Email from Libertarian Party of Illinolis chair Dave Brady:
Let me share with you quite a story.
In December of 2008 the LP Illinois formulated the Boston Tea Party Chicago concept and advertised it through the LPI yahoo and meetup groups, Ron Paul Meetup groups, Campaign for Liberty groups, national tax groups and well as other various peace groups and local / national new sources.
January 09 we organized 100 people and created a meetup group and facebook group. Myself (LPI & LP McHenry), Mike Folgelsanger (LP DeKalb), Chris Jenner (LP McHenry), Josh Hanson (LP DuPage) and John Kramer (Fox Valley LP) are the original organizers.
Santelli got wind of this and went public on the floor of Chicago stock exchange.
This all is kind of frustrating because LP Illinois gets no credit for this project. Eric Odom, a member of LP Illinois, and our original group, created his own website and facebook group and aligned directly with Santelli. We have kept our facebook page active to reflect the initial start date of this whole movement weeks before Santelli.
After much negotiation back and forth our original group has joined Eric’s group since they seemed to have been better at publicity because of his association with some national freedom organizations.
Welcome to politics 101. Santelli, like Ron Paul, allowed ego and self to take first place in the libertarian movement. Eric “Mancow” Muller has received three invites from us via certified mail and has never replied back to any but there he is on the radio yesterday claiming all this involvement. Rick Sanetlli is still missing in action and has not RSVP’s yes to LP Illinois invite or Eric Odom’s invite.
The only thing I find humorous about this whole thing is with the rise of Campaign for Liberty and their annoying approach of joining Libertarian Committees all over the county then once getting voting rights vote to disband the LP group and form them into a C4L groups, the Chicago Tea Party movement is now trying to take over the C4L groups by the same means.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=50086393596
Formed February 10th, 2009 (9 days before Santelli and 18 day before Eric Odom). Even Julie Johnson the “national coordinator”, knowing all the facts refused to give anyone else but themselves in her national press interviews and credit.
Regards,
Dave Brady
Chair, LP Illinois
800-735-1776
Posted to IPR by Paulie
The below newspaper article is from 2002. Do I get credit for starting the Tea Party? I don’t deserve it. Many Libertarians before me did the same thing. Robin Miller and Matt Beauchamp are among those who inspired me. I’ve got more and earlier proof than Dave Brady did when releasing this, however.
Protester: Americans are ‘overtaxed’
April 16, 2002
JENNIFER DAVIS
Peoria Journal Star
It didn’t rise to the level of the Boston Tea Party as far as taxpayer revolts go, but Monday’s “Tax Day” protest had its own simple charm.
Armed with red, white and blue signs with messages such as “Taxes Suck,” local Libertarians marked the “infamous day every year when state and federal income taxes are due.”
“We are overtaxed. The government is spending too much. I could go on and on,” said Jeffrey Trigg, secretary of the Libertarian Party of Illinois, who helped organize the group of protesters at Peoria post offices and, briefly, at University Street and War Memorial Drive.
…
“Taxes have gotten too high, and in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party, we want to let people know that there are people fighting to get their money back to them,” said Jeffrey Trigg of the Libertarian Party.
In my county we’ve had tons of interaction with the local C4L group and they offer to unofficially volunteer for us. In fact, none of them have even joined our group. Instead, they offer to help.
Not to mention the fact that NO LIBERTARIAN has the ability to spread the word about tea parties more than Santelli would…i would shut up and take the free publicity.
Another group who referenced the Tea Party concept was the “Black Tea” anarchist group that protested the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
For anyone interested in pursuing that question:
Dave Brady
Chair, LP Illinois
800-735-1776
chair@lpillinois.org
All of this is publicly listed elsewhere, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me posting it here.
I’d like to see some corroboration of that “Campaign for Liberty people taking over/disbanding LP groups” thing, too.
My experience has been exactly the opposite in St. Louis County, Missouri. Last summer we did some lit-dropping for the LP with help from a local CFL activist. A couple of weeks ago, we ran an LP table at a CFL event and they seemed happy to have us.
I was somewhat apprehensive about CFL at first, but so far I’ve seen nothing that looks like that quote.
Kermit the Newt, not Kermit the Douche! 😀
Now that they have the turd sandwich, where’s the giant douche? 🙂
Steve Gordon has this one over at The Liberty Papers….
Accompanying article
http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/14/funniest-tea-party-poster-ive-seen-so-far/
Dave Brady is confused: “…Campaign for Liberty and their annoying approach of joining Libertarian Committees all over the county then once getting voting rights vote to disband the LP group and form them into a C4L groups…”
That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
The idea of “tea parties” is hundreds of years old, obviously. Someone remarking about throwing a tea party is hardly an original idea. I’ve known people to say it casually my whole life.
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/the-antelope-valley-tea-party/
We’re all rowing the boats in the same direction…
Depends on who “we” are.
See
http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/01/on-tea-parties-and-republican-hypocrisy/
(See URL for hyperlinked version).
FYI… there have been many “Tea Party” protests type events since 2007. Do you want to take credit for those as well?
We need to knock it off with the “who gets credit” nonsense and go take our Government back.
We’re all rowing the boats in the same direction…
Does anybody have any corroborating information regarding this statement:
“The only thing I find humorous about this whole thing is with the rise of Campaign for Liberty and their annoying approach of joining Libertarian Committees all over the county then once getting voting rights vote to disband the LP group and form them into a C4L groups …”
http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/09/telling-tea-party-truth/