white male consumer

Fatigued by the tea? Looking for a movement named after a drink popular with 21st century Americans? Look no further than the Coffee Party, a sorta-lame-at-first-glance rejoinder with a lot more going for it once you skim the surface:

Many of us had the same thought: the tactics being employed by the Tea Party movement are not likely to produce solutions to the problems that we face as a nation, and we urgently need an alternative.

It’s very hard to get people to rally around a new idea. But here I am reminding them of something that they already know: that we are all Americans. We should not divide ourselves over differences of opinion. We need to be one community. Our democracy is what unites us as a people. We must protect it, and to protect it we must engage in the political process, respecting the reality that we are diverse nation with diverse points of view.

- Annabel Park,  founder of Coffee Party USA, via a live Q&A at the Washington Post

My initial reaction when getting the Facebook invite was of the “oh, that’s cute” nature. But with all the talk of participatory democracy, civic engagement, and public discourse, this nascent movement appears to be more Public Policy 201, less hysteric “Down Wit Gubment” herd mentality. And I can get behind any movement that actually addresses an issue at hand, of our fractured, tug-of-war method of governance. The schizoid two party system we have would seem amusing, but for actually living here and paying the taxes to support it.

Particularly disheartening this week was David Gregory, on Meet The Press doing his part to discredit the Mainstream Media, blithely glossing over all public opinion outside of the Tea Bagger movement, proclaiming that, “The only protests you’ve seen publicly are on the right in opposition to the [healthcare] bill.”

Truly, this would only be the case if your sole window on the world was the 6 o’clock news. Not only do I subscribe to newsletters of national movements in favor of reform (Healthcare-NOW!), but I have seen and heard of protest efforts coming from the left and center, across my local region. From demonstrations at the state Capitol, to the street corners of routes I take every day, there demonstrably are people frustrated at current national affairs, who still fall far short of the fanatical “fly a plane into an IRS building” stripe.

To say that the Right are the only ones expressing themselves is a fundamental failure of journalism, which purportedly exists to deliver news, not craft it as the NY Times has with New York’s coming gubernatorial election. I posit that perhaps 20th century news structures would not be in the dire straits they’re in if they were doing a better job at the close of the century. (Sometimes it feels like I only blog to contradict the notion of the blogosphere as a vast right-wing echo-chamber.)

The Tea Party is not an issue-based group per se, as far as limited or nonexistent government can be considered an “issue” (I consider it an ideology). It’s bizarre to think of Righties as sign-toting protesters, but then I can certainly empathize with the emotions of disconnect with government and the free press. They’re failing us all. Coffee is arguably the better direction; otherwise, politicos and big biz (I mean, the media) will continue to eagerly play us as fools. We need a fundamental redress of the systems at play, because TARP didn’t address the problems of Wall Street, and likewise with the stimulus and our economy. And while I’m not loony enough to proclaim government “the problem,” a nonfunctioning one certainly contributes to our ills.