As I have said all along, the Tea Party “movement” is Republican theater (see The Tea Party: A Corporate-Funded Astroturf Project). The function of the organization is to incorporate angry citizens who were alienated by the disaster that was the Republican government during the 2000s in the Republican Party, spend a year mobilizing the anger, then bring their delegates together in an event advancing the agenda of the Republican party and the conservative movement.
FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, and American Solutions for Winning the Future organize Tea Party events. These corporate-funded organizations provide logistical support and public relations assistance to protesters, whom they recruit, and industry confederates, who are trained to direct activities on the ground. FreedomWorks, which Dick Armey heads, coordinates conference calls among protesters, teaches them how to plan events and write press releases, provides them with how-to guides on how to deliver clear messages, and gives them templates for sign construction. The organization has established several Internet domain addresses, making them appear as the work of amateurs, to promote the protests. ASWF, with Newt Gingrich as leader, provides tea partiers with toolkits of talking points and sends e-mails to supporters instructing them to go to the tea party events and help direct the protests. Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, a partner in Ralph Reed’s lobbying firm Century Strategies (the parent company of Millennium Marketing, a commercial PR firm).
Americans for Prosperity is funded by Koch family foundations. Koch Industries is the second largest privately-held company in the United States. It is the largest privately owned energy company in the country. Koch industries made most of its money in the oil refining business, but also hold interests in chemical, fertilizer, and forest products. Americans for Prosperity is also connected to ExxonMobil. Remember the “grassroots” movement “Drill Here, Drill Now” protests? That was the work of Americans for Prosperity. Gingrich’s outfit is heavily funded by polluting corporations, as well. Peabody Energy (which used to be Peabody Coal), is one of the ASWF’s major contributors. ASWF pays average-looking Americans to stand around chanting about how great coal is. The “clean coal” meme has successfully penetrated mainstream consciousness, despite the fact that burning coal is by definition dirty.
The Tea Party astroturf campaign is aided by the corporate media, particularly Fox News, which has been exposed organizing protesters and leading them in anti-government chants. What we have here is a disinformation machine, comprised of political front organizations, funded by corporations, designed to undermine the interests of working people, while advancing the interests of state monopoly capitalism, by organizing disaffected, scared, and confused elements of the working class into reactionary cells. The purpose is to create the appearance of a mass movement opposing progressive government policies, as well as channel anger away from an authentic working class alternative (which the left has failed to build) and towards the Republican Party and conservative moment which offers something workers otherwise find valuable: religion, patriotism, and white ethnonationalism. Without this project, there would be no mass uprising against the idea that the government should help working families.
freedom and reason 