Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of Its National Factions By Devin Burghart and Leonard Zeskind Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights is responsible for the content and analysis of this report. Additional materials, including updates and exclusive web content can be found at teapartynationalism.com. Copyright © 2010 Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. All Rights Reserved. No Part of this report may be reproduced without the permission of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights except for sections quoted with proper attribution for purposes of reviews and public education. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) is a national organization with an international outlook examining racist, anti-Semitic, white nationalist, and far-right social movements, analyzing their intersection with civil society and social policy, educating the public, and assisting in the protection and extension of human rights through organization and informed mobilization. Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights P.O. Box 411552 Kansas City, MO 64141 voice: (816) 474-4748 email: [email protected] website: www.irehr.org Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1: Origins of the Tea Parties .....................................................................................15 Chapter 2. FreedomWorks Tea Party .....................................................................................19 September 12, 2009, March on Washington and After .............................................. 21 Chapter 3. 1776 Tea Party .....................................................................................................23 From the Minuteman Project to the Tea Party ........................................................... 25 Interaction with Other Factions ................................................................................. 26 Chapter 4. ResistNet Tea Party ..............................................................................................29 ResistNet and Nativism ............................................................................................. 30 Chapter 5. Tea Party Nation ..................................................................................................33 Summer 2009 Altar Calls ........................................................................................... 35 Planning a Convention .............................................................................................. 36 Convention in Nashville February 2010 .................................................................... 37 Chapter 6. Tea Party Patriots ................................................................................................41 Tea Party Patriots Founders ........................................................................................ 41 Coalition Convention in Gatlinburg May 2010 ......................................................... 44 Chapter 7. Tea Party Express .................................................................................................49 Russo Marsh and Rogers ............................................................................................ 49 Mark Williams ........................................................................................................... 51 Tea Party Express Bus Tours ....................................................................................... 51 Interaction with other Tea Party Factions ................................................................... 53 Mark Williams in His Own Words ........................................................................................55 Chapter 8. Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Militia Impulse ..................................................57 Providing a Platform to Bigots ................................................................................... 57 Enter White Nationalists ........................................................................................... 59 Richard Mack and Militias ........................................................................................ 63 Bigotry and the health care reform vote ..................................................................... 64 Response to NAACP resolution ................................................................................. 64 Opinion Poll Data ..................................................................................................... 66 Chapter 9. ‘Who Is An American?’: Tea Parties, Nativism and the Birthers ..........................68 Pamela Geller and Islamophobia ................................................................................ 69 Nativism and Support for Arizona’s SB 1070 .............................................................. 70 Contra Dick Armey and FreedomWorks .................................................................... 72 Tea Party Caucus in Congress ..................................................................................... 72 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................76 About the Authors .................................................................................................76 Appendix A: Is There a Correlation between Unemployment Levels and Tea Party Membership? .........................................................................................................................77 Appendix B: Gender Analysis of Tea Party Membership ........................................................79 Notes ....................................................................................................................................80 MAPS , CHARTS , AND TABLES Figure 1. Tea Party Faction Growth Over Time .......................................................................9 Figure 2. Aggregate Tea Party Membership Map ....................................................................14 Figure 3. FreedomWorks Tea Party Membership Map ...........................................................18 Figure 4. FreedomWorks Tea Party Top 25 Cities ..................................................................22 Figure 5. 1776 Tea Party Membership Map ...........................................................................24 Figure 6. 1776 Tea Party Top 25 Cities ..................................................................................27 Figure 7. ResistNet Membership Map ...................................................................................28 Figure 8. ResistNet Top 25 Cities ..........................................................................................32 Figure 9. Tea Party Nation Membership Map ........................................................................34 Figure 10. Tea Party Nation Top 25 Cities .............................................................................40 Figure 11. Tea Party Patriots Membership Map .....................................................................42 Figure 12. Tea Party Patriots Top 25 Cities ............................................................................47 Figure 13. Tea Party Express Donors Map .............................................................................48 Figure 14. Tea Party Express Top 25 Cities ............................................................................54 Figure 15. Tea Party Caucus, U.S. Congress ..........................................................................74 Figure 16. Tea Party Membership and correlation with unemployment .................................78 Figure 17. Gender Breakdowns of Tea Party Membership by Faction ....................................79 4 | TEA PARTY NATIONALISM — A SPECIAL REPORT OF THE IREHR Foreword By Benjamin Todd Jealous President and CEO of the NAACP e know the majority of Tea Party supporters are sincere, principled people of good will. That is why the NAACP—an organization that has worked to expose and combat racism Win all its forms for more than 100 years—is thankful Devin Burghart, Leonard Zeskind and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights prepared this report that exposes the links between certain Tea Party factions and acknowledged racist hate groups in the United States. These links should give all patriotic Americans pause. I hope the leadership and members of the Tea Party movement will read this report and take additional steps to distance themselves from those Tea Party leaders who espouse racist ideas, advocate violence, or are formally affiliated with white supremacist organizations. In our effort to strengthen our democracy and ensure rights for all, it is important that we have a reasoned political debate without the use of epithets, the threat of violence, or the resurrection of long discredited racial hierarchies. This July, delegates to the 101st NAACP National Convention unanimously passed a resolution condemning outspoken racist elements within the Tea Party, and called upon Tea Party leaders to repudiate those in their ranks who use white supremacist language