Tea Party "officials" in Michigan are running away in a tizzy from a recent effort to put "the Tea Party" on Michigan's ballot in 2010. Announced first on OutsideLansing.com, it appears that an unknown group or individual has financed a petition drive to put the Tea Party on the November 2010 ballot.
And actual Tea Party members are freaking out.
Zarko Research has learned that a nefarious unknown group calling itself "The Tea Party"...is circulating a petition on a paid basis, at roughly $1 per signature to the circulator...
The petition claims to seek access to the ballot for an entirely new party - the "Tea Party", although when Zarko Research interviewed known organizers of the Tea Party they all knew nothing about it.
When shown copies of the petition, Wendy Day of Howell, Michigan, organizer of Common Sense in Michigan considered one of the lead Tea Party protest organizers in the state, told us that the Tea Party as she has known it has never sought official access to the ballot and works to create an environment where both of the existing parties work for reform and limiting governmental intrusion into the lives of individual citizens. Day condemned this effort and stated it was an effort to dilute the impact of the current Tea Party - she argued this was evidence that forces opposing reform were taking the Tea Party seriously - so seriously that indeed they are trying to steal its trademark and hijack it.
Take you seriously, Ms. Day? Uh...I don't think so. You're the one who staged the ridiculous "Snowman Protest" last winter on the lawn of the state Capitol building.
But, if this is, indeed, a "Dem Dirty Trick" as Mr. Zarko calls it, you should ask yourself why this would work. Let me help you: your "Tea Party" group is simply a subset of the Republican Party. This "Dem Dirty Trick" will work because it will siphon off support from real Republicans and essentially hand elections in many areas over to the Dems, just like happened in NY-23 last year.
The reality is that it's probably not even necessary. They are just helping you along.
In 2008 Rush Limbaugh encouraged Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries. Did you complain about that? How about when Republicans everywhere donated large sums of money to help get Ralph Nader on the ballot in 2004? Did that tweak your conscience at all?
The fact is your "Tea Party" is simply a bunch of disaffected Republicans seeking to push their far-right agenda on the country and gain control of the GOP. Instead of taking over an existing party and driving it farther to the right, this initiative asks you to own up to your beliefs. And, in doing so, leave intact a Republican Party that could potentially be a home for more centrist Republicans who increasingly have been left to feel they have no home.
If your party is such a credible organization, why would you run from this effort to make it official? You claim to have so many supporters and such a superlative message, why are you reluctant to own that and BE a party?
Whassa matter? Afraid to run with the Big Dogs?
UPDATE: Here's Wendy Day on political parties earlier this year:
"Within the parties themselves there's such a wide variety of individuals," she said. "Even though we keep switching out parties election after election, things don't seem to be getting any better."
With that in mind, Ms. Day said political-watchers and candidates should not expect her organization to endorse or support candidates for office this year.
"We know you can send the right person, or who you think is the right person, to Lansing and Washington, but they can make really stupid decisions," she said. "But our job is going to be to hold those folks accountable once they're elected and let the folks back home who elected them know what they're up to."
Which just goes to show that the she and her Tea Party associates aren't interested in forming a credible party. They simply want to stand back in judgment and throw poo on anyone with the courage to put themselves out there. Ms. Day herself does put herself out there as a member of the Howell Public School Board. I find this a bit odd because she homeschools her own kids. She's thought by some to be the primary reason a recently-hired superintendent for Howell Schools backed out just before taking his position.
I'm just sayin'...