On Friday, after a Politico blog claimed there was a "schism" in the Coffee Party between progressives and centrists, I wrote to explain why an email conversation from nearly a year ago did not a "schism" make. The next day, the same blog took another angle on the "schism" narrative, this time focusing on our recent change of leadership.
It is true that one week ago, 3 important Coffee Party volunteeers were relieved of duty and they were not happy about it. But the differences between these 3 outstanding volunteers and the rest of the Coffee Party were slim, and, more the result of a breakdown in communication than any political, philosophical, or practical disagreement. Thanks to a successful membership drive in February — in which we hoped to raise $50,000 by asking for a membership fee of $10 and raised $128,000 instead — the Coffee Party is now able to enlist professional expertise to help shape the ideas and enthusiasm of our many volunteers. By working with a consulting firm (to be announced soon) and replacing our shrinking Interim Board with a larger and more engaged Transition Team, Coffee Party will be better able to accomplish two important goals: (1) to use our Taxpayer initiatives and upcoming web series to participate effectively in our national dialogue on tax reform and balancing budgets, and (2) to create a permanent board and long-term organizational structure.
Taken as a whole, the two blogs asserting that there is dissent in the Coffee Party come at an ironic time. During the past several weeks, a tremendous amount of unity and common ground has emerged within the Coffee Party, and in fact, among all Americans who fall somewhere to the left of the Koch Brothes and Glenn Beck (that's a very high percentage of us). Some factors have been:
- Shocking over-reach, power-grabs, and corporate giveaways by newly elected governors have awakened the disengaged majority as well as the political center to the fact that Republicans, Democrats, and political independents have more in common with each other than they do with ideological extremists.
- Extremism and intimidation tactics are becoming less fashionable and less conscionable, and thus cannot be expected to have the same impact that they did in 2009 and 2010.
- Due to the widespread grassroots efforts of US Uncut and the factors listed above, corporate interests can no longer expect to remain undetected as they manipulate our political process. Americans are becoming increasingly aware of legalized corporate tax-evasion, as well as the widespread corrpution that gave us "too big to fail banks," the Wall Street bailouts, and the shifting of tax responsiblity away from corporations and on to consumers. Last year's misdirected and misinformed anger over tax policy is giving way to this year's informed and properly directed anger at the failures of "trickle-down" economics and the abuses of monied interests who have forced this and other disastrous policies upon the American people.
Participation in our representative democracy is not a soap opera or professional wrestling program, yet this is how it is presented and unfortunately practiced by far too many people. The soap opera/professional wrestling approach to discussing politics has had the effect of alienating and distracting the Amerian public from the vital and systemic issues before us. During the past year, the Coffee Party has tried to avoid soap opera politics, and instead zeroed in on the plague at the heart of our economic and political system — the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Recently, the Coffee Party has helped to chronicle and shed light upon a national awakening to the fallacy of and the failure of trickle-down economics. This awakening is much bigger than the Coffee Party, and impossible to reverse no matter how many distractions are presented to us, because it is inspired by the most powerful force in politics: the truth.
- Our "Tipping Point" essay (2/24) was read by more than a hundred thousand people, listing ten "wake up calls," beginning with the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and including the national protests in the United States rejecting the corporate right's attack on education, public safety, and collective bargaining.
- The Coffee Party helped inspire and support college students across the U.S. using new media technology to speak out against an ideological attack on Planned Parenthood, launched by this incredibly successful web video approaching 300,000 views in only three weeks.
- The Coffee Party announced plans to partner with organizations like US Uncut, 350.org, and Public Citizen to focus America's attention on the revenue shortfalls and budget deficits that have resulted from corporate lobbyists writing our tax code so that, during 60 years of soaring profits for corporations and the super-wealthy, the tax burdeon has been shifted on to the middle class, whose income has not improved at all during this time.
- 60 Minutes, NPR and the New York Times have recently released exposes examining corporate offshore tax havens, informing millions of Americans of current corporate tax practices. It's clear that our corporate tax code urgently needs reform.
- And, on Thursday March 26, Annabel Park and I met with executives at Bank of America to discuss ways that we might work together to address the systemic inequities in our tax code that are damaging Bank of America's brand and undermining America's future. We'll be writing about this meeting soon.
Internal surveys and other indicators show support and enthusiasm within the Coffee Party are very high right now. Like most Americans, we are focused on taking action to prevent ethically-challenged legislative bodies at the state and federal level from de-investing in America's future in order to pad the pockets of super-wealthy profiteers and special interests, while We the People are expected to pay the lion's share of the cost to operate those governments.
America is waking up to these realities, with or without the observations and actions of the Coffee Party, and nothing can prevent this realization from growing. The American people are tired of distractions. We are witnessing a paradigm shift, away from trickle-down economics and other failed policies that benefit elite institutions while eroding America's quality of life. Over the next six months, we predict a wave of participation from the silent, previously-disengaged majority of Americans who wish to reclaim their rightful place at the center of our political process.
