NEWS JUNKIE POST
Dec 6, 2009 at 1:16 amTea Party Purge: A Cause Without a Rebel
Editor’s note: This is a first hand account of something going on behind the scenes in the Growing Rift Between Libertarians and Republicans, as first reported by ProgressiveNation.
by L.K. Samuels
The Tea Party movement has reconnected the cooperation between conservatives and libertarians that harks back to their mutual opposition to FDR’s big government days. But a host of these newly forged alliances have failed to take hold. There is an undercurrent of ill-fitting philosophies and anti-intellectual clashes that suggest freedom is not always brewing in many Tea Parties. One example of a Tea Party divorcing its libertarian brethren recently occurred in Monterey California.
I helped create a nine-member board for the Monterey County Tea Party after an April 15 demonstration that attracted 600 sign-carrying protestors. The match seemed perfect. We all agreed on a mission statement that supported smaller government, lower taxes, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The libertarians wanted to include a non-interventionist plank, but, under pressure, were willing to forgo it for the sake of a peaceful alliance.
But after a successful 4th of July Tea Party parade and Freedom Rally in Monterey, the cracks in the alliance split wide open. I was accused of belonging to too many leftist organizations. In fact, I am co-chair of the local Libertarians for Peace, which joined the 27-member Monterey County Peace Coalition to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Libertarians for Peace is neither Left nor Right.
Looking back, the fur first hit the fan when Monterey CodePink asked to be one of the co-sponsors of the Tea Party Freedom Rally. I loved the idea of bringing together the anti-war and anti-tax crowds. But this possible alliance alarmed the conservatives. The Left and Right dehumanize each other daily on talk radio and cable news; so I should not have been surprised by their fierce determination to share no common ground with any leftist organization. To calm their fears I tried to put the issue in perspective. Nationwide, CodePink follows a socialist agenda; no argument there. But the Monterey branch of CodePink has worked with libertarians on both anti-war and anti-tax issues for years. In fact, the local Monterey CodePink leader was one of the most active signature-gathers in an attempt to abolish the utility tax in Seaside.
Next, I was accused of being too involved with the Libertarian Party, as if the Libertarians were somehow responsible for the financial meltdown, bailouts and stimulus packages. To their credit, the conservative flock wanted no association with Republicans or Democrats either, saying that both political parties had caused our current problems. But somehow they were upset with the Tea Party Board members who held leadership roles in the Libertarian Party. It did not seem to matter to them that libertarians were heavily involved in starting the Tea Party movement back in 2008, nor that the original 1773 tea partiers at Boston Harbor were classical liberals (libertarians), not Tories or conservatives.
Obviously, the Tea Party conservatives were neophytes; never before had they been involved in political activism. Some had never heard of Congressman Ron Paul. Prof. David R. Henderson, one of the libertarian Tea Party Board members, described this curious phenomenon as “activism without ideals.” I thought my phrase captured it best: “a cause without a rebel.” In fact, as demands to purge the libertarians intensified, we got the distinct feeling that the purgers fit the category of “reactionary” since they seemed to know only what they were against, not what they were for. Amazingly, they never pointed out any philosophical differences that they found objectionable. It was as if they were devoid of ideas, marooned with empty rhetoric and no real solutions.
One of my major crimes was passing out several copies of my book – /Facets of Liberty/. This occurred at a Tea Party event billed as a “mixer.” A few days later I was told that I should have neither passed out educational material nor mixed with the crowd. The libertarians soon labeled this misnamed event the non-mixer mixer.
In retrospect, it did not help our case when we asked these rookies embarrassing questions. We asked them why they had done nothing when President Bush bailed out the banks and auto companies, spent money like a drunken sailor, bashed civil liberties and advanced socialized medicine with Medicare Prescription Drug law, a program that some in Congress estimated will have a price tag of $1.2 trillion by 2016. I suppose our questioning merely rubbed their noises too deeply in their ignorance.
Whatever the reasons, the Monterey County Tea Party purged the libertarians by dissolving the entire organization. That failed to stop us. The libertarians quickly formed the Liberty Tea Party and, in an effort to set up a large tent, invited everyone to join a more enlightened Tea Party.
L.K. Samuels is editor and contributing author of /Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer/ and a forthcoming book, /In Defense of Chaos: the Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action/. He is the elected Chairman of the Project Area Committee (PAC), a citizens committee to advise the Seaside Redevelopment Agency and the city of Seaside over eminent domain issues. He is co-chair of Libertarians for Peace of Monterey County and vice chair of Seaside Taxpayers Association. He is the winner of the 2007 Karl Bray Memorial Award. Visit his website.
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This post was mentioned on Reddit by radix2: haha, A clueless Libertarian is somehow surprised that when he bought in to a clueless Beck-driven “movement” that they would accept him as one of their own.
Too funny. But also sad….
All signs point the the inevitable implosion of the American Right-wing….
The content of this article, combined with the facts that conservative intellectuals like Andrew Sullivan and Charles Johnson have publicly left the GOP–by publishing statements, condemning the Right as fostering racism, misogyny, homophobia, and fascist ideologies–along with the fact that conservative intellectuals are beginning to condemn the fear-mongering of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, et al, should illustrate that the authoritarian fundamentalist factions of the Right are finally being marginalized from the mainstream political discourse.
The question, then, becomes two-fold: 1.) where will the intellectual conservatives reorganize? A third party? Or will a purge of the GOP occur?… and 2.) what will become of the Rightist fundamentalists after they have no intellectual or legitimate foundation to engage really-existing politics? Will they erupt into violence or return home to simply brood?…
The GOP already is on the move to purge members. Sadly it seems that anyone not on the extreme edge of nuttiness is getting marginalized or the outright boot.
Those within the center to middle right, honest conservative, or even mildly cooperative with anyone will have to start up a new party as they don’t seem to be doing much in the way of taking back their own party.
I know the left have their own set of crazies, but those on the right have fallen right off the edge of reality. Most have zero clue just what exactly they are protesting. They are filled with talking points but no facts. I can respect someone who knows what they are talking about, but these people don’t.
Your first mistake was creating a ‘board’. All tea parties should be ad hoc groups with no leaders, nothing more. They should be non-partisan and resist being ‘organized’ by any national people.
This is how NH runs and we are all free to think what we want.
I’m a staunch conservative and I’m for pulling out of Afghanistan NOW.
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Mr. Samuels, you seem surprised at the result of aligning your movement with the reactionary right nubes. May I recommend that you drop any references to “tea party” in your future pursuits. That term will only label you as one of the crazies & dilute your movement by attracting party partisans, 9-12ers & their ilk.
The idea of trying to align CodePink with the Teabaggers is so naive that it’s difficult for me to fathom how Mr. Samuels functions.
To be sure, the California Central Coast can be quite womb-like in it’s tolerance and acceptance of a variety of viewpoints (including, historically, the Klu Klux Klan), but that just takes the cake.
While I appreciate Mr. Samuels’ candor, it took me exactly one online exchange with a teabagger to realize that they had absolutely no real ideology or platform. How does it take a man of his age months?
Seriously, some people need to get out more.
Pretty interesting article.
I agree with Chris, it is interesting.
I bookmarked this site…keeps me from being bored!
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@Gilbert: Well it looks like you have 3-4 comments to clean up.
Fascinating article, Mr. Samuels.
The Code Pink story really hammers home some uncomfortable realities for the more reasonable Conservatives and Libertarians out there: a good percentage of the Republican party have either bought what Rush and Savage and Coulter are selling or have simply lost their minds.
There’s no doubt about the dehumanization of ideological opponents on both sides. But note it’s the way-way Left Code Pink that understands the importance of coalition building and the middle-of-the-road Right members that can’t see past their hatred of Liberals to try to do something right for the country. It’s dispiriting.
Interesting a rebel in the tea party eh?
Awesome! thanks.
Maybe people moved to participate in the teaparties are doing what the folks did who supported the American separation from Britain and who later became Democrats following the libertarian cause of Jefferson and Madison, cited in THE CHANGING FACE OF DEMOCRATS on Amazon and claysamerica.com. Now, they are rejecting the modern Democrats who follow Rousseau and Marx who have declared individual self-interests the enemy of America to favor community and dictatorship. It has nothing to do with Republicans or any followers of Hamilton, Clay, Lincoln or TR.
There’s no doubt about the dehumanization of ideological opponents on both sides.