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Coffee Party Founder Calls for Friendlier Process

Annabel Park down on Tea Party approach

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 15, 2010 11:45 AM CDT
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(Newser) – At first glance, the Coffee Party might seem like just a reaction against the Tea Party movement, and it did start that way. Founder Annabel Park recalls ranting against the "disproportionately effective " effort, saying, “We should just start our own party, call it the Coffee Party or the Smoothie Party—anything but Tea.” But her party has moved beyond that, she tells FiveThirtyEight.com: It's now about fostering a cooperative, responsive government.

“I think the Tea Party people in a way are responding to the same frustration,” she says, “which is dysfunction in our government.” The difference is that they seem to see the government as evil, while the Coffee Party sees it as “the only apparatus we have for collective decision-making.” Ultimately, the Coffee Party wants to reform the system, ending “this paradigm of politics as a football game." Says Park: "That’s not a democracy.”

This screenshot shows the banner from the Coffee Party's website, coffeepartyusa.com.
This screenshot shows the banner from the Coffee Party's website, coffeepartyusa.com.
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A Virginia TV report on a local coffee party gathering.   (WCAV - Charlottesville, VA)

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I personally think that he may be a good driver and I see him trying, but the fact is we are asking him to drive a broken car.
- Annabel Park, on Barack Obama

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 30 comments
thezenhaitian
Mar 16, 2010 2:29 AM CDT
Looks like the coffee party has caught up and passed the Tea Party, if you're going by the number of fans each has on Facebook... given that the tea bag crowd have been in operation for months and the coffee crowd is barely a couple of weeks old.
http://www.teapartypatriots.or.../ -- 112,615112,614 Fans
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/ -- 164,368164,367 Fans
BackAgain
Mar 15, 2010 8:22 PM CDT
” The difference is that they seem to see the government as evil, while the Coffee Party sees it as “the only apparatus we have for collective decision-making.” And that sums it up. She sounds just like a Borg.
Stopthpresses2
Mar 15, 2010 6:49 PM CDT
This is a beautiful story because it shows the “Coughing and gagging party” and mainstream media for what they really are, two phonies. Originally the media supposedly didn’t know who the Tea Party was and refused to cover them. Then when they realized the movement was too big to ignore, out came the negative stories. But, low and behold when a liberal group comes out and copies the “Tea Party” they get media coverage and positive stories. What a joke they both are. Speaking of jokes and the media, the media bias was so obvious I heard this joke being told at my kid’s grammar School.
Knock, knock
.
Who’s there?
.
The Tea Party
.
The Tea Party who?
.
Hey, when did you join the mainstream media?

 
political activism • interview • Tea Party • Coffee Party • Annabel Park

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