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You knew it had to happen, eventually. In response to the Tea Party, a largely conservative/libertarian political action faction that advocates free markets, and small government (except defense spending), a liberal/populist Coffee Party political action faction has formed. The Coffee Party's underlying principle is that government is "not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans." The first National Coffee Party Day was held last Saturday, March 13.
Although the two have diametrically opposed views of government, especially the role of the federal government in U.S. society and the economy, both share a disappointment with the current leadership in Washington.
The Coffee Party has also made civility a core value. It encourages members to sign its Civility Pledge.
Political/Economic Analysis: The Coffee Party faction is a logical response to the Tea Party faction, which has managed to receive broadcast air time far beyond what its membership would dictate, largely due to disproportionate coverage of the faction by News Corp.'s (NWS) Fox News.
Unless either organization can consistently secure a critical mass of the electorate -- roughly 20% of registered voters -- you'd have to put each in the category of a faction, with each eventually being assimilated by its logical home party: the Republican Party (for Tea faction) and the Democratic Party (for the Coffee faction). And it's highly unlikely that Tea and Coffee factions will merge to form a viable third party.
For attainment of power reasons, political parties in the United States require voters to aggregate interests and make broad choices: parties have to be "umbrella organizations," or there's little hope of competing effectively for the ultimate national office, the U.S. presidency. So far, both the Tea and Coffee factions appear to be structured on economic issues only, and as long as they are narrowly structured, they'll remain much weaker than the established, umbrella Democratic and Republican parties.
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Joseph Lazzaro is writing a book on the U.S. presidency and the U.S. economy.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-20-2010 @ 10:17AM
JudeThom said...
I prefer coffee, the tea people all have 'fat cat' health insurance. Dump the tea overboard!
3-20-2010 @ 10:40AM
MyKisa said...
.....coffee with your gov man cheese?
3-21-2010 @ 2:15PM
NH said...
Coffee Party - Chock Full O' Nuts from the left. And more astroturf funded by Soros.
www.nhteapartycoalition.org/tea/2010/03/05/coffee-party-merely-more-progressive-astroturf/
3-20-2010 @ 2:13PM
Terri Owens said...
Thus far, I haven't seen any party make a difference in what is going on with health care reform or spending...Seems to me if they were going to listen, would have happened by now. They sound good but who hears? I do not know of one single thing or instance that the Tea Party has influenced. Can you name one? I would like to know, really.
I'm all for them but no one on the liberal or dem. side is even bothering and they clearly don't seem afraid or concerned so far. If anyone was listening, the whole mess with health care reform would not have progressed to the point it is today.
3-20-2010 @ 2:21PM
realamerican said...
For Joe Lizzardo! Sir you mention the dis-proportionate coverage the Tea Party gets on FOX News. Yeh, that one guy, Glenn Beck by name, has more viewers than all of the major broadcast news agencies and all of the cablenews agencies combined. I wonder why! You call one person covering the Tea Party disproportionate, and I say you exagerate a little there. But I will also say this about the Coffee Party. They have coopted a good idea from the Tea Partiers, and this is fair play. But if they can just keep guys like you out of the picture, just maybe they can get a HEALTHY dialogue going about what is wrong in our country. Both sides make very good points. The idea is to keep the radicals out of the game. Keep politicians out of the Tea and Coffee Parties. Let the press and media only report on what they accomplish without any commentary that would advance their biases.
I haven't seen any violent demonstrations out of the Tea Party like we do out of so-called TWO-PARTY'rs. Both groups are realistic and do not want infiltration of the Socialists or Communists that are so predominant in out country right now. This is still AMERICA and we still have the say about what party is going to govern and for how long. This country is REPUBLIC!!! It is not a Democracy. We only expound Democratic Principles. Democracy is not the name of a Party in the Two Party System. We The People make the rules and it is time We The People start to change the years of infiltration of other than Democratic Principles into our government.
3-20-2010 @ 8:30PM
CynicalPatriot said...
The TEA Party is not what either the Republican or Democrat Propaganda Machines would have you believe.
Think Critically, Do not believe what anybody, even me, tells you without vetting the information yourself
from other sources.
I am a Conservative trapped in a liberals body http://twurl.cc/2cjt
Response to the Governator - Schwarzenegger bashes TEA Party Movement. Is he right? http://twurl.cc/2cjs
TEA Party - It is not Republican vs Democrat nor Educated vs Uneducated nor white vs color http://twurl.cc/2cju
And now try to pigeon hole me into the Propaganda mold the 2 major party corporate controlled major media has
billed your heads with.
Those were my thoughts.
Don Mashak
The Cynical Patriot
3-20-2010 @ 8:31PM
william lindblad said...
To realamerican - amen.
Joe, what this place really needs is a resurrection of the Bull Moose Party or a modern variant, but with a good healthy leader. Over the years this country has had many "third" parties and independents, many of which have been elected to sit in Congress. However, there has never been a circumstance that allowed any to have a uniform goal that would have gained national attention, and hence, followers.
In our system none have had enough votes to make much of a difference with only few exceptions. At the present there is sufficient dissent among the general population and a movement does remain a reality, however I doubt that it will be any tea or coffee party. Perhaps and Independence Party? It would be a pretty good name as it is about time that the voters got some Independence returned to them.