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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Occupying the Tea Party The Rise of Contemporary Libertarian Culture in the United States Cardone, Alfred Christopher Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 25. Sep. 2021 Occupying the Tea Party: The Rise of Contemporary Libertarian Culture in the United States Volume I Alfred Christopher Cardone PhD in American Studies Research Acknowledgments I, firstly would like to thank King’s College, London for providing me with the opportunity to conduct these four years a truly impelling and fascinating research project. With the relatively access to research databases to the support it provided in hosting a workshop on populism in the twenty-first century, I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank the British Association of American Studies, the Historians of the Twentieth Century, and the University of Heidelberg’s Center of American Studies for the support they have given in the publication opportunities, presentation invitations, and general feedback on my research. Without their input, this project would never have received the critical assessment it needed. The British Library and the Royal Library of Belgium were an immense help in initiating my project on American politics and recent history by providing me with the research at hand today. They provided the first steps needed to establish what the major arguments were in American politics today and how to further them. This may seem like an “out of place” acknowledgement, but I wanted my appreciation be made know to Eurostar, British Rail, and British Airways, all of which made this undertaking viable. They were fundamental in my transport to the UK and the US for research, conferences, and interview. In conjunction, I would also like to thank YouTube, Facebook, and other forms of social media online for bringing American political activism to the world and allowing greater access. I would particularly like to thank YouTube, in that its format allowed for activists to present their viewpoints directly, without filters being imposed, that helped me discover another world of political activism in the United States. More personally, I would like to thank all the people in Luxembourg who provided me support during my stay there. I may not have begun the project, but it was here that I finalized it. To those at Vistra, you provided me with the support I needed to complete my research (although you did not make it necessarily easier). I apologize if my libertarian and anarchist knowledge did not become a burden on your everyday lives. To all my friends in Luxembourg, thank you for your support as well. To my professors from Bates College and Northeastern University, I am in your debt for your teaching and the foundation you provided that allowed me to orchestrate this project. I would like to particularly thank Professor John Cole (retired), whose courses on liberalism, the enlightenment, and political thought helped influence the development of this project. I would like to thank my sister Georgina and her family for hosting me in New York, on my travels to the United States to conduct the necessary interview. To be sure, it probably was not convenient all the time, even if it allowed for family visits. I would also like to thank my mother, Helena, for her constant sparring about my ideas and pushing me to provide the support needed for a creditable argument. To Nathalie, my wife, whose efforts allowed me to seize the opportunity to undertake this accomplishment and realize a goal I often though would not be realized. I know my research did interfere with your everyday life and I am grateful for your understanding. I am sure you know almost as much about the Tea Party, Occupy, libertarianism, and anarchism as I do now. To Eileen, my daughter, who provided me with the inspiration to keep going even when there were times that I doubted this project would finish. I hope that one day you will actually read this. I cannot thank enough my supervisor Uta Balbier for her support in this “quest.” You were a guide, mentor, friend, and partner these last four years. Through the good and the bad periods during my dissertation, you were always there as a support and I will always remember that. Your praise and criticisms were instrumental in my progression. After hearing the experience of other PhD candidates, I feel truly privileged. Finally, to the Alt-Expo, the Free State Project, to those in the Tea Party and Occupy who agreed to the invaluable interviews for this project, and all other libertarians and anarchists out there in the United States, a huge thank you! Whether Americans agree with your opinions are not, your voices are a valuable addition to the narrative of American politics. It would be a loss to the world if you surrendered on your principles. Thank you so much for the incredible journey you allowed me to take with you. My future my lead me towards other areas of research, but this experience has opened me to so many possibilities for the future of my home country. When thinking about your activism, I find myself thinking of the prover “the night is darkest before the dawn.” I am sure your sunrise is happening now. Abstract Common opinion concerning Occupy and the Tea Party is that they represent extreme ends of the "left-right" political paradigm in the United States. With Republican "Tea Party" candidates and the "hippy" appearance of Occupy encampments, it is no surprise that such opinions exist today. However, does this imply that there is no alternative characterization that can be applied to either? I argue that there is another way to characterize them, if one abandons the homogenous description many place on both movements and realize that there are many actors in American politics today that assume the title of Occupy or Tea Party. Upon considering this, sections of both become noticeable that have escaped national attention and have largely been ignored by established media outlets (TV news, newspapers, etc.). These sections are largely comprised of libertarian and anarchist elements that are seeking to redefine how Americans view their political system in order to escape the perceived injustices that occurred in the aftermath of the housing bubble collapse and the subsequent recession. They are acting in stark contrast to the recognizable conservative section of the Tea Party and progressive section of Occupy, who are pursuing largely established partisan agendas. While conservatives and progressives are accentuating the polarization of American politics, libertarians seek to transcend it and offer alternatives to an American public that is frustrated with the status quo. Furthermore, many of these libertarian and anarchist elements in both the Tea Party and Occupy are working together, creating a larger ideological political spectrum in which these activists look to cooperate and further their message. It challenges the notion of both being polar opposites, which becomes even more apparent after discovering the libertarian origins of both. Libertarians and anarchists have demonstrated how the Tea Party and Occupy have incorrectly been confined within certain definitions and the possibilities they can bring to American politics. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Between public perception and radicalization: ..................................................... 43 Chapter 2: The Tea Party Libertarian Coalition ....................................................................... 80 Chapter 3: The Occupy Libertarian Community .................................................................... 116 Chapter 4: Bridging the Rift Within Libertarianism via the Tea Party and Occupy ............... 155 Chapter 5: The Emerging Importance of the Libertarian Festival ......................................... 191 Afterword ............................................................................................................................... 220 Introduction A year and half of research concerning the Tea Party and Occupy led to the PorcFest X (2013) libertarian festival at Roger’s Campground in Lancaster, New Hampshire- a rural part of New