It's A Political Corporation Not A party
by digby
If you would like to see the Tea Party's sponsorship laid out in scrupulous detail, read this fantastic piece of investigative journalism by Adele Stan called Tea Party Inc. It's all there.
I found this to be particularly interesting, though because it speaks to my suspicion that they fully expect to further radicalize the GOP in ways that are truly alarming:
In Washington, D.C., Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks' communications director, is bubbling over with excitement at the end of a long, hot July day. "I'm racking up the frequent flyer miles," he says of his relentless weekend trips to train Tea Party activists in how to chalk up wins for candidates FreedomWorks' PAC has endorsed.
FreedomWorks doesn't aim to elect just any Tea Party candidate to office: as with DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund, its endorsements seem designed to undermine the current GOP establishment, push the party rightward and further an anti-regulatory agenda. Well before others joined in, FreedomWorks embraced far-right insurgencies, notably those of Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Both endorsements put FreedomWorks at loggerheads with Sen. McConnell, whose candidates -- including his hand-picked protégé in his home state of Kentucky -- were vanquished.
DeMint's PAC spends hefty amounts on behalf of its endorsed candidates, including $447,000 for Rubio and $95,000 for Paul ($95,000). FreedomWorks matches DeMint's cash with ground forces. The PAC runs an online "service center," where, according to FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe, Tea Partiers "get the tools they need to turn a protest into a sophisticated, turn-out-the-vote effort." Those tools include walking maps, door-hangers, talking points, and "a sophisticated phone-banking system that is going to allow you to make calls in all of our targeted races." If you're an activist in Wisconsin, FreedomWorks can set you up to turn out voters for Rand Paul in Kentucky. Combined, these Tea Party outfits have proven that they have the potential to decide elections.
When I asked whether FreedomWorks' endorsements were chosen in part to undermine McConnell, Brandon declined to answer directly, but his response revealed the intimate ties between his outfit and DeMint's. DeMint has been stalwart on behalf of FreedomWorks' positions, Brandon explained. These include opposition to healthcare and energy reform and labor unions. But DeMint needs more people like him in the Senate in order to create something of a caucus -- "a new power center," Brandon called it.
If that doesn't send a chill down your spine, nothing will.
This "movement" is a powerhouse built on billions of dollars for the express purpose of serving the billionaires. And while the billionaires don't care about anything but money, they know the rubes have other concerns and they'll deliver:
While Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks and News Corp run the boardroom of Tea Party, Inc., a growing number of national organizations have sprung up to provide a range of services; call them the suppliers. Some have similar names -- Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Express -- though they compete ferociously. Reed's Faith & Freedom Coalition provides a unique service to Tea Party Inc.: the promise of delivering religious-right voters to its candidates. Like the big players, these groups, too, are run by former Republican officials or political consultants.
Stan puts it perfectly when she characterizes the Tea Partiers as "end users." They are being sold a product using some very sophisticated marketing methods.
This piece is a very welcome antidote after the remarkably silly article in the Village Post over the week-end which checked around the country and found some rag tag groups called the "Tea Party" and determined that it wasn't much at all. I suppose if you ignore the humongous amounts of cash and centralized organization in the "movement" you might think that.
This has been a long time coming. The Koch brothers have been waiting for more than 20 years for the right moment and the moment is upon them. They have big plans:
"We're building databases of faith-based and fiscal conservatives in every key congressional race, U.S. Senate race or governor's race, and a lot of targeted state legislative races," Reed explained. "Those voters are going to be contacted an average of seven times.We're gonna mail ‘em, we're gonna phone ‘em, if we have an e-mail, we're gonna e-mail ‘em, if we have a cell phone number, we're gonna text-message them. And at the end, we're gonna knock on their door."
The Republican Corporation at your service.
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