Hillarysworld

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Tea Party Debate Brews Up

The public’s growing dissent with both the Democratic and Republican parties has revived the call for a third political party to break the present two-party monopoly in American politics.  In Florida, the “Tea Party” has officially formed and registered a political party that in our opinion will only bleed votes from the Republican Party and ensure future Democrat victories.  Opponents of the official “Tea Party” have begun to make the case why the “Tea Party” lacks the infrastructure, a coherent platform, money, or the leaders at this juncture to become a credible force in electoral politics that has the ability to get its candidates elected.

The article that follows is the first piece in what will be an ongoing series on the “Tea Party” phenomena- both as a movement, and as an official political party in the State of Florida.  The Shark Tank’s objective is to provide an open forum for a wide variety of perspectives on this topic, as we will encourage guest authors to publish their viewpoints.

– The Editors of the Shark Tank

FLORIDA TEA PARTY HIJACKED – CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS DECLARE WAR

By Michael Johns

The American Tea Party movement emerged as one of the top stories of 2009, and for good reason: the mass movement of millions of liberty-minded Americans into the political arena is the largest shift of its kind in modern times.

I was honored to play a role in the Reagan Revolution as a young man. Then, I considered myself a conservative first and a Republican second; I still do today.  Thirty years later, the Tea Party movement has eclipsed that era fourfold.

Unfortunately, we are probably also four times as likely to see our movement spin out of control.

In fact, according to the mainstream media, we are already self-destructing.  As usual, the reporters are mistaken. But America’s Tea Party organizations (TPOs) are facing serious challenges on several fronts.

Conservative Republican political strategist Stephen Gordon recently told MSNBC that our movement was ripe for a hijacking from the start.  His reason: inexperienced Tea Party activists needed the help of experienced GOP operatives. Gordon wisely noted that, in the end, the professional consultants “want those email lists, they want the dollars, they want to control the organization.”

Gordon is right; we are a takeover target. Already major TPOs are being accused of lining the pockets of top-notch Republican operatives and individual entrepreneurs in the Tea Party movement.  In Florida, three men disguised as Tea Party activists are flat-out hijacking the movement to promote unfit candidates.

The name “TEA Party” was quietly registered in Florida last summer and rolled out to the great surprise and dismay of state activists.  Nobody had heard of the founders; nobody had met them at Tea Party events.  Soon the party announced their support for State Senator Paula Dockery, a RINO candidate for governor, and threatened legitimate TPOs with trademark litigation if they continued using the Tea Party moniker.

A spokesman for the newly registered party, Doug Guetzloe, has a long and notorious record of running political trick plays and compromising on core conservative ideals.  The deceptive Florida TEA Party could be used to promote Guetzloe’s clients and, more importantly, hurt their opponents. Guetzloe has, for instance, spoken supportively of liberal Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), who Tea Party activists hope to replace with a more conservative, liberty-minded candidate this November.  He also has been an advocate of Dockery’s candidacy, which is requiring probable Republican nominee Bill McCollum, a solid conservative, to dedicate resources to a primary battle that would be better spent in the highly contentious general election campaign.

Worse: a U.S. Senate candidate by the name of Jorge Lovenguth has made noise about running under the Florida TEA Party in the general election.  This is another clear signal, this time to both Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist, that the new party intends to be at the general election table. According to Guetzloe’s record, that means money.

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