We’ve got mail: Maybe conservatives are starting to organize

When the TEA Party movement got started, there was no top-down organization, there was no push from big corporations, there was no involvement by the Republican National Committee. To put it bluntly, it was a disorganized bunch who had their heart in the right place.

As the movement without a line item in the budget for protest signs grew, there were completely unfounded charges from the left – supported by the media – that the TEA Party movement was funded by right-wing black-ops types who paid for everything with the goal to make it look like it was a grass-roots movement. “It was manufactured”.

Bull feathers. Tell that to the individual organizers in Hartford, Naples, St. Louis, and around the country who were trying to figure out where to rent speaker systems, apply for permits, create Facebook accounts, and finally – but most importantly – how to launch a Web site and register a domain name with the words ‘teaparty’ in it.

There was no top-down organization.

Eventually, more people with some skills got involved. Fox News elected to cover TEA Parties around the country, and the movement grew. Recently some professionals got involved to help the original disorganized organizers organize.

I thought community organizers were good people?

Reader Tim. M. writes…

please before i get called a lair again.. notice WHO is sponeoring the local evenst, and sept 12 eevst in dc

I left the spelling, grammar and punctuation irregularities intact for dramatic effect. (Not that I’m perfect by any means). Tim goes on to refer to this blog post by Jake Sherman in the Wall Street Journal, with my emphasis in bold.

When the health care town halls end, tea parties begin.

That’s what eight conservative groups decided, as they joined forces to launch a new, 16-day national tea party tour later this month, taking their small-government message to towns all over the country.

Two 45-foot buses will snake their way across America, beginning in Sacramento Aug. 28 and ending with a “March on Washington” Sept. 12.

The leader is a California based political action committee Our Country Deserves Better. The best-known partner is FreedomWorks, former House Speaker Dick Armey’s influential conservative group which has been a major player in opposition to health care overhaul.

Ohhhhhhh…. Dick Armey. CONSPIRACY!

Well I say finally.

I’m not sure who called Tim a liar, but since individual groups are now organizing their message and taking advantage of professionals who can help them put together larger events, people like Tim are saying “see, see – those groups are manufactured!” and quite honestly, making fools of themselves.

If you’re comparing the start of these groups to the true creators of Axelrod astroturfing, you’re way off base. The unions and Democrat/liberal activist groups have been paying protesters and busing them around for years.

Maybe they just don’t like the fact TEA Party organizers have borrowed a few playbook pages from groups like ACORN, MoveOn and Organizing for America. Get over it.