My Positive Experience at a Tea Party Meeting

Last week, I decided to attend the meeting of a local Liberal, KS group that is loosely affiliated with the Tea Party. They actually go by the name We The People, but their genesis was the Tea Party movement. I know a few people in the group who assured me their purpose was not radicalism, but rather educating the electorate and motivating involvement of the ordinary citizen. So, curious and professing an open mind, I attended. As a point of disclosure: I have already blogged about several areas of concern I have about the movement.

I sat in the back, determined to just observe and listen, to give a fair evaluation of their actions and purpose. Although there was some early discussion of national events, this group actually focused most of its energy to local and state races. The most consuming discussion centered around whether to endorse candidates, how to evaluate candidates and how to encourage more people to run for local offices. I applaud their discussion because it was civil, well informed and genuine. Although, there were several points where I felt I could add to the discussion, I purposely chose not too, as my goal really was just to watch and listen.

However, toward the end of the meeting, the moderator asked a direct question of the attendees: how many of you have a negative view and how many have a positive view of the Tea Party movement? No one raised their hand expressing a negative view and about 1/2 raised their hands with a positive view. I spoke up and asked what about a neutral view? The moderator asked me to explain what I liked and what I disliked about the Tea Party movement.

My response was that I liked the fact that the movement was encouraging the participation of ordinary people in ways not seen for some time and that they were attempting to hold our political leaders accountable for their decisions. Of course, this received a positive response from those in attendance.

Then I ventured into the areas I disliked. Here I discussed the rancorous, seemingly partisan nature of the national debate (which is not limited to Tea Party members) and the need for the movement to quickly and forcefully remove radical elements (racists, anarchists, etc.) who see the Tea Party as a possibly mainstream vehicle for their radical views if they wished to remain relevant in the political system. I was also concerned about how the movement often appeared to exist just to be anti-Obama.

However, I devoted most of my discussion to the question of whether the Tea Party truly wants to represent ALL the people or if it was just a front for a dedicated conservative movement. I explained how my own centrist views were viewed as liberal in places like Kansas and Utah, but conservative in places like Connecticut (all places I have lived). I also pointed out that there are many in our own town who are not conservative.

I will admit I was pleasantly surprised by the response I received. I was not attacked, though some asked some good, probing questions. After the meeting, I had several people approach me and thank me for my input and compliment what they saw as a well thought out, reasonable and relevant observations of the movement. Obviously I can't speak to the behavior of most Tea Party groups, but I have to commend those in my hometown Liberal, KS for what seems like a genuine and effective commitment to the idea of a truly inclusive, grass roots political movement without an excess of ideological extremism.