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This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / I hope this “Coffee Party Movement” catches on…

I hope this “Coffee Party Movement” catches on…

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The Washington Post had a story up today about a sane response to the TeaBagger movement: The Coffee Party Movement.

As I pour yet another cup this morning I found myself nodding in agreement to this post on the Coffee Party blog:

Our focus is on the democratic process. We want to encourage everyone–no matter their positions on issues–to participate in the process in a civil and responsible way.

We want the political process broken down into three steps:
1) open and respectful dialogue
2) thoughtful and informed deliberation
3) competent and decisive execution.

A grassroots populist movement that seeks to channel frustration, anger and the energy of engaged Citizens in a useful direction–now that’s unusual in our politics and worth supporting. I’m going to an eye on this because statements like this make sense. It is an invitation to the sane among us (so I guess that means it will be a small movement).

Even if a group of Citizens having reasonable conversations to try and solve problems and improve our Government can’t compete with the teevee ready craziness of the astro-turf corporate funded TeaBaggers of Wingnutopia, it is still an effort at real Citizenship that is worthy of support (IMHO).

Cheers

dengre

and yes, feel free to use this as an Open Thread…

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  4. 4.

    jenniebee

    I’m all for it if they add a final bullet point:

    4. And if you ignore us or fuck with us, we will burn your shit down.

  5. 5.

    FormerSwingVoter

    I’m not sure I understand… why would anyone join a movement not based around hysterical xenophobia?

  7. 7.

    geg6

    Think I’ll wait. Went to the website and saw that the second or third comment on the forums page was about abolishing the IRS and the Fed.

    This could be a buncha libertards. And they are often even worse than the GOP. Considering how pissed they are about the Teabaggers being overrun with GOPers, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is where those idiots end up.

    Perhaps, though, I’m wrong. But since I refuse to ever click on the WaPo for any reason whatsoever (and it’s actually been about 6 months now and I feel like a former smoker), I can’t read about who is responsible for this or why.

  8. 8.

    PeakVT

    2) thoughtful and informed deliberation based on facts

    Fixited. Nobody is entitled to an alternate reality.

  9. 9.

    artem1s

    i think “thoughtful and informed deliberation” is where this is likely to break down. teabaggers think they are informed and wouldn’t know thoughtful if it shoved them in Boston Harbor. while the teabaggers are extreme in there behavior, a good deal of the populous fails the test as well. we have way too much marketing and media that encourages us to feed our impulses and go with our gut. i’m not sure the average american knows how to identify factual information or act in a deliberate manner. they just think they do.

  13. 13.

    Trinity

    From the article:

    Furious at the tempest over the Tea Party — the scattershot citizen uprising against big government and wild spending — Annabel Park did what any American does when she feels her voice has been drowned out: She squeezed her anger into a Facebook status update.

    let’s start a coffee party . . . smoothie party. red bull party. anything but tea. geez. ooh how about cappuccino party? that would really piss ’em off bec it sounds elitist . . . let’s get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion.

    Friends replied, and more friends replied. So last month, in her Silver Spring apartment, Park started a fan page called “Join the Coffee Party Movement.” Within weeks, her inbox and page wall were swamped by thousands of comments from strangers in diverse locales, such as the oil fields of west Texas and the suburbs of Chicago. I have been searching for a place of refuge like this for a long while. . . . It is not Us against the Govt. It is democracy vs corporatocracy . . . I just can’t believe that the Tea Party speaks for all patriotic Americans. . . . Just sent suggestions to 50 friends . . . I think it’s time we start a chapter right here in Tucson . . .

    The snowballing response made her the de facto coordinator of Coffee Party USA, with goals far loftier than its oopsy-daisy origin: promote civility and inclusiveness in political discourse, engage the government not as an enemy but as the collective will of the people, push leaders to enact the progressive change for which 52.9 percent of the country voted in 2008.

    I am intrigued, to say the least. There are a couple of DC groups that meet. I’ll go check one out and report back.

  14. 14.

    Sue

    Sounds suspiciously hippie-ish to me, all “reasonable” and “let’s get along in harmony”. And, where’s the profit? You’re not going to get a corporate bus or important speakers if there’s no money in it.

  15. 15.

    SGEW

    From the linked blog:

    We believe that after going through this democratic process, we will reach a consensus on some or all of these issues [viz. “healthcare, immigration reform, climate change, fair elections, better regulation of Wall St, civil rights, foreign policy, etc.”]. We will then propose specific solutions to these issues.

    Doomed.

    /cynic

  18. 18.

    J.W. Hamner

    I think political movements should have to use nonsense words to name themselves… there’s really no reason they should be able to pollute the connotations of perfectly good beverages with their vile lameness.

  20. 20.

    Dennis G.

    @Martin:

    Yeah, as I said, if it is an appeal to sanity it will be a small movement in America. We don’t do that very well.

    Cheers

  21. 21.

    Kryptik

    @SGEW:

    Doomed./realist

    Fixed. I mean…lovely thought, but that reasonableness is exactly why it’s doomed to failure in these insane times.

  22. 22.

    Kirk Spencer

    @geg6: That line is my personal sanity touchstone for any political organization. If “get rid of the IRS” (or even the lesser ‘get it under control’) is part of the party mission, it’s pandering to the unthinking.

    If there is no IRS, some other agency will still have to:
    a) collect revenues;
    b) pursue and prosecute those who do not pay their share of the revenues;
    c) provide regulatory guidance, forms, and assistance for determining the share of individuals and organizations;
    d) report to the government how much has been collected and estimated due but not yet collected.

    The IRS is the US Government’s Accounts Receivable office. Doesn’t matter what you call it; since people don’t want to pay up front somebody has to do it.

  25. 25.

    Mike Kay

    @Sue:

    Sounds suspiciously hippie-ish to me, all “reasonable” and “let’s get along in harmony”.

    I don’t think so. Today’s hippies have gone Emo, with their “daddy doesn’t spend enough time with me and he didn’t buy me a pony so I’m gonna cut myself badly to get attention and hurt him” blubbering.

  28. 28.

    Mike Furlan

    1) open and respectful dialogue
    2) thoughtful and informed deliberation
    3) competent and decisive execution.

    A “Tea Party” type of person will find this sort of behavior to be “Passive Aggressive.”

  29. 29.

    Joey Maloney

    This is not a comment on the coffee party in particular, but I challenge the rapidly-spreading use of this Twitter widget, where you get a realtime scroll of tweets that match some search criteria.

    You go to the coffee party’s website and literally the very first thing you see – top left of the home page – is that widget, mostly scrolling illiterate Teabaggers cussing and slagging off the idea.

    You can’t get much of either “open and respectful dialogue” or “thoughtful and informed deliberation” in 140 characters, especially on contentious topics. So the first impression of the site is a continual scroll of Stupid, which is not much of a selling point.

    It doesn’t make me think, “gee, I want to spend more time on this website and get involved.” It makes me want to start drinking heavily.

  30. 30.

    Martian Buddy

    Combating the tea parties with a kaffeeklatsch will never work. What we need is a Keg Party.

  32. 32.

    Zifnab

    Even if a group of Citizens having reasonable conversations to try and solve problems and improve our Government can’t compete with the teevee ready craziness of the astro-turf corporate funded TeaBaggers of Wingnutopia, it is still an effort at real Citizenship that is worthy of support (IMHO).

    I think it can.

    All those milling aimless Tea Baggers still aren’t sure what they stand for. They’re leaderless and confused and more interested in screaming and crying than working or thinking.

    A coffee party is the perfect antidote. I’m on board.

  33. 33.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @SGEW:

    We believe that after going through this democratic process, we will reach a consensus

    Ditto on the doomed part.

    I used to think nice polite circa 1980 John Anderson Republican thoughts like that, until I read Kevin Phillips’ books and realized that US politics is a sporadically violent contest between two irreconcilable cultural factions that have been at war with each other continuously for the last 400 years. And which will still be going at each other long after I’ve gone 6 ft. under. We are all shia and sunnis here so to speak, we just don’t know it.

  34. 34.

    licensed to kill time

    I think a Ganja Party movement would be interesting – there would be lots of signs in pretty colors and people standing around going “Oh yeah, what was I saying?” and group hugs aplenty. The bake sales would raise tons of moolah, too.

  37. 37.

    jibeaux

    Ugh.

    I don’t really understand what they’re about other than ‘we don’t like the Tea Party’ and ‘we’re for a better process,’ ” says Michael Cornfield, a political scientist at 720 Strategies, a D.C. grass-roots advocacy firm. “The Tea Party has something more going for it in its name. It has a historical echo, and means these guys are self-conscious rebels objecting to a government who taxes them without representation.”

    Can we all just admit that D.C. is the only place in America taxed without representation, and that the rest of you yahoos just don’t like being taxed because you’re antisocial paranoid weirdos who reject the basic idea of the social contract? kthxbye.

  39. 39.

    Fergus Wooster

    @licensed to kill time: Ganja-plus-coffee party – no fights, but just enough edge from the caffeine to keep everyone marginally focused.

    And lots of thinking “outside the box”, although hopefully not of the “the universe might be an atom in the thumbnail of God” way.

  40. 40.

    Morbo

    Also, since it’s an open thread… the soundboard app banner ads (now that there are two of them at once) make me want to put my fist through my monitor. That was one benefit of glass monitors; they strongly dissuaded such action. Does anyone else have this problem?

  42. 42.

    Fergus Wooster

    OT, but someone mentioned pork bellies – does anyone here have experience buchering hogs? (Butchering, not slaughtering, for the DFH’s. . . )

  43. 43.

    eastriver

    A lovely idea. But so’s healthcare for all. And no taxes. And free Peet’s for all progs.

    But I like the balance of the brewers versus the baggers.

    Time for another cup of man juice. (Coffee.)

  44. 44.

    Martian Buddy

    OT: Bill Frist has a concern-troll piece in the WSJ today talking about how unprecedented and horrible it would be if the Democrats used the reconciliation process to bypass the GOP roadblock. Maybe a latte would perk him up.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    Dang it, I prefer tea over coffee and I’m ticked off that those teabaggers have ruined the good name of tea.

    Coffee Party sounds like a Coffee Klatch – a bunch of old biddies sitting around gossiping over a cup of Folgers. Doesn’t sound appealing.

  46. 46.

    gnomedad

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    I used to think nice polite circa 1980 John Anderson Republican thoughts like that, until I read Kevin Phillips’ books and realized that US politics is a sporadically violent contest between two irreconcilable cultural factions that have been at war with each other continuously for the last 400 years.

    Which book would you recommend first vis a vis that thesis?

  47. 47.

    slag

    @Matt:

    Just what we need, more “latte drinking” comments.

    You know, I’m kind of tired of liberals being cowed by Republican slander. I have no problem being called a “latte liberal” by a freakin’ teabagger.

    Even though I don’t drink much coffee, I think this thing is a great idea. Sanity is a good gimmick.

  50. 50.

    Liberty60

    Add me to the list of “intrigued and hopeful”
    I registered, and will chime in with my thoughts.
    What I really liked was this video
    youtube.com/watch?v=gVwVlvVYlwk

    Mostly because the people sounded sane and hopeful, the opposite of the deranged haters of the Tea Party.

    Someone mentioned that the libertarians made a post there- thats to be expected, in any new movement, lots of people with wildly disparate agendas try to turn it to their point of view.

    But I think the answer is to join, and add our voices to create a critical mass of reason viewpoints. That’s what democracy is, int he final analysis- the will and opinion of the consensus.

    Anything’s better than passively sitting at a pc and handwringing or being snarky.

  52. 52.

    jibeaux

    being snarky.

    are being involved and being snarky binary choices now? ‘Cause, being a pragmatist above most else, I don’t want to make that one.

  53. 53.

    jenniebee

    @slag: You’d think from the way they cling to that epithet they’d be picketing Starbucks.

    What always gets me about this is that the most radical liberals I know absolutely turn their noses up at what they refer to as “$5 coffee.” If there is such a thing as a “latte liberal,” the definition must be: mid-career cubicle dweller who wants more funding for public schools because that pushes up property values.

  56. 56.

    jibeaux

    @Fergus Wooster:

    Maybe part of the Republican plan to control costs is more diagnoses via videotape from Bill Frist and he’s sad no one mentioned it? We could cheer him up with some footage of interesting boils, I’m sure.

  59. 59.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @gnomedad:

    Which book would you recommend first vis a vis that thesis?

    First, The Cousin’s Wars, by Kevin Phillips.

    After that, one of Phillips’s more recent books on economics and politics would make a good read. Wealth and Democracy, American Theocracy, and Bad Money are all of them at root the same book covering the same subjects rewritten in succession to bring his material up to date on contemporary events since the last published version. Unfortunately the best written and researched one of the three IMHO is Wealth and Democracy, which is also the oldest of the 3, whereas the most recent one Bad Money is probably the worst – it feels like a rush job which was shoved out the door to try to catch the wave of books about the financial markets collapse of 2007/2008, without adding much value compared with the other two books.

    After finishing The Cousin’s Wars, you might also want to read the book Albion’s Seed by David Hackett Fischer, which presents a much more complex and multivalent view of the competing cultures in US history. Phillips presents a binary Red vs. Blue view of the world in The Cousin’s Wars, whereas in Albion’s Seed it is more complicated. Unfortunately Albion’s Seed is IMHO very dry reading compared with Phillips’ work.

    Phillips is an interesting guy, you might want to check out his wiki bio. He has gone thru a right to left political evolution in some ways similar to John’s but spanning a much longer time frame, from the 1960s till today. Imagine say somebody like Karl Rove over the course of several decades turing into somebody whose politics are closer to say those of Yves Smith of the econ/finance blog NakedCapitalism.

    Speaking of which, Yves has a book of her own coming out in March, titled: ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism . Judging from the quality of discussion on her blog, this could be really good.

  62. 62.

    Sentient Puddle

    I’m starting up the beer party. We shall stand for dealing in facts, no bullshit in process, and awesomeness in the government.

    And if we can’t get any of that, we shall stand for drinking awesome craft brew. So we got that going for us, at least.

  64. 64.

    slag

    @jenniebee:

    If there is such a thing as a “latte liberal,” the definition must be: mid-career cubicle dweller who wants more funding for public schools because that pushes up property values.

    If I ever found this person, even I would make fun of him.

    This video by a Coffee Party guy really works for me. If “bipartisanship” were ever going to be more than a figment of Richard Cohen’s wet dream, this kind of person is where the bipartisan rubber would meet the road (to mix a really unfortunate metaphor). Smart. Fairly substantive. Obviously empirically-minded and not wholly ideological. More like this.

    We can complain all we want about how narrow the spectrum of discourse is in this country, but as we’ve observed, complaining about it doesn’t make it better. Our best hope is to get more and more people to at least start concerning themselves with the basic substance of an issue–no matter where on the political spectrum they start investigating it from. If we get more people doing that, we’ll inevitably get more people on our side. That’s where we have to begin. Although that’s kind of the hard part.

  65. 65.

    Ed Drone

    @Moonbatting Average:

    Why not Scotch Party Movement?

    We want to be able to walk a straight line afterwards, dummy! Of course, we could take our scotch sitting down after the marching, I suppose — use it as a reward.

    I prefer single-malts, but not too peaty! One of my favorites is Knockando, but there are lots of others that are good, too.

    Ed

  67. 67.

    b-psycho

    It is not Us against the Govt. It is democracy vs corporatocracy

    This assumes that there isn’t an inherent symbiotic relationship between the political elite & business interests…

    Have fun accomplishing jack shit. I’ll be over here drinking beer, waiting for people to figure out that “representative democracy” is a joke.

  68. 68.

    Evinfuilt

    I’m sorry, but I’m a Tea drinker, I can’t socialize with coffee people, maybe we could find common ground with the “Not Starbucks Party.”

  69. 69.

    TDE

    Lot of jaded fucks on this blog… lol.

    How this group (Coffee Party) falls into anything you all view as negative I have no idea.

    Maybe the problem is you lot sitting around doing fuck all?

  71. 71.

    Toast

    I am not interested in being “respectful” towards the teabaggers or the majority of Republicans. They can go fuck themselves. At this point, the burden of proof is on any conservative to prove they’re worthy of respect or consideration of any kind.

  72. 72.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Violet: Agreed. I mean, I love a good cup of joe, but there’s nothing like tea when I need to calm the fuck down! Or something. Still, I’m done for some civility in our political discussions–as long as I can still curse from time to time.

  73. 73.

    mclaren

    You SCUM.

    That’s sedition.

    It’s treason.

    1) open and respectful dialogue

    2) thoughtful and informed deliberation

    3) competent and decisive execution.

    This would destroy the American system of governance as we know it!

  74. 74.

    Nancy Irving

    Did you notice that WaPo put the piece about this sane and reasonable movement on the “Style” page?

    Is coverage of the Tea Parties relegated to the “Arts and Living” section?

    The Village will never take sane and reasonable seriously. It’s time to get out the tumbrels and guillotine.

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