Mediaboss Marketing

Does the New Jersey Republican Party have a county committee problem?John Supino, campaign manager for Patriot Party gubernatorial candidate David Winkler, thinks so.

The campaign said that Winkler is the first candidate of the Patriot Party to run in New Jersey, and were it not for what Supino described as a broken and corrupted Republican County Committee system, the Patriot Party might not have been.

Herein lies the beginning of the new chapter of the NJGOP in the post-Trump era.The Republican Party has existed for 166 years.But the establishment of the Patriot Party as a consequence of Republican frustration may be the first crack in the Grand Old Partys foundations.It comes to grips with itself now that the Trump flagsintermixed with smoke and tear gashave passed from the US Capitol and Joe Biden occupies the Oval Office.

As far as New Jersey is concerned, however, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 1,000,000, splinters such as those represented by candidates who want to continue a more Trumpian form of Republican Party will present at the least, an irritant but also a consequence.At the most, it could represent a reckoning and serious handicap to Republicans winning the governors office in the foreseeable future.Supino made it clear that the views expressed were his own and not necessarily those of Winkler, but that Republican woes were the blame of the Republicans themselves.

Last year, Winkler sought to run for Congress in the CD 8 Republican primary.The party came to [Winkler] and they asked him to drop out so they could install somebody else in his place, and the person who was put in his place was put there with the intention of losing, Supino said.David started getting a lot of attention and started doing wellI have no evidence that the other guy was there to throw the towel, but he didnt campaign, all he did was put his name on the ballot.To me, thats not a candidate who wants to win.CD 8, in the general election, consequently went to Democrat Albio Sires who beat Republican Jason Mushnick by a landslide 74% to 24.6%.Libertarian candidate Dan Delaney shaved off 3,329 votes but bears no blame for splitting the meager right-of-center vote and contributing to Sires victory.

To be fair to Mushnick, the Republican challengers performance at the polls may not be entirely surprising, however, given the institutional strength of Sires.His resume boasts a 12 year stint as mayor of West New York, then service in the New Jersey Assemblyas Speaker for 4 years, and then 13 years in the House of Representatives for CD13 and later CD8.Mushnick had previously run for Assembly District 31 with Mary Kay Palange against Democrats Angela McKnight and Nicholas Chiaravalotti, with the latter defeating the Republicans who never broke the double digits in terms of percentage taken.

Supino, who ran the campaign for Tricia Flanagan in the US Senate primary that ultimately went to Rik Mehta, took aim at the Republican county committee system for putting party interests ahead of the interests of the people.From my previous experience, the Republican Primary process is corrupt and broken.The county commission system needs to be abolished and done away with.Were probably the only one or maybe two states in the country that has this system.Its a system that perpetuates 21 kingmakers in this state.If you look at the race I did with Tricia, one person picked the candidate, that person was [Republican National Committeeman] Bill Palatucci, this is all public record.If you look at the newspaper articles, Palatucci put his arm around Mehta, took him to all the county committees with a wink and a nod and told the committees what to do, and they followed suit.So, in the worst light, Palatucci picked the candidate.In the best light, 300 or so people picked the candidate, but hundreds of thousands voted.

Palatucci had endorsed Hirsh Singh until a social media exchange over Governor Christie and Senator Cory Booker made the former switch his endorsement to Mehta, a candidate slammed by Joseph Rudy Rullo and Singh as a Democratic opiate peddler.

As for Murphys opposition headed to the election, Supino was sanguine about their timing.Jack [Ciattarelli] started last year, there are other people coming into the race on the Republican ticket, the Libertarian ticket.Voters dont care what you did the last year, they look at the last sixty days.We are going to do a hard push all the way.Events are easier to hold.Were going to draw more people than Biden, not that that is a huge accomplishment, but we are going to draw sizeable crowds.We see it already, and when the weather warms up, were going to be able to do more things outdoors.

Every campaign requires money, and good amounts of it, to keep in the game.The pandemic has curtailed most political campaigns of the usual nature, with candidates doing more and more virtual sessions to reach voters, which is a cost-saving route compared to the traditional methods.This could be advantageous to smaller campaigns, provided they can effectively use the media and internet to get the word out.I dont see overhead as being an issue.[Bob] Hugin spent millions of his own money and we dont call him senator, do we?Money is important, Im not going to lie, but we will have more than what we need.Theres a lot going on in the background, but there are things happening.This is going to be a national movement.

What the national movement referred to might manifest as, if it does, will only be seen with time. But Supinos predictions represent a serious problem for the post-Trump Republican Party as far as finding its way forward.In the state of New Jersey particularly, Supinos dissatisfaction which led to his break with the party is due to the very nature and habits of those who run the GOP.The Republicans have been in bed with Norcross for years.They had a meeting from what I understand, that 21 chairs got together and the discussion was how to run away from Trump.If thats the direction they want to take, thats up to them whether they exist or not.

What to do, then?The first thing they need to do is get rid of the county committee system that picks the candidates, because if they did, wed be running in a Republican primary.But because the system is so rigged, we had no choice but to go into a third party.

While Supino made it clear that he did not speak specifically on matters of policy, being the campaign manager, he said that the new party was coming from a position of common sense.To build support, they would be looking at a ground-level approach for what they believe are things average voters agree on.Well go to parents and ask do you want your high school girls to use the same restroom as high school boys?Nobody in their right mind could possibly agree with that.Eighty percent of the people who live their lives in such a way that these topics will touch homethose are things we are going after.

The platform was described as Common-sense populist.Very conservative, pro-2ndAmendment, pro-1stAmendment, constitutionalist.You dont need to be a lawyer to understand what the first ten amendments mean.

When asked if Supino thought that the Patriot Party represented a pathway going forward, a product of disenfranchisement with the GOP, he felt that the timing was right and that the Republican Partys own origins were proof that new parties had a viable chance, given the circumstances.With the reaction we are currently getting, not just from New Jersey but from around the country, I dont see why it wouldnt.The stage is set right now.Unlike the Tea Party, which in its time we have to give them credit, they did take the House.But we didnt have a stolen election, we didnt have people frustrated with the government the way they are today.I think the conditions are such that this may be the time.Weve had the Democratic Party since the beginning of the republic, there is no reason why if we started a new party in 1860 that we cant start a new one in 2020.The Republican Party was established in 1854 and ran its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, against James Buchanan in the 1856 election.Abraham Lincoln succeeded Buchanan in the election of 1860, the first Republican in the White House a mere 6 years after the partys creation.

When I went through the process of the county committee system and when I saw the corruption firsthand, I was appalled, Supino said.The alternative would be open primaries.Let the voters decide who is going to run.The county committees do not understand their role as they should be.They want to be the power brokers.They shouldnt be the power brokers, they should be the facilitators to get each candidates message to the people.They should host debates, meet the candidate nights, they should go out and promote every single candidate.Thats not the way it works.Right now theyve got twenty people in a room and the first thing they say is How much money do you have?Then they vote, as they are told to vote by their chairmen.Some counties are OK, they try to be fair.Morris county is trying to do a line and I hope they fail.

Supino said that of the counties, the best or fairest was probably his home county of Bergen.They have a Meet the Candidate Night where they invite every candidate and people who are interested in hearing the candidates can go.I think they should give every candidate their own night so they have more time with the people, however, I do think that that single event will probably put them out there.

In addition to the committee system being unfair, Supino accused the New Jersey Republicans of being out of touch.Presumably, the Patriot Party represents a new, alternative voice for those dissatisfied with the status quo.When you have votes in the New Jersey legislature, such as the BLM vote they took last year where every single Republican abstained, and a handful voted, for BLM Day.Is that what we stand for?A terrorist organization?I sent Representative Bergen Ted Cruzs analysis of who BLM is: theyre terrorists.And, unfortunately, the Republicans in New Jersey are afraid to call terrorists terrorists and people are fed up with it.They see the burning buildings and people dragged from their cars and kicked until theyre unconscious and were going to honor that terrorist organization with a day?The average person doesnt buy it.

The New Jersey legislature adopted June 19, or Juneteenth, as a holiday and signed by Governor Phil Murphy.Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D-Essex)introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 171to designate June 13 as Black Lives Matter Day which passed the Assembly and presently sits in committee in the Senate.Assemblyman Jon Bramnick was among the Republicans to abstain, andaccording to North Jersey, said, Black lives matter. Let me say it again. Black lives matter But this resolution doesnt deal with a concept, it refers to a specific organization.

The American political system was quite literally rocked following the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, an event which left 1 Capitol Hill Police Officer dead and 15 hospitalized.When asked about the impacts on the Republican Party following the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, Supino said, We know what happened there.Lets not kid ourselves, ANTIFA and BLM sent people in to do that.We know that, theyve been on camera, theyve been identified.Where was the outrage when they were burning cities?This is the problem, the only people in DC like Matt Gaetz are the only ones who stand up and call it what it is.People respect politicians who have a backbone.

The claim that the hundreds of rioters were undercover ANTIFA and BLM personnel is dismissed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Assistant Director Steven DAntuono who said there was no indication that they were involved.President Trump, in his call for peace and calm following the violence, told his followers we love you and that they should go home.Later, he released a message saying that those who participated in the violence would be held accountable.According to the New York Times, there has been dissention circulating among organizations such as the Proud Boys through channels like Telegram, calling Trump a total failure and weaka result of their sense of betrayal.

So, back to New Jerseydoes Jack Ciattarelli have a backbone?I like Jack, I know Jack, but from things I have seen lately, I am disappointed.

Supino felt that new ground was to be had with support from voters on both sides of the aisle looking for a more representative party.There are Democrats who arent AOC-style extremists and they want their kids to have a good education.They want their daughters not to have to use co-ed bathrooms, they want the best for their families.They see things going so far to the left, it isnt the way to go.

Nobody can have a political discussion without bringing up the contagious, microscopic elephant in the room.All aspects of life, including political life, have been impacted by the coronavirus and it has become a key issue for political leaders across the globe to handle.In many cases the legitimacy of the political establishment itself is tested by its coronavirus response, with electorates expecting results.We think [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis is taking the right course.The cure cannot be worse than the disease, when youre putting people out of business.Especially in a state like New Jersey, where property taxes are typically into the tens of thousands, people are losing their homes and businesses, for what?The government employees who are enforcing this have never missed a paycheck.Youre not allowed to open your restaurant but you better pay your taxes.Supino said that the fault absolutely lies at the feet of the political establishment.

With Jack Ciattarelli as the clear Republican choice going into the gubernatorial election, politicos have wondered out loud whether or not Bob Hugin might enter the race, seeking another run following his unsuccessful attempt to dislodge US Senator Bob Menendez.But still, all politics is local, and the county committee system is where Supino has a problem.Thats where the corruption happens.Additionally, he had little enthusiasm for the prospect of a potential or theoretical Hugin candidacy, which he did not dismiss as a possibility.He was a horrible candidate.You dont out-liberal a liberal.He didnt lose because he spent money and he wasnt going to win because he spent money, he lost based on his ideas.I worked on his campaign for a bit, but nobody was excited about getting out of bed and going to vote for Bob Hugin.Theyre not going to drag their neighbor to the voting booth.

The most appropriate role for the county committees, Supino argued, was to hold events and promote every candidate.The NRC holds their convention after the popular vote.Why dont the committees?

Supino asserted that the Flanagan campaign was ignored by the Party during the senate primary race.When Gary Rich dropped out, we were at the convention in Hunterdon County.Gary Richs team and our team called [Camden County Republican Chairman]Rich Ambrosino repeatedly to reschedule Tricias time to talk.She said we cant be there because we have an obligation to Hunterdon county, she was scheduled for a certain date and time.We tried for three or four days, sending emailsnot just us, our team and Gary Richour two teams tried and tried to get a hold of somebody to reschedule the date.Natalie Rivera was running and when Ambrosino finally called Tricia back, he said we gave the slot to Natalie, she called us this morning and asked for it.Then they put out a statement that Tricia never showed up for her appointed time.While true she didnt show up, that was because we had the obligation in Hunterdon.We tried for days to reschedule it but they refused to pick up the phone or answer our emails.So, you see how these things work.

Supino railed against a Mafia-style committee system.When [a candidate] announced he was going to run for governor, he was going to the county committees, basically to ask for permission to run.Politicians shouldnt be asking politicians for permission to run, they should go to the people.Why do we have to check with these 21 people to get permission to represent us?He continued.These people will deny it until the ends of the Earth, but Tricias first question from Monmouth County was How come this is the first time youve come to see us?In other words, why didnt you come kiss our ring for a year?Her answer was appropriate, she said she was out talking to the people who actually vote.

In his assessment of the Republican Party as it stands now, Supino was not optimistic.Given exactly whats happening here, its hard to support them.They dont care if they lose so long as they maintain power within their power structure.

Whether or not the Republican Party sees a serious threat from a third party has yet to be seen.Nevertheless, this represents a symptom that the GOP of 2021 would do well to address.If it sweeps the matter under the rug, it does so at its peril, risking minority-party status not only due to superior Democratic voter registration, but an exodus of its own.

(Visited 2,395 times, 46 visits today)

Read the rest here:
Amid Post Trump Disorder in the GOP, Winkler and the Patriot Party Make a Stand - InsiderNJ

Donors to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that helped organize the January 6 rally preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, include the Jewish Community Federation and late billionaire Republican donor Sanford Diller, according to a 990 form submitted to the IRS by the tax-exempt nonprofit in 2019.

The right-wing organization was listed on the March to Save America website alongside groups like Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action (an affiliate of Turning Point USA), and Women for America First, according to a report last week from Documented, a watchdog group that investigates corporate influence. The March to Save America website is down, but archived versions list several participating organizations. Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered for a mass event outside the Capitol last week, aiming to coincide with challenges to Joe Bidens Electoral College victory. The rally culminated in a mob attack on the Capitol that left five people dead.

The Tea Party Patriots tax filing was obtained by Eli Clifton, the a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who shared it with The Intercept.

A screenshot of a tax filing showing donations to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that organized the March to Save America rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.

Screenshot: Obtained by Eli Clifton

In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said her group did not fund the rally and denounced the violence that followed it.NeitherTea Party Patriots Foundation,Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, nor Tea Party Patriots Action spent any money on the rally, Martin said. We condemn the violence. We are shocked, outraged, and saddened at the turn of events on January 6. One of the reasons we revere our Constitution is that it created a framework that allows for the resolution of political conflict in a peaceful manner.

TheInterceptsought to reach out to people listed on the form. The form lists a person named Lewis Stahl anda man by that name is in prison for tax evasion. There was no available contact information for theWill Moose Fund or the John 3:16 FDN.

DonorsTrust, a little-known organization that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into right-wing causes over the years and given wealthy contributors the ability to do so anonymously, donated to the Tea Party Patriots a total of $103,000, according to the filing. DonorsTrust has bankrolled a range of causes in the conservative movement, from climate change denial to the rights attacks on organized labor. Wealthy conservatives use these tax-exempt charities and similar organizations known as donor-advised funds as a go-between to pump money into controversial groups and causes since they can direct their donations without legal obligations to name their donors. (DonorsTrust did not respond to requests for comment.)

The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund was among the biggest donors on the Tea Party Patriots list, giving the group a total of $100,000. The Jewish Community Federation, which also functions as a donor-advised fund, previously contributed $15,000 to Turning Point USA. In a now-deleted tweet, Charlie Kirk, leader and founder of Turning Point USA, claimed that Turning Point Action would be sending more than 80 buses full of patriots to the Washington rally.

Of the Tea Party Patriots donation, the Federation said in a statement, This was a grant made in 2017 by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund to support a donors philanthropy. We conducted due diligence prior to approving the grant to ensure the grantee was a qualified 501(c)(3). We have not received a grant request for this organization since 2017.

While the donations from these funds arent direct, donor-advised funds still have the power to vet contributions. Donors can only make non-binding recommendations from their fund, according to JCFs fund policies, and they cannot control when and how the Federation will make grants nor control decisions about which grantees will receive funding.

The formsaid a person named Tad Taube donated $70,000 to the Tea Party Patriots, and a philanthropist from the San Francisco Bay area with that name did not respond to requests for comment. John Binkley is listed as giving $29,000. John Binkley from Alaska, a Republican former state senator who launched a failed gubernatorial run and served as one of the states three electors to the Electoral College, denied that he had made any donations to any Tea Party groups. And Sanford Diller, a billionaire Republican donor who died in February 2018, made the second-biggest contribution on the list at $150,000.

Martin, the Tea Party Patriots co-founder,tweetedlate last year that she would be speaking at the Stop the Steal rally and promoted the event in the weeks leading up to it. She called for peaceful protest as the rally became violent. A few hours earlier, Martin had tweeted, We will not allow them to steal this election! though the tweet did not name the perpetrators.

The Tea Party Patriots, which was formed in 2009 and describes itself as the nations largest grassroots Tea Party organization, is fundedby two nonprofits and a political action committee.

Update; January 13, 2021, 11:45 a.m. ETThis story has been updated to include a statement from Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin that was made after the pieces publication.

See original here:
Here Are the Donors to Tea Party Group That Helped Organize Pre-Riot Rally - The Intercept

Bob Inglis, Opinion contributor Published 5:00 a.m. ET Jan. 10, 2021

Republicans and Democrats share firsthand accounts as pro-Trump supports stormed the U.S. Capitol. USA TODAY

I could have joined my colleagues and survived, even thrived, in the Tea Party era. But instead I lost an election rather than fan the flames.

A House Republican colleague returned to Washington circa 2009 to tell us how he was going to survive the Tea Party. He was just back from holding a series of Obamacare town halls in his deep red part of Georgia. He said that he had learned how to handle the rabble-rousing crowd from ameeting that had gotten off to a bad start. The people were mad at him and mad at the world. Halfway into the meeting he found a pivot. He toldthe crowd thathegot itthat they just want him to go to Washington and 'raise some hell."

The crowd roared their approval. He became an active Tea Partier that day and, subsequently, a full-throated Trumper.

Perhaps I should have learned from my friends example. It might have saved my seat in the United StatesCongress. I had had one of those raucous meetings. A man had risen in great anger to tell me that, President Barack Obama is so unpatriotic, he doesnt put his hand over his heart when the national anthem is played or the Pledge of Allegiance is recited.(Apparently, hed been surfing on some isolated internet island.)

Standing there in front of that crowd, I knew what I could have said, What do you expect from a secret Muslim ...non-American ... socialist? Any one of those responses would have done just fine at that moment.

Thats our Bob! the deep red crowd would have said.

I couldnt do it. I thought of my five kids and wouldnt do it. I have been with President Obama, I said to the man, I have seen him put his hand over his heart. What youve just said is simply not true.

Sensing the importance of the teachable moment, I continued, President Obama is a loyal, patriotic American who loves this country, loves his wife, loves his children. I just disagree with him on most every thing.

USA TODAY editorial board: Sacking of U.S. Capitol adds to rare national security failures. Police the police.

Afterwards, a Republican operative came up to me with advice: Dont give him that.

Had I taken that advice, I suppose I might have joined my House colleague from Georgia in surviving, even thriving, in the Tea Party. As it was, I was uninvited to the party. The Tea Party didnt want to hear civility, and they sure as hell didnt want to hear my message about climate change in the 2010 cycle.(Thankfully, that latter part has changed. As thesea level rises and septic tanks stop working, even the most ardent disputer of science realizes that he or she has a problem!)

I lost an election in 2010, but I didnt lose my soul. And I didnt fan the flames that blew up into an insurrection at the U.S.Capitol on Wednesday.

That insurrection could have happened earlier.

It could have happened when there was a mob a huge mob nearthe Capitol in 2009, angrily protesting against Obamacare. Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill! they thundered. From the members porch on the second floor of the Capitol, House Republicans egged them on, calling back to them, amping them up.

Republicans and Democrats shared firsthand accounts of pro-Trump supporters storming the Capitol.(Photo: Getty)

It could have happened on another occasion when the astroturf had been rolled out for a huge Tea Party rally on the West Front steps the steps that the Trump mob stormed on Wednesday. Our leadership had encouraged us to go out to speak to that crowd rev em up.

Trump mob attack on the Capitol: 10 urgent security questions that need answers

I remember feeling ill as I walked out toward that crowd through one of the doors that the Trump mob smashed on Wednesday. I cant remember whether I spoke and bombed with civility or whether I shrunk back into the Capitol, speechless. I remember being sick to my stomach, listening to a House colleague (now asenator) who did a particularly good job of revving up that crowd.

Either of those crowds could have stormed the Capitol. All they needed was an inciter in chief to light the fire. That inciter in chief struck the match on Wednesday, and the mob did what mobs do.

The fire rages, and as Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said so powerfully on the Senate floor on Wednesday night, only truth can extinguish it. Speaking truth, he said, is the burden, and the duty, of leadership.

Oh, that my party had taken a path illuminated by truth rather than one darkened by useless conspiracy theories. Oh, that my party had chosen more leaders of character willing to speak truth to our own people. Oh, that we might learn from our mistakes and bear the fruit of repentance.

Bob Inglis, a Republican, represented the Fourth District of South Carolina from 1993-1999 and again from 2005-2011.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/01/10/tea-party-protests-trump-bob-inglis-column/6594986002/

Read more from the original source:
A foreseeable fire: A steady diet of red meat turned the Tea Party into Trumpism - USA TODAY

It's messy, rowdy, bloody, irrational, and bewildering. Yet, it happens, and can happen anywhere when the ruler and the ruled start considering each other enemies. It happened a few days ago in the US. But isn't the US a democracy? Isn't an orderly transfer of power the norm in the so called most, democratic, powerful, and exceptional country in the world? It seems not. How to explain this anomaly? Is it a wayward incident in the otherwise peaceful, adorable, God's chosen country? That's what the political leadership across the partisan divide would want the world to believe. But they and the world were horrified and rightly abhorred by the silly but dangerous act of a disillusioned president and some of his equally crazy followers to have struck the citadel of American democracy. I am sure the French and the Russian monarchs were equally shaken and baffled to see the mob storm the Bastille and the Winter Palace. While the American rulers got away with just a few feathers ruffled, the other two were not so lucky.

But that's no comparison, while the other two were absolute monarchies America is a democracy or supposed to be. Well here comes the tricky part. While a democratically elected president is awaiting his inauguration nearly half of America believes the election was rigged in spite of no evidence at all. But perception in politics and faith is far more important than evidence. The Christians believe Christ was God's son; how can one contest with blind faith? Same goes for half of the American electorate. Well, that says a lot about them; no wonder a crude philanderer, and a known con man like Trump gets elected in the first place. Were they so desperate to replace the old order? Well it seems so! The question is why?

Here is where the story gets murky. No matter what the written constitution says or claims, America was established on the unwritten understanding of white supremacy by the Anglo-Saxon, Christian slave owning oligarchs right from day one. Even if they themselves suffered the colonial yoke, they had no qualm in following the moral and cultural dictum of the European's infamous "white man's burden" for pursuing the colonial project. This justified the mass slaughter of the natives and confiscation of their lands. Guns and duplicity were the two main weapons. But the lands needed to be farmed; slavery was the answer, and all in the name of God, democracy and the self-righteous high moral supremacy. These two crimes against humanity committed between 17-19 centuries were the two most basic foundational stones of the future wealthy America. So, the dirty faces of racism and expansionism became part of America's DNA.

But fortunately this is not the whole story. With gradual advances in material condition, growth of social consciousness and the ideas of human dignity, decency, education, and other civilizational attributes, the crudity and aggressiveness of white settler mentality slowly receded alright but didn't vanish. So long as the ruling elite could provide full employment, housing, and other basic necessities for the majority, not much grumbling was heard. In fact, most Americans went along with the governments narrative of the necessity to control/police the world to keep America safe. But what they didn't realise or couldn't care less about was that it was only an excuse, exerting global influence by waging endless wars across the world became the most lucrative enterprise. Pursuing this policy over nearly half a century became the key priority of a collective of elites in Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and Wall Street, cryptically called the military-industrial complex. They enforced a policy of neoliberalism at home and abroad that enabled massive income and wealth gains for a few at the top, but regular economic stagnation and deprivation for all else.

Rank of the middle class kept on dwindling, joblessness increased; medical care and education for the common people became unaffordable, while at the same time the endless cost for the endless wars kept on increasing by leaps and bounds as did national debt. Right after the market crash in 2008, people were disgusted with the established order and put great trust in Obama to change course, but he proved a disappointment. He gave in to the pressure of the three power centres that hold the levers of actual power in Washington. When Trump pointed out these failures and anomalies and promised to clean the mess, and stop the endless wars the disgruntled sections of the populace jumped on his bandwagon. Trump is no aberration; he is the cumulative result of long years of neglect of ordinary Americans by the elites. It will be a grave mistake to paint them all white supremacists. In the last four years constant vilification of Trump by the liberals and calling his supporters "deplorables" or "white trash" helped him to galvanise them into an organised grassroot fighting machine. America got polarised into two hostile camps boiling at the seams just beneath the surface of constitutional norms. And finally it burst open on January 6.

It delivered a stark message. No amount of civilities, constitutional talks, and empty rhetoric of healing by the elites will work. The hypocrisies, outright lies, and the widening wealth gap needs to be addressed. If America chooses it can be a wealthy, democratic, and a socially equitable welfare country like a few others in western Europe, the anger will slowly dissipate. Or it can go on acting like an imperial oligarchy dictating to the world, which can only imperil its own and the world's future. One thing is for sure; it can no longer be both. And it cannot pretend that nothing has happened and get back to business as usual. If a serious dialogue and accommodation across the divide cannot be worked out, Trumpism is here to stay with or without Trump. America needs to search for its soul.

Ali Ahmed Ziauddin is a researcher and activist. Email: aliahmedziauddin@gmail.com

View original post here:
An insurrection is not a tea party - The Daily Star

A billionaire businessman from the Chicago area has been the primary source of political funding for an ultra-conservative group that participated in the March to Save America rally that preceded last weeks deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, documents show.

Dick Uihlein the Republican mega-donor who lives in north suburban Lake Forest and is CEO of the Uline business supplies company has contributed nearly $4.3 million in the past five years to the political action committee of the Tea Party Patriots, including $800,000 in October, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The funding sources for last Wednesdays rally against President Donald Trumps reelection loss are not publicly documented, and its unknown if the Tea Party Patriots used any money from Uihlein toward the event.

On the website for the rally, the Tea Party Patriots were among 11 groups listed as participating in the March to Save America as part of the #StopTheSteal coalition.

The marchtosaveamerica.com website was not working Monday, but archived images of the page show event organizers pressed debunked allegations of widespread voter fraud in Democrat Joe Bidens defeat of Trump.

And they urged a big show of force in Washington on Wednesday to let the establishment know we will fight back against this fraudulent election.

At 1 p.m., we will march to the U.S. Capitol building to protest the certification of the Electoral College, organizers wrote on the website, referring to the scheduled congressional vote to ratify the election results from the states.

The co-founder and leader of the Georgia-based Tea Party Patriots, Jenny Beth Martin, also heavily promoted the event. On her Twitter account, she wrote, I will be speaking at the #StopTheSteal rally in D.C. on Jan. 6. We must demand Congress to challenge the Electoral College votes and fight for President Trump!

Martin urged her followers to RSVP at WildProtest.com. That website was not working Monday.

Then, on Wednesday morning, Martin tweeted a photo of herself in what appeared to be a reserved, front-row seat at the rally, saying, We will not allow them to steal this election!

But within five hours, as the protests devolved into rioting, Martin was striking a more conciliatory tone, writing, Keep it peaceful.

After Trump spoke at the rally near the White House telling supporters he will never concede and urging them to fight and to march on the Capitol a pro-Trump mob overwhelmed security to storm into the Capitol. The insurrection temporarily suspended Congress and left five dead, including a police officer.

Federal and local prosecutors in Washington have charged dozens of Trump supporters from across the country with contributing to the unprecedented scenes on Capitol Hill. The alleged rioters who were arrested included Bradley Rukstales, a 52-year-old business executive and Trump campaign contributor from northwest suburban Inverness, who was detained Wednesday afternoon on the upper level of the Capitol, court records show.

Wednesdays violent unrest has sparked heated debates over the culpability of Trump and his backers who falsely alleged that he actually won the election.

The Tea Party Patriots did not return messages, and Uihlein did not reply to questions sent by WBEZ to a spokeswoman for his company.

The Uline shipping supplies company is based in Pleasant Prairie, a Wisconsin town just over the state line from Illinois. Uihlein and his wife, Liz, have been among the biggest political donors in the country and in Illinois campaigns for years.

Dick Uihlein has shelled out more than $136 million to federal candidates and campaign committees, according to FEC records. Hes also contributed about tens of millions more to campaign in Illinois, most of that to the now-defunct Liberty Principles PAC.

In April 2016, Uihlein began to heavily support the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a PAC started in 2013. Records show he gave it nearly $1.5 million in 2016, more than $1 million in 2017, $950,000 in 2018 and the single, $800,000 contribution last year.

Thats made Uihlein by far the single biggest donor to the Tea Party Patriots PAC in each of the last three two-year federal election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.

Records show the Tea Party Patriots had contributed in recent years to Trump and to Republican lawmakers, including members of Congress who sought to overturn Bidens victories in hotly contested states. They included Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Mo Brooks of Alabama, whom House Democrats want to censure for his remarks at the Trump rally.

The group lent its name to a rally that led to an insurrection, said Don Wiener, a researcher with the left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wis. Donors bear some responsibility for the activity of the groups they fund.

The Tea Party Patriots touts itself as the largest and most effective national umbrella group within the Tea Party movement.

In one of Martins tweets promoting the rally, she said she would appear in Washington to support Trump with Dr. Simone Gold, who has worked with the Tea Party Patriots to urge the swift reopening of the economy since early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Gold also heavily promoted the the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 sufferers. Trump repeatedly praised the drug, which medical experts say is ineffective in helping coronavirus patients.

Gold is in one of the photos taken at the Capitol that the FBI released Sunday, when the agency called on the public to help identify individuals who actively instigated violence on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C.

She told the Washington Post she was in the Capitol for about 20 minutes on Wednesday and gave a speech in the buildings Rotunda, but she said she did not see any of the violence.

In addition to the Tea Party Patriots, the other 10 groups listed as participating in the rally before the Capitol riot included Women for America First, which applied for the permit for the event.

Another group that participated in the rally was Turning Point Action, a sister organization of the far-right Turning Point USA group. Between 2014 and 2016, Uihleins foundation donated $275,000 to Turning Point USA, which is led by Arlington Heights native Charlie Kirk, according to records.

In a tweet he later deleted, Kirk took credit for sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president last Wednesday. Kirk since has said the Trump supporters his group brought to the rally left after it and did not go to the Capitol.

He also said it was not wise for Trump supporters to enter the building, which was closed to the public. But Kirk quickly added, Not wise does not mean youre an insurrectionist, OK?

A group of Republican attorneys general also have come under strong criticism for funding robocalls promoting the Trump rally, despite the incumbent presidents long string of court defeats in his effort to challenge the November election results.

Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul lashed out at these GOP counterparts, saying, Those tasked with upholding the rule of law should be the last to engage in promoting an attack against our democracy through robocalls. Subsequently denouncing the predictable violence that grows from it does not clean hands!

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZs Government & Politics Team.

Originally posted here:
Chicago-Area Billionaire Gave Millions To Patriots Group That Backed Pro-Trump Rally - WBEZ