The Washington Post studied the Tea Party and learned, “There is little agreement among the leaders of various groups about what issue the tea party should be most concerned about. In fact, few saw themselves as part of a coordinated effort.” If you find this surprising, then you have not been to a tea party and will find the rest of the article just as eye-opening.
a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process.
The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every tea party group in the nation, an unprecedented attempt to understand the network of individuals and organizations at the heart of the nascent movement.
Seventy percent of the grass-roots groups said they have not participated in any political campaigning this year. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general.
The Post’s conclusion that “the breadth of the tea party may be inflated,” however, does not follow at all from its findings. It’s like saying America’s breadth is inflated because people don’t respond to polls and disagree.
Overall, the Post story is a good palliative for those dyspeptic stories about the Koch brothers’ control of the movement.
