Assam-ilating lessons from the Tea Party

I have something of a confession to make: I truly, utterly and sincerely
admire the Tea Party’s social media strategy.

For my own benefit more than anyone else’s, I would like to point out that I
have absolutely no sympathy with their programme of cutting foreign aid,
opposing stable health insurance costs in favour of ‘choice’ or their
schizophrenic approach to choosing Presidential nominees, as with their ‘flavour
of the month’ leap from Bachmann to Perry to Christie to Perry again and, uneasily, to Cain.

But you’ve got to hand it to them: they know how to tweet.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that a movement billing itself as the modern
equivalent of the pre-Revolutionary pamphleteers should embrace communicative
technology. What is surprising, however, is how they have tried to
enlarge their core constituency beyond its natural limits.

Take the Minnesota chapter of the Party as a case study. For a relatively secure Democratic stronghold (at least in Presidential elections), Minnesota has a hugely active Tea Party, no doubt bouyed by the success of a certain native Congresswoman named Michelle Bachmann. Richard Cushing of the ‘Original Tea Party of Minnesota’ and tweeting under the very catchy handle VoteSmartNow is a particularly good example of how the group uses Twitter:

I think most of us can agree, regardless of political affiliation, that spending $70m of taxpayers’ money on federal employees flying business rather than coach during economically depressed times is an Unfair Thing. We can also probably agree that $44bn in administrative errors is a Bad Thing, even if it represents only about 0.1% of the projected federal budget for next year. Whether the figures are correct or take account of extenuating circumstances is sort of immaterial at this juncture: it’s strong stuff, and broadly bi-partisan.Incidentally, given the Tea Party’s talent for lobbying, I’d hate to be whichever poor administrative assistant monitors tweets to @GOPLeader, Speaker of the House John Boehner.Much of the Tea Party’s online presence appears to show an awareness of the group’s popular image – not always an entirely positive one. Flying in the face of politics-as-usual, the Tea Party is broadly speaking willing to accept that not everyone likes them or their favoured candidates:

A political activism group admitting that voters dislike as well as like them? Questioning whether Tea Party darling Michelle Bachmann is good for the group? Conceding that their Presidential candidate may have a tough electoral against Obama, despite their supporters’ belief that he is everything from incompetence to a ‘secret Muslim’ from Kenya? Acknowledging a political group’s flaws is not exactly a traditional method and, to a large extent, this is what makes the Tea Party such a potent online force – engaging in online debate.Of course, this isn’t to say that Tea Party supporters are uneasy with pushing partisan opinions on Twitter. Here are some favourites:

What is really quite fascinating about the Tea Party (and worth bearing in mind for advocacy or community journalism) is their delicate balance between foaming-at-the-mouth partisanship and engagement with criticism. It’s a strategy that gives them a broad ideological unity while accepting participation and debate from the grassroots. No strategy this dexterous should be ignored or underestimated, be it by the President or by community journalists.