Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat,
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that,
Goodness knows what the end will be
Oh I don’t know where I’m at
It looks as if we two will never be one
Something must be done
(from Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off by George & Ira Gershwin)
If the Tea Party is a conservative element seeking to pull the Repubs (more) to the right, what’s your guess as to the role the Coffee Party wants to play? Is it MoveOn in disguise? Maybe…. Whatever it is, the notion of rallying people around an agenda of civil discourse makes me a little wary, not because I think screaming and yelling is a productive mode of social dialogue, but because it seems to me it’s more like using a silver spoon where a backhoe would do just as well. Is it really ok to destroy the country with a smile on your face and a “so sorry” on your lips?
This latest “grassroots” version of two-partyism isn’t the solution to what ails us. We need innovative solutions to very serious problems we’re facing, and those solutions are not coming from the two major parties, no matter how polite — or nasty — they may be. You can’t turn a corrupt partisan special-interest driven political culture into something it’s not, no matter how carefully you chose your words. That’s why 40% of the American people are independent. Politely or rowdily, we’re leaving. Here’s to an irreverent independent movement for all voices who want to help move the country forward — and to the political reforms needed to have the voices of ordinary Americans be heard.
-NH
TEA PARTY/ COFFEE PARTY
More independent talk at The Hankster
Provocateur/ pundit/ organizer Nancy Hanks is a long-time activist in the independent political movement who’s done it all: petitioning to put independent candidates on the ballot from New York to Texas and points east, west, north and south; fundraising for the independent think tank, the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), and its online counterpart, IndependentVoting.org; running as an independent for New York City Council from Queens, New York City’s most diverse borough; serving as the current Treasurer of the Queens County Committee of the Independence Party of New York (of the IP NYC Organizations); conducting research for the Neo-Independent, a magazine that addresses the concerns of independent voters.