After the Tea Party comes the Coffee Party

Following the growing influence of the Tea Party on the political debate in the U.S. a new movement, the Coffee Party, has emerged, with the aim of giving "voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government".

Founded in recent weeks by Maryland filmmaker Annabel Park the Coffee Party was, says Politico, the result of Ms Park's frustration at what she believes is "news coverage that made it seem like the Tea Party was representative of America". And on Saturday nearly 400 coffee shops around the U.S. are set to play host to meetings of those who have already joined or may be thinking of joining the fledgling movement. CBS News reports that the meetings being held today are intended to discuss the issues that matter most to those involved in the Coffee Party, following which the national organizers will look at what solutions they can propose for the issues considered most pressing. A second Coffee Day has already been planned for March 27. Described by Prison Planet as the "Deluded Obama Coffee Party" that is attempting to "drown out Americans demanding the government adhere to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights" - it is stated too that Annabel Park produced promotional videos for the Barack Obama Presidential campaign - the new movement explains itself in the following terms on its website:

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 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.

Coffee Party USA is made up of people acting independently of political parties, of corporations, and of political lobbying networks.

In the coming months and years, we hope to transform our disappointment in our current political system into a force that will return our nation to a course of popular governance, of the People by the People for the People.

No lobbyists here. No pundits. And no hyper-partisan strategists calling the shots in this movement.

We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions

The mission statement concludes by saying:

We want a society in which democracy is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens participate out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to contribute to society. The Coffee Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift — Democracy — and we must use it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation

With regard to the stated aims of the Coffee Party William A. Jacobson says on the Legal Insurrection blogspot that in his opinion the movement is "a political parasite which presents itself as something it is not". That theme is very much taken up by Prison Planet, which dismisses the Coffee Party as essentially representatives of "bankers and one-world globalists who dominate the Obama administration". However the claim is also made that "Glenn Beck and the neocon Republicans" have now "hijacked" the Tea Party movement. According to Politico the Democratic National Convention (DNC) is making no effort to associate itself with the Coffee Party and it indicates that a consultant for the Democrats, Michael Slaby, has expressed doubts regarding what the new movement, organized through the Internet, can achieve. He said:

It's a myth that you can have a well-organizing political entity and just be an online thing. At some point, you need to be able to translate your online organization to offline results

That observation is seemingly answered in part by a Coffee Party activist, business consultant Chris Rigopulos from Boston, who explained:

The movement will migrate from a pure online endeavor to in-person meet-ups all over the country. These are not designed to be mass demonstrations of any kind. They are designed to begin the process of discussing critical issues.

People did not sign onto the Coffee Party as a referendum on healthcare reform.

It’s not agenda driven. It’s about frustration at the political culture. And the fact that the politicians that we observe seem to be really ineffective at getting anything done

Perhaps in an effort to emphasize its independence from any one party and to answer accusations that it is an Astroturfing movement the Coffee Party said in a "Message to Congress" posted on Facebook:

You work for us, not for corporations. We hired you and we get to fire you. We pay you and give you great health insurance. Now get to work serving the interests of the American people, or get out.

Let's discard the labels that obfuscate reality like Democrat, Republican, conservative and liberal. Those words just create and perpetuate the illusion that politics is like a football game. One team wins, the other loses. That's not accurate and it is a distraction, like shadow puppets on a wall

Another of the Coffee Party's national leaders/organizers, Eric Byler - a filmmaker also involved in producing a video for the 2008 Obama campaign - told CBS News:

We just wanted to find a way to make it fun and bring back that feeling of civic pride that pretty much all Americans had in 2008. What I saw was people who were really, really proud to get a chance to vote for John McCain -- after eight years, to vote for a war hero -- and people proud to vote for the first 21st-century, multi-ethnic, citizen of the world candidate. I felt so good about our democracy in 2008... we're just trying to bring people back in