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Jim W's avatar

Sorry, it was conducted by the Kochs, from the first note, sang by Santelli.

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whatnext's avatar

Well, I'm no tea partier, or rightist, but the guy is correct, the Koch "tea party" came after, and had a different name. This astroturf group held rallies that no one attended, and co-opted the tea party name. The sad thing is that there were few howls of outrage from the "true" tea partiers when this happened -- such was the team player right wing pile on of Obama.

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Jim W's avatar

Read the article posted above by e. pierce.

QED

TIJ

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SimulationCommander's avatar

LOL that piece talks about Rick Santelli.

He's the takeover we're talking about.

Who was the Tea Party before that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGB8BeUWtwA

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SimulationCommander's avatar

According to publicly available IRS records, the five essential pillars of just such a Tea Party movement network were all funded and in place by that spring of 2009тАФthe Sam Adams Alliance to direct grassroots efforts; the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity to direct propaganda efforts in state capitals across the United States; the State Policy Network to coordinate funding and free-market policies at state-based think tanks; hundreds of grants from the Koch foundations to American universities that were linked in through SPN; and, of course, CSEтАЩs successor, Americans for Prosperity, built to coordinate the effort nationally.

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The Tea Party started in December 2007. The 2009 group might be when YOU got aware of it, but it was long after the movement had been taken over.

You can watch the videos of it happening. Any article that doesn't discuss 2007 as the start of the Tea Party is clearly in error.

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Jan 29, 2021
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SimulationCommander's avatar

It's the literal birth of the movement. What could be more powerful evidence than that?

If you want to stick your head in the sand and say the tea party started in 2009, go ahead. Nobody cares.

Have a good night.

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Jan 29, 2021
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SimulationCommander's avatar

The fact that only a few people know the truth doesn't stop it from being the truth.

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Martin Vandepas's avatar

How many people would you expect to participate in the beginning of a grass roots movement. By definition....very few. What I hear both of you saying is that later Koch funded Astroturf took over this relatively small but authentic grassroots movement. You seem to agree on that, I'm not sure what the arguing and name calling is for.

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Jim W's avatar

Billionaires corrupt everything they touch.

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Jim W's avatar

It was sort of a neighborhood social club before the Kochs, I guess.

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Jan 29, 2021
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Koshmarov's avatar

Frankly, I love these people. It's America's rich pageant.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

Exactly. While it was a critique of Bush and Wall Street, the Tea Party was still more or less "pure."

Once Obama won, it was taken over to be anti-Obama.

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Indecisive decider's avatar

It's funny.... the moment someone says Kochs or Soros, you know they're just hitting a copy/paste section of their brain. It's lazy argumentation at best, and non-thinking parroting of something they heard at worst.

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Jim W's avatar

It is true.

So there.

Refute, if you can.

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Jan 29, 2021
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Indecisive decider's avatar

Or they're genuinely entertained. Crazy, huh.

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D.D. Driver's avatar

LOL. Don't mess around with Jim.

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Jim W's avatar

You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger, and you ...

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memento mori's avatar

You are just full of shit. I was there. I bet you weren't. Or were you?

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Jim W's avatar

I was campaigning for David Koch in 1980, after he and brother Charlie took over the Libertarian Party and he ran on the partyтАЩs presidential ticket. The poor sad little party never recovered from their toxic touch.

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memento mori's avatar

Interesting. Still doesn't discredit the honest Tea Party people who supported the Ron Paul agenda (and had no idea who David Koch was). And I believe Ron Paul was also not beholden to the Koch Bros. If anything, and if true, the Koch narrative just confirms that the monied elite control this country.

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Jim W's avatar

Yes, that is right about the people who sincerely protested, but I have my doubts about Ron.

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Koshmarov's avatar

"The poor sad little party never recovered from their toxic touch."

...just imagining a bunch of sad little Libertarians with their little conical party hats and blow ticklers melting under a sudden cloudburst.

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