The Third Party Tea Party and the Democratic-Republican Conspiracy of Dunces, Part III

The tension between those who demand subservience to the dictates of the Democratic-Republican two-party state and duopoly system of government and those who call for freedom and independence from the Democratic-Republican Party and political class is perhaps most evident today in the struggle over the future direction of the tea party movement. Earlier this week, I considered the conspiracy theories being spun by duopolist partisans of the Republican Party in Nevada regarding the state's third party Tea Party and its candidate for US Senate, Jon Ashjian. The phenomenon is not confined to the Silver State. Similar allegations have been leveled against Florida's third party Tea Party, headed by Fred O'Neal. In late February, Nevada News and Views summarized the controversy:

Trouble is simmering in the Tea Party movement over a struggle with identity theft. In Connecticut, Florida and Nevada, the Tea Party has been registered as a third political party for the 2010 election. All three parties are already involved in either recruiting candidates or preparing their campaigns for statewide races in November.

The problem? In Florida and Nevada, the newly formed third parties appear to have little or no connection to the actual Tea Party movement. Longtime Tea Party leaders say they were as shocked as anyone to learn of the third parties, especially when they found out that the people in charge had no previous involvement in Tea Party activities . . . “We believe the identity of the Florida Tea Party has been hijacked by cynical foes,” said Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the South Florida Tea Party.

Florida's The Ledger profiles O'Neal, the founder of the Florida Tea Party, and the efforts of his fledgling group:

O'Neal said, it's . . . disdain for both major parties and for incumbents in general that has him confident that the Tea Party can make a serious breakthrough this fall, and not end up like the Reform Party and other third party movements that never got off the ground. “I think the Tea Party has an appeal to independent voters,” he said. “Maybe they are independent because they do not like the Democrat or Republican parties.”

From his new office, O'Neal has gotten a lot of feedback from people interested in joining the movement – and even running for local office. “What we're doing is letting people run as a Tea Party candidate,” O'Neal said. “On our Web site, we have a place you can click and fill out a questionnaire, and we have had contact from over 50 people.”

The piece also reports on the paranoid response of partisan Republican ideologues to the third party cause:

O'Neal's efforts have also hit some bumps along the way – including lawsuits challenging the Tea Party itself . . . One of the plaintiffs is Tim McClellan of Pompano Beach, and a member of the Broward Republican Executive Committee. He said O'Neal and the other supporters of the Tea Party of Florida are using this movement to hurt the Florida GOP, and he noted that O'Neal used to be a registered Democrat . . .

O'Neal said these lawsuits and challenges are a silly distraction, and may be solely motivated by supporters of the Florida Republican Party, fearful that the Tea Party could steal votes from their candidates with its fiscally conservative, limited government platform. “We don't have a problem with Tea Party factions, except for some folks in Miami who are trying to make our life miserable,” O'Neal said.

In the analysis of duopoly ideology and practice, it is a general rule of thumb that when Republicans and Democrats accuse an ideological other of some insidious action, one can safely assume that the accuser is in fact guilty of that which he or she accuses the other. Thus, when Everett Wilkinson asserts that the "Florida Tea Party has been hijacked by cynical foes," as above, is it not entirely clear that partisan Republican duopolist operatives are the cynical ideological foes leading the hijacking?

The fact that one only sees homemade signage at tea party demonstrations has long been a point of pride for tea party activists and supporters, positively contrasting themselves with participants in demonstrations organized by liberal and left of center groups, which often have mass produced posters and placards. Only the hijackers themselves could take pride in the fact that the Republican National Committee is now paying for and printing signs for tea party groups. From the Daily Caller:

The Republican National Committee is paying for signs and political buttons used by Tea Party groups — despite widespread disagreement among the conservative, grassroots activists on whether the movement should work to elect candidates within the Republican party or steer clear from it. The items, paid for by the RNC, were on full display at a Friday press conference of Tea Party activists in Washington . . .

Michael Patrick Leahy, an organizer of the Take the Town Halls to Washington project that is bringing Tea Party activists to the capital to lobby Democrats on President Obama’s health-care bill, admitted that the RNC “did provide the signage,” but said he didn’t know the details of the arrangement with Republicans and couldn’t explain how the signs got there. “They just showed up,” he said.

Yes, "they just showed up."