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.

Here is my quote in Weigel’s piece:

“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.

David Brooks of the New York Times has an interesting piece about the tea party movement, and its potential for the next decade of American politics. Although David is an elitist, big government Republican, he has an interesting take on the limited government movement. He believes that it can be the dominant force in American politics in the next decade. The entire piece is worth a careful read.

The tea party movement is a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against. They are against the concentrated power of the educated class. They believe big government, big business, big media and the affluent professionals are merging to form self-serving oligarchy — with bloated government, unsustainable deficits, high taxes and intrusive regulation.

The tea party movement is mostly famous for its flamboyant fringe. But it is now more popular than either major party. According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 41 percent of Americans have a positive view of the tea party movement. Only 35 percent of Americans have a positive view of the Democrats and only 28 percent have a positive view of the Republican Party.

The movement is especially popular among independents. The Rasmussen organization asked independent voters whom they would support in a generic election between a Democrat, a Republican and a tea party candidate. The tea party candidate won, with 33 percent of independents. Undecided came in second with 30 percent. The Democrats came in third with 25 percent and the Republicans fourth with 12 percent.

Over the course of this year, the tea party movement will probably be transformed. Right now, it is an amateurish movement with mediocre leadership. But several bright and polished politicians, like Marco Rubio of Florida and Gary Johnson of New Mexico, are unofficially competing to become its de facto leader. If they succeed, their movement is likely to outgrow its crude beginnings and become a major force in American politics. After all, it represents arguments that are deeply rooted in American history.

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Moreover, the tea party movement has passion. Think back on the recent decades of American history — the way the hippies defined the 1960s; the feminists, the 1970s; the Christian conservatives, the 1980s. American history is often driven by passionate outsiders who force themselves into the center of American life.

In the near term, the tea party tendency will dominate the Republican Party. It could be the ruin of the party, pulling it in an angry direction that suburban voters will not tolerate. But don’t underestimate the deep reservoirs of public disgust. If there is a double-dip recession, a long period of stagnation, a fiscal crisis, a terrorist attack or some other major scandal or event, the country could demand total change, creating a vacuum that only the tea party movement and its inheritors would be in a position to fill.

Personally, I’m not a fan of this movement. But I can certainly see its potential to shape the coming decade.

My friend John O’Hara over at the Heartland Institute in Chicago has written an excellent book about the tea party movement of 2009. John was one of the key organizers of the first “tea party” protest in DC on February 27th last year. You can buy your copy today on Amazon.com

This movement is an incredible thing, and I’m glad to see that we conservatives are writing our own history and not relying on the left to write their revisionist propaganda for us. Please support John’s work by buying a copy today!