Brown: Tea Parties losing touch

As a true conservative, I have to admit that I’ve been more excited about the Tea Party… As a true conservative, I have to admit that I’ve been more excited about the Tea Party movement over the last two years than I have been about anything else in recent American politics.

At last, I thought, here was a movement for an everyday politico like me. I finally had a place to turn that had its interests in the U.S. Constitution and individual liberties instead of partisan bickering.

In addition, the movement was not associated with special interest groups, but instead with a bunch of Americans who had become disenfranchised by big government spending and the usual diatribe that spews from the mouths of politicians around the country. It was truly a grassroots movement.

However, it now seems that some of those special interests want to crash the party, spike the tea with some Grey Goose and roll out a red carpet over the grass. At the Tea Party Nation’s convention in Nashville, Tenn., in February, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will be serving as the keynote speaker.

Organizers for the convention sold 600 tickets for $550 apiece, and there are $350 tickets still available for those who just want to hear Palin’s speech. According to Politico, she will be earning $100,000 for her time over the weekend.

Tea Party Nation is a for-profit corporation run by Judson Phillips, a Tennessee lawyer. His corporation found several sponsors who’ve pledged $50,000 each to cover the costs, but FreedomWorks, one of the large-scale organizers of the original Tea Party movement won’t be one of them.

So what we have here is a bunch of people with big wallets spending a weekend with political hack as they all talk about the plight of the everyman. It sounds like every other Republican or Democratic convention.

While I’m sure it will give obnoxious leftists like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid more fodder, I believe this needs saying: This new direction is to Tea Parties what New Coke was to the carbonated beverage industry in 1985.

Tea Parties have protested both Republican and Democratic proposals. Lu Ann Busse, the head of Colorado’s Tea Party brethren, called out Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis after he claimed he had the backing of her chapter.

“Let it be known that we will not be used by any party or candidate!” Busse said in an e-mail to organization members.

Tea Parties exist because Republicans abandoned conservative ideals a long time ago. Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., said to McClatchy Newspapers that the only difference between Republicans and Democrats is how they spend money — not the scale of it.

“With the Republicans, it’s defense. With the Democrats, it’s education, environment, health care, etc. That’s been the major difference between the two parties going back to Reagan,” McClatchy said.

By any other name, the Tea Parties represent Libertarian ideals. It’s just a shame that the Libertarian Party has become something of a joke, synonymous with nothing more than marijuana legalization.

Without a clear, united front, I foresee the Tea Party era quickly coming to an end under the weight of profiteering opportunists like Palin. Instead of attending the traditionally presidential candidate-saturated Conservative Political Action Conference taking place Feb. 18-20 in Washington, D.C., she’s smart to skip it in favor of the Tea Party Nation convention.

The Republican Party is stale. However, not attending its event doesn’t necessarily mean Palin’s a real conservative.

According to a Cato @ Liberty blog entry posted by Jeff Patch, her record is spotty at best. Considering her record of leaving Wasilla, Alaska, $20 million in debt as mayor and being for the $400 million “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it as Alaska’s governor, I would have to agree. Although I suppose sticking her in front of a group of liberty-loving conservatives instead of the normal, far-to-the-right neocon crowd she usually attracts could be good for both her and the Tea Party movement, right?

Well, no. She “could potentially harm the movement, because it’s a premature national initiative that doesn’t have the support of the majority of we the people,” Anthony Shreeve, a former convention organizer, told Politico. As long as she preaches about religion’s place in her politics as it pertains to the possibility of limiting others’ individual liberties, Palin has no place in the movement.

Tea parties have traditionally taken place in front of government office buildings, at parks or in front of monuments. They’ve included people of all ages, from senior citizens to young children on the shoulders of their parents.

They’ve been accessible to everyone in the past. But when they become a sort of formal affair with steak and lobster dinners going for $550 a plate, they’ve lost sight of their goal.

I suppose I should have known a pure, Constitution-driven political movement that represented “real” Americans wouldn’t last forever. But why must its imminent demise come so soon?

E-mail Jacob at jeb110@pitt.edu.