NCGOP Through Tea Colored Glasses
If there were any doubt that the Tea Party remains alive and active, attending the North Carolina Republican Convention last weekend would have put those doubts to rest.
The heavily attended convention in Wilmington was filled with celebratory members of the GOP who for the first time in over a century could come to convention with majorities in both the state house and senate.
Much of the success in the 2010 elections can be attributed to good candidates and strong leadership, but there is no doubt it took an energized conservative grassroots to put Team GOP over the top. These grassroots republicans showed up to the convention, and they were tea partiers.
Interspersed throughout the officially scheduled republican convention activities were a number of unofficial gatherings put together by various independent tea party organizations from throughout the state. These events drew large numbers, and were no doubt noticed by members of the GOP hierarchy, including the reelected Chairman, Robin Hayes, who made appearances at most all the events.
I Love America Rally on the River Front
On Friday afternoon, outside of the convention center along the riverside, the “I Love America Rally” got the festivities started. This event was coordinated by a number of primarily eastern North Carolina organizations including the NC Conservative Coastal Coalition, the Cape Fear Tea Party Patriots, morning talk radio show host Curtis Wright, Campaign for Liberty, the John Locke Foundation, and others.
The event easily drew a couple hundred.
On Friday night, following the GOP banquet with Congressman Allen West, twenty-two tea party organizations from across North Carolina hosted a Hospitality Suite in the Cape Fear Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel. The event was the brainchild of Dennis Peterson, the President of Charlotte’s CAUTION.
A first of it’s kind to draw so many individual tea parties as cosponsors; the purpose of the event was twofold.
Tea Party Hospitality Suite at NCGOP Convention
On one hand, tea parties are naturally independent organizations. There have been several attempts by organizations to “merge” these groups under one umbrella. These attempts have been met with solid resistance. To the contrary, this event was a starting point for “horizontal communication”. Rather than a top down umbrella approach, the goal was to simply begin the process of networking across equal organizations. By opening up the lines of communication, shared goals and events of equal interest can easily be disseminated throughout the network without the need for any single master organization.
The other purpose was to show by shear numbers the strength of those who identify with the tea party mentality. With easily over 400 people filling the 2,200 square foot ballroom, and lines to get in at times, this goal was certainly met.
Jenny Beth Martin Speaks to Breakfast Meeting
The following morning, Marcus Kindley of Informed Voters of NC and Mark Hager of NC Tea Party Patriots sponsored “Tea for Breakfast”. This event welcomed the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, Jenny Beth Martin, Sheriff Larry Dever of Chochise County Arizona, Becki Gray from the John Locke Foundation, Richard Brenner of Fox 8 News, and a special recorded message from Congresswoman Michelle Bachman.
Saturday afternoon, the GOP sponsored a breakout session entitled, “The Tea Party & the NCGOP” which was directed by Forsyth County GOP Chairman Nathan Tabor. This event was standing room only.
Tabor’s presentation included reading from the NCGOP Plan of Organization and recognizing that the GOP shares many of the goals of the Tea Party. The question at hand became what to do when members of the GOP take action in apparent violation of the platform’s goals.
Chairman Hayes Takes Some Heat
The message was that forming a third party or otherwise breaking ranks with the GOP was not in the best interest of the limited government philosophy. By way of example, “if we were all passengers on a ship and the captain began acting contrary to the best interests of the ship, should the rest of the passengers simply try to start their own boat or does it make more sense to seize control of the ship and let the captain have his own dingy if he wants”?
Put another way, “if one is to sin, is it the Bible’s fault or the sinner’s fault?”
Indeed, the Republican Party is a tool…not a philosophy. The adherents to limited government philosophy are best served by being the hands that utilize that tool, which is clearly possible in a political environment where ultimately so few people are dedicated to participation in the process.
There is no doubt that there remains great interest in the Tea Party movement. It is evident that leaders and elected officials no longer view the Tea Party as simply a minority nuisance, but as something that deserves attention. It is evident in their speeches and by their attendance at gatherings of Tea Partiers.
They are certainly beginning to talk the talk, the question that remains is whether they will walk the walk and whether the Tea Party will see past lip service and pay attention to actions.
Christian,
Thanks for the Convention review…by any chance did Bob(High Speed Rail) Rucho or Speaker(Light Rail) Tillis show up for any of the Tea Party meetings? Thought not.
Great article!!!
The Tea Party has the power in the GOP, we need to start flexing our muscle. We must continue to rally people to our cause and hold party and elected officials accountable when they diverge from principles.
Dennis,
The Tea Party has “some” power for sure, and I agree we need to flex as hard as we can to determine how much power that actually is…..a good place to start in Mecklenburg County would be for the Tea Party to put up a candidate to remove Thom Tillis from office. That would prove REAL power and actual principled and accountability based leadership from the Tea Party in this area.
Its clear Rep Tillis has seriously diverged from conservative principles…..perhaps its time to put a little proof into the pudding….
You hit on the one area that we HAVE to get better at – candidate recruitment and development.
I wish I knew someone in Tillis’ district with Tea Party principles that was willing to step into the ring.
IMO, this is an area where NC has fallen behind the national movement – are we going to be stuck with McCrory?
While it’s clear that the GOP wants to harness the power of the Tea Party movement to elect its candidates, it’s not clear at all that it wants to reflect the values and beliefs of that movement, or give it meaningful influence unless it simply has no other choice.
We’ve seen ample evidence of this: Thom Tillis strong-arming light rail money back into the state budget, the failure of the NC Firearms Freedom Act in committee, despite strong grassroots support from groups like Campaign for Liberty and GrassRoots North Carolina, the stubborn refusal of Rep. Darrell McCormick to hold a vote on the North Carolina Jobs Bill in the face of hundreds of calls and emails, attempts by Skip Stam and Leo Daughtry to weaken HB 650, the comprehensive gun law overhaul, and Stam’s opposition at the convention during the second business session to adding a plank to the NCGOP Platform calling for the acceptance of gold and silver as legal tender in North Carolina on the grounds that, “It won’t get us the Independent vote.”
No, sir, what won’t get you the independent vote is trying to govern like Democrat-Lite, and it sure won’t get you the Tea Party energy you need to stay competitive.
What remains to be seen is whether Tea Party groups can maintain the unified front it displayed against the Democrats last fall in the face of an entrenched NCGOP establishment run by moderates whose leashes are held by professional political consultants like Dee Stewart. Tea Partiers lost their only representation in the NCGOP hierarchy with the defeat of Tim Johnson and the installation of Wayne King as Vice Chairman. King is closely connected to Rep. Patrick McHenry, and McHenry is well-known as a patron of Stewart, who has shown no compunction in using any and all tactics to prevent new blood from gaining real influence in the NCGOP.
As I discussed in my column “The Real Nature of Politics” (http://pundithouse.com/2011/04/why-the-ncgop-is-giving-up-on-voter-id-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/), all politicians, regardless of position or party, respond to organized pressure the same way. First they try to stonewall you, and if that doesn’t work, they try to co-opt you. The co-opting process has already begun here in NC as Republican officers at the county and state level work to neutralize the bigger, better-organized Tea Party groups with promises of “a seat at the table.” These are taking the form of specially-created advisory positions tailor-made for Tea Party leaders, positions without any actual voting power.
This is the “access” trap. Access to a politician does not guarantee the power to get him to do the right thing, and in fact frequently means the opposite.
The only real power in politics is the power you take when the opposition does everything it can to prevent you from having it and still loses. The sooner NC Tea Party leaders learn that, the sooner we’ll all see some real TEA in the NCGOP.