I did not know much about the Tea Party before reading Zernike and several other sources. My goal before reading these articles was to simply define what the Tea Party actually is and what they stand for. From the Zernike article I concluded that the Tea Party is made up of mostly conservatives who are unhappy and angry with the government in addition to other things. Zernike says, “And this distrust wasn’t just about the government. It extended to banks, corporations, the news media, labor unions, the medical establishment” (10).
My next question for Zernike was what does the Tea Party stand for? Brendan Steinhauser was mentioned in the article as being one talking about what it means to be a Tea Party member. There were two books that were mentioned in the article as the most important books to read to become a “true community advisor.” Steinhauser said, “True community organizers are what this movement is all made of” (3). The two books are Dedication and Leadership by Douglas Hyde and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. The first book talked about how the Communist Party recruited in Great Britain, and the second book was about the marketing of social phenomena. People are supposed to read these two books and apply those tactics and use them in the Tea Party.
After reading Zernike I still wanted to know more about what the Tea Party stands for. The New York Times/CBS New Poll of Tea Party Supporters filled in a couple more gaps. The Tea Party movement focuses a lot on the economy and how Obama is handling it. One poll asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling the economy?” (200). Ninety-one percent of Tea Party supporters said they disapproved and only six percent approved.
For my two outside sources I went in search for more answers answering the what do they stand for question. I found an article from USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2010-07-01-tea-party_N.htm) explaining more about the Tea Party. Terry Rushing was surveyed about the Tea Party and said, “They just support everything I’m looking for – lower taxes, less government.” I gathered from my second source (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002487-503544.html) that Tea Party members are upset about how many taxes they are going to be paying this year. Of course, these are only some of the issues that the Tea Party focuses on.
The Zernike article mentioned Glen Beck saying, “the Tea Party had been fertilized by well-connected Washington groups” (4). I also thought of Glen Beck in the Adorno article when he was talking about the “emotional release” device. We saw Beck using this device in the video in class with him crying. So putting this all together Beck could be using Adorno’s device to the Tea Parties advantage.
Emily i too wrote about what you did. i didn't know much about the Tea Party. I undestood as much as you did. i found the same USA today article that you did and talked about the same quote you put up about what someone said about the Tea Party. Except, i took a different route in my blog, i was a little more straight forward with the approach i took. but overall i took the same information from the readings like you did. that the Tea party are just of bunch of grumpy old man, and some young man who think they are better than everyone else or like i said, they are just selfish.
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