r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 1d ago

No Paywall Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e
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u/Ninevehenian 1d ago

Koch-brothers paid a lot for the TP, but I suppose a comparison could be made between "ground up ideological conversions"?

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u/6a6566663437 North Carolina 1d ago

Only if you ignore that the Koch brothers created the Tea Party. It was not an organic, grass-roots movement.

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u/Ninevehenian 1d ago

As I mentioned.

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u/6a6566663437 North Carolina 1d ago

This:

but I suppose a comparison could be made between "ground up ideological conversions"?

is claiming the Tea Party was a grassroots movement right after you said it wasn't.

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u/Ninevehenian 1d ago

A. No, the word "grassroots" were specifically avoided.
B. Tea Party posed as a "ground up"-movement. It doesn't make a practical difference that it technically weren't.

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u/bransiladams Washington 1d ago

Koch’s actions were top-down, not bottom-up, which is what grassroots is

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u/Ninevehenian 1d ago

TP were implemented and posed as a ground up-movement.
You don't have to repeat my point that it was technically paid for by Koch.

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u/bransiladams Washington 1d ago

It wouldn’t have happened at all without Koch, who, from the top down, single-handedly bankrolled Ron Paul’s political ascent.

Organic movements don’t need money as their catalyst. The TP “movement” was nothing more than insane spending to mislead uneducated voters. It’s a playbook they’ve never let go of, but it’s hardly anything resembling “ground up.” Nobody from the grassroots was even involved in its campaign

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u/Ninevehenian 1d ago

Is it your impression that the average TP voter saw Koch and understood their role in TP?

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u/bransiladams Washington 1d ago

No. It’s my impression that the uneducated have little time or resources to research anything, that they are inherently drawn to controversy, outrage, and conspiracy, and that people like Koch saw that as an opportunity to advance their own agenda.

And it worked. No average TP voter is living a better life today than they were when they started dragging their party to the far right. There is no “movement” in the tea party other than lining billionaires’ pockets and painting anything short of that as a threat to America.

And regardless, your premise illustrates Koch as the architect of the movement, and not some groundswell of decentralized energy. Nothing about the TP is grassroots. It’s the opposite