Tea Party vs. Coffee Party — Annabel Park

videography by Dewey Smith

See the entire panel discussion at: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/221732

We did something unusual for a Coffee Party event. With two distinguished guests — Linda Killian, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, columnist for Politico and US World & News Report and the author of The Freshmen: What Happened To The Republican Revolution? and Darrell West, the vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute — we decided to do a panel discussion, moderated by Annabel Park, and then open it up to questions and comments. The result was a really productive town hall style discussion.

Busboys was nice enough to provide, not only free coffee, but free tea for participants! There were about 70 people here (we are writing from location before dashing off to Frederick, MD for a 4 PM film festival screening).

C-SPAN, CNN, Fox News, and Voice of America were all there, so look for the news reports. The panel discussion that opened the meeting is available at C-SPAN's website: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/221732




Darrell and Annabel about the broken political process: money in politics, Citizens United decision, campaign finance, Senate rules, redistricting reforms, etc. There was a consensus in the roo...m that Coffee Party USA must focus on finding ways of fixing our broken political process and Congress in particular. Linda and Darrell agreed that this is a nonpartisan issue with wide consensus among Americans.

The influence of corporate money on our democracy was a dominant topic of discussion. Issues discussed in break-out groups after the panel included: * Coffee Party needs to narrow down to more specific initiatives as we move forward * Can the Coffee Party make Campaign Finance reform an election issue by supporting candidates who support Campaign Finance Reform legislation? * How can we limit the potential damage caused by the Supreme Court's "corporate personhood" (Citizens United) decision?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• coffee
• party
• usa
• annabel
• park
• tea
• republican
• democrat
• independent

[hobo59]

The time for talk has come and gone. Neither side is willing to admit that this is about Liberals vs Conservatives and that it is only a matter of time before the shooting starts and things will get out of hand from there. Everyone is gonna have to choose a side and good luck with that !

[coffeepartyusa]

How do you account for statistics that show there are more political independents and moderates in this country than there are members of the two major political parties? It breaks down precisely as it always has, in the shape of a bell curve with the middle being the largest.

[blueBlackpurple]

@1stAmendmentChannel,

From what I've heard so far, the Coffee Party is about bringing people with different views together to have a civil and

productive conversation with themselves and their political representatives.

So far I support what they are trying to do

because that is a much better way to discuss issues than yelling and screaming at each other.

We will not agree with each other on all issues, and that is fine, but at least we can try to at least understand one another.

[VolkOseba]

You want a majority of people participating? I want a majority of people making an educated decision on wether or not they'll participate. If they don't know what the candidates stand for, or don't have any of their own political views, it's like flipping a coin to vote.

[1066679]

It doesn't hurt matters either , that Ms Park happens to be attractive ( See San Francisco District 6 Supervisor , Jane Kim , also.).

[VeerleTakino]

@loopholehhp She wasn't there to talk about the tea party. She was asked about it

[bette1122]

You are so wrong, Tea Party definitely don't want to be 3rd party. If you want to know why don't you ask them instead of the bias news stations lies

[loopholehhp]

Keep the tea party movement out of your mouth. You're 100% wrong when you say and presume the tea party activists are trying to start a 3rd party... we simply want the republican party back to their conservitive roots. RP/RP2012

If you acknowledge that tea party activists are saying you don't vision the movement correctly, why are you even speaking?

Is this a joke?

[mikelunz]

@SuperKixxx Before Obama was President, which aspects of his congressional history drew you to him the most?

[mikelunz]

@coffeepartyusa When you see a televised "Tea Party Event," and a media celebrity like Palin is a key speaker, that is only a small percentage of people that like Palin in the Tea Party. Furthermore, many of these events use the term "Tea Party," and recieve media attention because a "celebrity" is attending. Constitutionalists, Libertarians, and Independants, which make up the majority of real live tea baggers, do not see Palin as being fit, nor as a good option for the change we seek.

[mikelunz]

@coffeepartyusa its interesting that you make this comment. I want to know what a "moderate" actually is. Each person is extreme in their own right, and perspective. How they act out the extremities, is another story. Coffee party runs into this problem: it is an organized group. Tea Party is just random groups of people that are not really affiliated with each other, and often times, have differing political opinions based on cultural differences and perspective (obvious.)

[MarSilF]

Coffee party like the tea pary. I get it, i get it.