When did the teaparty become a subset of the Republicans?

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Rhythmdvl

(If you absolutely must whine about my taking it for granted that the teaparty was astroturfed into existence and that Fox News/talk radio is wholly distinct from real media/journalists then consider that a poison pill that’s irrelevant to the thread and take it to the Pit.)

The Tea Party was, in fact, astroturfed into existence. As I’ve pointed out on the board before:

@Me

The Tea Party formulation happened at least 6 months prior to Santelli’s (IMO scripted) rant. The whole “movement” was a well-financed and planned thing, not a grassroots movement as it’s backers would have the nation believe.

Zack Christenson, a producer of conservative Milt Rosenburg’s radio show, registered the domain ChicagoTeaParty.com in August 2008, for instance. As I asked in another thread: was he somehow psychic and just “knew” that a spontaneous grassroots movement with the same name (and that shared his own political goals and ideology) would appear soon afterward?

:dubious:

:rolleyes: