Teabaggers Meet the Brownbaggers

by Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

Tuesday, 09 February 2010 18:27

Tea Party Convention-goers sing "God Bless America" while standing in line in Nashville, 02/06/10. (photo: Reuters)

Reader Supported News | Perspective

n the heels of the lightly attended over-hyped "Tea Party Convention" in Nashville, progressives are preparing to respond with a movement of their own. The "Brownbaggers" will be showing up in front of Congressional offices to demand "healthcare not warfare."

According to a press release from AfterDowningStreet.org: "On February 17th, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) will be joined by CODEPINK, AfterDowningStreet, Democrats.com, the California Nurses Assn./National Nurses United, and United for Peace and Justice in holding brownbag vigils outside (or inside) at least 36 Congress members' offices.

Brownbaggers are demanding commitments to vote against more money for war. Slogans on their posters include: "Healthcare NOT Warfare," "Corporations out of Politics," "Bailout Main Street not Wall Street" and "Brownbaggers not Teabaggers."

PDA Executive Director Tim Carpenter said, "We have to choose between jobs and wars. The American people are on one side, but our so-called representatives in Congress are on the other. The Supreme Court is busy increasing corporate control of our elected officials. We need to be busy enforcing the people's control before it is too late."

Carpenter was, of course, referring to the recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to pour unlimited resources into elections. The decision has caused a firestorm in political circles. For the first time corporations are getting constitutional protections previously reserved for individuals. The result further solidifies corporate control of the political process.

While many on the right, including Teabaggers, are alarmed by the decision, the Supreme Court's right-wing justices made the move following pressure from conservatives who have always represented corporate interests. While many on the left are calling for action to reverse the decision, the Brownbaggers may be the first step towards building a movement that counters the right-wing's successful campaign to change the political dialogue in the country.

Following the election of Barack Obama, many progressives were driven into a false sense of security. They felt that the country had moved left of center, and they could sit back and watch the Obama administration deliver on their agenda.

The problem was they miscalculated how strong the backlash against Obama would be. Last August the Teabaggers surfaced and changed the debate around health care. The Teabaggers, emboldened by their success in garnering national attention, expanded their efforts and increased their focus. Many would say they have not had the impact that the media has given them credit for, but the fact remains that they have impacted the political dialogue.

With every movement there is always a counter-movement. It remains to be seen whether the Brownbaggers can push the pendulum back in the other direction, but clearly the time for a response is long overdue.

Learn more about Brown Bag Lunch Vigils here: http://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil

Scott Galindez was formerly the co-founder of Truthout, and is now the Political Director of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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-4 # Guest 2010-02-09 23:54

I believe the Supreme Court pro-corporation decision could lead to the destruction of democracy in America.

Impeach the Supreme Court 5

-3 # Guest 2010-02-09 23:56

The Supreme Court pro corporation decision could very well be the end of democracy in America

0 # Guest 2010-02-27 10:47

Sorry, Marv... you don't get to pick and choose who gets Free Speech. It's a right in the Constitution. That's all the Court said.

0 # SkeeterVT 2010-02-10 02:32

What a waste of time and energy!

These so-called "Brownbaggers" are nothing more than the old lefty "peaceniks" who, 35 years after the Vietnam War, still refuse to grow up and act like mature adults politically.

Why aren't they calling for a constitutional convention to overturn the Supreme Court's outrageous Citizens United decision with a constitutional amendment that would also impose term limits on members of Congress?

Why aren't they calling for a constitutional amendment that would give President Obama the power of the line-item veto that 41 of the state's 50 governors enjoy and eliminate much of the pork-barrel spending that Congress lards onto to necessary bills year after year?

I'm no fan of the "Teabaggers," but the "Brownbaggers" are just as loony.

-1 # Guest 2010-02-10 08:32

Skeeter...Did you "like" Viet Nam?

-2 # Guest 2010-02-10 04:16

Scott,

Glad to have you at the helm. Will be sending you some of my thoughts daily for you to asses and pass along if you will. Seems too much talk today and not enough good strong strident action. Too much re-action leaves a host of the good and sane in the trenches battered broken and wounded for the many fronts that there is to fight is just a fright for most. Including me too.

Best Regards

-7 # Guest 2010-02-10 04:32

I have some links as why the brown baggers are a much viable organization than the corporate tea baggers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/

06/14/opinion/14ehrenreich.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States
http://www.newsweek.com/id/212148

-1 # Guest 2010-02-10 04:53

Glad the Brown Baggers are here as an antidote to the poisonous Tea Baggers, as the Tea Baggers are beginning to look like Nazi Brown Shirts.

0 # Guest 2010-02-27 10:49

heh. I am amused by your blind faith that your Tribe is good and their Tribe is evil.

-2 # Guest 2010-02-10 05:28

Nice to see the emergence of a counter-counter movement. I have one comment on the article: this is not the first time the Supreme Court has given constitutional protections to corporations. Consider the rise of corporations after the passage of the 13th & 14th amendments and the use of these new protects in the development of the modern corporation. This is well chronicled in the recent documentary film The Corporation. www.thecorporation.com/

+2 # Guest 2010-02-10 05:45

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind...and when the drums if war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry; rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar

0 # Guest 2010-02-13 21:14

Who is Brutus?

0 # Guest 2010-02-27 10:51

Snicker. Internet hoax alert! That's a fake quote from Caesar.

-1 # Guest 2010-02-10 06:09

It is about time!! It will be interesting to see just how much positive coverage this movement will receive from the main stream media, if any at all. The movement better have talking point memos for every member as the right wing noise machine will drown them out. You better believe that there are swelling numbers of progressives out here to make a difference. I am 75 and because of my age consider myself a passive activist but count me in. I love the name! P.S. My major beef as of today is one that is personal. My Medicare supplemental insurance has gone from $111.00 a month to $210.00 a month with Blue Cross, a 100% increase in three years. I have to think that this is just the tip of the iceberg in preparation for whatever bill comes out of Congress, if it ever does. Heavens Forbid Blue Cross should find their enormous rates highjacked.

+3 # Guest 2010-02-10 06:56

Keep up the good work, I am with you all the way. I am a Brownbagger, we need to counter the bullshit from Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and the rest of the plantation minded conservatives.

-3 # Guest 2010-02-10 07:14

The only way to get the right wing to shove off is with enough money to support their opponenets in the next election. The money need not exist but the threat must be made palpable.

0 # Hexalpa 2010-02-10 07:51

Rather than heralding the End of Democracy, I think that the ill-reasoned Supreme Court decision which expanded the power of corporations just might back-fire. I believe that so many PEOPLE are outraged by this decision, that the democratic process may well be reinvigorated. We should work for a constitutional amendment overturning this decision. Time for us to wake up and get involved. It never ends, does it?

-2 # Guest 2010-02-10 07:56

Hurray for the Brownbaggers and more power to them!! They sound like a great group of people to represent the interests of all Americans. I'm a Senior on Medicare and think we should have Medicare for all. I'm sure against what the Supreme Court right wing has done, too, and hope the harm it could do can be negated. Get busy Congress!! And you stand tall for HC for all Mr. President - please!!

-6 # Guest 2010-02-10 08:25

I'm all for a countermovement but "brownbaggers"? Come on, it brings to mind people that bring their own lunch to school - in a brown bag. Not a particularly inspiring image, is it? Better than a movement named after a gay sex act but we have to have a better "brand" than brownbaggers.

I'll think about it and see what I can come up with and I suggest others do the same.

-2 # Guest 2010-02-10 08:30

Enslavement contracts are what Halliburton and Blackwater have been offering, with impunity. The "all-volunteer" military routinely misleads recruits into "volunteering", and "stop-loss" is one of their current euphemisms for slavery. Corporations are "persons under the law", except that the State never exacts the ultimate price from them. Unlike human beings, they are never executed for the murders they commit. Jeppesen Dataplan has profited as an accessory to kidnapping, torture, and murder. Corporations, especially those with military customers, are not accountable for their lawless behaviors. If we can have a death penalty for human beings, why can't we have one for corporations? The only possible answer is that in America, money is sacred, and human life is not sacred. (Unless, of course, we're talking about the life of an as-yet-unborn slave.)

-4 # Guest 2010-02-10 13:37

If you are unsatisfied with the corporate agenda that's been forced upon us , then join the only viable political party that is non-corporate , community owned , by the people , for the people , to the people - And for the planet - the Green Party ! Mother Earth , or Spaceship Earth , whatever .... isn't getting the representation it needs . And neither are we , but we have the best democratic republic money can buy .I applaud the Brownbagger Movement as a movement for the people , by the people, to the people - NOT the CORPORATIONS !

0 # Guest 2010-02-10 16:30

What the Tea Party folks and the Grassroots Progressives need to do is see their commonality and jettison both the "D" & "R" from their vocabulary. That would be a revolution.

-4 # Guest 2010-02-10 18:03

I agree that there are issues that a left right coalition could be effective, but sadly when it comes to the birthers and other tea party activists, working together is easier said than done.

+1 # Guest 2010-02-11 10:38

There was nothing conservative about the supreme court's decision. It was a corporatist decision. Politics are realigning behind centralization vs. decentralizatio n - corporations vs. local communities. Disappointing this article still views the debate as liberal vs. democratic and neglect the fact that the first tea party was organized by Ron Paul supporters and then the terminology was co-opted by the mainsteam GOP.

+6 # Guest 2010-02-15 18:23

We've been trying to get health care for all for over a hundred years. Do any of you really think Mr. Obama will bring it home?
Not likely, considering who fills his pockets.

+5 # Guest 2010-02-19 10:46

They lack one thing the teabaggers have - the support of the majority of the American people

+4 # Guest 2010-02-20 12:02

Progressives will need the brown bags when they hyperventilate in November.

0 # Guest 2010-02-21 05:30

Well it certainly took the America-hating, self-loathing, government-worshipping, religion-killing, socialist-protecting, Constitution-destroying, genicidal, self-rightous, holier-than-thou, business-destroying, Marx-loving, education-crippling, tax-raising, union-sucking, polititian-ass-kissing, 1984-aspiring, glbal-warming rubes long enough to pull their heads out of their phalis-containing assholes and see the danger to their fascist regime. Too late Vlad, you're history!!

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