Smear groups like “CrashTheTeaParty.org” are infiltrating the Tea Party. The goal, according to Jason Levin, who spearheads the group, is to “act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities,” in order to “damage the public’s opinion of them.”
Alas, I don’t think the saboteurs and demonizers realize how this may backfire. Those within the Tea Party don’t seem to care about the nasty names. This is a movement with no single leader wedded to a political future or with politically sensitive ambitions. There’s no one face fearful of being maligned by the New York Times, NPR, and Keith Olbermann. Few movements are so huge and yet so anonymous.
Most significant, many Tea Party people, not to mention those who agree with them--even if they never attend rallies--are independents and Democrats. A recent Gallup poll found that 50 percent of “Tea Party identifiers” are Republicans while 43 percent are independents and 7 percent are Democrats. That’s a remarkably high number of non-Republicans.
If independents, moderates, and Democrats are a notable element of the Tea Party movement, or sympathize with it, do you really want to inflame them, especially as November 2010 approaches?
This is a multifaceted movement, but one thing seems certain: Those taking pleasure assailing Tea Partiers may enliven the very movement they endeavor to destroy. I’m reminded of a quote from an early church father (Tertullian): “We multiply wherever we are mown down by you.” The “blood” of the faithful is “seed.”
