Tea Party Express: We’ll Take the Plastic Man

Amy Kremer, who chairs the Tea Party Express, told FOX News the other day, “Whoever the Republican nominee is will have to have the support of the Tea Party movement, the entire Tea Party movement.” She went on to say that this included Mitt Romney. (Thanks to Anthony Gregory for the link.)

Some kind of sociological law is being illustrated here. Here’s an organization that in terms of political action really coalesced around opposition to the bailouts, and set its sights on Republicans who favored them. It played a decisive role in booting Bob Bennett out of his U.S. Senate seat in Utah. A horrified CNN reporter asked the founder of the Utah Tea Party whether it was fair that Bennett’s career should end just because of that one vote. “His career will end over that one vote,” came the answer. Heroic.

And now it is prepared to throw its support behind someone who holds them in obvious contempt. What in the world is the point of taking that kind of political strength — throwing a sitting U.S. senator out of office is next to impossible — and blowing it on Mitt Romney? Yes, Obama is bad. Duh. But absolutely nothing will change under Romney, or indeed most of the GOP’s offerings. (How funny it was to hear Sean Hannity say, before the first GOP debate, “All eyes are on Tim Pawlenty.” Tim Pawlenty, the establishment bore? All eyes were on him?)

The country is headed for a severe fiscal mess. Any difference between Obama and Romney is far too trivial to be worth arguing over, much less actually to avert the coming crisis. Obama is merely pushing the country faster along a path it is obviously going to travel down anyway. In exchange for heading down that road ten percent more slowly, Tea Party Express is prepared to throw away whatever features might have made it worthwhile.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7AA4NBFHV6ZXLG7CNY4BXWBEGU Ellen

This is very sad to read. Along with the power that they’ve gathered in the last couple of years, any respectability they’ve managed to garner will/SHOULD evaporate, and rightfully so. I would guess that this proves that they’ve been successfully co-opted by the globalists disguised as human beings.
Brian

It sure didn’t take long for the Tea Party to be hijacked. But I think many libertarians were skeptical from the start. I think it was more of a knee-jerk reaction to a new program from Obama, rather than a genuine, principled stance against the unjust, immoral, unsustainable status quo. There is no clear, consistent, principled thinking among Tea Party “leaders.”

The various “free-state” project ideas are starting to look like the only way out of this nightmare. I mean really, what other solutions are there?
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6YNRUHQHLTD6OYQB6GRXVB3MOY ThomasC

There are no Tea Party leaders; it is a true grassroots movement. It’s not going to make any difference what Amy Kremer says (I consider myself a Tea Partier and I’ve never heard of her). No one held a vote or appointed her spokesman.
http://www.facebook.com/maksenton Maty Aksenton

“The various “free-state” project ideas are starting to look like the only way out of this nightmare. I mean really, what other solutions are there?”

Bitcoins and Patri Friedman’s Seasteading Institute. Look them up, if you haven’t yet.
Sons Of Liberty Riders Texas

we knew this was coming. We didnt hear a peep out of the “Tea Party” national groups when the Patriot Act was up for renewal. Tea Party Express represents no one. They are establishment ALL the way. The are asking for a constitutional conservative candidate——–HES RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR FACE———————-RON PAUL 2012
Brian

Thanks. I never thought of seasteading. Reminds me of that crazy movie Waterworld. It’s at least an idea in the direction of the free-state project.

If 35,000 German speaking people can have their own free, independent, sovereign state in a 60 sq mi area and call it “Liechtenstein,” then why can’t, say, 500,000 libertarian/paleoconserative Americans freely and voluntarily have their own society too? Is it just too much to ask?
http://twitter.com/SpecKK Scott K

I made that one vote that ended Bennett’s career. I’ll probably get to make the same vote against Orrin (wants to blow up your computer and linking copyright is a felony) Hatch if there’s a candidate I believe will do a better job next year (not too hard, but there were some real nuts in the last nominating convention).

I say there is still hope for the Tea Party as long as they buck morons who try to control them like Kremer. A pile of simple articles like this should be enough to keep the untamed, free people of the party aware of who has sold out, so keep sharing Tom.

To be fair, the Tea Party is about 50% libertarian while the rest are the same old Republicans and Neocons trying to hold onto their old power base while making as few changes as possible. It’s usually pretty easy to tell them apart when they focus on partisanship rather than principles.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to throw out another plug for multiplechoicemitt.com . I don’t know who put it together, but almost everyone laughs when I bring up this humorous portrayal how Mitt will say anything to anyone if he thinks it will help, just like Obama.
Lrandallwright

This article is taking everything she said out of context and is a blatant attempt to divide and destroy Tea Party supporters. Amy said, “Whoever the GOP nominates will NEED the Tea Party behind them if they expect to win.” She did NOT say the Tea Party will back whoever the GOP nominates. BE VERY CLEAR ON THIS.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6YNRUHQHLTD6OYQB6GRXVB3MOY ThomasC

Love the link.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6YNRUHQHLTD6OYQB6GRXVB3MOY ThomasC

You’re not really going to use the “taken out of context” defense, are you? Because after that sentence when she was pressed if she would support Romney, she answered, “If Romney is the nominee we would support him.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Welsh/1671487404 David Welsh

The Tea Party is not a “political party,” but rather a movement and Kremer has no call to say what he did.
Expecting Better

This interview reflects the fact that the Tea Party is just a fringe Republican group.
Locally, the Tea Party group supported local establishment candidates in the Primary – over my objections. There is no difference between the local Tea Party and the “official” Republican monopoly crew. In the general, I will vote for minor party local candidates. For Prez, I will not support RomneyCare. ObamaCare would be the better choice because it is better to know your enemy – Obama’s lies are obvious. ObamaCare has zero support from Republicans. On the other hand, RomneyCare would be endorsed by the Republicans according to the Tea Party. Unless the Republicans elect a small business, free market candidate, I will be looking at the “minor” parties. Rewarding the big business Republicans is silly and reckless. This is not a case of selecting the better warden. It is a case of choosing among bad wardens. In this situation, it is better to wait until the public is a little more ripe to waking up. And Obama will do more to ripen the electorate than Romney.
dan

My tea party does not support rinos or socialists….If I even vote ..Ron Paul will get it…but honestly all voters should stay home for a no vote…maybe that will crash the system along with the market and the country..let the politicians have a crashed country that they can rule…F>U>C>K>them all..
http://www.facebook.com/people/Pat-Fields/100000083691557 Pat Fields

Professor
Woods, the Tea Party Movement is NOT the ‘Tea Party Express’. There is no
homogenous ‘opinion’ throughout its adherents except a driving desire to make
government confine itself more strictly to its proper constitutional limits and
to see an unwinding of the collectivist centralization that’s been infecting
American society since the 30′s. Now, some of the regional coordinators have
become big-in-the-head as the Movement has been coerced to tend toward
centralization itself, but those folks are only fooling themselves and the
talking heads, who want SOMEONE to ‘represent’ all those tens of millions of
people inclined to be a part of ‘the thing’, so those ‘representatives’
themselves in turn can be somehow influenced.

The Movement
is enormous and every imaginable flavor of Politico covets control of it for
their own selfish ends (yes, Ron Paul inclusive). But, a constituency made up
of skin-heads and goths, cowboys and college jocks, old folks in wheelchairs
with oxygen bottles and every imaginable variety of person in between, isn’t
likely to be jawboned into conglomeration the way Politicos hope they can be.
Instead, right or wrong, they’re milling around with one another exchanging their
OWN thoughts and observations in a kind of ‘brain-soup’. What that’s likely to
‘dish out’ in the end is anyone’s guess. This organic blob is a lot like what I
imagine the post-colonial population of America was. They only … just …
barely … acceded to allowing the Constitution’s enactment and this time
around seems like a similar re-play.

One thing I
can say is that anyone confronting their innocent ignorance with denigration
for failure to immediately adhere to a dogma (however eminently logical or pedigreed
in its philosophical lineage), will be summarily dismissed without another
moment’s thought. These folks are FIERCELY independent and damned well better
be treated that way, at risk of utter frustration.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Pat-Fields/100000083691557 Pat Fields

This is all really premature at this point. Romney isn’t likely to be nominated anyway. The Tea Party folks pretty well recognize the guy as a RINO, so his ‘Press’ is largely only advertisement for a ‘product’ that isn’t going to be ‘bought’.
http://profiles.google.com/msouth Mike South

I’m disappointed to read this here–I would expect Mr. Woods to look a little deeper. Maybe he doesn’t know how tea partiers party. Here’s rule number one. Anyone that says they speak for all tea partiers is immediately suspect. Anyone who even *sounds like* they might *think* they can say something for all tea partiers is on shaky ground. You can see real tea party people in your comments here–they describe it as being hard to pin down what makes them tick, how un-leadered the groups are.

Here’s rule number two: if someone says that tea party people are going to support someone that instituted Obamacare lite, whatever minuscule remaining credibility they had is now blown to smithereens. Not only that, but whoever asked the question was asking the wrong question. It’s possible that many tea partiers would end up holding their nose and voting for Romney strictly to vote against Obama, but THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT. You want these people fired up, agitating, canvassing, calling, campaigning for the nominee. You want the magic that pushed the 2010 results so far in the direction they did. YOU WILL NOT GET THAT WITH ROMNEY. I man, the tea party people would probably vote McCain when you put their backs to the wall and say “It’s him or Obama”. And they hate McCain. But that’s not the question. The question is, who can you put up there that will fire them up. And Romney is not it–not from anyone I’ve ever talked to in “the movement”, such as it is.

(And no, I’m not claiming to speak for all tea partiers, this is just my observation. But I’ll bet if you ask real tea partiers you’ll get something like 90% agreement on the above positions.)
Expecting Better

These comments are promising.

If it is true that “Tea Party” means fiercely independent. And, if it is true that ALL Tea Party spokesmen are suspect and rejected, then this is great news!

It also means that the public should ignore reporters who select spokesmen and conclude the direction of the country from that interview.
http://www.TomWoods.com Tom Woods

That’s why I said “self-appointed spokesman.”
Anonymous

Here in Detroit, Romney is controversial because he opposed the auto bailouts.

http://tinyurl.com/3ot9n6w
Is there any hope?
Dajeeps

A ham sandwich is better than Obama. And as bit of the difference between Romney and Obama as there is, at least Romeny has some respect for the rule of law, which Obama absolutely does not and we are at the moment a failed state with the executive running amuck. Ok, so now that I pointed out the difference, I am not a Romney supporter. I do not want Romney and out of those who are in the race so far is has got to be the worst possible choice. I don’t know if this woman is just tired or what, but her answer was the wrong one. She should have said something like “We’ll be doing what we can to get an acceptable nominee,” and just leave it at that.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ken-MacMillan/683031628 Ken MacMillan

Once Ron Paul has the nomination all republicans will vote for him but he will have a tough time with social conservatives. That’s why all non-republican Ron Paul supporters need to temporarily register republican so we can vote for him in the primary.
Anonymous

Tea Party Express is the typical Neocon staling horse tactic. It will be used to thwart people to vote for the establishment candidate. I wouldn’t vote for anybody they supported to be my dog catcher.
P_drummer3

Here’s the problem, there is no way to define the Tea Party if their is no universal agreement on something, and yes I know that the Tea Party is a grassroots organization.
ThomasC

Well here we are a year and a half later. So whaddaya think?