Liberal Groups Come Together To Counter/Emulate Tea Party

The "Coffee Party" didn't work out so well but liberals are always willing to bet that a bad idea will work if they just try harder, spend more and just get the message right. To that end, they are back with another shot at their own tea party movement.

In an effort to replicate the tea party's success, 170 liberal and civil rights groups are forming a coalition that they hope will match the movement's political energy and influence. They promise to "counter the tea party narrative" and help the progressive movement find its voice again after 18 months of foundering.

The large-scale attempt at liberal unity, dubbed "One Nation," will try to revive themes that energized the progressive grass roots two years ago. In a repurposing of Barack Obama's former campaign slogan, organizers are demanding "all the change" they voted for -- a poke at the White House.

But the liberal groups have long had a kind of sibling rivalry, jostling over competing agendas and seeking to influence some of the same lawmakers. In forming the coalition, the groups struggled to settle on a name. Even now, two of the major players disagree about who came up with the idea of holding a march this fall

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The groups involved represent the core of the first-time voters who backed Obama, including the National Council of La Raza, the Service Employees International Union, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and the United States Student Association. (The effort is separate from the Democratic Party's plan to spend $50 million trying to reach those same voters.)

Their aha! moment happened after the health-care overhaul passed this spring. Liberal groups, which focused their collective strength to push the bill against heavy resistance, felt relevant and effective for the first time in a long while. That health-care coalition, composed of civil rights groups, student activists and labor leaders, liked the winning formula.

Over a year from the start of the tea party movement (assuming you trace its origin to the beautiful Santelli rant on CNBC) and liberals, er progressives, still don't get it. They really think the tea parties are simply a product of Karl Rove and Freedom Works imagination. That those two simply pushed a button and millions of average Americans who had never taken part in political protests simply just marched out of their houses and showed up at local gatherings and congressional town halls. The liberals think the tea party types are deep cover sleeper agents who can be controlled by flashing the Queen of Hearts. It never occurs to liberals that a lot of normal people just don't like the progressive agenda and the big spending/taxing government that comes with it.

Naturally, if you're a liberal the only conceivable response to this scary movement is...a document outlining the goals of 170 existing groups that offer nothing new in the way of ideas. Yeah, that's how you fight a grass root movement whose main appeal and power comes from the simple and honest idea that government is getting too big and too expensive. Again, they really think if they just get the message right (aka fool enough people), they will win.

The fact that this is the response from liberals should warm all our hearts (well, if we had any) because it's clear they just don't get it. With a little luck, they never will.

posted by DrewM. at 11:45 AM

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