The National: Would you like tea or coffee with your politics?

Geoffry Ludt was anticipating the change he had heard so much about when Obama was elected president in 2008. A registered Democrat at the time, he was ready for the government to turn from the ways of George W. Bush. But for Ludt, that change never came, and he found that government was never corrected.

So Ludt decided to do something about his disappointment. He founded the Oregon Tea Party.

“The president promised change, and a lot of people want change, but what he’s substantively delivered is an acceleration of the same,” Ludt said. “Many folks are disappointed.”

I thought the country couldn’t have gotten any more divisive after the last Bush administration. However, it seems these days, with the rise of grassroots organizations holding rallies and making headlines, the country couldn’t be more at odds between ideologies.

The Tea Party is one such community of like-minded individuals who have banded together to take on a political system they have lost patience with. On the other end of the spectrum, the Coffee Party has emerged in hopes of spurring civil political dialogue.

Beyond the sensationalism infotainment has focused upon is an entirely different rhetoric from these groups.

Talking with the Tea Party

When George W. Bush started rolling out policies such as the infamous Troubled Asset Relief Program, many Americans, including Ludt, felt an uneasiness settling in. A community formed on Twitter discussing the matter. This online convergence of unsettled citizens was the beginning of the Tea Party.

“Businesses should have been allowed to fail,” Ludt said. “Instead, what happened was that their bad behavior was encouraged through these bailouts…the public sector reached into the private sector and distorted the free market.”

Ludt was one such person who engaged the Twitter community. After he saw that the government was not changing, he formed the Oregon Tea Party. He achieved this, in part, with a website, somewhat formatted like a social network, where regional Tea Party groups could form and communicate. Their online conversations don’t echo the fanaticism many have come to expect. Much of the dialogue seeks to sincerely discuss political issues—generally from a right-wing perspective.

Of the issues facing America today, the Tea Party is founded in combating the relationship  between the public and private sectors. The bailouts and eventually the recent healthcare reform are viewed as more socialist moves.

“We can all agree having money flow from the government, to corporations, to lobbyists, to politicians is bad,” Ludt said.

Wake up and stand up

After Tea Party protests began, filmmakers and activists Annabel Park and Eric Byler formed the Coffee Party with the “goal of expanding the influence of the people in America’s political arena,” according to its website, which asks people to “wake up and stand up.” They want to get Americans involved in discussing issues that face the country without sparking angered tirades. There is certainly a sense of support for the democracy and the American government with a desire to work with government to solve America’s problems.

Members meet at their local coffee shops discussing current issues and solutions. Great emphasis is put on welcoming anyone regardless of political affiliation, and without getting into fights.

The Coffee Party loves to organize. On its website members can find pre-written press releases, flyers for bulletin boards and starter kits for new groups with sample agendas.

There is even a radio blog hosted by Park that goes over the issues members are talking about. The guests range from book authors, professors and diverse Coffee Party members. If the Coffee Party has any shortcomings, communication is clearly not one of them.

When it comes to the issues, there is a clear division between the parties with the Coffees giving the government the benefit of the doubt.

“TARP is a good question,” said founder Eric Byler. “My guess is that [the Coffee Party] shares the mainstream view it was a necessary evil.”

Left and right and everyone else

While both movements invite all citizens to take part, they still boil down to left-wing, right-wing politics. It is quite evident that both the Coffee Party and the Tea Party share members, with some crossover between the groups. One of Park’s radio shows even interviews a member, Shane Brooks of Waco, Texas, who “drinks both coffee and tea.”

“We have many chapters around the country that have Tea Party members and former Tea Party members,” Byler said. “We welcome them because we believe very strongly that a diversity of opinions and a diversity of backgrounds give rise to the strongest and wisest collective decisions.”

Not coming as any surprise, the Tea Party clearly stems from the right-wing conservative perspective. Sarah Palin has tried to court the movement, while Glenn Beck is a regular personality among the group.

“Glenn Beck is a communicator,” Ludt said. “A lot of folks I know respect him.”

Such an influence as Beck’s might explain the draw the Tea Party does have with extreme political elements. It is difficult to deny that many who have attended Tea Party events around the nation have brought with them fanatical ideas and bigotry. Signs such as “Congress=slave owner, tax payer=niggar” or large pictures depicting Obama violently cutting the throat of Uncle Sam have marched in the movement.

Other expressions liken President Obama to primitive African tribesmen, socialists or even Hitler. Some Tea Partiers interviewed at rallies intermix deep religious convictions with the movement, with some even claiming Obama is the anti-Christ.

It is easy to see the Oregon Tea Party has put forth a civil front with little or no such extremist manifestations.

“I don’t know a racist Tea Party member, but I do know one local activist that tried to subvert the movement by encouraging widespread infiltration of the events to assist the ‘racist’ narrative,” Ludt said, speaking about Jason Levin, who started a website called “Crash the Tea Party” that encouraged people to crash events. Levin himself planned to attend events dressed as Hitler. 

Despite the initial motivations for the Tea Party, this fanatical perception has been dominant—and for good reason. The Tea Party intentionally doesn’t have any clear leadership or highly developed organization. This leaves it open for anyone to jump on board and bring with them whatever principles they wish to promote, for better or for worse.

The Tea Party may have begun with a specific intent, but an entirely different platform may be the result, one that panders to the extreme. The Coffee Party has drifted in the opposite direction—left—whether intentionally or because the Tea Party has taken all the room on the right.

“We certainly are to the left of the arbitrary line that the Tea Party and its funders/publicists have drawn. But then again, so is about 90 percent of America,” Byler said.

Despite the well-meaning members of the Tea Party, if extremists take over the message, the Coffee Party may find its civil-centered camp growing.

Whichever way people choose to lean, one notion is clear—Americans are yearning for an overhaul of their government.