fundraising How the politicos killed the Tea Party ... they scammed them

[gpatt0n]

This is from the Politico article entitled "How we killed the Tea Party" ... by an insider.

 

 

As we watch the Republican Party tear itself to shreds over Donald Trump, perhaps it’s time to take note of another conservative political phenomenon that the GOP nominee has utterly eclipsed: the Tea Party. The Tea Party movement is pretty much dead now, but it didn’t die a natural death. It was murdered—and it was an inside job.

 

In a half decade, the spontaneous uprising that shook official Washington degenerated into a form of pyramid scheme that transferred tens of millions of dollars from rural, poorer Southerners and Midwesterners to bicoastal political operatives.

 

What began as an organic, policy-driven grass-roots movement was drained of its vitality and resources by national political action committees that dunned the movement’s true believers endlessly for money to support its candidates and causes. The PACs used that money first to enrich themselves and their vendors and then deployed most of the rest to search for more “prospects.”

 

In Tea Party world, that meant mostly older, technologically unsavvy people willing to divulge personal information through “petitions”—which only made them prey to further attempts to lighten their wallets for what they believed was a good cause. While the solicitations continue, the audience has greatly diminished because of a lack of policy results and changing political winds.

I was an employee at one of the firms that ran these operations. But nothing that follows is proprietary or gleaned directly from my employment. The evidence of the scheming is all there in the public record, available for anyone willing to look.

 

The Tea Party movement began building in the George W. Bush years. Profligate spending and foreign adventurism with no discernible results nurtured disgust with Washington’s habit of spending beyond its means and sending others to die in its wars. When President Obama made reorganizing the nation’s health care system his foremost priority—and repeatedly misrepresented its effects in the process—anger at Washington exploded.

 

Republicans inside the Beltway reacted to the burgeoning Tea Party with glee but uncertainty about how to channel the grass-roots energy usually reserved for the left. A small group of supposedly conservative lawyers and consultants saw something different: dollar signs. The PACs found anger at the Republican Party sells very well.

 

The campaigns they ran would be headlined “Boot John Boehner," or “Drop a Truth Bomb on Kevin McCarthy.” And after Boehner was in fact booted and McCarthy bombed in his bid to succeed him, it was naturally time to “Fire Paul Ryan." The selling is always urgent: “Stop what you’re doing” “This can’t wait.” One active solicitor is the Tea Party Leadership Fund, which received $6.7 million from 2013 to mid-2015, overwhelmingly from small donors.

 

A typical solicitation from the TPLF read: “Your immediate contribution could be the most important financial investment you will make to help return America to greatness.” But, according to an investigation by POLITICO, 87 percent of that “investment” went to overhead; only $910,000 of the $6.7 million raised was used to support political candidates.

 

If the prospect signs a “petition,” typically a solicitation of his or her personal information is recorded and a new screen immediately appears asking for money. Vendors pass the information around in “list swaps” and “revenue shares” ad infinitum.

 

Starting a new PAC is easy: Fill out some paperwork, throw up a splash-page website, rent an email list, and you’re off. It’s an entrepreneurial endeavor. Through trial-and-error, operatives test messages to see which resonate best and are most likely to get them and their vendors paid. They may pay someone known in the movement to “sign” the pitch, as current Donald Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson has on TPLF emails.

 

Today, the Tea Party movement is dead, and Trump has co-opted the remnants. What was left of the Tea Party split for a while between Trump and, while he was still in the race, Ted Cruz, who was backed by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots.

 

In 2014, the Tea Party Patriots group spent just 10 percent of the $14.4 million it collected actually supporting candidates, with the rest going to consultants and vendors and Martin’s hefty salary of $15,000 per month; in all, she makes an estimated $450,000 a year from her Tea Party-related ventures. Today, of course, it’s all about Trump, but Trump rallies are only Trump rallies, not Tea Party rallies that he assumed control of. There are no more Tea Party rallies.

 

A recent poll showed that just 17 percent of Americans support what was once known as the Tea Party—the lowest number ever. The bailout-Obamacare-driven grass-roots revolt has vanished. Various autopsies have offered a number of causes: IRS targeting, bad candidates, hostile media, and even some hazy form of moral and political victory, in that the Tea Party pushed the GOP to take tougher stances on some issues. All have at least some merit.

 

But any insurgent movement needs oxygen in the form of victories or other measured progress in order to sustain itself and grow. By sapping the Tea Party’s resources and energy, the PACs thwarted any hope of building the movement. Every dollar swallowed up in PAC overhead or vendor fees was a dollar that did not go to federal Tea Party candidates in crucial primaries or general elections. This allowed the GOP to easily defeat or ignore them (with some rare exceptions). Second, the PACs drained money especially from local Tea Party groups, some of which were actively trying to grow the movement electorally from the ground up, at the school board and city council level. Lacking results five years on, interest in the movement waned—all that was left were the PACs and their lists.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/tea-party-pacs-ideas-death-214164#ixzz4HQCIY8bI
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

 

 

[Guard dad]

According to a certain female member here; everyone who doesn't worship at the feet of the Socialist left is a Tea Party member.

[The Sound Guy]

If anyone believes that *any* of these PACs actually do 25% of what they claim they do, they need to get with me as I have several charity's that they should donate to.

[rockysmom]

According to a certain female member here; everyone who doesn't worship at the feet of the Socialist left is a Tea Party member.

"Worship at the feet of the Socialist left......." LOL

 

You funny.

[gpatt0n]

Those of us on the left don't appreciate the greed and avarice demonstrated by the vultures of the right that seem to treat their supporters as sheep to be shorn and do our level best to inform those being ripped off of the crime. Indeed, we'd be happy to pass laws to clip the wings of the vultures but our cohorts on the right believe such regulations are anathema to the ideology of the right because, as GD had demonstrated, those on the right are always right because they represent what is right and you can't argue with right, right!

 

That we don't buy that logic brands us as devoid of logic by those like GD; because those on the right are always right because they represent what is right and you can't argue with right, right!

 

Of course that leaves me with few words I can utter to characterize this whole thing, from the vultures to the ideological orthodoxy that prevents a legislative and regulatory response - You are wrong GD.

 

pubby

[Guard dad]

Oh boy...

 

I'm gonna need to buy some waders after that one.

 

Popp's getting deep in here.

 

'Course since I'm a vulture, I can just circle overhead.

[gpatt0n]

No, you'll send out another fund raiser saying that everyone needs to donate $100 to put Hillary in Jail ... and we need your help That you pocket the proceeds and come on here and lobby for Hillary to be thrown in jail means you fulfilled your obligation and simply were well paid for your effort

 

pubby

[Guard dad]

Oh, so I'm a liar and crook now, huh.

 

"Another fundraiser"? When was the first?

[gpatt0n]

I thought you were admitting to it when you called yourself a vulture Hence, if you were really a vulture, instead of circling overhead as you suggested, you'd be doing as I said - knocking down more cash.

 

Actually, I knew you were not one of these "Pac men" eating everyone out of house and home by playing on their political leanings... frankly I pegged you more like a target; although I wouldn't take odds that you were a victim.

 

pubby

[Guard dad]

I thought you were admitting to it when you called yourself a vulture Hence, if you were really a vulture, instead of circling overhead as you suggested, you'd be doing as I said - knocking down more cash.

 

Actually, I knew you were not one of these "Pac men" eating everyone out of house and home by playing on their political leanings... frankly I pegged you more like a target; although I wouldn't take odds that you were a victim.

 

pubby

I'm definitely not a victim, pubby. I'm a self-made man who's never taken a dime of government assistance, not even unemployment. And I've built a good life for myself and my family, in spite of adversity at times.

 

I'm not a victim here either. If anything, I'm probably considered quite the enemy of your Socialist agenda. All those pesky facts I present tend to get in the way of your propaganda and envy based sheeple herding.

 

You see...in spite of your inaccurate portrayal of me and other conservatives above; I am a huge supporter of making the truth and real facts available to everyone. Why, you would ask? Because most people, when they will think with their own minds, will make the right decision when they know the real story.

 

The Socialist Democrat left, on the other hand, relies on deception and misinformation to control their faithful.

 

I don't want any human being to be controlled. I believe that every individual has the right to think for them self and make their own decisions.

[gpatt0n]

I'm definitely not a victim, pubby. I'm a self-made man who's never taken a dime of government assistance, not even unemployment. And I've built a good life for myself and my family, in spite of adversity at times.

 

I'm not a victim here either. If anything, I'm probably considered quite the enemy of your Socialist agenda. All those pesky facts I present tend to get in the way of your propaganda and envy based sheeple herding.

 

You see...in spite of your inaccurate portrayal of me and other conservatives above; I am a huge supporter of making the truth and real facts available to everyone. Why, you would ask? Because most people, when they will think with their own minds, will make the right decision when they know the real story.

 

The Socialist Democrat left, on the other hand, relies on deception and misinformation to control their faithful.

 

I don't want any human being to be controlled. I believe that every individual has the right to think for them self and make their own decisions.

 

Your reading comprehension skills are lacking.

 

I guess I'll have to parse the statement.

 

 

Actually, I knew you were not one of these "Pac men" eating everyone out of house and home by playing on their political leanings...

 

This said I didn't think you ran a PAC or SUPER PAC and I knew you weren't cheating people with false fundraisers.

 

frankly I pegged you more like a target;

 

This meant that you were like the folks who were victimized ... I.e. your sensibilities and politics were in line with tea party types.

 

although I wouldn't take odds that you were a victim.

 

This means that I was so sure you were not a victim I wouldn't bet you were even if I were given odds of 100:1 that you were.

 

pubby

 

This of course means your entire rant is totally off base from the assertion that I was calling you a victim to notion that anyone, even those running Tea Party PACs, is telling anyone what to do. All these folks have done is throw out some code words, gotten a knee-jerk reaction, and made a mint of money doing it.

 

For the most part, that whole effort is entrepreneurial in a political action sort of manner where typically 90 percent of the money collected is spent on marketing to collect more. Obviously that too went over your head or perhaps you think the collecting of money literally for the sake of collecting it seems like a good idea to you.

 

Oh well, I didn't intend to confuse you. Maybe if I wrote more like Donald Trump speaks, you would understand.

 

pubby

[Guard dad]

 

Your reading comprehension skills are lacking.

 

I guess I'll have to parse the statement.

 

 

 

This of course means your entire rant is totally off base from the assertion that I was calling you a victim to notion that anyone, even those running Tea Party PACs, is telling anyone what to do. All these folks have done is throw out some code words, gotten a knee-jerk reaction, and made a mint of money doing it.

 

For the most part, that whole effort is entrepreneurial in a political action sort of manner where typically 90 percent of the money collected is spent on marketing to collect more. Obviously that too went over your head or perhaps you think the collecting of money literally for the sake of collecting it seems like a good idea to you.

 

Oh well, I didn't intend to confuse you. Maybe if I wrote more like Donald Trump speaks, you would understand.

 

pubby

Nah, I was reading between the lines. You were making accusations about me without quite crossing the line of actually doing it.

 

 

[gpatt0n]

Nah, I was reading between the lines. You were making accusations about me without quite crossing the line of actually doing it.

 

 

 

Isn't that a little paranoid.

 

pubby

[Guard dad]

 

Isn't that a little paranoid.

 

pubby

When dealing with you?

 

No.

 

I know exactly what you're up to.

[gpatt0n]

Kind of conspiratorial, huh.

 

pubby

 

PS: Speaking of...

 

[mrshoward]

Kind of conspiratorial, huh.

 

pubby

 

PS: Speaking of...

 

 

 

 

Just a couple of weeks ago you were promoting Trump conspiracy theories...

 

 

[gpatt0n]

As they say in the loony bin mrshoward, it ain't paranoia if they really are after you.

 

Unproven ... maybe ... but give it a little time or at least time enough for DJT to release his taxes.

 

pubby