Is there a progressive antidote to the Tea Party movement? As other Slog posters have noted the Coffee Party—“Wake Up and Stand Up”—emerged in recent weeks from the nether regions of the Internet (well, Facebook) as a counterforce to everyone’s favorite right-wing, neopopulist movement.
The movement was founded in late January, but to judge from its Facebook page it really took off in the last week, it’s numbers steadily growing from 40,000 Tuesday, 50,000 Wednesday, and well past 78,000 as of this writing. (For comparison, the Tea Party Patriots have a little over 100,000 fans on FB.) The Coffee Partiers have been covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a host of blogs. There are already dozens of chapters across the county, although they don’t appear to have a presence in Washington.
The group’s founder, Annabel Park, says the party was formed in reaction to the Tea Party, but that they share many of the same frustrations and goals. This is broadly true: participants in both beverage-themed coalitions think the federal government is stalled out, unrepresentative, and largely ineffectual, unless you happen to be a large bank or corporation. (It’s hard to argue with them there.) But once they get down to specifics, say, about the role of the federal government…I give it until the end of the week before they begin tearing into each other.
Will the Coffee Partiers ever become an effective counterbalance to the Tea Party phenomena? I’m inclined to doubt it, although that may just be my perennial leftist pessimism. Internet-based movements can look really good on the screen, but online fan groups, petitions, and websites will only get you so far. Last year, a group called A New Way Forward attempted to start a popular left-wing movement in favor of financial regulation and reform. They sported a spiffy website, concrete policy initiatives, and support from grassroots stalwarts like The Nation. They planned massive protests across the nation for April 11, 2009. But when I showed up in front of the White House to join the throngs on the day in question, I was sorely disappointed. Eleven people showed up, including me and two journalists from The Nation. Not a particularly commanding presence. (The well thought out policy proposals may have been their downfall—after all, what rhymes with bank nationalization?)Will the Coffee Party, with it’s vague goals and simplistic populist rhetoric, be able to do better?
We’ll soon find out. The Coffee Party is attempting to organize nationwide “coffee houses” on March 13, to discuss the movement’s goals and tactics. If that goes well, there are plans for a summer conference in the Midwest.
How do all you Slog readers think this will play out? Do we have a left-wing version of the Teabaggers or is this thing going to fizzle out?
Probably fizzle – but that didn’t stop me from heading to FB and “fanning” them 😀
Not sure if this link will work, but they also have a Seattle-specific page on the facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Join-Th…
I’m a big fan of beer for breakfast.
Remember Air America? Me neither, but Google does.
Downside: just what we need: more caffeinated screamers about politics, regardless of which side they are on.
Upside: at least it might retire the tired “drunk on the kool-aid” metaphor hurled at anyone who dares defend Obama.
I think it’ll work because Obama looks like a tall mocha latte.
Flip a coin, to be honest. The internet is surprisingly powerful, but the question is whether it has staying power and strong leadership.
The Tea Parties are all so deep up their WE ARE INDEPENDENT! INDEPENDENT!! DON’T TREAD ON ME!!!!!! rhetoric and ideology that it’s basically a cloud of people that wander from protest to protest and fight back against structure; they’ll continue to fracture and cause problems with all their RINO or CINO or CUNT nonsense or whatever it is. Palin is not that leader. Neither is Beck; they don’t have one.
If our side gets one, then yeah. It’s possible, since we far outnumber them, but our side all has ADD. That leader would have to overcome that with some really good coffee.
Well I made the Absinthe Party. We’re helping people immigrate to Canada.
This is the backside of Obama’s failure to keep grass roots mobilized; which stems from his failure of ideology; his faux nonideology of bipartisanism; and his failure to promote change and mobilize us around things like Medicare for All or a more vigorous response to bankers and wall street malfeasance.
Thus, a vaccum, a yearning, the masses are of course a bit incoherent….easy to mock….but it’s really the fault of the leaders for not leading.
For not pushing for change.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Obama had in fact “faked right and moved left”? Then we’d be seeing mass rallies at stadiums for Medicare for All and An End to Corporate Abuse on Wall Street etc. and these folks would be part of the so called democratic party instead of outside of it and with loose adherents just mocking them.
They’re the people. Why aren’t they part of the Obama team?
He abandoned change, grass rootsism, etc.
This will fail. The difference between Coffee and Tea parties is the Tea people don’t care about what they are protesting. They are just group thinkers who like the fact that they might get on the teevee. Stupid people are easier to manipulate.
The left can never counter the right with the same tactics and I don’t expect it to. If you want to defeat the right you have to resist falling into fundamentalist crooning about how the world should be.
I am a member of the coffee party facebook page because why not? I am not going to show up to any meetings but there is no harm in supporting a small reaction. It is like using bible quotes against bible thumpers. It doesn’t really accomplish anything other than point out how silly they are to people who already understand.
“it’s Facebook page”
Did you not learn grammar in 4th grade?
@10 – I disagree with your characterization that all the Tea Party wants is to get on TV. To a great degree they do care about what they’re protesting. Their failure, however, is that they simply don’t understand the target of their ire, nor do they understand how they are manipulated by an even more malevolent force than the elected government. Really, the Tea Party represents an extremely narrow ideology of personal interest — no taxes! The result of that ideology never gets considered by these people. Anyway…
I think it’s a fundamentally dangerous position to take to simply think of those whom you disagree with as stupid. The vast majority of Americans don’t consider politics beyond their own immediate conceptions of self-interest (even where their position actually clashes with their self-interest).
Wasn’t MoveOn.org a better organized, more moderate left-wing tea party before people started having tea parties?
As far as grassroots organizing goes, it seems to me that the Democrats look a lot better here. Yes, there’s not a lot of enthusiasm on the grassroots left, because legislating tends to be a depressing slog (that results in actual change). The disappointment the MoveOn people felt (which was mild) will be nothing compared to that of the Tea Party-ers once they actually elect a couple candidates.
Fizzle.
The teabaggers arose because they were pissed that their candidate lost the presidency and many of their representatives and senators lost their seats. The teabaggers aren’t even organized around any specific goal.
The teabaggers are not a new movement or a new party. They’re just pissed off republicans.
Democrats don’t have much reason to be pissed off, so there’s no need for a “pissed-off-democrat-movement” such as this coffee party. Yeah, yeah, Obama hasn’t exactly been the democrat’s dream, with his slowness on health care and other issues, but he’s no John McCain, Sarah Palin, G.W. Bush, or Dick Cheney. If any of those yahoos were in power, then maybe I could see the rise of a pissed-off-dems movement, but not right now.
The Tea Party seems to be motivated by fears that have little basis in reality (Really? Obama is a socialist nazi who wants to take away your guns?) which is perhaps why they’re so successful. The Coffee Party probably won’t be able to tap into the left’s collective paranoia as effectively (and that doesn’t seem to be their aim anyways).
But hey, it’s a refreshing idea, I like the name, may as well join the facebook page… but I’ll stick to voting and letter-writing to communicate my political views.
“The left can never counter the right with the same tactics and I don’t expect it to.”
The tactic of grass roots energy and anger at corporate bailouts is perfectly legitimate. This is typical left wing denialism; we’re holier than them so let us off the hook when we don’t deliver, we have great excuses, blah blah blah.
“If you want to defeat the right you have to resist falling into fundamentalist crooning about how the world should be.”
Wrong. The world should be free of rapacious corporations and their henchman in the republican party; when you deny this you mislead people. Every nation with heatlh care reform had a labor or social democratic party that explained to people this truth.
“
“there’s not a lot of enthusiasm on the grassroots left, because legislating tends to be a depressing slog”
um, not when you pass hsit like FDR or the labor or social democratic parties all over the world. This is pure denialism and excuse mongering.
“Democrats don’t have much reason to be pissed off” –wtf?
we are not getting public option.
we are likely not getting health care reform.
pure excuse mongering.
problem is with all these liberals content to LOSE even when we have the majority, of course we LOSE.
@13: Have you seen these folks? Are you even paying attention? Some people really are just fucking stupid. Obama’s failing is your failing, attempting to see all sides and make everyone get along. Pull your head out!
Coffee Party is at least a decent name, clearly against the insane, racist liars of the tea party. Nobody showed up for A New Way Forward because the name was too ambiguous and people still had hope Obama would turn around. They probably thought they had to read a 10 page article on financial reform in the Nation before they could participate too. The Coffee Party is emerging as Obama’s supporters are finally realizing we elected a business Republican.
I would rhyme “bank nationalization” with “skank hospitalization”, but just to get featured on the HuffPo
@9 what you wont find in the Post or the Times articles but is easily found on google is how connected the founder of the coffee party is to the Obama administration…
The teabaggers are busy every day working to destroy the remnants of the Republican Party. And somebody on the left wants to counter the teabaggers… why?
Next thing you know they’ll be wanting Sarah Palin to shut up.
The Real Obama Plan B – Up and Down vote strategy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ6ixrtww…
@8 – good show, eh, wot?
I propose the Decaf Party – which will look and taste like the real thing but be devoid of any substance. Oh wait, that’s what we have now…
@7 CUNT? Conservative Until November Third?
I would like to see a truly liberal political force but I kind of hope it dies because a reactionary name like the Coffee Party once again plays into a conservative framework like Democrats have been doing since 1994. ‘We’ won in 2008 right? Isn’t America tired of conservatives, Democrats still have the White House and a larger majority in the legislature than the Republicans had during the twothousandie’s and Obama’s approval ratings are pretty high for a president in their second year.
The only reason anyone cares about teabagging pervs is because conservative media outlets say that we should, but the question of whether the Coffee Party or any other liberal organization survives is in large part up to the liberal media, not “The Liberal Media” (dah dah dah!) but outlets like The Stranger.
There were a hell of a lot more supporters at Green Party rallies in 2000 than there are tea-bagger rallies now but even though GPers had a logical and legitimate platform they were shit on by media like The Stranger who worried that they made us look crazy by saying what liberals actually believed in out loud, without qualifiers, and that Democrats might not win if anyone took Green Party concerns seriously. In that environment Democrat politicians moved even further to the right and a feedback loop ensued that culminated in a conservative ‘war hero’ candidate nominated by the Dems for president by 2004 and a bewildered democratic establishment when he didn’t win.
Well here we are, we got it, the Democrats won everything are we happy?
Can Liberals and liberal news and information sources support liberal movements unapologetically?
Will we ever be able to nurture our own left-wing-nuts so that what’s considered leftist extremism is so far left that things like universal healthcare seem moderate?
Sounds more like a Coffee Klatch than a Coffee Party … but somehow “klatch” has an unfortunate gun-toting immigrant nazi ring to it.
My feelings were the opposite about this new group. They are tired of all the disagreement between politicians and ask us to kick everyone out of office. I think this coffe group is a ploy by the Repbulicans because their whole goal has been to get voters to remove everyone from office. Their Republicans are in solid districts and they can pick up the other seats from Democrats.
@28: ?Que? My granddad had a kaffeeklatsch. No nazis, all upstanding burghers. (But no women, they needed a break.)
I really don’t get your nazi NRA klatsch reference. Anyone familiar with a kaffeeklatsch, in my experience, is unarmed.