Dick Armey in The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
On Principles & Values:
OpEd: Elite leader of Tea Party, not grassroots leader
Many supporters proclaim the Tea Party to be purely a grassroots rebellion. This view captures only a small part of the truth. The "mass movement" portrayed overlooks the fact that the Tea Party, understood in its entirety, includes media hosts and
wealthy political action committees, plus national advocacy groups and self-proclaimed spokespersons--elites that wield many millions of dollars in political contributions and appear all over the media claiming to speak for grassroots activists who
certainly have not elected them, and to whom they are not accountable. What kind of mass rebellion is funded by corporate billionaires, like the Koch brothers, led by over-the-hill former GOP kingpins like Dick Armey, and ceaselessly promoted by
millionaire media celebrities like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity? The opposite illusion is also there among those who proclaim the Tea Party to be nothing more than an "astroturf" phenomenon.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 11
Jan 2, 2012
On Social Security:
FreedomWorks focus: reduce government & privatize Soc. Sec.
Just a day after the Santelli rant, the national advocacy organization FreedomWorks dispatched staffers and posted website tips on organizing and locating Tea Party rallies. Soon the organization's President Matt Kibbe and its Chairman Dick Armey teamed
up to write a book they dubbed a "manifesto" for the Tea Party movement. Clearly FreedomWorks was delighted when Tea Party protests started, and did all they could to help conservatives connect with them. But FreedomWorks was hardly some brand-new
insurgent entity. Indeed, the group had been promoting the "Tea Party" idea for years.The DC-headquartered organization by the name FreedomWorks commenced in 2004 as a professionally staffed advocacy organization devoted to training citizens and
politicians at both the state and national levels on behalf of an agenda that includes reducing taxes and removing regulations on business, privatizing Social Security and reducing social-welfare programs, and furthering tort reform and school vouchers.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p.104
Jan 2, 2012
Page last updated: Feb 21, 2019