An LA Times investigation into the financial roots of the Tea Party movement reveals this rigor mortus-driven insurrection is about as grassroots as it is thoughtful. According to the article, campaigns spent four-hundred million dollars in November’s elections on "experienced political operatives--not fervent newcomers." In the Delaware Valley’s media market, we were burdened with the outputs of their expertise in the form of faux-populist ads intended to further stoke the European-American outrage incited by Fox News.
The article highlights the direct ties between the financiers who paid media firms to help cast this spell on the tea party sheep and the very GOP cable TV outfit that directs all incoming traffic to their brains:
Also on the Republican side was Crossroads Media, a media-placement firm that took in close to $40 million in ad buys for clients that included American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, advocacy groups cofounded earlier this year by Republican strategist Karl Rove.
That 40 mill represents an impressive 10% of the total spent by all campaigns on these media firms. To be fair, Democrats also utilized these DC insiders to un-emphatically spread their election message, but the message they sought to deliver represents the essence of grassroots movements--policies that look out for people rather than companies. Some examples of causes supported by, GMMB, a media firm used by Democratic candidates include Save Darfur, the UN Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Their "about us" page has the following:
While political communications was our original specialty and remains at the center of our work, our desire to effect real change quickly grew, evolving our organization into a premier political, issue and cause communications firm. We help foundations, non-profits, associations, governments and socially conscious corporations achieve their missions of making this world a better place for all of us.
We are, at heart, activists. We believe in our clients and are dedicated to the causes they champion.
Now contrast that, a fairly typical Democratic sentiment, with American Crossroads’ mission statement, which more or less states their goal is to wage war on anyone or anything that does not look like them:
American Crossroads is a new kind of non-profit political organization dedicated to renewing America’s commitment to individual liberty, limited government, free enterprise and a strong national defense—through informed and effective political action by citizens like you...
Blah..blah...blah...
We face a decision between protecting America’s national security with clear and resolute policies backed up by investing in our defense capabilities – and an approach to national security that is based on wishful thinking, ambivalence toward our allies, and accommodation toward our most hostile adversaries.
Regrettably, the mob of nimrods hypnotized by FOX News will never see the irony as they mindlessly follow Palin off a cliff. If only the Tea Party activists could pull the hoods off of their heads long enough to read the LA times piece; they might learn that the grass in their grass roots is soiled with elephant dung.