David S. Meyer
I'm a professor of sociology and political science at the University of California, Irvine. I've been thinking, and writing about, protest politics for almost ever. This site offers comments on contemporary events, informed (I hope) by knowing something about history and about the academic study of social movements.
Tag Archives: FreedomWorks
The Tea Party versus the Republican Party (again)
The Republican Party in Congress is riven between legislators who want to represent their politics clearly and consistently and others who want to govern. We often score the first group as acolytes of the Tea Party, but it’s a little … Continue reading
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Tagged Dick Armey, FreedomWorks, Jim DeMint, John Boehner, Matt Kibbe, self-interest, sell out, tea party
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When anger isn’t enough
(A little long for the blog, this is cross-posted from the Washington Post.) There’s something exciting, sometimes terrifying, about people taking to the streets to get what they want. In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, they gathered to demand the ouster of … Continue reading
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Tagged Americans for Prosperity, debt, elections, FreedomWorks, Madison, protest, unemployment, unions, Washington post
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The debt debate: Can the Republican Party sell out the Tea Party?
Political parties have to sell out the movements that support them. First, they exploit the energy, incorporate new activists and ideas, and then find some watered down way to soften the rough edges. Parties that can’t tame the movements that … Continue reading
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Tagged debt, FreedomWorks, michele bachmann, parties, tea party, Tea Party Patriots
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Breaking up the Tea Party: Raising the debt ceiling.
The unfolding debt ceiling standoff is exacerbating divisions within the Tea Party movement that have been visible from the outset. (Confession: I started writing about this end of the Tea Party on election day, 2010.) The United States has to … Continue reading
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Tagged Americans for Prosperity, deficit, FreedomWorks, Tea Parrty Express, tea party, Tea Party Patriots
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The Tea Party’s electoral dilemma
Our Constitution presents a recurring dilemma for social movements: routine elections. Right after the Republicans won massive gains in the 2010 elections–and the Tea Party claimed a great deal of credit for those victories–conservative activists shifted their attention to the … Continue reading
Politics as product placement
We now learn, thanks to a great piece by Kenneth P. Vogel and Lucy McCalmont (Politico), that political groups are not only buying ads, but product placement as well–at least on the right end of the political spectrum. The largest … Continue reading
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Tagged advertising, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, Glenn Beck, Heritage Foundation, media, radio, Rush Limbaugh
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Professionalizing the Tea Party
Can you keep the grass(roots) growing when you take it inside? Judson Phillips, founder of the for-profit Tea Party Nation, has announced that he intends to take a salary out of the organization. Tea Party Nation has produced a couple … Continue reading
