And now, a tea party of the left

April 21, 2010 by 20 Comments

What conservative populists are doing to the Republican party, liberal populists are starting to do to Democrats:

A political rebellion is brewing inside an old funeral home near the state Capitol here. Frustrated liberals and labor organizers are taking aim at the Democratic Party, rushing to gather enough signatures to start a third party that they believe could help oust three Democratic congressmen.

Now, some of Obama’s supporters are mounting a defiant strike against the president’s party. The nascent third party, North Carolina First, could endanger the Democratic congressional majority by siphoning votes from incumbent Democrats in November’s midterm election, potentially enabling Republican challengers to pick up the seats.

Organizers say they are so fed up with Democrats who did not support health-care reform that they simply do not care.

“Our whole agenda is to turn that apple cart around and say, ‘No more are we going to blindly support you because you're a Democrat,'” said Dana S. Cope, executive director of the 55,000-member State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC), which is leading the effort. “We’re going to support you because you’re right on the issues and if you’re not right on the issues, we’re going to remove you from office.”

via North Carolina Democrats’ votes against health care push labor to form party.

It appears that NO ONE approves of the political parties and incumbent politicians. Maybe this could be the basis for a national unity movement.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , 20 Comments
About Gene Veith

I am a retired English professor and college administrator. I have written over 20 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture.

  • Joe

    I can see how under some definitions you might call the Tea Party a populist movement – you could say that about any grass roots activity in a republic such as ours. But in the political philosophy sense I am not sure it is correct to call the Tea Party folks populists. I don’t hear much chatter about making more gov’t officials directly elected by the people or any calls for a national referendum. I am sure there are some examples of people who would like to see this, but I has not been at the center of the movement. These things are the hallmarks of a populist political philosophy.

  • Joe

    I can see how under some definitions you might call the Tea Party a populist movement – you could say that about any grass roots activity in a republic such as ours. But in the political philosophy sense I am not sure it is correct to call the Tea Party folks populists. I don’t hear much chatter about making more gov’t officials directly elected by the people or any calls for a national referendum. I am sure there are some examples of people who would like to see this, but I has not been at the center of the movement. These things are the hallmarks of a populist political philosophy.

  • http://wipfandstock.com/store/As_Though_It_Were_Actually_True_A_Christian_Apologetics_Primer Matt C.

    I’m not sure how this would lead to national unity. I’m glad that liberals are discovering that the Democrats aren’t any more liberal in their governance than republicans are Conservative in theirs–the major divisions between the parties are in rhetoric rather than practice. Still, even if both sorts of tea parties are successful in either making a viable alternative party or in holding their traditional party accountable to their rhetoric, it would just succeed in turning a rhetorical division into a practical one. It would have the virtue of being more honest than current politics, but it would also be divisive rather than unifying.

    Hatred for our politicians only goes so far as a basis for unity. At some point, a common basis for actual governance is necessary. Nobody is happy with the lies and bizarre compromises between our two ideologies that have served to provide us with unity so far, but is there another option? Do Americans actually have an adequate basis for being united anymore?

  • http://wipfandstock.com/store/As_Though_It_Were_Actually_True_A_Christian_Apologetics_Primer Matt C.

    I’m not sure how this would lead to national unity. I’m glad that liberals are discovering that the Democrats aren’t any more liberal in their governance than republicans are Conservative in theirs–the major divisions between the parties are in rhetoric rather than practice. Still, even if both sorts of tea parties are successful in either making a viable alternative party or in holding their traditional party accountable to their rhetoric, it would just succeed in turning a rhetorical division into a practical one. It would have the virtue of being more honest than current politics, but it would also be divisive rather than unifying.

    Hatred for our politicians only goes so far as a basis for unity. At some point, a common basis for actual governance is necessary. Nobody is happy with the lies and bizarre compromises between our two ideologies that have served to provide us with unity so far, but is there another option? Do Americans actually have an adequate basis for being united anymore?

  • Tom Hering

    “Do Americans actually have an adequate basis for being united anymore?”

    Sure. Demanding that our national treasure be used to fix our national problems, instead of squandering it in other lands – just to maintain our pride of place in the world.

  • Tom Hering

    “Do Americans actually have an adequate basis for being united anymore?”

    Sure. Demanding that our national treasure be used to fix our national problems, instead of squandering it in other lands – just to maintain our pride of place in the world.

  • Jerry

    This is an attempt to disrupt the two party system, otherwise under which power most likely would shift this fall from Dems to Repubs. This is hardly a tea party on the left, but directed by the progressive powers from above that want us to walk lockstep with them.

    To add to the comments, Americans are only united if they want to be. If John McCain had been elected president, very little would be different than it is now. A possible exception would be that Sarah Palin would be officiating at supermall openings in Dubai rather than leading tea parties. Our problems do not originate from Washington DC, but with us.

    At one time unity came through a common purpose to serve god. That was sufficient–the name of god was not even specified.

  • Jerry

    This is an attempt to disrupt the two party system, otherwise under which power most likely would shift this fall from Dems to Repubs. This is hardly a tea party on the left, but directed by the progressive powers from above that want us to walk lockstep with them.

    To add to the comments, Americans are only united if they want to be. If John McCain had been elected president, very little would be different than it is now. A possible exception would be that Sarah Palin would be officiating at supermall openings in Dubai rather than leading tea parties. Our problems do not originate from Washington DC, but with us.

    At one time unity came through a common purpose to serve god. That was sufficient–the name of god was not even specified.

  • John C

    Do Americans actually have an adequate basis for being united anymore?
    I do wonder about this. The division between rich and poor,Christian and athiest, black and white, straight and gay, democrat and republican, liberal and conservative: appear to be insuperable. I get the feeling that Americans seek comfort in various tribal organizations but they don’t really like one another.

  • John C

    Do Americans actually have an adequate basis for being united anymore?
    I do wonder about this. The division between rich and poor,Christian and athiest, black and white, straight and gay, democrat and republican, liberal and conservative: appear to be insuperable. I get the feeling that Americans seek comfort in various tribal organizations but they don’t really like one another.

  • DonS

    This sounds like a labor union effort, not a movement of the grass roots. I have to laugh when Nancy Pelosi talks about Republicans being the party of special interests, given the status today of the Democratic party as almost entirely an amalgam of those interests.

  • DonS

    This sounds like a labor union effort, not a movement of the grass roots. I have to laugh when Nancy Pelosi talks about Republicans being the party of special interests, given the status today of the Democratic party as almost entirely an amalgam of those interests.

  • Gerry

    JohnC@5, I think DonS @6 answered your question.
    The US long has been a nation divided by wealth and race.

  • Gerry

    JohnC@5, I think DonS @6 answered your question.
    The US long has been a nation divided by wealth and race.

  • Gerry

    More for JohnC @5

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/steele-african-americans-really-dont-have-a-reason-to-vote-gop.php?ref=fpb

    Appearing Tuesday at DePaul University in Chicago, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that the Republican Party has not given African-Americans a reason to vote for them.

    “You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” said Steele, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

    Steele said how the Republican party had been founded as a pro-civil rights party, with Frederick Douglass among its early members. However, Steele explained, the Republican Party has alienated those voters: “For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

  • Gerry

    More for JohnC @5

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/steele-african-americans-really-dont-have-a-reason-to-vote-gop.php?ref=fpb

    Appearing Tuesday at DePaul University in Chicago, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that the Republican Party has not given African-Americans a reason to vote for them.

    “You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” said Steele, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

    Steele said how the Republican party had been founded as a pro-civil rights party, with Frederick Douglass among its early members. However, Steele explained, the Republican Party has alienated those voters: “For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

  • sg

    “The US long has been a nation divided by wealth and race.”

    That describes virtually every nation that is not characterized by universal abject poverty. However, the United States fits the description less than any other. We have had the largest middle class as well as the healthiest most cared for poor. However we are not immune to the decline that comes with lax morality.

    We will be increasingly polarized. The left wants immigration to increase its base. The right will grow their own. So the split will continue. Interesting paper on factional demography and democracy. http://www.sneps.net/RD/uploads/1-Shall%20the%20Religious%20Inherit%20the%20Earth.pdf

  • sg

    “The US long has been a nation divided by wealth and race.”

    That describes virtually every nation that is not characterized by universal abject poverty. However, the United States fits the description less than any other. We have had the largest middle class as well as the healthiest most cared for poor. However we are not immune to the decline that comes with lax morality.

    We will be increasingly polarized. The left wants immigration to increase its base. The right will grow their own. So the split will continue. Interesting paper on factional demography and democracy. http://www.sneps.net/RD/uploads/1-Shall%20the%20Religious%20Inherit%20the%20Earth.pdf

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