Democrats today mocked Tea Party activists with a fake “Republican Tea Party” agenda, arguing that the conservative grassroots are really elitists who are one and the same with Republicans.
“They talk about the Tea Party and make us think that this is some kind of grassroots movement harkening back to the Tea Party of the American Revolution,” an incredulous New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, flanked by other Democrats at a DNC press conference, said Wednesday.
But Tea Party activists today, he said, advocate positions that only benefit the wealthy.
“If you think about it, the Tea Party was out there trying to basically agitate against the king,” he said of the historical Tea Partiers, making a contrast with the activists who use that name today. “But many of these policies of the Tea Party — the Republican Tea Party candidates — really go back to the king or to the elite or to the wealthy and to the well to do.”
Pallone continued: “Please don’t be fooled by the label. The label is misconstrued. The reality is it’s the same old Republican policies and it’s putting the same old people in charge.”
DNC chairman Tim Kaine said the Tea Party is “the most potent force in Republican politics” before unveiling the DNC’s “Republican Tea Party Contract on America,” a list of what they say are the shared priorities of Republican candidates and Tea Party activists.
“There is no doubt that Tea Party and the Republican Party have fused themselves,” said Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, who also pointed out that a great number of Republican members and candidates have signed a real document the Tea Party “Contract from America” that is very similar to the Democrat’s fake document.
But the Tea Party activist who came up with the “Contract from America” document says that’s just flat out wrong, and said his list is made up of mainstream ideas. The fake “Republican Tea Party” agenda released by the Democrats today, activist Ryan Hecker told The Daily Caller, doesn’t reflect Tea Party priorities.
“I was looking at the Contract from America and the document that they released and there’s only two similar planks,” Hecker said. “I’m a little confused at where they’re getting, ‘this is what the Tea Party stands for.’”
The fake document includes 10 priority planks for “the Republican Tea Party” like repealing the 17th amendment, which provides for the direct election of senators, and abolishing the Department of Education.
Hecker said the only similarities between the Democrats document and the Contract from America are the planks about extending tax cuts and repealing health care.
“It’s kind of funny that what the Democrats put out is a mocking of real ideas without offering any of their own,” he said.
Hecker also said that the Contract from America is not just open to Republicans, but Democrats too.
