Does anyone have any experience/tips for...

"infiltrating" a Tea Party function? I'm not talking about an outdoor rally; I'm talking about a series of speakers w/workshops held in a convention center.

My friend and I are not planning on disrupting it; just observing and possibly reporting on what we find. Is it as simple as just paying the admission price? Once I register, would they be able to find out my party registration and figure out I am a Dem and eject me? Any tips on blending in vis a vis dress, etc? I know it will be hard to suppress chuckling/showing disgust and we will, of course, bite our tongues.

Any and all tips/advice are very much appreciated.

Sit in the back and if anyone asks you are exploring your political options

If you could get around that, you could just order a couple of appropriate T-shirts on the web and go.

keep saying they are.

teeth and get a can of Skoal, a gun would also help

So wrong and yet so funny!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I'd say it's still a free country, so surely a political meeting is open to all. It's better for the sake of encouraging free thinking to assume that the factions in this country aren't closed clubs.

And then if/when you do get in, I'd go with an open mind, try to listen to what their agenda is, and listen to what informs it. Is there a feeling of isolation? Of anger and disconnect? Of holier than thou self-righteousness? Whatever the cause, there's pain and fear at the heart of the tea party, and trying to address the root causes of that anger, pain and fear is our best bet for changing it.

We're not going to get to a better tomorrow if we just try to steam roll over the issues tea party people feel are their's. We need to listen to them and try to understand.

How we get them to listen to the voices of pain and frustration on the side of the dispossessed and disenfranchised minorities is another challenge, but that won't come without first trying to connect.

So best wishes, I hope you get in and can learn and share what you've learned. Don't forget, skoal can or not, they're human too!

At least in the beginning, they marketed their 'movement' as being neither Democratic nor Republican. Everyone knows that's a fucking lie, but it wouldn't hurt to throw their hypocrisy back in their faces if anyone gives you shit over your party affiliation.

No one is going to google your name. These events are desperate for attendees to appear relevant; as long as you don't disrupt them no one will question you. As for dress, it doesn't matter really. Leave your Che t-shirt at home obviously. Maybe go for conservative blue-collar, if you can.

I wouldn't worry about it. If you stay in stealth mode they will just be glad you showed up.

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send the money for their workshops, and just go.

You will have to toe their line, or they'll probably devour you on-site.:)

No admission charge. They were holding a get-together at a hotel ballroom, open admission. It was mostly just a "mixer," but they had a couple of people speaking. Frankly, I didn't know who they were nor did I really care, as they didn't particularly impress me.

I sincerely doubt anyone is going to bother spending the time to hunt down your voter registration. If you generally keep your mouth shut, don't act like a jackass, and don't wear something stupid to give you away, then you should be able to attend just fine. Dress normally in non-descript clothing (no slogans on shirts, etc.), and if you don't have your hair punked and/or you don't have a bunch of piercings/tats, then you can blend in easily and no one will be the wiser.


The biggest problem I had with the one I went to was that it was boring as hell, so I wandered off to find something more interesting to do. There was some wet paint nearby that I went to watch dry for a while.

...this was back in November or December, some time before Obama made that "deal."


Others who were just "mixing" ran the gambit: "Obamacare," taxes, spending, and generally some variance of these. Mostly it revolved around spending in one form or another, e.g. stimulus or bank bail-outs (somewhat surprisingly, they are REALLY mad about the bail-outs), unemployment compensation, etc.

Damn, registration for this event is $125. I'd rather not support them financially in any way, shape or form, but my friend (from Drinking Liberally) has already signed up and we're looking into possibly "sharing" the registration (spelling each other). In any event, my friend intends to get video. I'll link you guys to it.

My DL friend is now inside the Tea Party Summit and reports there are about 10000 "really crazy" people attending. He's definitely taking video and I will link you to it.

We're still exploring how we can both get in using only one set of credentials.

Edited to correct number to 1000, not 10000.

Talk about how Scott Walker is the second coming. (Hell, just spell it cumming. The crowd won't notice)

Fucking unbelievable!

These guys are co-opting Jefferson, Truman, FDR, MLK and Gandhi.

Fucking unbelievable!

Very polished speaker. Just called for overthrow of government. Audience is eating it up.

Of course, Ralph Reed is a total idiot.

Although there are a fair number of women here, by far, the attendees are older, white males. I haven't seen any blacks or Hispanics at all.

No surprise there.

Curious to see if he will mention Shawna Forde.

everyday work clothes, with used work boots on your feet. Observe and keep your mouth shut. If asked a question, just say you agree with what the last nutcase to speak said. Take a good, hidden recorder so that you can break down what was said after and report any shit to the FBI and/or Secret Service.

calling for impeachment of President Obama.

It's extremely hard to have to keep biting my tongue.

raising the debt ceiling.

It's clear that no one around me has the slightest idea what they are talking about.

Federal Reserve.

Predictably, the crowd is going wild.

"restoring the Constitution".

Boring speaker who knows nothing about the Constitution

Too funny.

A few heads should explode.

Well, I understand how you got in, that wouldn't be hard. But how to tolerate it!?! And keep your mouth shut?!? I think it is a good idea to see what they are up to, but...don't think I could do it.

although I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the Tea Party, I now sense they are nowhere as formidable as I believed them to be and I predict their influence will wane after the next election, as do most reactionary movements.

I did almost lose my cool and blow my cover at the end of the "restoring the Constitution" session. The presenter, Charles Kraut, really does not understand what he is talking about. He gratuitously referred to "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" repeatedly, cited "thousands of unconstitutional laws and executive orders" and falsely quoted Obama as having said, "I will impose shock and awe on the American people" in 2008, even as he comically admitted to the audience that he could not locate the clip of Obama saying it, asking the audience to help him "find it".

As I departed, an elderly woman seated in my vicinity, oblivious to my tortured body language, looked at me and said, "scary stuff". I replied, "Well, it would be if it was true. It isn't.".

I could hear the audible gasps from her and those around her as I beat a rather hasty retreat, lest I let them or Kraut have it. It was all I could do not to.

Most of that was very typical teabagger talk---Barack HUSSEIN Obama---with great emphasis on the Hussein. I would have expected that. And lies and half truths are typical as well. You done good. You got out of there without having the old farts beat you with their canes.