by L.B. Woodgate

Created on: April 11, 2010   Last Updated: April 12, 2010

Is the “Crash the Tea Party” movement a Hoax?

There has been much consternation on right-wing blogs and media outlets of late over a supposed “Lefty Group” web- site called “Crash the Tea Party” (CTTP) at crashtheteaparty.org.   A quick inspection of the site however reveals it is little more than a haphazard shell of what would normally pass for any serious attempt to motivate any kind of grass roots movement. 

As the name implies, its creator encourages people who register to “dismantle and demolish the Tea Party by any non-violent means necessary”  along with “encouraging people to pose as Tea Partiers” and then "behave in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities . . . to damage the public's opinion of them." 

Other than this there is very little on CTTP's web page about any specific action.  The site offers no information about who their leadership is or what planned activities are scheduled.  It doesn’t even ask for donations.

The web host is phpBB™ which bills itself as “the most widely used open source bulletin board system in the world [that] allows you to have a forum set up in minutes.”  This seems to fit perfectly the needs of someone who may not want to dedicate much time other than generating conversations on topical issues.  This is perhaps what was behind the motivation of CTTP's creator, Josh Levin, a 36-year-old technology educator from Portland, Ore.   

In a Boston.com piece (4/11/10) it is reported that Levin “is thrilled that his idea went viral” after Sean Hannity of FOX Network broadcast it on his cable news show.   According to the Boston.com article, “Conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity warned Friday about a rogue website that’s encouraging mischief-makers to crash tea party rallies.” 

Levin told the writer of the piece that “I think words are often more powerful than actions and if you can just get the idea out there that there is this great unwashed monolithic group of people prepared to invade the tea party, the people in the tea party — who are so ready for that message — will just take it and run with it”.

While searching the Internet about this I found one writer alerting Tea Partiers of this alleged Progressive anti-conservative effort by noting that Michael Huttner of Progress Now Colorado Education

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>