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Sep. 2021 Occupying the Tea Party: The Rise of Contemporary Libertarian Culture in the United States Volume II Alfred Christopher Cardone PhD in American Studies Research Contents Appendix A- Tea Party Interviews .............................................................................................. 3 Appendix B- Occupy Interviews ............................................................................................... 80 Appendix C- Independent Libertarians .................................................................................. 208 Appendix D: YouTube Listings ............................................................................................... 317 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 333 Appendix A- Tea Party Interviews Transcription Organization: The Staten Island Tea Party Patriots Name: Danny Panzella Assigned designation: Interviewee Tea Party 1 Date: 30 August 2012 Location: Vietnam Veterans Plaza, New York City Running time of interview: 1 hour 05 mins 13 secs AC: We’ll start with a little bit of background about the Staten Island Tea Party Patriots. Just sell me about the movement in your own words basically. What do you think is, what it means, and what it does? DP: The Tea Party in general or my group? AC: Your group. DP: Well, we’re kind of like, I use the term Tea Party kind of loosely, we are more libertarian than the main stream- or what has become the main stream Tea Party. As far as grassroots organizing, we mainly, the things we do, hand out information. We do what we call street actions. So, we’ll have sign waves. During the presidential campaign, we did Ron Paul sign waves. We will hand out DVDs and flyers. The philosophy is basically that politics is really just- it’s a venue to connect with people who are already active. Most people in politics are activists in some form or another- so what I would say is the long hanging fruit. So we’re looking to connect with people who are already active and spread the message of liberty that way. It’s kind of like you’re getting more bang for your buck. Rather than converting ordinary citizens who may or may not get involved. Obviously, I’m willing to spread the message of liberty to anyone who is willing to listen and to some people who aren’t willing to listen (laughing). But, our group in particular, we try to focus on people that are already active. They may not be open to the message or to our politics, but that’s the idea- so that they can kind of see the value to it. That way, we can convert them into instant activists of liberty. AC: Ok. Is there a particular group that you target or do you go with a blanket everyone involved? DP: Yea. Anyone that’s involved. I mean, I’m pretty disappointed in the Tea Party movement because they started out, you know- it’s an older movement first of all. I’m, you know, the youngest, towards the younger side in my mid-thirties. It’s an older movement. Really, voting is the only tool the use for their “activism.” They go to a rally for an hour and wave signs and flags and then it’s over until November. I got really excited when Occupy popped up. And I started Occupy the Fed, which was a kind of a sub-working group of Occupy, to educate people- you know, obviously Occupy is more of a “leftist” movement and we thought it was important to not shun them, or ignore them, or just be critical of them. But we went in, infiltrated if you want to say that, to spread the message about free markets, to make them understand that our economy is already essentially planned. It’s essentially planned by Wall Street itself. By calling for more regulation, you are giving the fox the keys to the hen house. So that’s what we did through Occupy the Fed, to try and spread the message about the Federal Reserve and its relationship with Wall Street and the government. Yea, that’s basically, like you know, the methods we tend to use. We’ll go to CPAC, we’ll go to the DNC, the RNC, I’ve got people down there right now at the RNC, spreading the word about the NDAA, which is an important issue. And, yea, we will take different tactics and different messages depending on which group we are talking to. So, I just recently did a raw milk and lemonade freedom day in DC. We’re actually going to do one in Union Square, hopefully in a couple of weeks. Basically, it’s about legalizing raw milk and, I am sure you have heard about the crack-down on lemonade stands (laughing)? Kid’s without permits? AC: Yea. DP: The raw milk kind of appeals to, you know, healthy food fanatics, people who eat organic, vegans, so it kind of tends to be more left-leaning people, as opposed to free markets, which mostly the right would appreciate that. So, we both from that angle talk to somebody on the right. AC: Ok. You told me a lot right there. What would you consider to be the inspiration for your organization? DP: What would be- I would say probably, kind of the core is- Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” That’s kind of like our core and the non-aggression principle. The idea that you never initiate force against another person else unless it’s in direct self- defense. So the government violates the non-aggression principle…. I mean really everything it does is based on force. AC: How do people join your organization? DP: Most of the people are-most of the people, I would say, get recruited through when we do a street action. Somebody will like the message and be excited that there’s other people, most of the time they’re already on to the message, already libertarians. But certainly, we have converted quite a few people who were mainstream, what I would call neo-conservatives, who then became more libertarian, if not libertarians. AC: You were going into- how you are the youngest person in your organization… DP: I am not the youngest person in my organization. I meant in the overall Tea Party movement. AC: Ok. DP: My group tends to be young, but it does range. AC: Ok, so I was going to go into demographics, dynamics, relationships within the organization, and what kind of hierarchy you have. DP: None. I mean, essentially myself and maybe a handful of others are kind of leaders and just in the sense that we take the most action. So people tend to view us a leaders but there’s no real structure. There’s no government. AC: Ok. And it’s generally more young people, but there is variation? DP: Yea, I mean, we have one of our more active members, Tina, is in her- I don’t want to be insulting- but I am guessing that she must be in her late 40s or her early 50s. So, I mean, we have people that are even older, in their 70s. Captain Tom is in his 70s. I mean he’s not that active, but he supports financially stuff like that. AC: Ok, that comes to another good question. How do you fund your organization? DP: We self-fund it. If we need to make a flyer or a glossy about a particular issue, we generally kind of fund raise and generally the older people in the movement, in the group, will donate the most. AC: So that kind of gives you a little bit of independence, but then again a little bit of limitation because of money? DP: Yea, sure. This is real grassroots. We have no real sponsorship. AC: Ok. What do you find are effective tools for organizing and for getting your message out? DP: Facebook. AC: Facebook? DP: Yea. Facebook, Meetup.com. Those are probably the two main tools. AC: Social media, things like that? DP: Yea. Those are really the two most powerful ones that we find effective. Everybody is addicted to Facebook. So, we try and use it for something good instead of nonsense. AC: Do you find it- Well, you were saying before that you were mainly dealing with people who are active, but do you find it hard, when you do try and get to the general public, do you find it difficult to get your message to them? DP: I think that- I came from sales.