A question about your local Tea Party, no matter where you live

I'm trying to understand how the Tea Party holds its considerable influence.

Do you know of any Tea Party gathering or public meeting that was attended by more than a dozen self-identified Tea Party members in the last 90 days?

I couldn't name one if I had to.

rest of the Republicans. Not that we have many of those.

If there was a rally in DC, the so-called liberal media must've covered it up.

To answer your question, I'd say no.

They are ashamed of their ugly beliefs but the point is that they are COMMITTED and VOTE whereas many constituent groups in the Dem coalition DON'T VOTE.

for a "tea party". Don't know if anyone actually attends:shrug:

They reported about 200 at the first one, and around 500 at the second one. Of course the newspaper is a right-wing rag, so who knows.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/s_742901.html

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_745074.html

And your comment about the veracity of the news source is appreciated.

Their stand was in back of and to the left of our OFA voter registration table.
They were selling cheap "patriotic" bracelets, 3 for $25; and they also had yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags hanging in their booth.

Kept track of their meetings

only because the media tells us it is... in truth... well...

I think the media loves them. Why, I can't tell you. I don't know how many anti-war marches I went to when we got into Iraq. Yet, we would be lucky, if we got two minutes of air time, on any of the major networks. The media just "isn't into" the Left, and sometimes neither is this administration, they get called names, they are ignored, they are considered unelectable and then....along comes these guys...and with a name like that, no less! LOL!

I wish I understood too, Thom. I live in NY, only occasionally do I see Teabaggers hanging around the streets,with signs calling Obama "Hitler" and other such nonsense. Not a huge crowd, to be sure.

And yet they do exert influence, to the point, I think the rest of the Republican party seems afraid of them. And they have managed to get Teabaggers elected, which is a big part of the problem with the ongoing deficit crisis. They have "pledged" to vote against any tax increases.

The rest of the republican party seems caught in a mess of their own making. It's Republicans and their last majority that left us with the current financial mess we are in. Along comes a "new party" (still republican, as far as I can see) that is claiming to separate themselves from that. The Republican party embraced them. Which I think gave them some credibility, unfortunately, instead of the costume donning, poor spelling, joke that they are. I think the more they gain prominence and people really see just how screwed up they really are, it might help Democrats to regain the House in the next election cycle.