Does anyone know about the TEA Party of Florida vs. "The Tea Party?"?

They’re the same thing, in essence. Apparently in FL there is a difference between being a member of the original Tea Party movement and the national Tea Party movement. It must be some sort of states’ rights distinction.

I don’t know anything about the TEA Party of Florida, but I do know that the Tea Party is generally unorganized, grassroots, and has (I think) only local chapters – there’s no president of the tea party or hierarchy or anything. Which means there’s a lot of in-fighting about ideology, and there’s also a lot of room to say “Oh, no, those guys are the racist ones – I’m just here because I really care about lowering the deficit and reducing the size of government, and I definitely cared about that just as much under Bush.”

@BarnacleBill The Tea Party isn’t a party in that sense – there isn’t the Green Party, Democratic Party, Republican Party, or Tea Party, and you have to pick one on your voter registration. It’s more the name of the movement, like “3rd Wave Feminism”.

I understand that, but there is probably more of a level of organization that isn’t as overtly apparent. I don’t believe it’s as grassroots as people would like to believe.

Apparently it is a real party in Florida, and Guy says it’s the only real one. Districts ran candidates in the Tea Party in addition to the other major parties last year.

@BarnacleBill No, it’s funded by the Koch brothers (yeah, the oil tycoons). But I think on the level that this man would have been involved with, it probably was unorganized (at least formally and publicly). If he was higher up or more involved, he would have been aware of more organization and been able to articulate things more clearly.

@sliceswiththings So then either the ideologies are similar, or this other Tea Party did a really bad job of basic things, like naming the party well…

@MyNewtBoobs He was very highly involved. Not to compromise anonymity, but he helped form the Florida Tea Party and actually was one of the party candidates last fall. It’s probable that he was articulating it clearly, but I wasn’t comprehending it.

Yeah, I asked why he didn’t change the name of the party if they didn’t want to be associate with the radicals, and he didn’t have a good answer…

@sliceswiththings Well, either way, do you really want to be involved with a politician? ;)

@sliceswiththings Is this them? They keep saying “not the fake political party”, even though I don’t know what that would be other than a 14 year old kid creating a page whilst eating Cheetos naked…

According to the Florida Division of Elections, there is an official TEA party, whose official site is here. It… doesn’t look good.

FreedomWorks It’s based on the Austrian school of economics.

@augustlan Eek! No, that doesn’t look good.
No, I don’t want to be involved with a politician!! I’m a street musician, for god’s sake. This whole side of him just came out :)

So maybe this article will help you? “A group of Florida Tea Partiers has filed suit against the team of conservative activists that registered the Tea Party of Florida (TPOF) as an official state party, alleging that their rivals “fully intend to ‘hijack’ the phrase ‘Tea Party’ for their political will and objectives.””

As far as I can tell, if they aren’t the same thing, they’re identical cousins, and both associated with the larger, national Tea Party movement. But really, I cannot tell the difference between the two in any way, so it mostly looks like those slapstick tropes with a guy changing fast between two personalities who keeps slapping the “other him”.

Excellent analogy. I’m confident that I’m better off without him.

@sliceswiththings FWIW, I don’t think there’s really a bad reason to dump someone – if it matters to you, it matters, and you shouldn’t be with someone that you aren’t really and truly into.

@MyNewtBoobs Honestly, I’m glad it came up. I always get involved with people I don’t connect with, but I stay with them because it’s nice to have someone to sleep with hang out with, when I would be better off without them. This gave me a good enough reason to end it, when otherwise who knows how long I would have stuck with this non-fulfilling relationship.

@sliceswiththings Sadly, I hear that, and have been there/done that.

Now that this is in Social… Good riddance to that dude! Good call, @sliceswiththings. :)

Since it’s in Social we don’t have to whisper anymore!

Ha!

I would agree with him that you shouldn’t dump him off his political beliefs. He may not even be that outspoken, just a follower.

The Tea party was started by the “Ron-Paul-Libertarian” types of people back shortly after the 2008 election. It was hijacked by the likes of Fox News and super-neo-cons like Glenn Beck and turned in to what it overall is today. BUT I would hesitate to throw all Tea partiers in with that group of crazies, as there really are some groups of them that fall more in line with the Libertarian groups.

@tedd You don’t think political beliefs are an important part of a relationship’s compatibility, and that it’s important to respect your partner’s beliefs, and you shouldn’t be with someone whose beliefs you don’t respect?

@MyNewtBoobs If one or both partners are at an extreme polar side of politics I could see it being an issue, and often political beliefs are common among those of certain attitudes and such that may be different depending on the party…...... But no, I do not think politics necessarily has to be a deal breaker in a relationship, just because the partners have different views. Besides, unless they’re totally batshit crazy, you should always respect someone else’s beliefs. The original tea partiers aren’t really that crazy…. just the psychopaths that hijacked the movement.