agreed to meet again only this time as a group representing an even wider range of the political spectrum and perhaps named the Fishkill Coalition so as to be more inclusive while removing the negative connotations of the Tea Party brand. It was just neighbors joining hands to solve their town’s serious problems, problems that their Town elected officials had caused and were unable to solve on their own. Perhaps it was a light at the end of a tumultuous political tunnel.
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