Thursday, September 2, 2010

Meckler: Tea Party Is About People, Not Palin

By Lindsey Boerma  

Mark Meckler

Co-founder, Tea Party Patriots

Contrary to popular opinion, Sarah Palin is not the leader of the Tea Party movement, says Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. And, although his organization bills itself as the "official home" of the movement, Meckler is quick to point out that he is not the leader, either. While Palin and D.C.-based organizations like FreedomWorks soak up most of the publicity, Meckler says the Tea Party is a truly grassroots phenomenon led by its members.

Fresh off the Tea Party-centered activity in Washington last weekend, Meckler spoke with NationalJournal.com about what he sees as misconceptions surrounding the movement, its differences with the Republican Party, and why Nov. 2 could mark "the first shot in the second American Revolution."

NJ: Last weekend, Americans watched as Sarah Palin stood at the helm of yet another Tea Party event when she spoke at the "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington. Do you think people see her as a "face of the Tea Party," so to speak?

Meckler: Absolutely not within the Tea Party, no. I think she is [viewed that way] by many in the media simply because she has such a huge media presence. And I think in some instances she represents Tea Party values, and in some instances -- probably the majority -- she's choosing candidates that are largely supported by Tea Partiers. But I think she's also supported candidates that are not supported by local Tea Partiers, and she's frustrated them in some instances....

And I also think you need to look closely at who in the Tea Party she has aligned herself with. Because what you'll see is she's aligned herself with Tea Party Express, who is largely discredited through their association with a racist spokesperson and their long history as a GOP-supporting PAC. And really, if you look at the events she's appeared at and who she's closely associated herself with, it's primarily Tea Party Express. And I don't know if you're familiar with the history of the Tea Party Express, but it's dirty. And most of us in the Tea Party movement have disassociated from them.

NJ: So which candidates currently in the running would you classify as being on the true Tea Party ballot?

Meckler: Our organization doesn't endorse candidates or get directly involved in elections, so I think you'd have to look at the local groups, at the local elections, to do that. To give you an example of someone who really, generally speaking, is not supported by the Tea Parties but was supported by Sarah Palin, is John McCain in Arizona. She really angered a lot of people locally and there in Arizona when she came out and supported John McCain. And it seemed like politics as usual, which a lot of people were frustrated about coming from Sarah Palin.

NJ: What do you think is the biggest misconception about the Tea Party?

Meckler: I'm not the leader of the Tea Party, and there is not one. There are people who are trying to pretend that they are, in my opinion -- some of them in D.C. heading up big organizations, some organizations trying to exert their input on the movement. The genius of the movement, the power of the movement -- it comes from the fact that this is a movement of the people, that there are literally, in my opinion, millions of leaders of the Tea Party movement around the country. There are folks stepping up in every city, in every community, giving their time, their money, their passions; those are the leaders of the Tea Party movement. We don't tell our people what to do; we ask them what they think we should do. Others who try to speak for the movement or tell the movement what it should be doing -- frankly, they just don't understand the movement.

NJ: The primary concerns of the Tea Party movement have been touted pretty loudly -- limited government, free market and fiscal responsibility -- but the overarching message has focused on being anti-big spending. What specifically would Tea Party members like to see cut from the budget?

Meckler: Everything. There's absolutely nothing that is not on the table. I think that if you're a family and one of the members of your family loses a job and has to cut back, you don't say, "well, we're not going to cut back this, this, this and this; we're not even allowed to talk about those things." What you do is sit down around the table like rational adults and put every single expenditure on the table, and you look at them. And the very first thing that you look at is -- as a family or as a government -- waste and abuse. Am I wasting money somewhere? Is there some kind of abusive spending going on? You know if your family is completely broke and yet the husband and wife are going out every morning and spending 10 bucks at Starbucks, that's really abusive in a financially strapped situation. So we expect the government to look at the same thing in virtually every single government program.

NJ: Does that include the defense and military budget?

Meckler: Absolutely. And I know many in the media say it as a supposition that folks in the Tea Party will say you won't cut military spending. And I've never heard anybody in the Tea Party movement say that.

NJ: So what is the national security platform of the Tea Party, specifically with regard to the United States' involvement in Afghanistan?

Meckler: I think you would find, generally speaking, that folks are very strong on national defense and national security. They're very pro-military folks, they really support our military and they believe in a strong national defense. If you're asking a question about whether or not we should be in Afghanistan and if that's a war we should be fighting -- honestly, I don't think that the Tea Parties have a position on that in a general sense. We stick to our three core principles, which are fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market.

NJ: Do you see that as being a potential problem, since candidates who do align themselves with the Tea Party will, if elected, have to fess up to stances on social issues and national security?

Meckler: Every single day in Washington, D.C., judgments are made about what we should or should not spend money on. And frankly, that's the place for partisanship. That's where the parties probably have differences and should fight it out. Where the parties should not have differences are on general concepts of the Tea Party standpoint; for example, should we be fiscally responsible? Every economist will tell you this, every common-sense American will tell you: You can't indefinitely spend more money than you take in.

There should be no disagreement about this, and right now there's fundamental disagreement about that in Washington, D.C. So that's a place where the Tea Party would say, "That's absurd; we need to all agree on this." Now exactly where we make the cut is a matter for the parties to fight about in Washington, D.C. based on ideological lines.

NJ: But as a growing external force outside of the bipartisan structure, the Tea Party has morphed into somewhat of a party of its own.

Meckler: There's very little support in the Tea Party movement for the idea that we are somehow a third party; what we see ourselves as is as a watchdog of all government, from the local level to the federal level, and on all parties. We're just a bunch of ordinary citizens who are trying to return this country to its founding principles, and we want folks on both sides of the aisle, in every political party, to adhere to those principles.

I think there's a great example, and it's under-reported, in my opinion: One of the most important elections that has taken place in this primary season took place in West Virginia. A hard-line, left Democrat, Alan Mollohan -- he'd been in there for 14 terms -- he was defeated by Democrat Mike Oliverio, who went out and sought and received Tea Party support on the basis that he was going to run on fiscal responsibility and smaller government, less regulation, lower taxes. And this was a Democrat....

And that's what we're looking for. What I want is a choice. Add a little box between, at least, Democrats and Republicans.

NJ: Last week I spoke with Matt Kibbe, CEO of FreedomWorks, and he said that if you got top Republicans to speak candidly, they would say that they're scared of the support the Tea Party is drumming up. What do you think is the biggest line separating Republicans and Tea Partiers, given their shared conservative values?

Meckler: Absolutely [that's true]. I think the difference is that Tea Partiers are supporters of those values, and over the last decade or so, Republicans in Congress have been talkers of those values but not supporters of those values.

NJ: And do you expect that division to favor the Tea Party come November?

Meckler: Absolutely, I have no doubt. I expect to see the largest electoral blowout in the history of America, at least past the 20th century....

But frankly, it's not about elections; it's about holding people accountable. We consider Nov. 2 to be the first shot in the second American Revolution. This is where we're going into battle and we're going to show that these folks who believe in these values make a difference in America and they count in America, because they're the majority. But on Nov. 3, we begin holding the people who were elected accountable to live up to those values.