Part 10 (1/2)

27. Tyler Whitley, ”Radtke Files for Senate,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 29, 2010.

28. The Michigan Tea Party Alliance can be found at / as of May 21, 2011.

29. See /tea-party-patriots-link-623.html for more information about this coordination effort. Available as of May 21, 2011.

30. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005); and Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All-Politics: How Was.h.i.+ngton Made the Rich Richer-And Turned Its Back on the Middle Cla.s.s (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).

31. Hacker and Pierson, Winner-Take-All-Politics, chapter 5.

32. Robert Frank, ”Top 1% Increased Their Share of Wealth in Financial Crisis,” Wall Street Journal blog, April 30, 2010. Available at blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/04/30/top-1-increased-their-share-of-wealth-in-financial-crisis/ as of May 28, 2011. To see the growth of wealth inequality over time, see voteview.com/Wealth_top_1_Percent.htm.

33. See, for example, Wendy Zellner, ”The Gates Effect,” Fast Company, January 1, 2006; Joanne Barkan, ”Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools,” Dissent, Winter 2011; and Charles Piller and Doug Smith, ”Unintended Victims of Gates Foundation Generosity,” Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2007.

34. The power of the very wealthy has only been strengthened by the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down major portions of America's campaign finance regulations. The Kochs have funded a number of the organizations that argued in favor of Citizens United, including the Cato Inst.i.tute.

35. With $17.5 billion a piece, the two were tied for 24th on the 2010 Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people.

36. For a summary of the investigative reporting conducted about the Koch brothers by progressive bloggers in 2009 and 2010, see Jane Mayer, ”Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who are Waging a War Against Obama,” The New Yorker, August 30, 2010, p. 4.

37. Lee Fang, ”In glitzy shadows, a health reform foe lurks,” Boston Globe, December 6, 2009. See also Lee Fang, ”MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met with Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck to Plot 2010 Election.” Available at thinkprogress.org/2010/10/20/beck-koch-chamber-meeting/ as of May 11, 2011.

38. Kevin Grandia, ”The Big Money Behind Americans for Prosperity,” Desmog Blog, February 26, 2009. Available at /big-money-behind-americans-prosperity as of May 11, 2011. See also Lee Fang, ”From Promoting Acid Rain to Climate Denial: Over 20 Years of David Koch's Polluter Front Groups,” Think Progress, April 1, 2011. Available at wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/01/koch-pollution-astroturf-2deca/ as of May 11, 2011.

39. Sarah Owen, ”David Koch Gives President Obama Zero Credit for Bin Laden's Death,” New York magazine's Daily Intel blog, May 5, 2011. Available at nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/05/billionaire_conservative_david.html as of May 11, 2011.

40. Tom Hamburger, Kathleen Hennessey, and Neela Banerjee, ”Koch Brothers Now at Heart of GOP Power,” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2011.

41. Kenneth P. Vogel and Ben Smith, ”Kochs' Plan for 2012: Raise $88M,” Politico, February 11, 2011, p. 1.

42. d.i.c.k Armey and Matt Kibbe, Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto (New York: HarperCollins, William Morrow imprint, 2010).

43. ”Koch Industries denies funding tea parties, but official filings say otherwise,” Crooks and Liars, April 18, 2010. Available at crooksandliars.com/karoli/koch-industries-denies-funding-freedomworks as of March 22, 2011.

44. Background on AFP appears in Dan Eggen and Philip Rucker, ”Loose Network of Activists Drives Reform Opposition,” Was.h.i.+ngton Post, Sunday, August 16, 2009; and Eric Lipton, ”Billionaire Brothers' Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Budget Dispute,” New York Times, February 22, 2011, A16.

45. FreedomWorks has not received Koch funding since splitting from CSE, but it has replaced those funding sources with other corporate dollars from telecommunications companies, Phillip Morris, and MetLife. Kate Zernike and Jennifer Steinhauer, ”A Power Again in Congress Years After He Left It,” New York Times, November 15, 2010, A1 and A16. Dan Eggen and Philip Rucker, ”Loose Network of Activists Drives Reform Opposition,” Was.h.i.+ngton Post, August 16, 2009. FreedomWorks is led by d.i.c.k Armey, who after his term in the House became a lobbyist with strong ties to the oil, gas, pharmaceutical, and financial industries. ”Oil and Gas Industries Fuel Unruly Townhall Meetings,” Political Correction, August 6, 2009. Available at politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/200908060005 as of March 22, 2011. Amanda Terkel, ”FreedomWorks, Run by Former Beverage Industry Lobbyist d.i.c.k Armey, Launches Attack Against Soda Tax,” Think Progress, May 15, 2009. Available at thinkprogress.org/2009/05/15/armey-soda/ as of March 22, 2011. Pat Garofalo, ”d.i.c.k Armey's Clients Required the Bailouts that Army's FreedomWorks is Now Protesting,” Think Progress, April 15, 2009. Available at wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/04/15/armey-financial-giants/ as of March 21, 2011.

46. Lipton, ”Billionaire Brothers' Money,” A16.

47. Amy Gardner, ”Tea-party activists question if rebel political movement has changed for the worse,” Was.h.i.+ngton Post, December 31, 2010.

48. Lipton, ”Billionaire Brothers' Money.”

49. ”United States Congressman Paul Ryan to Receive Defender of the American Dream Award,” AFP Wisconsin blog, available at pany, Herbalife, that has been cautioned by the FDA for making false claims. Herbalife is widely promoted through ”multilevel marketing,” described by some as a pyramid scheme. Stephanie Mencimer, ”Is the Tea Party Movement Like a Pyramid Scheme?” Mother Jones, October 19, 2010. Jenny Beth Martin's husband is also involved in Tea Party Patriots, serving as a treasurer for the group. Stephanie Mencimer, ”Tea Party Patriots Investigated, Part 3,” Mother Jones, February 16, 2011.

61. Ties between FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots have been doc.u.mented by Talking Points Memo and Rolling Stone, though it is unclear to what extent FreedomWorks remained involved with Tea Party Patriots after 2009. Zachary Roth, ”FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High,” TPM Muckraker, August 11, 2009. Tim d.i.c.kenson, ”The Lie Machine,” Rolling Stone, October 1, 2009. The importance of FreedomWorks in the development of Tea Party Patriots was confirmed by Jenny Beth Martin in an interview on March 11, 2010. According to Martin, FreedomWorks was crucial to the group's original launch and was a primary funder for their national rallies. Martin also reports that operational funding for Tea Party Patriots was scant well into 2010, limiting the capacity of the group to take independent action. FreedomWorks has a history of creating homespun-looking websites like the original site of Tea Party Patriots that promote nominally gra.s.sroots causes. Michael M. Phillips, ”Mortgage Bailout Infuriates Tenants (And Steve Forbes),” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2008.

62. Zachary Roth, ”FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High,” TPM Muckraker website, August 9, 2009.

63. See, for instance, Wayne T. Brough, Ph.D. ”Proposed Regulations Pose Threat to Internet,” FreedomWorks, January 15, 2010. Available at es from TPP itself. In an interview on April 26, 2011, Martin was unclear about precisely how many people were on TPP's payroll, estimating around a dozen. The number of coordinators on staff has varied over the past two years. When we spoke with Jenny Beth Martin in March of 2010, she reported that the organization employed nine national coordinators to help guide and coordinate local groups' actions. Emails from Tea Party Patriots to their supporters suggest that those numbers have since been whittled down. In March of 2011, TPP emails were signed by a national coordinator team of only six people.

69. Bradford Plumer, ”Can the Tea Party Be Controlled?” The New Republic, September 21, 2010. The anonymous donation to the TPP was announced at the National Press Club.

70. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones has done extensive reporting doc.u.menting Tea Party Patriots' financial doings. Tea Party Patriots has used accounting tricks to avoid having to file their taxes or financial disclosure forms for almost two years, an especially troubling fact given the questionable business practices of Tea Party Patriots' leaders prior to their Tea Party activism. See Mencimer's three part series, ”Tea Party Patriots Investigated,” Mother Jones, February 1416, 2011. See also: Stephanie Mencimer, ”Is the Tea Party Movement Like a Pyramid Scheme?” Mother Jones, October 19, 2010.

71. Stephanie Mencimer, ”Tea Party Patriots Investigated,” Mother Jones, February 14, 2011.

72. ”Americans for Prosperity Leader Speaks to Tea Party Tuesday,” KearneyHub.com, November 27, 2010.

73. Information from the Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska website, which provides regular information on issues coming up at all levels of government and links to the national AFP website and to those of a full panoply of ultra-right, anti-government advocacy organizations.

74. Stephanie Mencimer, ”Tempest in the Tea Party,” Mother Jones, December 30, 2009.

75. Written as if from Ben Jealous, the president of the NAACP, the blog included lines like, ”How will we coloreds ever get a widescreen TV in every room if non-colored get to keep what they earn?” The blog entry was removed from the original site, but a complete text of the letter is still available at gawker.com/#!5588556/the-embarra.s.sing-racist-satire-of-tea-party-leader-mark-williams as of February 27, 2011. In another instance, Williams claimed that Muslims wors.h.i.+p a ”monkey G.o.d.” Bill Hutchinson, ”Tea Party leader Mark Williams says Muslims wors.h.i.+p a 'monkey G.o.d,' blasts Ground Zero mosque,” New York Daily News, May 19, 2010. Williams had previously claimed that, ”it's impossible for there to be a racist element in the Tea Party.” Charles Blow, ”Dog Days of Obama,” New York Times, July 17, 2010, A19.

76. The TPE road show, the only aspect of TPE that most Tea Partiers see, typically has a far more diverse line-up than the audiences in attendance. After attending an event similar to the rally that one of us (Vanessa) attended on the Boston Common, New York Times columnist Charles Blow described it as ”a political minstrel show.” Charles Blow, ”A Mighty Pale Tea,” New York Times, April 17, 2010, A17.

77. There are, of course, many other conservative organizations that offer training and guidance to conservative gra.s.sroots activists. We have focused on those most a.s.sociated with the Tea Party in particular.

78. As we will see in Chapter 4, however, Fox News, and particularly Glenn Beck and his 9/12 Project, are far more frequently cited than any national advocacy organization.

79. When the Tea Partybacked candidate for the Colorado Governors.h.i.+p made similar claims tying bike lanes to a ”very well-disguised” U.N. plot, he was quickly forced to recant, claiming his statements had been taken ”out of context.” The text of his August 9th, 2010, interview on MSNBC is available at wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/08/09/maes-bike-plot/ as of May 6, 2011.

80. According to their MeetUp blog, the Peninsula Patriots called for volunteers for various working subcommittees in the months following the January 24, 2011 lecture. Most subcommittees got few volunteers, but there were multiple volunteers for the antisustainable development group, as well as for the group to fight the Muslim threat in the United States. Interestingly enough, fighting ObamaCare got no takers.

81. Even conservative columnist David Brooks admitted that the Ryan plan was so politically unpopular as to create an ”opening” for Democrats. ”s.h.i.+elds and Brooks on Public's View of Libya Efforts, Debate on Ent.i.tlements,” PBS Newshour, April 22, 2011. The Ryan plan was reportedly also unpopular locally. See, for instance, John Nichols, ”Paul Ryan gets an earful as tour bombs,” The Cap Times, May 4, 2011.

82. Stephanie Mencimer, ”Tea Party Patriots Investigated,” Mother Jones, February 14, 2011.