I had dropped Politico from my RSS feed a while ago, but happened to stumble across this
article by Ben Smith which seems to lay bare all of the arguments the left has been making about the "astroturfing" of the Tea Party/Town Hall events for the last few months. I'm not familiar with organizing marches/protests, etc, but this seems too crass by half. This is the headline:
FreedomWorks not free: $10K to participate in D.C. tea party march
FreedomWorks, the conservative group organizing much of the "tea party" movement, has riled allies by charging hefty fees to participate in a Sept. 12 March on Washington aimed at bringing the movement's broad anti-government agenda — notably, opposition to health care changes — to Capitol Hill.
I'm sorry, am I missing something? I thought this movement was average Americans rising up to take back their country from the Socialist Overlords. So how on earth can a multi-million dollar organization be charging thousands of dollars to participate in a march on Washington? Do organizations on the left do this too? Is this normal?
FreedomWorks, which is chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is charging other groups a minimum of $10,000 for the right to distribute material to the activists gathered for the march, and to attach their own names to the event. The group has raised its rates from an initial fee schedule, which would put a group's name on the website for free, and would allow it to distribute materials for $2,500.
Groups can also pay to have a speaker address a rally and workshops, with $10,000 securing a prime Saturday afternoon speaking slot, according to the fee schedule, obtained by POLITICO and printed after the jump.
Now obviously, the average citizen isn't going to have to pay to protest, but the fact that one organization can charge fees to other organizations participate in a "grassroots" protest just seems outrageous to me. Am I being too naive? Is this how the whole system works for right AND the left?
And how will FreedomWorks control "rogue" organizations that show up and distribute material to activists without paying the fee? Dems should be playing this up each and every chance they get as an example of how this is sooo NOT a grassroots movement, but rather a corporate sponsored group that will do anything to protect their profit margins.
Now, compare this to the REAL GRASSROOTS/NETROOTS MOVEMENT. And I didn't think I could be outraged any more.
Here's the Fee Schedule. Note that "Grassroots Training" that is available if you pay a fee.
Old fee schedule:
Bronze-Level Co-Sponsor: FREE
— Name on the website www.912dc.org and a link
— We will list your happy hours/open house or other events on the website
Silver-Level Co-Sponsor: $2500
— Ability to distribute materials during Thursday issue panels and grass-roots training
— 2 tickets to Friday appreciation dinner
— 1 speaker on Saturday at the rally
Gold-Level Co-Sponsor: $5000
— Ability to distribute materials during Thursday issue panels and grass-roots training
— Speakers from your organization to participate in Thursday issue panels and grass-roots training
— 5 tickets to Friday appreciation dinner
Platinum Level Co-Sponsor: $10,000
All Silver- and Gold-Level benefits, plus:
— Organization name and logo printed on official 9-12 March on Washington T-shirt
— Organization name and logo displayed on 9-12 March on Washington banners and signs
— 10 tickets to Friday appreciation dinner
— 1 speaker from your organization to address the crowd Saturday afternoon