FIRST TEA PARTY NOW NEW 'COFFEE PARTY" New angry populist movement seeks to hold those responsible for gov't gridlock accountable March 02, 2010 (NATIONAL) -- Move over tea partiers, there’s a new, angry populist movement growing in the land and they are ticked off and fed up -- not with government per se’ but with those who they see as creating and perpetuating broken government, gridlock and the blanket stereotype that government is always the enemy.
Fed up with government gridlock – but turned off by the attitudes, tactics and objectives they see in the tea party movement – tens of thousands of Americans in cites all across the nation are investing themselves in a new American political movement: the coffee party.
The party’s slogan is "Wake Up and Stand Up."
It all started with a Facebook page a few weeks back and is growing like wildfire through the Internet.
The coffee party pledges to "support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them."
Leaders say their mission statement is the “Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”
Below is a video from the Coffee Party’s website (http://coffeepartyusa.org/) explaining why the group formed:
By Monday afternoon the movement had 40,000 members and climbing rapidly -- about 11,000 people had signed on as fans since the morning.
The founder of the movement, Annabel Park (the woman in the video) a documentary filmmaker who lives outside Washington, D.C. told the New York Times "I'm in shock, just the level of energy here…in the beginning, I was actively saying, 'Get in touch with us, start a chapter.' Now I can't keep up. We have 300 requests to start a chapter that I have not been able to respond to."
LOCAL CHAPTERS PLAN MEETINGS ACROSS NATION
Local chapters are planning meetings in cities across the country from Washington to San Antonio to Los Angeles and is also planning nationwide “coffee houses” for March 13, where people can gather to decide which issues they want to take on and even which candidates they want to support.
This summer, Park said, the party will hold a convention in the Midwest, with a slogan along the lines of "Meet Me in the Middle."
Park said they agree with the tea party movement on two things – a desire for fiscal responsibility and a frustration with Congress. Park says coffee partiers see themselves as a different model of civic participation; one that is not afraid of diversity and the changing demographics of America.
She says the group intends to send a strong message to Washington lawmakers that “you have to learn how to work together, you have to learn how to talk about these issues without acting like you're in an ultimate fighting session."
