The Tea Party movement in this administration originated with a rant delivered by CNBC financial reporter Rick Santelli on live television from the floor of the Chicago Merchantile Exchange barely one month after Obama took office.
The rant said Americas didn't want the mortgage bailout and didn't want to pay for their neighbor's mortgages. He asked President Obama if he was listening (even though the mortgage bank bailout occurred during the Bush administration). He said the current situation would make the Founding Fathers roll over in their graves (although he wasn't clear whose fault would make them roll). He said he was going to organize a Tea Party demonstration for capitalists in Chicago in July on Lake Michigan, and the stockbrokers on the floor cheered him on.
The rant was seen by Republican capitalist billionaires and the Republican hierarchy alike as the prototype for the rebellion against the Democrats they had been looking for. The rant lumped the stimulus packages together and blamed Obama for both of them and it invoked the Founding Fathers, albeit in a very vague way.
Oil billionaire Charles Koch provided organizational and tangible resources including busses and posters for Tea Party gatherings via his organizations including Americans For Prosperity and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey provided resources and speakers via his foundation called Freedom Works. Technical expertise with websites was provided by a tech savvy free-market oil interest group called don'tGO which sprang up during the offshore oil drilling debates last year. And Fox news provided publicity for the events.
The Tea Party websites define themselves as grassroots organizations preserving God, Country, Freedom, the Constitution etc. - lofty ideals that would describe almost all Americans including all the Democrats in Congress. However, the Tea Party actions present a far more sinister objective - namely the abject hatred of the President of the United States to the extent that some of them advocate violating the constitution with a military coup to overthrow the government.
Rick Santelli has now distanced himself from the Tea Party and the assortment of the wingnuts it has attracted. However, the other orginators still find the Tea Party useful in achieving their singular goal - to rid Washington of Democrats so the Republicans can get back to the business of redistributing the wealth to a tiny minority of billionaires. The movement is still being funded by the vast tentacles of Charles Koch's organizations, sometimes referred to as the Kochtopus, prompting one political observer to caution ordinary citizens not to become Koch suckers.
The rant said Americas didn't want the mortgage bailout and didn't want to pay for their neighbor's mortgages. He asked President Obama if he was listening (even though the mortgage bank bailout occurred during the Bush administration). He said the current situation would make the Founding Fathers roll over in their graves (although he wasn't clear whose fault would make them roll). He said he was going to organize a Tea Party demonstration for capitalists in Chicago in July on Lake Michigan, and the stockbrokers on the floor cheered him on.
The rant was seen by Republican capitalist billionaires and the Republican hierarchy alike as the prototype for the rebellion against the Democrats they had been looking for. The rant lumped the stimulus packages together and blamed Obama for both of them and it invoked the Founding Fathers, albeit in a very vague way.
Oil billionaire Charles Koch provided organizational and tangible resources including busses and posters for Tea Party gatherings via his organizations including Americans For Prosperity and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey provided resources and speakers via his foundation called Freedom Works. Technical expertise with websites was provided by a tech savvy free-market oil interest group called don'tGO which sprang up during the offshore oil drilling debates last year. And Fox news provided publicity for the events.
The Tea Party websites define themselves as grassroots organizations preserving God, Country, Freedom, the Constitution etc. - lofty ideals that would describe almost all Americans including all the Democrats in Congress. However, the Tea Party actions present a far more sinister objective - namely the abject hatred of the President of the United States to the extent that some of them advocate violating the constitution with a military coup to overthrow the government.
Rick Santelli has now distanced himself from the Tea Party and the assortment of the wingnuts it has attracted. However, the other orginators still find the Tea Party useful in achieving their singular goal - to rid Washington of Democrats so the Republicans can get back to the business of redistributing the wealth to a tiny minority of billionaires. The movement is still being funded by the vast tentacles of Charles Koch's organizations, sometimes referred to as the Kochtopus, prompting one political observer to caution ordinary citizens not to become Koch suckers.
Why not just link directly to the CPUSA?
