Grassroots Action: Coffee Party Versus Tea Party

A new movement is “going viral” on Facebook, it is called Coffee Party USA, and its goal is to wake up the left like a strong cup of Java should. In about a month the movement has gathered  more than 60,000 members on its Facebook page.

The start up is not only getting fast traction in the social media and the US media ( from The New-York Times to The Washington Post), it is also getting coverage from the foreign press. Today, The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington covered the birth of the Coffee Party movement for his UK readership.

The Coffee Party was originated by documentary filmmaker Annabel Park, who started the Facebook page. Annabel Park is based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“We want to see people representing us moving towards solution to problems rather than strategically obstructing any form of progress,” said Park.

The Coffee Party USA motto is “Wake Up & Stand Up”, and this is how they are defining themselves and their goals.

“We are diverse- ethnically, geographically, politically, in age and in experience. We are 100 percent grassroots. No lobbyist here. No pundits. And no hyper-partisan strategists calling the shots in this movement. We are a spontaneous and collective expression of our desire to forge a culture of civic engagement that is solution oriented, not blame oriented. We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices: NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.”

It was about time that the left would start a movement to counter-balance the noise of the so called Tea Party movement. Politicians either Republicans or Democrats should get the message that “politics as usual” will not cut it anymore either on the right coming form the Tea Party folks and now on the left from the Coffee Party movement. With all this caffeine floating in the air, maybe Washington will finally wake up and smell either the tea or the coffee or else get voted out of office in 2010.

To find out more about The Coffee Party click here.

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