Tea Party Convention Scrapped Due To Lack Of Interest Low Registration Sinks Tea Party Convention
Organizers of the Freedom Jamboree announced Wednesday that they have canceled the tea party convention planned for this fall, citing low registration.
They had hoped the event would serve as a stage for Republican presidential candidates to court the conservative movement, and two — Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) — had already confirmed they would attend.
The weekend of reflection and strategizing was scheduled for Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 in Kansas City, Kan., and included a straw poll. Twenty-one local tea party groups started it with the intent to reclaim the movement from national umbrella groups and offer an alternative to the annual fall tea party rally on the National Mall.
The jamboree is the second national tea party event to be canceled because of low registration numbers. Last year, the Tennessee-based Tea Party Nation nixed plans to host a gathering in Las Vegas. At the time, the group blamed summer travel plans and the heat for driving attendees away.
He added that the movement has lost some of its steam since tens of thousands of activists protested on Capitol Hill against the health care overhaul in 2009 and 2010. But Temple, who has been active since the beginning of the movement, said it is far from over.
He struck a less optimistic tone in his email to fellow activists and warned about fractures in the movement.
“It appears the Tea Party horse is riderless, and riding off in all directions at once,” he wrote.
There was due to be a dropoff as the faddishness wore off, but will it be enough that the TEA party won't be an major player in 2012?
Plus some of the TEA Party events are started by hucksters just looking to make a quick buck and in this economy who has the money to spend $50 to hear Palin speak, other than LJ & VL?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
