We got some nice press coverage again today in both CNN and Fox.
Here are my quotes:
CNN: “This Coffee Party looks like a weak attempt at satire or a manufactured response to a legitimate widespread grassroots movement,” says Brendan Steinhauser (no relation to this reporter), director of federal and state campaigns for FreedomWorks, a nonprofit conservative organization that helps train volunteer activists and has provided much of the organizational heft behind the Tea Party movement.
From Fox News: Elected Republicans are making the media push to shame Democrats, while the conservative Tea Party groups are readying a new wave of protests that, for the moment, could put them and the establishment Republicans on the same page.
Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns with FreedomWorks, told FoxNews.com that his group is encouraging Tea Partiers to hold forums, much like the August town halls, to talk about health care reform.
From there, the Tea Party groups will hold nationwide rallies on April 15, and health care reform opposition is expected to be a major cause. Though Congress could potentially pass the bill by then, Steinhauser said he doesn’t think Tax Day will be too late.
“A lot of people are just fired up about this,” he said. “I don’t see any indication that they’re going to be able to do this very quickly.”
One year ago, hundreds of Americans took to the streets to protest the Wall Street bailout (TARP) and the massive $800 billion stimulus package. In 50 cities across the country, limited government advocates gathered in major intersections, city parks, national historical places and main streets to speak out with one voice: “Enough Big Government!”
The protests had begun a couple of weeks before, when a lone activist in Florida, Mary Rakovich, organized her friends and family in Fort Myers and protested outside President Obama’s townhall meeting with Governor Charlie Crist. That event led to a series of other protests around the country, from Seattle, to Mesa, Overland Park and Denver. Then, Rick Santelli of CNBC went on his “rant” on the floor of the Chicago board of mercantile exchange and called for a “Chicago Tea Party” to protest big government. Santelli’s call to arms was viewed by more than 2 million Americans within a couple of days, and galvanized a small movement around a theme: the Boston Tea Party. Thus began one of the largest pro-liberty movements in American history.
As we look back at 2009, the year of protests, Tax Day Tea Parties, August townhall meetings and the massive 9/12 March on Washington, DC, we can’t help but look back in awe at where we started, and where we have come. The grassroots revolt against big government stopped the Obama agenda dead in its tracks and delivered a huge defeat in elections in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts. The “tea party movement” of limited government activists has swept the country and has re-awakened the inert patriotism and spirit of freedom in millions of Americans. The movement has been called the most potent force in American politics today, and few would argue with that.
But as we celebrate what we have accomplished in the last year, we should also forge ahead with a plan of action for the years to come. Here is what I believe we must do in order to ensure that this movement is successful for the long term.
First, the movement must continue to grow through events, recruitment, voter registration efforts and media exposure. We need millions more Americans to join the ranks of the limited government movement in every county in America. Second, the movement must stay focused on the issues that created the groundswell of outrage in the beginning: the national debt, deficits, wasteful spending, higher taxes and bailouts. We cannot let the movement be hijacked by those who wish to focus on distractions, or issues that were never part of the movement in the first place.
Third, the movement must institutionalize itself in the culture and politics. The movement must re-invigorate the conservative/libertarian movement by utilizing the resources of free market think tanks, intellectuals, advocacy groups, books, magazines, websites, online networks and funding sources. The movement should take advantage of the existing infrastructure of conservative/libertarian politics and spread these resources throughout the movement so that millions more Americans will be exposed to the ideas of F.A. Hayek, National Review, the Cato Institute, the Hoover Institution, etc..
And new movement activists should participate in free market advocacy groups with resources and experience; groups like the Campaign for Liberty, National Taxpayers Union, Tea Party Patriots and, of course, FreedomWorks. Local groups should retain their local autonomy, but should link up with national groups that can offer support, guidance, expertise and training, to make them better advocates for limited government.
Finally, the movement should seek to take over the most conservative of the two major parties: the Republican Party. The movement should do this from the ground up, precinct by precinct, county by county - in every county in America. If the movement tries to start a third party it will utterly fail, and all of this hard work will be for naught. Politics is the art of the possible - and it is possible for the tea party movement to take over the GOP, run limited government candidates and win local, state and national elections on a limited government platform - year after year.
The tea party movement is merely part of the broader limited government movement, which includes fiscal conservatives of all stripes - libertarians, conservative Democrats, conservative Republicans, independents and others. If this movement can remain active locally and nationally, grow its membership, avoid turf battles and distractions and ultimately institutionalize itself in the political culture - the movement will be successful.
This new, re-invigorated limited government movement can make a lasting impact on our culture and politics for decades to come, and shape the next generation of Americans. It can win elections, move a limited government public policy agenda forward and discipline politicians that stray from this agenda. Most importantly, this movement can defend liberty in the minds and hearts of Americans for the next century - thus extending the torch of freedom in a way as profound as the generation of 1776 - the original Sons of Liberty.
I have to give it to the folks at CNN who put this piece together. It is a fair look at one tea party activist from Little Rock, Arkansas that came to CPAC this past weekend. This is the second piece CNN has done on Bob Porto, a nice guy that FreedomWorks has worked with for the past few months.
Hopefully we can continue to get this kind of fair coverage in the media, despite some of the left-wing attacks against us. Bob represents the movement well, and hopefully was able to attract more people to this movement through this great interview.
This has been another good week for FreedomWorks in the media. First check out my interview on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show about the conservative revolution sweeping the country. Diane has more than 2.5 million listeners a week, and was kind enough to invite me to her studio in Washington for the interview.
Second, check out George Bennett’s piece in the Palm Beach Post about the origins of the tea party movement in Florida. George highlights the role that FreedomWorks activist Mary Rakovich played in sparking the protests in early 2009. As I say in the piece, Mary was the first person to protest the stimulus bill in the streets, and did so when president Obama joined Gov. Charlie Crist to stump for this colossal waste of money in Fort Myers, Florida.
Finally, ABC News has a story up about the Contract From America, which is making the rounds among conservative activists. It’s the idea of Ryan Hecker, from Houston, and its purpose is to provide a platform for candidates to run on in 2010.
This is the video of an interview I did with CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I joined my friend and fellow conservative activist Kellen Giuda of Tea Party 365 in New York City to discuss the movement, and the role it played in the Massachusetts Senate race.
Fast forward to 1:24:10 in the video to see our interview.
Today’s Christian Science Monitor has a piece on the Tea Party movement and its origins. It has a great analysis, and not just because of the kind words it says about yours truly.
But unheralded operatives, such as Brendan Steinhauser, campaign director for FreedomWorks and author of “The Conservative Revolution,” created the backbone of the movement, establishing websites and Facebook pages that would become populated with fed-up voters.
The CSM is doing a good job covering the movement, unlike some other newspapers that still don’t get it. But most mainstream media outlets are coming along slowly. CNN has aired quite a bit of reporting about the movement, and much of it has been fair.
Hopefully we can continue to build the momentum for the long-term, and reinvigorate the conservative movement the same way that William F. Buckley Jr. did in the 1950’s. This revolution is now entering a new phase, and no one really knows where it will go. But I predict it will make a big impact on the 2010 elections, and more importantly, keep people involved in politics at the local level for a long time to come.
Newsweek has a decent piece up on its website about the conservative movement. It mostly gets things right - like the fact that the grassroots are independant, right-leaning fiscal conservatives that are loosely organized. The reporter wonders whether the electoral success in Massachusetts can be repeated in other races around the country. I would argue that the answer is “yes” and that Marco Rubio’s success in Florida is a great example of where the movement is making a real impact.
Here is the part that talks about FreedomWorks’ involvement in the movement. You can read the rest of the piece by clicking here.
Chief among them is FreedomWorks, founded by former House majority leader Dick Armey in the 1980s. Despite its ties to the Republican power elite, FreedomWorks insists that it is simply a “one-stop service center” for training conservative activists, recently hosting a three-day leadership summit for organizers from 22 states in the afterglow of the Brown victory.
Although this article has some major errors in it, and completely misunderstands the nature of the conservative movement, it is worth reading. For those of you involved in the movement, you will notice that it is about five years behind the curve when it comes to the way the conservative movement works. Well, what do we expect from the Washington Post, anyhow?
Here is the part that covers FreedomWorks’ involvement in the movement.
Such grass-roots groups would spawn the tea-party movement. But they had help from the start.
The first protest, against Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, was in early February in Florida, according to Brendan Steinhauser, the D.C.-based director of state and federal campaigns at FreedomWorks, chaired by former House Republican leader Richard K. Armey (Tex.). After CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli suggested a tea party during his on-air rant against government bailouts on Feb. 19, Steinhauser and another FreedomWorks staff member conferred with activists planning the first tea parties for Feb. 27. Steinhauser then wrote a tea party organizing primer, which was posted on the FreedomWorks Web site and Malkin’s site.
“It sort of exploded from there,” Steinhauser said. FreedomWorks’ ongoing involvement in tea parties has been known for months, but its role in helping create the movement is far less publicized.
David Weigel of The Washington Independent has a great writeup about the leadership summit we hosted this weekend. Activist leaders from around the country came from more than 25 states to network, strategize, talk policy and prepare for the 2010 elections. I’m sure we will get some more press coverage in the days and weeks ahead, thanks to the hard work of FreedomWorks’ staff and the 60 activist leaders that spend time meeting with major media outlets, including CBS, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News and Politico.
“I think the people that you see here are going to change the direction of the country this year,” said Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks’ director of federal and state campaigns.
We’ve had a great media week here at FreedomWorks. Check out chairman Dick Armey’s interview on NPR’s All Things Considered. Armey discussed the Scott Brown victory and what it means for 2010.
Also, today’s Politico has a piece about the tea party movement’s involvement in the Brown victory. This story takes a different approach than the New York Times piece, which gave a lot more credit to the movement.
The Financial Times newspaper has a pretty terrible article about the movement, but it’s worth a read just to see how out of touch this particular reporter is. It gets a number of facts wrong, but other articles in the paper have done a better job analyzing the movement.
Finally, we expect a big New Yorker magazine article to come out soon about FreedomWorks, the tea party movement, and what role we will play in the 2010 elections and beyond. As soon as that piece is up I will link over to it. One thing is clear: the mainstream media is beginning to take our movement seriously, and so are both political parties.
