Last night saw the Washington, D.C. premiere of Tea Party: The Documentary Film. David Weigel was there, and gave a thorough write-up of the movie and event. Excerpt:
"Tea Party: The Documentary Film" is, according to its stars and filmmakers, an attempt to celebrate — and correct — the history of what [Dick] Armey called a movement to "fulfill the destiny of this land." [Producer Luke] Livingston said he and his volunteers paid for the movie, "maxing out our credit cards," for a total of around $500,000. Two more members of Congress, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), joined the proceedings to pay tribute to the activists who organized the 9/12 "taxpayer march on Washington," which drew an estimated 60,000 people to the Capitol to protest the Democrats' economic agenda. […]
Price, the sponsor of a resolution paying tribute to the 9/12 march, credited Tea Party activists with giving Republicans "the courage to do what we need to do." After his short remarks, he asked more than a dozen activists to join him onstage to accept framed copies of the resolution, which has been sponsored by 148 members of the Republican conference but has not come up for a vote. […]
In the film's telling, the movement began with anger at President George W. Bush. His voice, announcing the September 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 with warnings of what will happen "if the free market is allowed to work," is the first sound viewers hear at the start of the movie. Price, the member of Congress featured most often in the film, later argues that Tea Party anger goes back to the March 2008 collapse of BearStearns, and the government's corresponding rescue package.
From there, the Tea Party movement is portrayed as a natural next step in America's history of peaceful rebellion against the government.
Whole thing here. For sure, it will be interesting to track Republicans' ongoing efforts to make or at least portray Tea Partyism as a GOP grassroots phenomenon.
Watch Reason TV's report from the 9/12 protest below. More links here.
