Seeding the Grass Roots

Why More than Economics is Needed to Understand the Tea Party

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 24, 2010 |

Last Thursday, the Projo published an excellent op-ed by Rhode Island Tea Party President Colleen Conley, written in response a derisive editorial on the Tea Party from a week ago Sunday. Since Ms. Conley was more than clear about where the editorial board’s perspective was lacking, the part of the op-ed I would like to…

The Obligation of Participation

By Justin Katz | May 19, 2010 |

Jay Nordlinger’s profile of Florida congressional candidate Allen West is interesting reading, overall, but this passage should haunt the days of all productive Rhode Islanders (emphasis added): After the Army, West taught high school for a while — history. He is especially pleased that some of his students went on to service academies. Then he…

Why the Tea Party Has Emerged from America’s Side Streets

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 17, 2010 |

Bill James, the pioneer baseball number-cruncher who is also a gifted sportswriter, once observed that historians reduce real events to patterns of light and shadow, which popular memory further reduces to black and white. The description of the Tea Party movement offered yesterday by the Projo in an unsigned editorial was derived from a black-and-white…

Two Pieces of Heartening News Out of Massachusetts

By Monique Chartier | May 12, 2010 |

… for those of us who have watched with consternation the push around the country – and especially in Washington – for expansion of both big government and illegal immigration. 1) Republican Richard Ross (R – again, that’s R) has won by a substantial margin the state senate seat vacated by Scott Brown. Ross even…

“Just quit spending all the money.”

By Marc Comtois | April 27, 2010 |

In Utah (h/t), incumbent Republican Senator Bob Bennett is running in third place with a couple weeks to go before the Utah GOP winnows the field down to two candidates. The Utah GOP is dominated by members of–or those sympathetic to–the Tea Party movement and Bennett has come under fire for proposing that individuals be…

What Ed Has to Believe

By Justin Katz | April 20, 2010 |

Strolling amidst the crowd of the latest Tea Party, Ed Fitzpatrick reflected as follows: I’ve got to believe the health-care law is going to do more good than the Iraq war, and I wondered if Tea Party members were concerned that the cost of the war had reached $717.5 billion as of Thursday, according to…

RI Tea Parties 2009 and 2010: Contrasting Crowd Size

By Monique Chartier | April 16, 2010 |

The angle of the two photographs is not identical … 2009 [Courtesy Justin Katz] 2010

The Tea Party’s Outreach

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 16, 2010 |

One theme that was repeated at yesterday’s Tax-Day Tea Party rally was that the Tea Party can only be successful over the long term, if it continues to grow itself by reaching out to others…Audio of Colleen Conley, directly outreaching to the rank and file membership of Rhode Island’s unions.Audio of Anastasia Eurton, describing what…

The Tax-Day Tea Party: More Signs of the Times!

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 15, 2010 |

(Pink slip…did you get it?) (This one presents an interesting paradox. If this is a regular Tea Party goer, than Jeff Montgomery of the People for the American Way would suggest that this sign is beyond the pale. But if were to be held by a Tea Party crasher coming from a leftist perspective, this…

The Tax-Day Tea Party: A Party Crasher?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 15, 2010 |

The person in the center of the picture was holding an offensive sign that made reference to Timothy McVeigh. The serious-looking gentleman in the cool shades on the left side of the picture is a Rhode Island State Police officer. Several different times, Tea Party members attempted to hold their own signs directly in front…