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The Texas Tea Party will not be silent.

But in a letter made available to Conservative Review, Lone Star state Tea Party organizations make clear that the Republican Party base in the highly consequential state of Texas stands with the Freedom Caucus in opposition to RINOcare. The letter was signed by over 90 conservative grassroots leaders and state GOP officials, and will be sent to President Trump Monday.

To our dismay, the repeal and replace plan put forward by U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) did nothing to address the core regulatory infrastructure of Obamacare, which means that American families would still see health care costs continue to rise until at least 2026, the letter reads. This is unacceptable.

Public support for the American Health Care Act placed around 17 percent, per Quinnipiac polls. The Freedom Caucus membersarguetheir push for more conservative amendments saved the Republican Party from political disaster. According to the leader of the organization that put the letter together, those members are exactly right.

The Freedom Caucus is doing exactly what their supporters and their constituents sent them to Washington to do, JoAnn Fleming told Conservative Review. The Ryancare bill did not do what the Republicans promised they would do.

Fleming is the Executive Director ofGrassroots America We the People, a political action committee that is the largest constitutional conservative citizen organization in East Texas and one of the largest in Texas. A volunteer conservative activist in Texas for over 25 years, Fleming also serves as the three-term chairman of the Texas Legislatures TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee, Chairman of Lt. Governor Dan Patricks Grassroots Advisory Board, and an adviser to the newly formed Freedom Caucus of the Texas state legislature.

Frankly, the people that I work with in Texas, all these grassroots leaders on this letter they worked their tails off to send Republicans to Washington and to offices at every level of government to stand strong behind conservative, limited government, constitutional conservative principles, Fleming said.

In the eyes of these activists, Fleming explained, the GOP plan was a betrayal.

If you go back and look at the 60 times there was a bill that fully repealed Obamacare, why now is that not the right kind of bill? What this does is it just peels back the faade. What this says to grassroots conservatives in Texas is, You really didnt mean it to begin with. You knew President Obama would veto any repeal that you sent to him, and so it was all political theater.

Opposition to RINOcare wasexactly what voters wantedfrom their elected representatives. The letter takes pains to drive that point home to the president.

With a bad take it or leave it bill on the table, the Freedom Caucus rightly believed they had a responsibility to protect both the GOP and the Trump Administration from the political fallout that would surely come in 2018 and 2020 when angry voters realized their healthcare costs did not go down and health care access did not improve. The Freedom Caucus had the promises they made back home and the long-term good of the American people on their minds and in their hearts when they opposed the AHCA.

President Trumps pledge to fight the Freedom Caucus is baffling for these Tea Party activists.

Trump had longpositioned himselfas an ally of the Tea Party. And so, according to JoAnn Fleming, this letter intends to make clear exactly where one of the Republican Partys most organized and enthusiastic voter base stands.

The point of this is were trying to say, We dont agree with you, Mr. President, on the approach youre taking toward the Freedom Caucus and toward the promises we intend to hold the GOP to. They made a promise that they were going to repeal Obamacare, and that means take out all of the big government structure that was there, the mandates, and to get us back to a patient-centered, free-market based approach to health care. This bill did not do any of that and what we believe is that it would have driven up costs, premiums.

The Tea Party groups of Texas urge Trump to work with the HFC toactuallydrain the swamp.

We believe that hes not going to be able to drain any Washington, D.C., swamp without the support and help of conservatives, Fleming told CR. Thats just a given.

All signs point toward another attempt at Obamacare repealhappening soonerrather than later. Over the weekend, President Trump tweeted an attack on the Fake News media for suggesting that attempts at repeal were dead.

Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017

Some liberal Republicans have signaled theyd rather work with Democrats than join with the Freedom Caucus to come up with a conservative plan. The Texan Tea Party is not willing to follow President Trump down that path.

Unfortunately, the president will be on the opposite side of many conservative grassroots leaders on the ground, in the trenches every single day, should he continue to oppose the Freedom Caucus, Fleming said.

This is what we do. We try to advance liberty through conservative principles. Its not about the person. Its not about a political icon. It is about principle for us.

The dedicated hard work of the Tea Party base here in Texas, as well as all across the nation, has bestowed Republicans with historic majorities in Congress and placed the presidency in their hands. If the GOP believes Tea Party activists will go away or blindly trust the Republicans in control, they are mistaken.

I have given up the best part of my life to do this, and Im not about to change. I dont do this because I dont have anything else that I could do. I gave up a career in business to do this, and I do it because its the right thing to do, said Fleming.

Anything that makes it harder for my grassroots colleagues to do what they do in their own communities just kind of sets my teeth on edge, Fleming said. Thats where this letter came from.

Is Paul Ryan seriously blaming CONSERVATIVES for his health care bill getting axed? Likely story.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Tea Party leaders and Texas GOP party officials have signed onto the letter.

Read the rest here:
Texas Tea Party groups send a clear message to President Trump: 'the Freedom Caucus is not the problem' - Conservative Review

MINOT, N.D. (KFYR) -- A group of students at Our Redeemer's in Minot, North Dakota took a break from reading, writing and arithmetic for a tea party! They had an expert from 'across the pond' teaching them how to have their tea in class.

England native Silvia Rau knows a thing or two about tea party etiquette and shared some lessons with the youngsters.

A group of students donned in fancy colorful hats gathered for a sip of tea and a snack, in the British tradition.

Rau, who moved to the U.S. in the 90s, taught them how to properly sip their drink and to take food one item at a time.

"It's not like a buffet where you pile it all on because that's the idea of a small tea plate," said Rau.

Rau also debunked some myths about the tea party.

"We actually are not supposed to point up. We're not actually supposed to sip tea with our pinkie. It's kind of a joke," said Tavia Carlson, a 4th grader.

"If I had to pick, the sandwiches. They were really good," said Tavia, when asked about her favorite part of the party

Rau also showed the importance of manners.

"I said, 'When you come in for tea, it's a very relaxed, but nice meal.' And I said, 'We have our best manners when we have tea,' and they've done that. 'Please and thank you.' I've heard it all the time," said Rau.

Bringing a taste of British culture to the Northern Plains of North America.

Originally posted here:
Fancy that! Students learn tea party etiquette - Kolo - KOLO

April 3, 2017 10:55 PM

FILE PHOTO (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) Get ready to fall down the rabbit hole theres a party coming to town and its inspiredbyAlice in Wonderland.

Drink Philly is hosting the Mad Hatter Whiskey Tea Party on April 21, from7:00 p.m. 10 p.m.

The 21 plus event will be heldat the historic Stotesbury Mansion in Rittenhouse. Attendeeswill be able to try one-of-a-kind cocktails and participate in anAlice in Wonderland-inspired costume contest.

Throughout the night, guests will also be able to explore a part of Philadelphias history by wandering through Stotesbury Mansion, which is outfitted with amazing details like a vintage elevator and a billiards room.

Tickets to the event are $50 per person and include all drinks.

You can buy tickets to the event, here.

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Alice In Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party Coming To Philly - CBS Philly

The Art of the Deal didn't work.

The Trump White House tried simply commanding the intransigent conservatives on healthcare. The conservatives didn't follow orders. Trump tried heckling the resisters on Twitter, but that just alienated them. Trump repeatedly, though indirectly, threatened to work against the re-election of no votes. This hardened opposition. And in the end, as White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said on Sunday, Trump just expected "loyalty" from these members of Congress, a baffling idea.

House Speaker Paul Ryan may have been even clumsier in his attempts to build a majority in the House. He crafted the bill behind closed doors with nearly no consultation. He told the rank-and-file there would be no negotiation, calling it a "binary choice" between voting for his bill or keeping Obamacare. Both Ryan and Trump tried the "take-it-or-leave-it" tactic, claiming they would simply walk away from reform if their bill didn't pass.

None of this worked. Nobody should have thought it would work, because Republican leaders haven't figured out any way to run Congress, not since the Bush years.

"Since I became speaker," Ryan said Tuesday, "I have talked about the need to go from being an opposition party to being a proposition party and a governing party. It may take a little bit more time, but we are certainly listening and we're going to get there." It will take both time and innovation on the part of leadership.

Some Establishment Republicans say the entire problem is unprecedented stubbornness from the likes of the House Freedom Caucus. That's a partial explanation that misses the root causes.

Here's the basic problem:

Republican leaders haven't figured out how to lead in the Tea Party era. The two most relevant changes since the Bush era are: (1) The social media-driven decentralization of information and money and (2) the death of earmarks.

Earmarks were the easiest way for leaders to win votes and influence conservatives. If a member is undecided on a bill, just promise him $11 million for a new athletic center in his district, and bam, he's on board.

Also from the Washington Examiner

"We had a great day with the president," Paul said. "We talked about a little bit of healthcare."

04/02/17 5:29 PM

But after the Tea Party, conservatives fought to end the practice of earmarks, which had proven itself to be fertile for corruption. Indeed, the Jack Abramoff scandal and the Duke Cunningham scandal were both made possible by earmarks.

So after the 2010 elections, the Republican House and Senate caucuses passed party rules banning earmarks. That coincided with the dawn of the Tea Party era, when many Republicans had beaten establishment-backed Republicans in primaries before winning the general election. Suddenly, controlling a majority became much harder.

That's the lesser of the handicaps John Boehner, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell have experienced. The worse problem is that they lost their monopolies on the dissemination of information and fundraising.

Consider the question of whether the American Health Care Act counted as "repealing Obamacare." Ryan stated that with the bill, Republicans were "Keeping Our Promise to Repeal ObamaCare." Donald Trump spoke the same way. Ryan, being the speaker, had the megaphones of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Fox News, and CNN to declare that his bill was an Obamacare repeal. Once upon a time, that would have been enough to establish his bill as a repeal of Obamacare. Any member who had campaigned on repealing Obamacare would have felt overwhelming pressure to vote for the bill.

But party leadership can no longer control the message. Through Twitter, Facebook and conservative media came the argument that AHCA wasn't really a repeal of Obamacare because it didn't repeal Obamacare. It left in place the most substantial and costly regulations of that 2010 law. Meanwhile, conservative groups like Heritage Action and the Club for Growth were able to bombard the grassroots with emails and tweets opposing the law, and explaining that it didn't fully repeal Obamacare.

Also from the Washington Examiner

"It is ironic that all of the real evidence of real money and real influence-buying relates to Democrats."

04/02/17 5:24 PM

A bigger deal than the end of the information monopoly is the end of the money monopoly. It used to be that the only place for Republican members to get big injections of campaign cash was by hosting fundraisers with lobbyists their corporate clients who could cut $10,000 checks from a company's political action committee.

Lobbyists formed a symbiotic relationship with committee chairmen and party leaders. Rank-and-file members had to be in the good graces of their chairman or the Speaker and the majority leader if they wanted one of these fundraisers. You couldn't buck leadership without your cash drying up.

No more. Citizens United and Internet fundraising have decentralized campaign cash. If you piss off the party leadership, you can turn to a national network of grassroots ideological donors to fund your re-election. In this fight, it was crystal clear: While the Chamber of Commerce backed the AHCA, the billionaire Koch brothers and the Club for Growth opposed it.

The result: Any Republican who disliked the bill and feared losing the Chamber's fundraising support could simply turn elsewhere for financial support. The Koch network specifically promised to help anyone who voted "no."

Absent the fundraising monopoly, the information monopoly, and earmarks, it will take new methods to lead the GOP. Cajoling, trolling and declaring "take it or leave it," didn't work.

Maybe next time whether it's tax reform or Obamacare again Ryan and Trump will try different methods, such as deliberate, participatory consensus building. There's no guarantee that that would work, but it can't do any worse.

Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner's senior political columnist, can be contacted at tcarney@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.

See original here:
Republicans haven't learned how to govern in Tea Party era - Washington Examiner

In the last couple of months, a new political group has emerged in the Rochester area as part of a nationwide resistance movement.

Borrowing tactics once used by the Tea Party, Indivisible Rochester seeks to effect the same political earthquake as its conservative predecessor, but in a progressive direction.

Its handiwork can be seen locally in various ways: at town hall meetings where activists coordinate their questions in advance; on Facebook where daily action lists are posted to instruct activists which legislators and members of Congress to deluge with calls; in rallies held outside DFL lawmakers' Rochester offices at the Northgate Mall urging resistance to President Donald Trump's agenda and policies.

Many of these Indivisible Rochester activists describe themselves as casual or even indifferent observers of politics until the last several months. They indulged in the usual political rituals. They voted. They followed the news. But few imagined or saw themselves as activists until they were jolted out of their political passivity -- several said by the election of President Trump, whose policies and behavior they saw as an assault on their values.

At one Indivisible Rochester meeting, 80 percent of hands flew up when an Indivisible leader asked how many people had never been politically active before, one member said. There are more than 400 people listed on Indivisible Rochester Facebook.

They view the current moment as a historical turning point. They see the totality of Trump's and GOP lawmakers' agenda the Muslim travel ban, the crackdown on undocumented workers, the proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood, the cutting of Meals on Wheels and a health care proposal that would have led to millions losing their health insurance as a fundamental challenge to the way they see the country.

Laura Zumbrunnen, a Rochester entrepreneur who runs a biomedical startup company, said she was never an overtly political person until she joined Indivisible. Today, she attends forums and rushes to legislative hearings in St. Paul. She confesses to being scared at the prospect of being labeled an activist, "yet, I'm willing to do that," she said. Indivisible appealed to her because she saw it more as offering a plan of action than an ideological platform.

"For me, it was important that it wasn't an extreme group because I'm someone who hasn't been active, and I'm leery of that kind of thing," Zumbrunnen said. "The fact that this was so practical and not particularly ideological appealed to me a lot."

Agitated and fearful, uncertain what to do next, several said they gravitated to Indivisible because it offered a guide, a step-by-step manual crafted by former congressional staffers who had observed the Tea Party and distilled its lessons.

These staffers gleaned two strategic lessons from the the Tea Party's rise and success in thwarting former President Barack Obama's agenda. One was that small, locally based groups could be powerful agents for change.

And two, their efforts were almost entirely defensive. They avoided any attempts at policy development that might fracture their ranks. And instead they focused on resistance.

Practical knowledge, combined with Facebook's ability to connect, has allowed Indivisible to grow, as well as coordinate and mobilize.

That action plan is what drew people such as Suzanne Peterson, a Rochester attorney, to Indivisible.

"Some of us were itching to do something," Peterson said. "We didn't want to just post, not just Facebook and commiserate. We wanted to be active."

It's difficult to say how many Indivisible chapters there are, but Rochester activists believe they are part of a growing nationwide groundswell. They describe Indivisible as loosely organized, a work still in its infancy. Its lack of structure allows people to gravitate to the issues and concerns that interest them.

For some, the cause has become all-consuming.

"I gave up my life, really," said Deb Duffy-Smet, a Rochester mother and grandmother. "It's like a full-time job. The thing is for me: I have five kids spread across the U.S. I have four grandkids and growing. And I'm scared to death what kind of world that we're leaving for my children."

Indivisible members believe the group's efforts have begun to pay off. They cite the failure of House Republicans to pass legislation last week that would have repealed and replaced Obamacare as one sign of the movement's impact.

The conservative Freedom Caucus has been assigned much of the blame for torpedoing the bill, but moderate Republicans opposed the bill, too. And that moderate opposition, they argue, was stiffened and reinforced by Indivisible members and other activist groups, who flooded Washington switchboards.

At the state level, an Indivisible Rochester group has focused on tracking bills at the state Legislature. For most of these Indivisible members new to the legislative process, following the progress of a bill is like peering into tea leaves.

"I have to say: Anyone who wants to track these bills, they could not make it any more difficult," one Indivisible Rochester member said at a recent meeting.

Of particular concern to the group have been redistricting bills authored by GOP Rep. Sarah Anderson and Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer.

Indivisible members say the bills would lead to gerrymandered districts and an unfair playing field because they would disallow an independent commission or the state Supreme Court from drawing congressional and state legislative districts.

On Feb. 24, after a 24-hour Facebook notice went out, Indivisible activists and other opponents of the bill packed a hearing room in St. Paul to oppose the bills.

Recently, it was discovered that a Senate omnibus bill had been changed. It no longer containing language that confined redistricting to the state Legislature only.

"This is indeed a HUGE victory!" DFL Rep. Jennifer Schultz, of Duluth, wrote in an email. Shultz is authoring a bill that would delegate redistricting to a nonpartisan independent commission. "I think the activists did play a role, with so many testifiers, emails and phone calls."

But she noted the redistricting language still could be introduced in conference committee, "so we are a long way from over."

Asked if she was aware of Indivisible at the Legislature, Sen. Carla Nelson, a Rochester Republican, said she has held five town hall meetings since the legislative session started, all of them well-attended.

"As in the past, I receive a high volume of emails daily," she wrote in an email. "I read them all and try to respond to as many constituents as possible. While there have been more town halls than usual, the volume of email is usual hundreds per day."

Activists point out that Indivisible is not the only resistance movement in Southeast Minnesota. Other groups include Minnesota Southeast Progressives and Stand Up, Minnesota. Given the welter of such groups, concerns have been raised by some that the groups overlap to the point of redundancy. The groups have been talking among themselves about ways in which to better differentiate themselves.

Sarah Hocker, a member of Indivisible Rochester and chair of Rochester United Now, another grassroots group, sees value in the diversity of activist groups.

"I've heard that concern from a lot of different people. 'Why are there so many groups?" Hocker said. "I tend to strongly disagree. I think people need to work where they are and where they feel most comfortable. These different groups have formed for a reason, and it also makes it more grassroots."

See the rest here:
Local progressive group adopts Tea Party tactics - Post-Bulletin