Can monkeys bring together the Tea and Coffee Parties?

B-Daddy has some more info on the Coffee Party, here and comes up with some pretty telling info as to their goals, motives and backings. Not that you would be able to tell what it is these people are all about by reading their "About Us" at their home page. Yes, they have a national homepage.

Coffee Party USA aims to reinvigorate the public sphere, drawing from diverse backgrounds and diverse perspectives, with the goal of expanding the influence of the People in America's political arena. We do not require nor adhere to any preexisting ideology. We encourage deliberation guided by reason amongst the many viewpoints held by our members. We see our diversity as a strength, not a weakness, because we believe that faithful deliberation from multiple vantage points is the best way to achieve the common good. It is in the responsible and reasonable practice of deliberation that we hope to contribute to society.

We know what is going to be bookmarked on our insomnia reading list from here on out. Honestly, what the heck did that paragraph above really say?

We want to give these folks the benefit of the doubt, particularly if the tea party can find some common ground but as you will read at B-Daddy's piece, it's going to be awfully hard.

They are big on money in politics and in particular the concept of "corporatism", or the hand-in-glove partnership between government and private industry (picking winners and losers) decried by the (now extinct) class of good government liberals like Thom Hartmann, author of the book What Would Jefferson Do?

Hey, we're all for getting rid of "corporatism" or as we refer to it around here, crony capitalism or economic fascism but is the coffee party's corporatism merely code speak for bashing Wall St. to the exclusion of ignoring the federal government's complicity in the financial and mortgage meltdowns? When we hear phrases like "The government is not the enemy", which is big in the Coffee Party lexicon, that question is all but answered.




P.S. B-Daddy has garnered a comment from a Coffee Party participant who seems like a very reasonable fellow. He thinks there is common ground in money in politics (campaign finance reform) and gerry-mandered districts.

Since money in politics is directly proportional to power in politics/government that might be a tough nut to crack. To wit, we see as a Coffee Party goal, more of McCain/Feingold which did absolutely nothing to stem the flow of money and which only rerouted the flow on its way to the same destination.

Districting, however, is an abomination and is a spoil of whatever party is in power. We have previously said we would prefer a team of monkeys armed with crayons and letting them loose on a map of California rather than the way districts are now hacked up. Hey, we may be on to something. It's some progress.