Tea Party 2.0: "Just be willing to work hard, and don't try to claim the credit"

Cincinnati Tea Party organizer Justin Binik-Thomas shows Glenn Reynolds talking points of the organization's philosophy on his sleeve — Fiscal responsibiity, limited government, free markets — during a recent PJTV interview. Sarah Palin would have had to hand it to him!

Republican strategist Mike Murphy is afraid. A member in good standing of the Northeast Corridor Fuddy-Duddy community, he's closing his eyes, covering his ears and loudly telling Politico what it wants to hear, the Tea Parties are a flash in the pan:

Murphy, who calls the attention “absolutely ridiculous,” sees it of a piece with what has become the biennial compulsion in the political community to hold up a newly-discovered, and always pivotal, bloc of voters; Like the Angry White Males, NASCAR Dads, Soccer Moms of election cycles past – only on steroids.

“There is this urge to give any political development a catchy name and a picture,” he lamented, adding the familiar Republican complaint that well-educated, left-leaning, coast-dwelling reporters view middle America through an elitist lens.

No, Mr. Murphy. Politicos and their entrail-reading pollsters did not give our movement its catchy name. Nor did they "discover" us until a year after we had discovered ourselves in the first Tea Parties and Town Halls of 2009. And our movement isn't just a passing fad. If you'll open your eyes, uncover your ears and stop whistling in the dark for a moment, you could learn a thing or two from "Growing a Grassroots Powerhouse," Glenn Reynolds's epiphany of an interview with Cincinnati Tea Party organizers Justin Binik-Thomas and Mike Wilson about "how they got started and how you go from nothing to a huge organization in about a year." A few sound bites, and then go treat yourself to the whole thing:

Justin Binik-Thomas: All of us are volunteers. So this is something that we do on the side, and we do have a day job.

We have a message that a lot of people can get behind, and I literally wear it on my sleeve here: "Fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets" …

People are not only going to big rallies. We work with what we call "Voice, education, election." Rally of course is voice, as you would expect. Education is very important. How can you fight for the Constitution if you don't know what it is? So we hold seminars and rallies in order to teach that and give people those values that they need. And again, we work to impact elections. We have people who are running for various offices for the first time, who are engaging their elected officials for the first time …

Mike Wilson: Then you get there, and they show up, and a whole bunch of people realized they weren't alone for once …

I think that's really going to depend on whether or not the Republican party ends up getting with the progam. I honestly think that if the Republican party had lived up to their stated values for a period of time, you really wouldn't have a Tea Party Movement … The Republicans failed when they were handed the reins of power …

For those that are just out there that are in it for themselves, their power, they sense that as being threatened [Yes, you, Mike Murphy & Company] … our state central committee for the Ohio Republican party, they're actually sending out mailers to defend those seats. They're spending money not going against Democrats but going against Tea Party people who just want to have a say in the process …

Just be willing to work hard, and don't try to claim the credit … We've been blessed with a lot of people who bring skills from the business world, but at the same time no one's trying to claim credit … I'm not in this for me. I'm in this because I share the values with so many people.

Are you listening, Mike Murphy?

Update: The big dog at Maggie's links:

Sissy says it's about "Fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets."

Crossposted at Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[Loiseller]

@SissyWillis... Nice write up, darlin'.

[Nolanimrod]

You go, girl!