During most of last summer, I could not help but laughing at the Tea
Party movement as they accused President Obama of being Kenyan communist
hell-bent on annihilating everything that 'their' America stood for. I
remember clearly enjoying breakfast at a hotel in downtown Cleveland as
a Fox News program detailed on how they were organizing rallies all over
the country to oppose health care reform, financial regulation and all
those things that – in their point of view – go against their vision of
what this country should be.
Now I realize I should not have been laughing. However, like most in
what can be characterized as "on the left" (I have no party affiliation
or anything like that, but lately I have developed contempt for radical
conservatives here in the US, even if I do agree with some more moderate
Republicans on certain issues), I saw the Tea Partiers as a motley group
of ignorant hicks fueled by the Fox News and CNN talking heads who just
want to see the current administration fail, no matter what that does to
the country. What I should have noticed was they were forming a strong
base while liberal organizations pretty much kept quiet, possibly still
drunk from the victory in November of 2008.
Today, the Tea Party movement is a reality. An example of this is the
unprecedented Republican victory in Massachusetts, which would not have
been possible without that group's help. Unlike their rivals, they did
learn from their mistakes (in the upstate NY Congress race) and
supported a candidate that did not fit the bill as a 'true conservative'
because they knew that a 'classic' Republican (you know, the kind who
opposes gay rights, abortion and things like that) would not stand a
chance in a deep blue state.
In the meantime, liberal organizations did --- close to nothing.
Organizing For America only came through to Democratic Senate candidate
Martha Coakley when it was already too late. And the DNC not only
refused help from left-wing organizations who wanted to challenge the
Tea Parties, but also muzzled them in favor of politics as usual,
according to a recent report on the latest edition of Rolling Stone
magazine.
Worse, many liberals are still ignoring the power that the right has
garnered in the last few months. An example of that is the ridicule
their made of Sarah Palin's palm notes during the Tea Party convention
in Nashville last week. What the left should have been doing is rallying
their supporters as much as they did almost a year and a half ago.
Is that populism? Maybe. But guess what: populism wins elections.
