Conviction Can't Be Compelled
First, there was the "Coffee Party" flop. Now the liberals are trying once again to create their own Tea Party with "One Nation" a coalition of 170 liberal groups united behind Obama's radical agenda. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the Tea Party should be content with its obvious success. Success liberals will never be able to replicate. For the self-titled pioneers of grassroots activism, liberals don't seem to know anything about it.
Liberals inhabit a word where "grassroots" means having the SEIU send in a busl0ad of paid "supporters" to hold a "spontaneous" rally. And of course, media trucks just happen to be right around the corner and notice the commotion. This is why liberals insist the Tea Party must be a front for the GOP. The can't conceive of a movement that isn't coordinated by some vast network of "grassroots" architects. They know liberal grassroots campaigns are always a charade, so they assume the same must be true of any grassroots movement. Someone must be pulling the strings.
Liberals still don't get it. There is no "Tea Party" (other than the fake one in Nevada, that is). "Tea Party" was just a theme which became a label. Although there are some actual tea party groups now, these did not exist before the movement. They grew out of it to provide some organization at the local level, but there is no national group directing their progress. There aren't chapters of the Tea Party. There is no central command. Each local tea party acts independently but they are all united by a common cause. These independent Tea Parties don't make the same arguments because they've circulated a list of talking points. (Most of the organizations have never communicated with any groups outside of their own state.) Tea partiers make the same arguments because they believe in their philosophy. They have true conviction.
The Tea Party didn't mash together 170 existing Conservative groups. Before the movement began, I'm not even sure there would have been 170 groups to mash together. With "One Nation," the Left is trying to duplicate a true grassroots movement with a centralized network. It won't work. They might ultimately hold a few rallies, maybe even a press conference, but their coalition will ultimately flop because it is not built around ideas. It is built around competing with a legitimate grassroots movement.
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