Hijacking Libertarianism: The Tea Party Movement

After an outburst against President Obama's Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade by CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli, a number of protest movements were launched called "Tea Parties" in apparent reaction to this statement. The Tea Party Movement has only grown from there and is fast becoming a potent political force.

A recent poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal found the tea party movement has an approval rating of 41% with Democrats having 35% and Republicans 28%. Such a high approval rating has led to speculation that the tea party movement could coalesce into a formal political party. There is a dispute over whether the movement will take over the Republican Party or form its own force, with many influential members pushing the former option.

One notable development is the number of political action committees being formed in connection to the tea party movement to help finance favored candidates. Much like the MoveOn.org group formed years ago to organized activists for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party the Tea Party Movement serves the potential to perform a similar important role for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. However, this return to the Contract with America type of Republican politics seems less motivated by a desire for real change and more a desire for greater political power.

Despite attempts to dismiss the idea, considerable evidence exists indicating the tea parties are establishment efforts to mobilize the masses in support of favored policies rather than a grassroots uprising. Notable was that very soon after Rick Santelli's call for a "Chicago Tea Party" protesting Obama's policies a site was launched to prepare for "tea party" protests throughout the country. This site, called chicagoteaparty.com had in fact been purchased in August the previous year by a major Republican talk radio host in Chicago. The radio host, Milt Rosenberg, was also responsible for pushing the connection between William Ayers and Barack Obama during the election. Another major player was Eric Odom who is tied into the "drill, drill, drill" campaign in 2008. He is also connected to the Sam Adams Alliance which, through looking at its board of directors, leads to the group behind this major front, Koch Industries, one of the largest private enterprises in the United States.

The Koch family, principally David and Charles the sons of Fred Koch pictured to the right, are essentially the George Soros of establishment conservatives. Among the groups the Koch family funds most notable with regards to the Tea Party Movement are FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. Both groups have been essential to the organization of tea party protests across the country and were involved in other notable staged "grassroots" events in history.

Their professed belief in liberty and freedom or their claimed libertarianism are challenged after reviewing the politicians and policies they support. FreedomWorks strongly supports NAFTA and other free trade agreements which lead to the creation of supranational authorities accountable only to the bureaucracy. Indeed, the very means by which they push policy belies their distrust of freedom. Unlike libertarians in the Ron Paul Movement the organizers of the tea party protests espouse neoliberalism in conflict with traditional libertarian values, indeed members of the Koch-funded CATO Institute have criticized Ron Paul. Not only favoring the formation of supranational entities like NAFTA the forces behind the tea party protests support the currency manipulation of monetarism implemented by central banks like the Federal Reserve, which is itself owned and run by the large corporate banks under the auspices of an independent government agency.

By creating its own "libertarian" revolt the powers that be are able to manage and limit anti-establishment libertarianism by providing an alternative approved by them. The tea party astroturfing, in comparison to the real grassroots mobilization in support of Ron Paul and other candidates in the same vein, is able to rally the support of enough powerful interests to easily position them for influence in government. Most telling of the true libertarian nature of the tea party protests is the lack of any foreign policy position. The foreign policy views of tea party regulars like Michelle Bachman and Newt Gingrich clearly illustrate the lack of a libertarian foreign policy.

The drug policy of the movement also goes unsaid, because many of the same figures so ardently backing it also vigorously support the War on Drugs. Mandatory rehab is their most radical, and bipartisan, suggestion for ending the War on Drugs with full legalization seen as an extreme. Yet such a system would only amount to a difference in style rather than substance.


Just as groups like MoveOn.org serve to suppress the most radical of left-wing ideologies the tea party movement is being molded into a group that will keep the most traditional libertarians at bay. By cloaking establishment values under the ideal of liberty a vehicle to seize libertarianism and mold public perception of the ideology towards a form favored by the elite has been created. Much like the claims by Obama of implementing change the tea parties represent no new direction but a rephrasing of old talking points by the establishment.