Has the Tea Party Movement (TPM) been hijacked? Originally very much a grassroots uprising against high taxes, out-of-control federal spending, and incumbents not affiliated with any political party, it drew in disaffected Republicans, many of whom had supported Ron Paul for the Republican nomination, many former Republicans who may not have supported Dr. Paul but never considered George W. Bush the genuine article, some Constitution Party members, a few Libertarians, and other Independents. Many credit Ron Paul and his supporters for having started the TPM back in late 2007.

Last week, however, TPM organizers held a convention in Nashville, Tennessee, at a ritzy hotel (the Opryland), and charged an admission fee of $549 a head, to hear — not Dr. Paul or someone following in his footsteps such as Peter Schiff or his son Dr. Rand Paul (both involved in runs for Senate seats in their respective states) or Debra Medina, a former Paul campaign volunteer now making a credible run for Governor of Texas, but former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin!

If that doesn’t raise a few eyebrows, let us consider that Dr. Paul faces three GOP opposition candidates in his own district in Texas, more than ever before. All three have ties to the TPM. Dr. Paul, moreover, has expressed a certain amount of discomfort with the antagonistic tone of some of the Tea Party rallies.

Tim Graney, one of Dr. Paul's challangers, said, “The Tea Parties have awakened a lot of everyday people here and across America. And Ron Paul is worried about getting swept up in the anti-incumbent wave as if he is some exception.”

Gerald Wall, another opponent, stated, “The Republican Party has left its principles. And these Tea Parties are full of people who want to take back our party.”

John Gay, the third opponent, was more openly critical of Paul, saying, “The word I keep hearing is ‘ineffective.’ This district is not really being represented as it could be.”

Ron Paul’s critics in his own district have expressed impatience with his national ambitions, his refusal to vote for federal aid to the district following Hurricane Ike, and his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — a sore spot with many Republicans.

Ron Paul’s main campaign spokesman, Jesse Benton, has scoffed at allegations of ineffectiveness, stating that the vote against aid to the district was an expression of Dr. Paul’s consistent fiscal conservatism. Dr. Paul, like others in Congress, has the advantages of incumbency, including $1.9 million in the bank — an amount none of his challengers in either major party have approached. (Three Democrats are also vying for Ron Paul’s job.)

Dr. Paul takes the challenge seriously, though, having written in a letter to supporters that his opponents had “turned their attack dogs loose on me” ...  He went on to warn them that the anti-incumbent mood in the country could take him down as well. “While I think this development is a good thing," he told supporters, “I am going to have to work hard to ensure I am not caught up in the same wave and swept out of office before our job is done.”

While Dr. Paul’s prospects for retaining his seat in the House are good, he and supporters appear to face a separate challenge for control over the TPM. However loudly she stated, "America is ready for another revolution," the substance of Palin’s speech in Nashville was very much that of the GOP mainstream. She supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, and engaged in sabre-rattling against Iran. On the other hand, she never mentioned the Federal Reserve or sound money — mainstays of the Ron Paul movement.  

This suggests that the neoconservatives — “neocons” — who controlled the GOP during the Bush II years — have indeed hijacked the TPM and are drawing on its energy in their efforts to win back Congress this fall and, eventually, the White House in 2012. At the very least, with the Nashville convention that took on an appearance of mainstream GOP instead of grassroots populism, we may be seeing the beginnings  of a power struggle within the TPM between supporters of Ron Paul and supporters of Sarah Palin.

For what it is worth, Palin has endorsed Dr. Paul’s son in his run for the soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat in Kentucky.

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Bonnie said:

A TPM strategy The best thing for the TEA Party Movement to do at this point would be to fracture into smaller local or state groups. Local groups would be best in the more populous states, while statewide groups would suffice in the smaller states. This fracturing would make it increasingly difficult for infiltration and hijacking to occur. There should be NO national or regional coordinators.

February 11, 2010

Craig D said:

About time somebody brought this up. I've been concerned about this myself. I am a former democrat who threw my support behind Ron Paul this last election cycle specifically because he stood for more things I support than any other candidate. When the teaparty movement started up, I kept abreast of it's development. When I heard that of all the people that could have spoken at this convention they picked Sarah Palin I couldn't believe it. Palin's views are about as far from those of Ron Paul as Obama's are. There is no way I would ever support a party that holds up a politician such as Palin as a spokesperson. Maybe it's time for Paul and his supporters to start a 4th party and this time, don't let it get hijacked by neocons in libertarian clothing.

February 11, 2010

Sasha Toman said:

The NeoCon TPM All the more reason to donate to Dr. Paul. He started all this in 2007, and now the uncreative and theocratic Teabagger horde think they can ride a wave of economic discontent to Bush Redux. No thanks, Sarah.

February 11, 2010

Kevin said:

Fun to watch It will be fun to watch the tea party fall into oblivion. It has become a joke. People who support Ms Palin are completely clueless and deserve no freedom....

February 11, 2010

AngelaTC said:

... They actually did invite one of us (Tom Woods) to speak, but he declined due to a conflict with a personal event. Looking for reasons to divide the movement doesn't help anybody accomplish anything. If you aren't arranging your neighborhood's April 15th Tea Party, you can't blame somebody else for stepping up in your place. Most movements have leaders and followers, but I'm starting to think that the liberty movement has no leaders, only whiners.

February 11, 2010 | url

James Salata said:

Confusion I like what Bonnie said. The Ron Paul Revolution needs better organization. One gripe I had while campaigning for Dr. Paul in 2008 was the confusion the "Truthers" brought to the table at our Meet-Up groups. They insisted that the twin towers were brought down by "controlled demolition". My own logic and some knowledge of science (BEChE) plus the stance that the JBS had regarding the issue put me at odds with quite a few fellow Ron Paul supporters. Not all, but quite a few. The JBS still maintains (I think) that those buildings were not toppled due to controlled demolition. I went to a Ron Paul rally in Washington D.C. in May of 2008 on a bus that was shared by people from Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was loaded with Truthers, one being a JBS member. Then, one of the last speakers at the rally was a Truther himself. It got me wondering whether Ron Paul was a Truther. I still don't know where Dr. Paul stands on this particular issue. It wasn't too long after that rally that Ron Paul announced his endorsement of the JBS. It seemed to me that there was not enough unity amongst Ron Paul supporters at that time. There was unity with the Republicans though. But I still believe that Dr. Paul's biggest enemy was the Republican party. And I believe they still are. They hijacked the Tea Party.

February 11, 2010

Lee Gonzales said:

The hijacking of the Tea Party Movement that some warned about some months back... who would have thought it would come wearing an upmarket designer outfit, a Barbie-like smile and drinking a glass of "ice tea?"

February 11, 2010

Robert Adkerson said:

Don't get it twisted! The "Convention" in TN is being inaccurately being portrayed as the voice of the so called "Tea Party" movement. A better description would be a mass awakening and I can tell you for sure that those 600 people in TN were not spokespeople for the awakening. There are thousands of groups like ours around the country who's sole purpose is to return the Constitution to it's rightful place in education, civics and government. As long as the majority of groups, whatever they call themselves are focused on Jeffersonian Constitutional principles then the principles themselves will guide us all in the same direction. No need for a Convention. 56 men already held that Convention!

February 11, 2010 | url

spinnikerca said:

Tea Bag leadership Did the TPM really have a convention in Tennessee? Are you sure it wasn't just a couple of neocon lawyers who used the name 'Tea Party' and hired Sarah Palin to pull a crowd they could launch their PAC to? Because looking at the planks they put together for the 'tea party' movement, they aren't like any tea party I have been to -- specifically on the interventionist foreign policy side. The tea parties are about representing the people over special interests and about fiscal conservatism and sound monetary policies. That wasn't where the lawyer PAC in Tennessee seems to be going, at all.

February 11, 2010

zman said:

James Salata, do a little more research Not that it has to be a point of contention at Tea Parties or anything like that, but NONE of the official story of what happened on 9/11/2001 stands up to more than about 5 minutes of scrutiny.

February 11, 2010

JP said:

Neocon hijacking Yes, the TEA Party movement appears to be in the process of being hijacked by big government neocons. Sarah Palin is an obvious sign of this, with her support of "preventive" wars of aggression, trash talking Iran and whipping up terrorism paranoia for the security state, and her moral crusader persona. I read a blog post at Breitbart's BigGovernment.com site, which is all about railing against government and supporting the TEA parties...but the blog post was saying that Palin and Rick Perry are "more mainstream" TEA partiers who are "more patriotic" and "support the military" unlike the fringe Ron Paul. If that's not a hijacking, what is?

February 12, 2010

AGGOZZUR said:

... Sarah is a brainless pawn. And anyone who believes what the government tells them about an event like 9/11 and then listens to the government when they tell the people not to listen to private investigators because they are outrageous is a sheeple. People... LOCK AND LOAD IT'S TIME!!!

February 15, 2010

R3VOLUTION said:

The Awakening The people who have been attending these recent Tea Parties believe that they have been awakened to the real problems of our overbearing government/political system, but in reality, they have not awoken, they've merely opened one eye. Sure, they now realize that the government is far too massive than it should be and that they are taxing us into a destroyed economy, but they have not opened the other eye and realized that the Republican Party shares just as much responsibility as the Democrats for this.

February 20, 2010