Over the next few days, I’ll be empirically examining the notion that this whole “Tea Party” thing is thriving as an independent grassroots movement.
By “independent grassroots Tea Party movement,” I do not mean to refer to the Tea Party Nation, which is a for-profit corporation with partisan connections, or FreedomWorks, a Republican operation started as a pet project of former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, or Tea Party Express, a joint creation of Fox News and FreedomWorks and two PACs that only contribute to Republicans, or Tea Party Patriots, a group that also got its start with Republican Party consultants and that shares its recordkeeping responsibilities with GOPAC. No matter how much their spokesmen deny it in public, the money trail and history of these multi-million dollar ventures show them to be part and parcel of the Republican Party apparatus.
No, by “independent grassroots Tea Party movement,” I mean groups actually started up and maintained by ordinary citizens who aren’t part of the Republican party structure. If the “Tea Party” thing is really an independent grassroots social movement, then we should see independent Tea Party groups flourishing. Over the next week, I’ll be looking at all registered non-profit Section 527 groups that take on the name of “Tea Party” and that are not born from or lashed to the Republican Party establishment.
Arkansas Tea Party, Inc.: Self-Interested Pontoon Game? Sure. Bought off by the Republican Party? No.
Let’s start with Arkansas Tea Party, Inc., a group being run at 3700 Crutcher Street, in North Little Rock, Arkansas — the home of Aloha Pontoons and WaCo Manufacturing, two related pleasure boat production businesses. It turns out that the two named leaders of the Arkansas Tea Party, Inc. are the owner of and controller for Aloha Pontoons and WaCo Manufacturing, and it turns out that Aloha/Waco owner Tom Cox launched a run for U.S. Senate in the Republican Party before lurching to a defeated withdrawal. Search for contributions by employees of “Aloha Pontoons” at the FEC website and you’ll discover purportedly “individual” contributions to owner Tom Cox’s Republican Senate run, implausibly and improperly coordinated by date:
COX, THOMAS F
LITTLE ROCK, AR 72223
ALOHA PONTOONSCOX, THOMAS F
VIA TOM COX 4 SENATE
06/18/2009 100.00 29020422198
02/18/2010 610.00 10020310157HARGROVE, DANIEL
LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202
ALOHA PONTOONS/SALESMANCOX, THOMAS F
VIA TOM COX 4 SENATE
12/30/2009 2000.00 10020121486MANNING, KAYLA
MAYFLOWER, AR 72106
ALOHA PONTOONS/CONTROLLERCOX, THOMAS F
VIA TOM COX 4 SENATE
09/30/2009 510.00 29020422195
12/30/2009 1500.00 10020121487THRELKELD, JOE
N LITTLE ROCK, AR 72118
ALOHA PONTOONS/DRIVERCOX, THOMAS F
VIA TOM COX 4 SENATE
12/30/2009 1950.00 10020121485
These are the only political contributions to candidates that Tom Cox, Kayla Manning, Daniel Hargrove and Joe Threlkeld have ever made. Whatever you think of their actions, these people are local and they aren’t movers and shakers with the Republican Party power structure. Grassroots they are.
Arkansas Tea Party, Inc.: Lurching at the Edge of Oblivion
All the machinations in the world don’t count for much if you can’t get in gear. The Arkansas Tea Party, Inc. hasn’t had its 2nd quarter 2010 report posted to with the IRS yet, but its quarterly reports since forming in April 2009 don’t show evidence of a thriving political movement:
Look for a consideration of the Alabama Tea Party tomorrow.
I think that the left is trying all things to try and demean the millions of people who have joined the ‘Tea Party’ movement. I want to know; what is it about socialism/marxism that the liberal democrats think is so great? Why do they think that government can solve everyones’ problem? It was government that got us in the mess we are in! Any time a nation tries to control the people in which they govern, it falls! Our leaders in this country have become arrogant and downright hostile towards the things that made this nation great! The very same thing (individual success) which put them in the position they are in, is the very thing that they want to deny to all other Americans. Education is the best tool to fight this, however, the leaders are trying to rewrite our history and create curriculum that will support their views. I have noticed through the years that the media, government, and anyone else who has money seems to think they know better than the rest of us on how to live our lives. I say, if they are wanting the ‘rich’ to pay for the ‘poor’, then why aren’t they cleaning out their bank accounts and spreading their wealth? I think that the pay for politicians should be cut and there should be term limits for congressmen. NO MORE career politicians! Stop blaming everyone else for the bad decisions they are making, listen to the people (Tea Party) who put you in office to start with! Obama is the most divisive president to ever come into office! I don’t care what color he is; his policies are treasonous! I say to all of those who want to live in a socialist nation, then go oversees and leave the America you so thoroughly hate!
Sherry,
Can you identify one of Barack Obama’s policies and explain what makes it “treasonous,” using American laws of treason as the basis for your explanation?
I love the way that you’ve set up a stark dichotomy: Either join the Tea Party, or support Marxism