The Tea Gathering

It wasn't really a "Tea Party," was it?  A party has attendees that want to be there.  A gathering, on the other hand, is something that is not well attended and not really enjoyed either. 

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about the secret "Tea Party" event that took place a week or two ago at Western Playland.  The only person who really covered the secret meeting was Jaime Abeytia.  I can only imagine he was giddy with glee after seeing the number of Tea Partiers go from the thousands to the dozens in just twelve short months.  Jaime no longer has to sit in silent respect of the organization and popularity of the Tea Party movement in El Paso.  It's now just another failure hanging on the wall at the local Republican Party Headquarters (wherever that is now). 

So what happened? 

Well... Genna Pendergras and the board of Grass Roots El Paso shut down the operation and went on with their respective lives.  Without Genna's tireless work, personal investment and winning combination of leadership and "just do it" attitude, the movement was set to die so we made it a planned exit.  The very things (people) that killed Grass Roots El Paso killed the latest attempt at having a successful "Tea Party." 

When Genna started Grass Roots El Paso she put together a board and had a meeting.  In that meeting we set out the very clear path we would take.  We were to be a nonprofit educational group.  Our issues would be limited to the constitution, taxes and general fiscal policy.  We explicitly decided that social issues would be off-limits.  Things couldn't have been better.

Then we had the first public meeting...

The attention seeking wackos showed up in force and saw a huge opportunity for themselves.  Many of these people were happy to see a structure in place that they felt they could steer toward their personal goals.  These people's pet issues ran the gamut of modern right-wing thought.  Some were simply against abortion while others were conspiracy theorist whose fuel for thought was deep misinterpretations of Ron Paul's ideas and thoughts on American government.  It was obvious early on that we weren't going to easily assimilate the general public into the structure of the organization. 

Later on the board decided to search for some regional coordinators to help bring the spirit of the big successful tax day tea parties to their local neighborhood.  This only caused more headaches.  The local republican party and all of their flunkies decided that Grass Roots El Paso should operate under their command. They bothered Genna and the board incessantly with abortion, immigration and a plethora of other social issues.  There was no way of stopping these folks when they set out to wreck our organization like they wrecked the local republican party.

Long story short - the outsiders caused nothing but headaches for Genna and the board. They were adamant about getting their way and would do nothing for the "cause" if the cause didn't decide to put huge billboards around town with anti-abortion messages.  And they didn't get the concept that since we were a nonprofit, we couldn't endorse candidates or post huge billboards saying that Congressman Reyes supports child murder (abortion) and not to vote for him.  I won't say that the Grass Roots El Paso email list  was "stolen" per se, but it was definitely acquired and used by someone without permission - more than once.

The whole thing was a mess and from what I understand Genna was just beaten down via phoe calls and emails all the time. Many people had an agenda they wanted her to carry and they ignored the fact that she had already set the agenda on day one.  Everybody forgot that she is a mom, wife and businesswoman first and the head of a wildly successful grassroots organization second.  People like me on the board didn't help by being absent when she needed us - I do wear that blame with deep regret. 

Once our group was gone the people who killed it were left to try and replicate it.  You can see how they did... awful.  The general public can smell a rat when a rat is present.  The gay benefits message and the abortion message have replaced the one of fiscal conservatism that the Tea Party was founded on and nobody cares for the change.  The same people who can't fix the broken republican party are now failing at something new.

The lesson to them is clear, but they won't get it.  They don't see the error of their ways.  Their political views aren't their problem.  The way they prosecute their the promotion of their political views is the problem.

Comments

[dot]

That's pretty sad... we've had several friends who've moved "home" in the last year who were involved in the Tea Party where they had been. Our PR company has had a standing offer to work for free for a serious and viable Republican candidate against Reyes for years that gets serious support from the party. Notice that we're still waiting.

[Tim Collins]

Dot
I'm curious. Who decides if a candidate is "serious and viable" and what constitutes "serious support from the party"

[Pfft]

Booooring...

[sick and tired]

I wish they would be honest about their affiliation. Manny, Zulema, Sonia and Malcolm were all there all buddy buddy and yet in public they try and distance themselves from their one issue and eachother. Well... Malcolm doesnt. He actually does stand by his fellow zealots.

[Cindy Milazzo]

Sincere thanks to you for explaining what happened to Conservative Grass Roots El Paso. I was part of it from the first, witnessed the republicans and various other factions try to take it over. I expressed my concern early on that Grass Roots would be hijacked and Genna agreed. I have tried to find out what happened but the website and phone number are not working. Then at the "Tea Party" two weeks ago, I realized the group had in fact been hijacked by the Tom Brown Party and the Republicans. Too bad, because Conservative Grass Roots had started to educate the public about how a health care can function with little government involvement and how the private sector, rather than the government, can do much more with much less. The Republicans and Tom Brown parties will never get the support of independents like me because they want to use the base that the Tea Party coalesced for their own agenda. Thanks to Genna for all her efforts. I learned a lot from Conservative Grass Roots before it was hijacked.

[dot]

Tim -
I probably tossed out my "usual complaint" a little too casually... Our local republicans pretty much just go through the motions rather than seek out and develop candidates who have serious convictions and that are not RINO's. They start out every election season telling us why they can't win in El Paso and discouraging potential candidates. They have no clue that our demographics have been shifting. We'll probably always be liberal, but the military is creating a shift. Notice that the Eastside did vote for a Republican. His campaign ended up making contacts with individuals to set up meet and greets and so forth. Not only did the local party people not help him, they wouldn't even acknowledge he was a candidate.

Actually you should have been on the list of serious candidates. You did all the leg work, knew the issues but lacked the financial backing to push past the viewpoint that Reyes had it in the bag. If you decide to take another run at Reyes, I would suggest that you start talking to people now. Learn their issues and concerns. Get to know the military, business people and the farmers; they've got a lot to say about how Reyes has helped make it more difficult to survive economically. People like Genna are good allies...

[100% voter]

You are so right Dot about our local "republican" party. They have absolutely no clue about what they are doing and they latch onto any candidate they think might get them attention and its usual some gawd awful loser.

Conservative Grass Roots El Paso was such a great idea and organization until the lazy Republican party infiltrated the group and ruined it. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. The only way they can get an audience is to offer free beer to homeless people - they will come but no one else will.