Tea Party advocates select different brews to stir the pot

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Tea Party advocates select different brews to stir the pot
By TOM GIAMBRONI/tgiambroni@reviewonline.com POSTED: August 14, 2009 Save | Print | Email | Read comments | Post a comment
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LISBON - The local Tea Party movement has split, with some leaving the parent organization because they felt it was getting too "radical."

"If they have the same objective as us, we respect that, but we're trying to stay clear of radical movements because that's not who we are or what we're all about," said Anita Fraser of Salineville.

Fraser said she and some other members quit the Columbiana County Tea Party to join with Patriotic Tea Party of Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Fraser, who was president for a short time of the local Tea Party group, said there was a growing difference of opinion over their approach to opposing the policies of Congress and the Obama administration.

Specifically, Fraser said they disagreed about taking a more confrontational and aggressive approach in pursuing their goals. She said some of the group had become disruptive at meetings, and one person even talked about wanting to get arrested.

"We're going to do everything we can peacefully and lawfully to be heard," Fraser said, adding the news media already is portraying them as angry, dangerous, anti-government zealots.

"We need to avoid playing into stereotypes ... We need to project a positive image," she said.

County Tea Party leader Robert "Duke" Bennett of Wellsville laughed when told some in his group were described as "radicals." "Our radicals are generally people who are in their 60s and 70s," he said of the Tea Party's makeup.

Bennett said they stand for change through peaceful means, and that includes exercising their First Amendment right to protest, and sometimes that means getting loud to get your point across. The group has staged protests outside U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson Jr.'s county office in Wellsville, including one held on Monday, although the congressman was not present. They also showed up a public function Wilson attended in East Liverpool a couple of months ago.

Bennett sees nothing wrong with this approach, which he said is needed to draw public attention to their cause while also trying to convince elected officials to oppose what they believe are the ruinous policies of the Obama Administration - quadrupling the federal budget deficit, cap-and-trade, national health care, to name a few.

The split was over other issues, Bennett said, with one being the role of religion in the movement. Bennett, who is a nondenominational Christian preacher, left the group for a short while in June after some objected to his frequent references to God and religion during protest rallies. After Fraser and the others left, he said the Tea Party "contacted me and said they wanted to bury the hatchet and join forces again."

Fraser disputed this, saying all of their rallies begin and end with prayer. The problem is the preaching was overshadowing the intent of the rallies, which is to generate support for the cause.

"I'm a Christian, but we're not going to conduct services that turn people off," she said. "It's less about God and more about abiding by the principles of our Founding Fathers."

Bennett said he and others also felt Fraser's group was becoming too closely aligned with the Republican Party, which helped stage the July 3 protest in Hanoverton attended by an estimated 1,200 people. "They kind of sold out and went to the Republicans for financial support. They basically became the cliche the media has accused them of becoming," he said.

Fraser, whose new group had a presence at the county Republican Party tent during the county fair, said they are concerned about being closely identified with the GOP, but she said that is where you find most of the people who agree with them. She said they have reached out to disenchanted Democrats and will continue to do so, and some actually have joined the organization.

"They say this isn't the change they voted for."

Bennett said they want to steer clear of both political parties, since they believe the Republicans are as equally guilty as Democrats in creating the current mess, and to do otherwise will only undermine the movement.

Friars said the split has hurt the movement, with some prominent supporters bowing out, which she hopes is only for the moment.

"I don't blame them. If I saw the infighting, I would step back too," she said.

Despite their differences, Bennett said he and Fraser find common ground in their opposition to the way things are going at the national level.

"We have a major problem here. We can't let personalities get in the way."