In February 2010, the group Tea Party Nation organized the first Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN, a for-profit event. Some 600 people paid $550 to attend, and Sarah Palin was reportedly paid $115,000 to the be the keynote speaker. After criticism of the convention’s cost, for-profit status, and payment to Palin, multiple national Tea Party organizations withdrew their participation.
But the event went on.
And so did the paranoid, conspiratorial assertions--that President Obama was born in another country, that he has covered up his college transcripts, that he is pushing a communist/socialist agenda, that he is protecting terrorists and endangering our country, etc.
The organizers of the convention made great efforts to limit access to the press, and even held “new-media training” sessions to help the Tea Partiers sound and look better on camera--the more people see inside this movement, the less like it. But we got ourselves into the event, where the right-wing, fringe sentiments were on plain display.
That said, these Tea Partiers--able to pay the cost of attendance--are more affluent than those at the 9.12 DC March, and more self-conscious of how they are portrayed in the media. There were fewer signs and homemade t-shirts here, but the attitudes, if more subtle in delivery, were the same.
Special thanks for John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog (http://www.americablog.com) for helping us get an Amtrak ticket out of the DC snowstorm, which made this video possible.
On November 20, 2009, Sarah Palin visited Columbus, OH as part of her book signing tour for “Going Rogue.” When her supporters were asked broad questions about why they why they thought she should be president, the responses were vague: She’s “real.” She’ll “stick up for America.”
THERE ARE UNINFORMED OBAMA SUPPORTERS, TOO
It has been said in comments that we would find similarly talking point-driven, substance-less supporters at an Obama rally, and we agree. But no politician has emerged on the national stage as undefined and unqualified as Sarah Palin, and her public persona--which is anti-intellectual by definition--discourages substance. Instead, we get winking. One could hardly imagine her giving a complex speech about race in America, or speaking eloquently about our country’s relations with Islam. Not just because she couldn’t write such a speech (Obama has speech-writers, of course) but because she wouldn’t--such necessarily academic discussion is antithetical to the persona she’s created for herself and that her supporters have come to love.
CHERRY-PICKING
As for accusations of cherry picking, which are commonly thrown at interview-based videos, it simply isn’t what we did. We interviewed only a few more people than ended up in the video, not hundreds, and what was cut was done for time purposes. The people were selected at random--some offered to be interviewed--and we were only there for 90 mins (it gets dark early and fast in Ohio right now). What didn’t make it into the video was just more footage of people talking about taxes/spending, drilling, and abortion, and we constructed blocks in the piece to represent those issues. Of course the piece was edited to be entertaining (this is YouTube, after all, where the currency is cat videos) but we don’t believe we misrepresented the attitudes of the people at that signing in any way.
This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online.
In May, 2009, the Maine Legislature extended marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. As expected, opponents of equality, led by the National Organization for Marriage and the Catholic Church, petitioned to have those rights put to a vote by referendum. This film chronicles the final days of the on-the-ground campaign to protect marriage equality in Maine.
The Democratic National Committee ignored the fight to protect marriage for all couples in Maine, neglecting to donate funds to the cause (even though they reportedly raised over a million dollars from gay donors in June of this year) or to mobilize potentially thousands of volunteers through its Organizing for America arm. The DNC even sent emails to voters in Maine urging them to help with Joe Corzine’s failed gubernatorial reelection in New Jersey, potentially diverting needed volunteers, but also showing that they deemed the fight for marriage equality unworthy of their attention. President Obama never acknowledged the NO ON ONE campaign.
If marriage equality is to be fought for on a state-by-state basis, then our national gay rights organizations should hold the DNC and President Obama responsible for their inaction in Maine and in other state battles.
And so should we.
WHAT WE CAN DO:
President Obama was elected cashing our checks and making promises to our community, but so far he has failed to be the “fierce advocate” for gay rights that he said he would be. The gay community is being told to wait, and be patient—he’s only been in office a year. But many of us have been waiting for decades. We’re being told to wait while hundreds of much-needed soldiers are being thrown out of the military under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), a policy President Obama could end today with an executive stop-loss order. We’re being told to wait while it is still legal in over thirty states to be fired from your job just for being gay, a practice we could end by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). We’re being told to wait while the administration puts off repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law his justice department has defended by comparing loving gay relationships to incest and pedophilia. We’re being told to wait even while we have an overwhelming majority in the House, a filibuster-proof Senate, and a President who promised action on all of the aforementioned issues. It is unlikely that we will sustain this Democratic super-majority, so if not now, then when?
John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog have launched a donor boycot of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, and the Obama campaign until Congress and the President pass ENDA and repeal DADT and DOMA, as was promised during campaign season, when the gay community gave plenty and worked hard to get Democratic candidates elected.
We encourage you to read more about it and sign the pledge here:
http://bit.ly/2H7KWf
This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online.
http://bit.ly/nLOdU (will take you to PayPal)
FACEBOOK
http://bit.ly/AzW41
TWITTER
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In May, 2009, the Maine Legislature extended marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. As expected, opponents of equality, led by the National Organization for Marriage and the Catholic Church, petitioned to have those rights put to a vote by referendum. This film chronicles the final days of the on-the-ground campaign to protect marriage equality in Maine.
The Democratic National Committee ignored the fight to protect marriage for all couples in Maine, neglecting to donate funds to the cause (even though they reportedly raised over a million dollars from gay donors in June of this year) or to mobilize potentially thousands of volunteers through its Organizing for America arm. The DNC even sent emails to voters in Maine urging them to help with Joe Corzine’s failed gubernatorial reelection in New Jersey, potentially diverting needed volunteers, but also showing that they deemed the fight for marriage equality unworthy of their attention. President Obama never acknowledged the NO ON ONE campaign.
If marriage equality is to be fought for on a state-by-state basis, then our national gay rights organizations should hold the DNC and President Obama responsible for their inaction in Maine and in other state battles.
And so should we.
WHAT WE CAN DO:
President Obama was elected cashing our checks and making promises to our community, but so far he has failed to be the “fierce advocate” for gay rights that he said he would be. The gay community is being told to wait, and be patient—he’s only been in office a year. But many of us have been waiting for decades. We’re being told to wait while hundreds of much-needed soldiers are being thrown out of the military under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), a policy President Obama could end today with an executive stop-loss order. We’re being told to wait while it is still legal in over thirty states to be fired from your job just for being gay, a practice we could end by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). We’re being told to wait while the administration puts off repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law his justice department has defended by comparing loving gay relationships to incest and pedophilia. We’re being told to wait even while we have an overwhelming majority in the House, a filibuster-proof Senate, and a President who promised action on all of the aforementioned issues. It is unlikely that we will sustain this Democratic super-majority, so if not now, then when?
John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog have launched a donor boycot of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, and the Obama campaign until Congress and the President pass ENDA and repeal DADT and DOMA, as was promised during campaign season, when the gay community gave plenty and worked hard to get Democratic candidates elected.
We encourage you to read more about it and sign the pledge here: http://bit.ly/2H7KWf
This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online. http://bit.ly/nLOdU (will take you to PayPal)
On October 11, thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight people who support full equality in all 50 states marched on Washington. Many of them were part of a new generation of activists who reject the ping-pong, state-by-state fight for rights after Proposition 8 passed last year, and who are impatient with the slow gradualism of national gay rights organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, and President Obama, who so far hasn’t lived up to his promise to be a “fierce advocate” for gay rights.
YOU CAN HELP:
As the opportunity for change narrows, it is time to act. Organize locally in your congressional district--be a leader for equality. http://www.equalityacrossamerica.org/…
This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online. http://bit.ly/nLOdU (will take you to PayPal)
On October 1, House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a press availability, “I’m still trying to find the first American to talk to who’s in favor of the public option, other than a member of Congress or the administration… I’ve not talked to one, and I get to a lot of places and I’ve not had anyone come up to me — I know I’m inviting it — and lobby for the public option.”
Well, some of Mr. Boehner’s constituents decided to take him up on his offer and rally outside his district office in West Chester, Ohio, delivering over 1,800 signatures of people in his district who support a public option.
This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
You can make a difference in the health care debate without leaving your bedroom. So stop typing that narcissistic Facebook status, pause your Mafia Wars game, and actually do something in reality to advance the cause you support on Facebook by calling your representative. This is so easy. Many people are timid about making phone calls, but a phone call to your representative now could save you a series of phone calls to an uncooperative insurance company in the future. Too lazy to look up your representative’s number? This website makes it even easier--it will find the number, call it for you, and then call your cell phone to connect you. Tell your representative’s office that you support comprehensive health care reform, and urge them to support the public option. http://tools.advomatic.com/8/hcn
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online. http://bit.ly/nLOdU (will take you to PayPal)
You can make a difference in the health care debate without leaving your bedroom. So stop typing that narcissistic Facebook status, pause your Mafia Wars game, and actually do something in reality to advance the cause you support on Facebook by calling your representative. This is so easy. Many people are timid about making phone calls, but a phone call to your representative now could save you a series of phone calls to an uncooperative insurance company in the future. Too lazy to look up your representative’s number? This website makes it even easier--it will find the number, call it for you, and then call your cell phone to connect you. Tell your representative’s office that you support comprehensive health care reform, and urge them to support the public option.
http://tools.advomatic.com/8/hcn
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
You can make a difference in the health care debate without leaving your bedroom. So stop typing that narcissistic Facebook status, pause your Mafia Wars game, and actually do something in reality to advance the cause you support on Facebook by calling your representative. This is so easy. Many people are timid about making phone calls, but a phone call to your representative now could save you a series of phone calls to an uncooperative insurance company in the future. Too lazy to look up your representative’s number? This website makes it even easier--it will find the number, call it for you, and then call your cell phone to connect you. Tell your representative’s office that you support comprehensive health care reform, and urge them to support the public option. http://tools.advomatic.com/8/hcn
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online. http://bit.ly/nLOdU (will take you to PayPal)
On 9.12.2009, we went to Washington DC to document the Tea Party protests against, well, a lot of things, including health insurance reform, the IRS, abortion, global warming, and our “socialist/communist/fascist/Nazi/Muslim ” president, Barack Obama. Some of them called for a return to McCarthyism, while others called for Glenn Beck to run for office--indeed, it seemed the only thing that everyone agreed on was Fox News.
This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviewer) and Erick Stoll (camera operator).
A NOTE ON CZARS:
Some users have pointed out that White House “Czars” existed long before Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, Donald Nelson, appointed under FDR as a “Wartime Production Czar”, was the first. The Republican Gov. of Colorado, John A. Love, was later appointed under Nixon as an “Energy Czar”. We appreciate this correction, though such an oversight does not dilute our point. The current outcry against Czars is merely alarmist propaganda perpetuated by Glenn Beck and the rest of the right-wing media.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
You can make a difference in the health care debate without leaving your bedroom. So stop typing that narcissistic Facebook status, pause your Mafia Wars game, and actually do something in reality to advance the cause you support on Facebook by calling your representative. This is so easy. Many people are timid about making phone calls, but a phone call to your representative now could save you a series of phone calls to an uncooperative insurance company in the future. Too lazy to look up your representative’s number? This website makes it even easier--it will find the number, call it for you, and then call your cell phone to connect you. Tell your representative’s office that you support comprehensive health care reform, and urge them to support the public option. http://tools.advomatic.com/8/hcn
“We can do this. At this point, all that stands in the way of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies.”
- Paul Krugman, The Swiss Menace http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/opi…
DONATE:
Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online. http://bit.ly/nLOdU (will take you to PayPal)
Excellent work you guys! Such a refreshingly direct and honest approach. I really like how you let those you are interviewing share their own points of view, by sticking to questions about the issues at hand. Sometimes they show their ignorance and sometimes they show their bright light.
We need more reporting like this, and to that end I’m sending you some money.
I couldn’t watch the entire video because I gave Sarah Palin up for Lent. I find the portions I viewed follow the same pattern as your other videos, 10-15 different edited interviews. I’m not saying that there are not some scarey right wingers in the Tea Party Movement, but this is not investigative journalism…anyone who thinks it is needs to take a moment to Google and read.
Yes, I so agree with you. As an American who lived in Europe in the early 1990s, as someone who has seen the high quality of life for all the people in social democracies, and whose child received an eye operation in Germany and ER visits in Italy (young kids!) *free of charge*, I feel sorry for Americans. Look at what is happening in our country. The corporations are running it; they want people to be stupid; they want you to work hard – we’re the most productive people on earth – so they can harvest your money and pay their people huge bonuses. Credit card companies charge you 30 percent interest if you are late on a single payment; banks and mortgage companies scammed poor people into abusive loans, etc. etc. Health insurance companies send their rates and co-pays and deductibles skyrocketing, until you can’t even afford to go to the doctor if you HAVE insurance. Parasites should not kill their hosts.
TEA PARTY CONVENTION – Sarah Palin, Orly Taitz, Interviews with Participants
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In February 2010, the group Tea Party Nation organized the first Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN, a for-profit event. Some 600 people paid $550 to attend, and Sarah Palin was reportedly paid $115,000 to the be the keynote speaker. After criticism of the convention’s cost, for-profit status, and payment to Palin, multiple national Tea Party organizations withdrew their participation.
But the event went on.
And so did the paranoid, conspiratorial assertions--that President Obama was born in another country, that he has covered up his college transcripts, that he is pushing a communist/socialist agenda, that he is protecting terrorists and endangering our country, etc.
The organizers of the convention made great efforts to limit access to the press, and even held “new-media training” sessions to help the Tea Partiers sound and look better on camera--the more people see inside this movement, the less like it. But we got ourselves into the event, where the right-wing, fringe sentiments were on plain display.
That said, these Tea Partiers--able to pay the cost of attendance--are more affluent than those at the 9.12 DC March, and more self-conscious of how they are portrayed in the media. There were fewer signs and homemade t-shirts here, but the attitudes, if more subtle in delivery, were the same.
Special thanks for John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog (http://www.americablog.com) for helping us get an Amtrak ticket out of the DC snowstorm, which made this video possible.