@Baldimo,
Quote:What is wrong with someone funding the Tea Party? We are a grass roots movement.
What's wrong with the funding is that it's done quietly by two very rich men who have previously run for president under a quasi-libertarian banner. But the whole point, supposedly, is that it's 'grass roots', when clearly it is well organised and funded. I don't doubt the sincerity of the bottom of the pyramid, I do doubt how honest the top of the pyramid is being with the bottom. And how someone at the bottom would be 'elected' to the top.
Quote:A vast majority of the people who support the Tea Party have not done any type of activism before. I know that I had not till I attended my first Tax Day protest. 2 years later and I'm still involved and help in little ways. I don't attend all protests, but I do attend some meetings, and if you have ever attended one, then you would know that there are no professional activists involved. In fact I almost stopped attending meets because of the lack of preperation and clearness of purpose. In the last year things have gotten better and seem more focused.
Nothing you've said there makes me feel confident that the 'vast majority' aren't being manipulated, in fact it seems you've almost mapped a timeline for when funders started getting involved.
Call it my natural instinct to distrust authority. And I stand by my claim that it is not a grass roots movement, even if it started that way, it's just been sold well to a certain cohort of frustrated Americans.
I say 'bigger cages, longer chains' is more than you can hope for.