Who’s who in the Tea Party? (Part II)

The Nashville-based Tea Party Nation, Inc. (“TPN”) describes itself as a “user-driven group of like-minded people who desire our God given Individual Freedoms [sic] which were written out by the Founding Fathers. We believe in Limited Government, Free Speech, the 2nd Amendment, our Military, Secure Borders and our Country! ”   Its founder, Judson Phillips, is a Republican activist personal injury attorney whose personal history of bankruptcy and tax delinquency suggests that at least one of the “God given Individual Freedoms” TPN supports is the freedom to disregard one’s personal financial obligations, including taxes.

Since Phillips and his wife and cronies have operated TPN as a for profit corporation and have charged substantial fees for participation in its events, it appears that TPN also supports the freedom to cash in on the political movement of the moment.  On more than one occasion, Phillips has been quoted as saying, “I want to make a million from this movement.”  This opportunism is partly responsible for the distance that many other Tea Party factions have maintained between themselves and TPN.  Another source of disharmony between TPN and the rest of the movement is Phillips’ adherence to the Republican Party line.  Other Tea Party groups have accused him of trying to hijack the movement for the benefit of the GOP.

Phillips may be a Republican, but he is an extremely conservative one.  He has said that he isn’t looking to attract moderates, because moderates are just “those who have no core beliefs.”   TPN organized a quasi-religious “Revival Rally” and an “Altar Call” against the “Obama-Pelosi-Reid axis of evil.”  The July 2009 “Altar Call” was led by Phillips and a local conservative talk show host sporting a green Army jacket and calling himself “Sergeant Bristol.”  The “Sergeant” exhorted the congregation of Nashville’s Cornerstone Church, many of whom were dressed in paramilitary uniforms and guns, to march out and slay the socialist monster. 

Despite the steep $550 registration fee, TPN’s “national convention” in February 2010 was extremely well attended.  Phillips justified the registration fee by citing the expenses associated with the convention, most notably Sarah Palin’s $125,ooo speaking fee.  However, it appears that Palin’s fees were paid by a long-time Nashville Republican donor named Bill Hemrick.  In addition to Palin, the convention speakers and workshop leaders included Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo (who attacked illiterate voters and the “cult of multiculturalism” that elected President Obama), Alabama Republican gubernatorial primary candidate Roy Moore (who, as an Alabama Supreme Court Justice, was impeached for failing to enforce a court order to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from his courthouse, and who warned convention attendees that a spiritual war to take America back for Christianity was “inevitable”), and Dr. Rick Scarborough (a leader of the Christian Right who told attendees that American Christians had a “Godly duty to defend American exceptionalism”).  If, as Dr. Scarborough suggested, the goal of the TPN convention was to close the gap between fiscal and social/ political/religious conservatives in the Tea Party movement, it was quite a success. 

Stay tuned:  we’ve laid the foundations for the grass roots organizations, which we’ll discuss tomorrow.