Tea Party Express
Posted by TPX Admin at 3:15 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
We're so proud of Lloyd Marcus & William Owens
From Fox News - "Black Conservatives Take Lead Role in Tea Party Movement"
Black Conservatives Take Lead Role in Tea Party Movement
By Judson Berger
- FOXNews.com
Though the tea party movement has attracted criticism for its supposed lack of diversity, minority activists who are involved say the movement has little to do with race, and that it is attracting a more diverse crowd every day.
Lloyd Marcus is shown here at a March 2009 tea party rally in Orlando. (Courtesy of Lloyd Marcus)
Lloyd Marcus' conservatism started when he was 9.
His family had just moved out of the "ghetto" to a brand-new high rise in Baltimore -- within months, he said, the "dream come true" turned into a nightmare, as the building of welfare-collecting black residents became a den of crime.
His father moved the family out as soon as he got a job with the city fire department, but "my cousins never escaped," Marcus said. He cried as he told the story.
Marcus, a black conservative who is now involved in the growing tea party movement, attributes the problems of his childhood neighborhood, his extended family and the black community in general to a "cradle-to-grave government dependency" that in the case of his cousins enabled an idle life of crime and drug abuse.
To Marcus, President Obama's policies perpetuate that dependency. That's why, he says, it baffles him and other black conservatives when the tea party movement is dismissed as somehow anti-black, as a rowdy bunch of ignorant, white protesters who have it in for the nation's first black president.
"This is the nicest angry mob I've ever seen," Marcus said.
Marcus is one of a number of black conservatives who have joined up with, and helped lead, the conservative tea party movement since its inception. Though the movement has attracted criticism for its supposed lack of diversity -- MSNBC host Chris Matthews recently called the groups "monochromatic" and "all white" -- those minority activists who are involved say the movement has little to do with race, and that it is attracting a more diverse crowd every day.
"I think a lot of black people are waking up from their Obama night-of-the-living-dead fog," Marcus said. "They were walking around like zombies going Obama, Obama, Obama."
He and other black conservatives connected with one of the hundreds of tea party groups across America were largely active in conservative and Republican causes before the movement's start in early 2009. They spoke and wrote about the need for smaller government, lower spending and lower taxes and warned that Obama's candidacy would pose a threat to those values.
But in the tea party movement they found a group that not only reflected their views but provided a platform.
Marcus campaigned with a group against Obama in the 2008 election. But the Florida resident, who is a musician, gained a degree of fame in the tea party world a year ago when he cut a "tea party anthem" song -- in it, he belted about the dangers of wealth redistribution to a gospel-sounding backup track.
"In less than a week, the song was national," Marcus said. He was asked to sing at an Orlando tea party rally last spring and has since performed at rallies across the country. He's traveled cross-country on both Tea Party Express tours and plans to join up for the third tour this March.
Marcus does not advocate for the creation of a third party, but said the tea party groups should serve to pull the Republican Party back to the conservative roots from which it has strayed.
William Owens, a black author and publisher who with his wife traveled on the Tea Party Express tours with Marcus and has spoken at just about every stop along the way, also came out strongly against Obama in 2008. He published the book, "Obama: Why Black America Should Have Doubts," before the election, in an attempt to address what he called a "misguided passion" toward the former Illinois senator in black America.
When the tea party movement started, he said he found a way to build on what he was already doing, outside the Republican Party system which he calls out of touch. He first spoke at a rally in Las Vegas on tax day last April.
"It was just a natural fit," Owens said.
He said the rallies are still "mostly white," but that more blacks are getting involved. He took particular umbrage at Matthews' comment, blasting out a press release that criticized the MSNBC host for "pushing conservative black Americans to the back of the media bus."
Owens now publishes a journal documenting the tea party cross-country tours. The Multi-Cultural Conservative Coalition is also sponsoring the next leg of the Tea Party Express.
Despite the enthusiastic involvement of black conservatives in the tea party rallies and trips, Obama still enjoys seemingly unshakable support from the majority of black Americans. A recent poll from Gallup put Obama's approval rating among blacks at 91 percent. Among whites, that number was 42 percent.
Tea party groups also might not be doing themselves any favors when some of their supporters are photographed holding somewhat shocking signs at rallies -- such as one last year that said, "The White House has a lyin' African."
But such demonstrators may be the exception.
Charles Lollar, a Maryland-based tea party supporter who is black, said there's no validity to the racism charges.
"I've seen black faces in the crowd. I've seen Latino faces in the crowd. ... It's not a movement of color. It's not a movement of party. It's a movement of principle. It's a movement of America," Lollar said.
Lollar started speaking at tea party events last winter and said his biggest motivation is opposition to the stimulus package -- both the $787 billion package that passed last February and the sequel that some Democrats are trying to push this year.
Lollar has since parlayed his activism into a high-stakes campaign. The Charles County businessman is hoping win the GOP nomination to challenge House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in the congressional midterm this November.
"When we beat him in November, it's going to send a strong message across the country," he said.
Lollar, whose previous post was as chairman of the Charles County Republican Central Committee, has an uphill battle to unseat the nation's second most powerful House Democrat.
Hoyer has been in office nearly three decades, and his latest campaign finance report put his available cash at $1.3 million. Lollar said he's raised $40,000 -- he aims to raise $2.5 million by fall.
Lollar is running from within the GOP apparatus. But it remains to be seen whether the party establishment will reach out to other tea party conservatives like him to ensure they stay loyal to the Republican Party and not challenge it like Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman did in New York state. Hoffman, who is white, pushed out the Republican candidate in the race for Congressional District 23, and ended up losing narrowly to Democrat Bill Owens.
David Avella, executive director of Republican recruiter GOPAC, said his organization hasn't been actively mining the tea party movement for state and local candidates but that the groups could prove fertile ground for candidates.
"Many in the tea party movement are Republicans who want to make sure the party gets back to its fiscal discipline days," he said, calling those activists natural "allies."
Tea partiers point to recent political coups they say demonstrate the movement's broadening influence and appeal. And they say they feel a certain freedom in the scattered leadership of the movement, as opposed to the top-down style of the GOP.
"I think it's great that we have all these different organizations and they have nobody in charge," Marcus said.
Marcus cited Hoffman's influence in the New York race as well as Republican Scott Brown's bid for the Massachusetts Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy. Brown, while not sprouting from the tea party movement, is supported by it as he enjoys a late-in-the-game surge in the race.
"This is a movement that has swept the country," Marcus said. "It has really been the rebirth of conservatism in America."
Interestingly, Marcus said he used to work with one of Obama's biggest supporters, Oprah Winfrey, decades ago at a local station in Baltimore before she moved to Chicago.
The two have since lost touch, he said.
Posted by TPX Admin at 12:30 PM 4 comments
Monday, January 18, 2010
Scott Brown Campaign: Shhh!!! A secret we can now share with you all!
About Scott Brown Campaign: Shhh!!! A secret we can now share with you all!
Over the past several days as the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts heated up, the available "inventory" of advertising spots to buy from the TV networks dried up.
And then disappeared entirely.
On cable we here at the Tea Party Express were not able to purchase any additional local spots. Zero. None. Nada.
Before the TV stations ran out of spots they were jacking their rates ever higher and higher. The cost for TV ads in the state skyrocketed to the point of costing around the same price as NATIONAL TV Ads.
And then it hit us: why not go and buy our spots on the NATIONAL cable networks. If they are going to cost almost as much, and if we can go buy ads that will run in Massachusetts (but that Martha Coakley's campaign had not thought to buy) - then it's a fantastic opportunity for us!
So this put us at a great competitive advantage over Democrat Martha Coakley's campaign.
Here's why: When you watch cable television networks you'll see commercial blocks. Each time commercials come on they are part NATIONAL and part LOCAL. Local operators are given so many spots to sell to local advertisers, and the rest of the spots are for NATIONAL advertisers.
Since the local cable systems were "SOLD OUT" of advertising spots, then the only way to reach voters via cable channels was on NATIONAL programming.
But Martha Coakley, Barack Obama and company failed to realize this. So we went up on the air nationally - adding dozens more TV ads to our buy, while the Democrats in Massachusetts were locked out of buying any more ads on those same cable channels.
Posted by TPX Admin at 4:46 PM 128 comments
Monday, December 21, 2009
Tea Party Express targets Harry Reid for defeat!
The Tea Party Express proudly releases this new TV ad targeting Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid for defeat in his re-election campaign:
Posted by TPX Admin at 8:18 AM 12 comments
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
TEA PARTY EXPRESS TO RETURN FOR PART III!
National Tea Party caravan will hold conservative rallies March 27 – April 15
SACRAMENTO, CA - The Tea Party Express (website: http://www.teapartyexpress.org/ ) is planning a 20-day tour that will cross the nation holding Tea Party rallies with the slogan “Just Vote Them Out!” in reference to the upcoming 2010 congressional elections.
The "Tea Party Express III: Just Vote Them Out" tour will rally conservatives in support of principles such as limited government, fiscal responsibility, and an end to the socialist policies being imposed by the Obama administration.
The caravan will launch with a “Mega Rally” in Searchlight, Nevada (population: approximately 500), the tiny hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, on March 27th.
The Searchlight rally will feature numerous conservative celebrities and VIP’s, as well as the candidates vying for Reid’s senate seat. The Searchlight Mega Rally is expected to draw participants from multiple states to an event unprecedented in size and scope for the small town. From there, the Tea Party Express travels eastward towards its final destination of the massive April 15th Tax Day Tea Party rally in Washington, D.C.
The "Tea Party Express" is a project of the Our Country Deserves Better Committee, one of the nation's largest conservative political action committees. The latest effort marks the third national Tea Party tour that will bring citizen activism against Obama's healthcare plan as well as continued opposition against out-of-control spending, higher taxes, bailouts and the "Cap & Trade" global warming fiasco.
We are honored to now be able to present to you the first sneak peak of the Tea Party Express III tour route:
Posted by TPX Admin at 9:51 AM 12 comments
Saturday, December 5, 2009
The Tea Party Express is Back for Part III !!!
Mark your calendars for March 27th - April 15th ... the Tea Party Express is back!
CNN has the early scoop on Tea Party Express III: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/03/tea-party-express-part-three/
Posted by TPX Admin at 12:39 PM 5 comments
Human Events: What the Tea Party movement means to conservatives
The Chief Strategist for the Tea Party Express, Sal Russo, penned a column on the tea party movement for the popular conservative website, HumanEvents.com - Please take a moment to read Mr. Russo's column and share it with others who might also be interested: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34620
Posted by TPX Admin at 12:33 PM 1 comments
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