America is about to learn how the right-wing engages in community organizing. Rather than working to get the support of like-minded citizens to participate in public events on behalf of their agenda, Tea Partiers are planning a campaign of dirty tricks that fails to advance the debate, but succeeds in revealing their own contempt for the democratic process. For a crowd who professes to revere the Constitution, they are openly demonstrating their disrespect for the First Amendment’s guarantees of free assembly and the redressing of grievances.
Here is the plot as laid out by Tea Bagging luminary Mark Williams: [Note: Williams’ website keeps appearing and disappearing so here is Google’s cache of the page]
Here is what I am doing in Sacramento, where they are holding a 5:30 PM event this coming Tuesday: (1) I signed up as an organizer (2) with any luck they will contact me and I will have an “in” (3) in or not I will be there and am asking as many other people as can get there to come with, all of us in SEIU shirts (those who don’t have them we can possibly buy some from vendors likely to be there) (4) we are going to target the many TV cameras and reporters looking for comments from the members there (5) we will approach the cameras to make good pictures… signs under our shirts that say things like “screw the taxpayer!” and “you OWE me!” to be pulled out for the camera (timing is important because the signs will be taken away from us) (6) we will echo those slogans in angry sounding tones to the cameras and the reporters. (7) if I do get the “in” I am going to do my darnedest to get podium access and take the mic to do that rant from there…with any luck and if I can manage the moments to build up to it, I can probably get a cheer out of the crowd for something extreme.
And Williams describes precisely what his goals are for this charade:
Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters who just want dramatic shots and outrageous quotes for headlines. Even if it becomes known that we are plants the quotes and pictures will linger as defacto truth.
It should come as no surprise that the Tea Party aspires to manufacture falsehoods that they hope will linger as “defacto truth.” They rarely show much regard for actual truth. And with this project they affirm that their movement is utterly devoid of principle.
Mark Williams is a veteran Tea Bagger with a dubious history. He was expelled as the head of Tea Party Express for composing some overtly racist screeds for his blog. Subsequently, the Tea Party Express was banished from the Tea Party Federation. But the affiliation between these people and groups continues without interruption. Williams’ scheme has been endorsed by the Patriot Action Network, another Tea Party adjunct, whose partners include Islamophobe Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs and, of course, Tea Party Express.
In addition to this, Tea Party Express, which is known for funneling donations into the GOP lobbyist firm that created it, has been embraced by CNN. The network is co-hosting a Republican presidential primary debate with the disreputable organization. And CNN’s affiliation with the phony Tea Party movement also extends to their airing of Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party response to the State of the Union address, and to the hiring of Tea Party flack (and Breitbart’s editor-in-chief) Dana Loesch. CNN’s love affair with the Tea Party has been orchestrated by their new head, Ken Jautz, who will forever be marked as the man who gave Glenn Beck his first job in television.
The Tea Party’s response to the massive week-long demonstrations by labor and others in Wisconsin has been pitiful. Despite Tea Party star-power like Andrew Breitbart, Herman Cain, and Joe the Plumber, their big counter-demonstration last Saturday fizzled as a mere 2,500 Baggers showed up to confront an estimated 70,000 pro-worker demonstrators. And their little affair lasted less than an hour and a half, wrapping up at about 1:20pm although it had been scheduled to go until 3:00. This show of weakness may be why the Tea Baggers are resorting to dirty tricks.
The pro-American worker demonstrators should be on alert for Tea Party saboteurs. They should be prepared to expose them and inform the media of the desperate and unethical tactics. The media, for its part, should also be aware of the misrepresentation that they are being targeted with, and they should not hesitate to reveal it to their audience.
Whether or not this childish prank succeeds is still up in the air. One thing that Williams gets right is that the press can be astonishingly lazy. That means it’s up to citizens to make sure that the press do their jobs. So if you are attending any rallies, be aware, be vigilant, and be careful. These instigators have been primed by the rhetoric of Glenn Beck and other purveyors of hate. They have been deluded into thinking that the giant. multinational corporations who despise workers’ rights are actually representing their interests. And they are capable of anything in pursuit of their anti-union, anti-democracy mission.
And the dumbshits openly publicized it. Seriously, these fuckwads are just proving that their entire movement is built upon falsehoods.
What a bunch of lunatics! I can’t come up with the right word to describe these people but they are despicable. The ruling elites have succeeded in their divide and conquer strategy of the middle class and working poor and these numbsculls are proof of it. I hope they do not succeed.
these baggers are also promoting the infiltration:
http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com/forum/topics/get-ready-seius-purple-army
Yep. I noted that above along with their partners Atlas Shrugs and Tea Party Express.
Didn’t we just see this kind of support for the oppressors in Egypt? The only thing missing were the camels and horses and whips.
Hey, as a counterattack, let’s make up some racist signs for infiltrators to carry at the Tea Party rally so everyone will think the Tea Partiers are racists. Oh, wait, we don’t have to.
That’s the funny part. Williams says that he wants to “make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is.” But if the gathering is greedy and goonish then why does he have to fake it? Wouldn’t his trolls just blend in with the other goons? Obviously he needs to plant his own goons because there aren’t any there in the first place.
And as you say, we don’t have to plant racists in the Tea Party because the Tea Party does it on their own. We aren’t about de facto truth. We like the real kind.
The Government is trying to take away these Wisconsin worker’s rights and “freedom’s.” I would have thought the Tea-baggers would be proud of other’s who stand up to big Government running rough-shot over the little guy.
I guess the movement took a few day’s for grassroots Tea-baggers to be told by there leaders(Koch Brothers, Dick Armey, John Burch Society, etc…) what there stance shoud be.
I haven’t heard a peep from Faux”News” about who is providing those buses to haul in all those “Big Government” backing Tea-baggers.
If the Tea Baggers had any integrity they would be on the side of the people instead of the abusive government that wants to revoke rights they’ve had for decades.
“Tea Partiers are planning dirty tricks…”
And for your proof, you cite Mark Williams?? He has been outed by other Tea Party organizations, so his street cred is nil.
“…purveyors of hate…”
One of the pro-union protestors was carrying a sign that showed Gov. Walker with CROSSHAIRS PLASTERED ACROSS HIS FACE.
“Let’s infiltrate the Tea Party with racist signs…”
You mean like Crash The Tea Party.org? Even CNN’s Anderson Cooper outed that despicable tactic.
“Oh, wait. We don’t have to…”
Lie.
1. Doesn’t matter, he’s still got plenty of people who’ll listen to him. Also, others that aren’t in his following who just say it online might do it too, like you’re crosshairs sign. This proves that it’s certainly not out of the question.
2. ‘They do it too’ is not a defense in the slightest.
3. See two.
4. Well made argument, really. I could never find racist shit or people saying racist things from a 90% or more white movement. I mean saying it’s not about race defies the reality, it’s not possible to look at any tea bagger group and objectively say that race isn’t a factor. I lack the ability to emphasize that point properly in text form. I just tried a shitload of times.
shit, meant ‘see’….
Scott, do you realize your every rebuttal to this site is either a classic “Yeah but you” argument or saying “You lie” without any links or proof to back up your contention that Mark is lying? And if you’re such a good conservative Teabagger, why aren’t you siding with the little guy trying to battle the evil government that’s trying squash their rights?
And by the way, the Crash the Tea Party “group” was one teacher from Oregon whose efforts failed. He was not a former leader of a political movement who has been given repeated face time on a major “news” outlet, as Mark Williams has.
The #1 point of Mark’s blatant dishonesty is being missed. He spouts that “tea (partiers) are plotting to sabotage union rallies”, like the a huge portion of the movement plans to try this tactic, and all he can offer up as his proof is the thoroughly discredited Mark Williams. Again, Willimas has been tossed out of the umbrella organization of Tea Party groups in Texas, so he is toast. Claiming that the Tea Party movement is about to engage in political sabotage is laughable.
Thanks for conceding the lack of credibility of Mark Williams. On that we can agree.
However, you need to acknowledge that this prank he is promoting has been taken up by the Patriot Action Network who are partnered with Atlas Shrugs and Tea Party Express. So while Williams is an outcast to many in the Tea Party sphere, he still holds sway with others and he still broadcasts his Tea Party agenda on his radio show. He is not toast, though he should be.
To their credit, Tea Party Nation has come out publicly to denounce this prank. But they are the only Tea Party group I know of who has done so.
Williams is an outcast because he got caught.
Willimas is an outcast because he is a racist buffoon. And the Teap Party movement is not about racism.
Stuff like this really frightens me…I’m actualy Candadian, living in Toronto, but I pay really close attention to the articles on this website. I read a newspaper article today that confirmed the campaign manager of Toronto’s current mayor Rob Ford (who has been compared to a Canadian Sarah Palin, and in my opinion is just a fatter version of Glen Beck) is putting together a “Tea Party North”, which in other words is just means millions of dollars for the conservative movement, high-profile publicity for Tory-friendly issues and an energized right-wing base. I’m really freaking out about this….