Community | March 15, 2010 | 43 comments

What is the Coffee Party?

source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124648089&ft=3&f=124648089

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magnusdeus
Several weeks ago, documentary filmmaker Annabel Park was sitting in her apartment in Silver Spring, Md., when she updated her Facebook page with a good, old-fashioned rant. "Let's start a coffee party — a Red Bull party — anything but tea," she wrote. "Let's get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion."

In just a few weeks, fans of the Coffee Party on Facebook mushroomed from a few hundred to more than 100,000 — making Park the accidental leader of a political movement.

more at link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124648089&ft=3&f=12...
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Coffee Party Site:
http://coffeepartyusa.com/

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What do you think? Grass-roots awakening or more astroturf politics?
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43 comments // What is the Coffee Party?

  • courage
    • -3
      courage  

    • This group is straight from the heart of the DNC.There web page calls for mob rule you know if the majority thinks something should be then it is.So instead of being a country of laws we are ruled by the largest group of idiots we can get together.Say every one decides that women shouldnt vote well ok thats what the majority wants.Or the majority thinks you should go to jail for being gay well ok majority rules.Liberals seem to want to throw liberty and the rule of law away just for there instant gratification what happens the next time a conservative is elected and want to do something like inact the fairtax.org (man that would be great) and abolish goverment unions that will be what the majority wants.Jesus christ people im a atheist and you got me callin to the imaginary lord.Please read a book like Founding Brothers or something not tainted by the leftist that run our schools.In 1786 democratic was a epitath of the highest order.

    • 1 year ago
  • Saladin
    • +4
      Saladin  
    • courage:

      Jesus what a load of shit, do you even read what you write?

      They barely advocate for anything other than civil discussion of issues and reform of the Federal Government so that it represents the people and not corporations.

      That's it, that's their whole fucking mission statement. None of this redbaiting, Glenn Beck propaganda you've put up here.

    • 1 year ago
  • Chique
  • emarston
  • Argon18
  • ChunkyCheezes
    • +1
      ChunkyCheezes [removed]  

    • .*Cough* first the teabaggers and now the coffeebaggers? how many pairs of balls can we fit in our mouths at once? These obstructionists are always trying to obstruct our breathing by shoving their nuts down our throats.

    • 1 year ago
  • kitteneater
  • remanns
  • RudyRudell
  • blackheartman
  • Saladin
    • +1
      Saladin  

    • I've been on their forums a bit and they're having trouble reaching a consensus.

      Some of the discussions are radical, ending the senate, abolishing the electoral college, public financing of campaigns and the banning of private funding and lobbyists just to name a few.

      But there is still a lot of division and uncertainty, so none of that stuff has been decided yet.

      One thing, for sure though, they all agree on. Repeal the recent SCOTUS decision and return the power of the Federal Government to the people, not the corporations.

      They stand strident from the tea party in that they are not anti-government. They want reform, not to tear the whole thing down.

    • 1 year ago
  • UrbanGypsy
  • remanns
  • UrbanGypsy
  • Ricky84
    • +2
      Ricky84  

    • I checked out the website the other day and at this point all I can really say is meh. Don't get me wrong I think promoting an intelligent and civil debate is great but to be honest a spur of the moment idea plus a website does not automatically equal a win. Somewhere along the line someone will have to figure out how to actually get complete strangers to discuss politics in the manner described and just as important how to keep it that way.

    • 1 year ago
  • Chique
    • +2
      Chique  
    • Ricky84:

      That point has been proven on Current, no doubt, but the majority of banter is civil with a few exceptions. The out of hand aggression usually starts with name calling and labeling which seems to be the tea party's platform. I say their premise is a very good start and worth getting involved with in hopes of having a more positive outcome.

    • 1 year ago
  • crob80227
    • +3
      crob80227  
    • Chique:

      Good point Chique. Personally I think the real problems in civil discourse started when the politicians on the Right started demonizing anyone who disagreed with them. This trend of over-the-top demonization by the Right has been going on for a long time now. You had John Kerry Swiftboaters insisting Kerry hated America, was a traitor and a murderous war criminal to boot. George W. Bush insisted that anyone who questioned the Patriot Act or the war in Iraq was a traitor. Fox News anchors also claimed that to question Republican policies was traitorous and only American-haters who do it. Michele Bachman is still insisting that the 2010 Census is a communist plot. Sarah Palin kept going around the country and talking about Death Panels and how then Sen. Obama “pals around with terrorists” when he isn’t busy making pipe bombs in his Senate office in his plot to destroy America (he’s from Kenya, ya know!)

      The Right likes to make the claim that the demonizations are equal on both sides, but they really aren’t. The reason the political dialogue in this country has become so poisoned is because prominent Right wing politicians and “entertainers” like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh have worked to make it that way.

      A huge part of the solution has got to be rising the public’s consciousness so that they can see what the Right is doing and illustrating just how they are poisoning the well. The Right can’t keep insisting anyone who disagrees with them are traitors, commies or America-haters and proclaim that they are being “civil.”

    • 1 year ago
  • courage
    • -1
      courage  
    • crob80227:

      Wow Im glad the Left never demonizes anyone im sure Judge Boortz and Judge Thomas are glad of that too. I was going to try and continue the list but it is just to damn long!

    • 1 year ago
  • CalgarC
  • 402Chicago
  • CalgarC
  • Chique
    • 0
      Chique  

    • It's a wake up call from a (long island) tea hangover. Civil discussion working toward solutions that invite all political affiliations. About time!

    • 1 year ago
  • crob80227
    • +3
      crob80227  

    • The Coffee Party is about coming up with political solutions and recognizing that this country is a melting pot and not everyone is going to exactly what they want all the time...and that tolerance of other beliefs and compromise is key.

      The Tea Party is about being "pissed off" and has no solutions other than to say they "hate government" and stock piling weapons. And a key characteristic of the Tea Partiers is an absolute intolerance for any beliefs that contradict their own. They are "right" and everyone else is an evil commie traitor that deserves to die.

      This is the part where a Tea Party person will write "Not true!" and they I will ask them to list their list of compromises and proposed political solutions. They never do because outside of "hating government" and stock piling weapons to prepare for when Obama rounds up citizens for slave camps...they have no ideas or plans.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • thedirtman
  • remanns
  • thedirtman
    • +2
      thedirtman  
    • remanns:

      Great, so there is an interest. Of course the beer party could not be about politics. It would be more like, what actually happened during the day as seen without the filter of politics. It would have to be about information and laughs.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  
    • thedirtman:

      A "beer party" would be a ;"pub gathering",....a "back 40 fence line chat",...people from all around talking at a campfire at a state park,,....having a beer with workers you don't know from "round here"; at the loading docks farther up,....down,....or on another coast -Gulf, Pacific, Atlantic,- have a beer next to a TRAIN,....on an old American line,....talk to workers and old farts,.....sit in a neighborhood,....where planes planes planes planes planes,....siren down from the sky to tarmac across the fence across from which you live,...with the flamingos,...or the "free the weed " signpost on the lawn,....GO to garage sales,....talk to those people you dont know. Buy an "old" thing: TALK about values.

      end rant

    • 1 year ago
  • CalgarC
    • +1
      CalgarC  
    • thedirtman:

      first order of buisiness, should we have government run martinis, and if so will they be gin or vodka based :D . do we send 30,000 more troops to aid the Irish in their quest to find those hundred year old crates of whiskey in, was it antartica...

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • thedirtman
  • remanns
    • +3
      remanns  

    • "In fact, after they dumped tea into the harbor, the Continental Congress declared coffee the national drink," Park adds. "That became the solution to the problem."

      THAT is toooooooo kewl. I did not know that. NOW I am very glad I do. THAT I actually DO want "printed on my cup".

      also "Tea baggers dunk it,....coffee men are grinders"

    • 1 year ago
  • tylervictoria1
  • bking74
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • bking74
    • +3
      bking74  
    • ibrake4rappers13:

      A multi-party government would be an amazing thing to witness in my life time. A political landscape where more then just two opposing views are aired and we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. And if a group of women drinking tea or coffee can help make that happen then they have my full support. That and about a buck-fifty will buy a cup of coffee or tea (awful pun I know but I couldn't resist)

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • ibrake4rappers13
    • 0
      ibrake4rappers13  
    • bking74:

      I think the system we have now is fine, I just want to Inject the parties with conservative values.

      Sometimes we just have to step back from the two party system and get to know what we believe as americans, not as democrats or republicans

    • 1 year ago
  • magnusdeus
    • +4
      magnusdeus  

    • After looking at their website, I think the media is playing the anti-teaparty card a little too heavily. From what I see it doesn't have a political agenda aside from promoting political discussion and awareness, but I guess the attendees will generally be Obama supporters so Republicans will reject it...

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
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