The Carroll Standard

Resurgence: Tea Party Groups Deploying July 4

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TPM:

On July 4, the tea party will dust off the tri-corn hats and head into the streets to fight the second revolutionary war against “Obamacare.”

Tea party organizers tell TPM that the movement is planning a big Independence Day push in response to the Supreme Court ruling in favor of President Obama’s health care reform bill. The decision ruling the law constitutional — and the surprising vote of Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority — has breathed new life into the tea party, members say.

But the tea party is also growing up. And that’s one of the reasons why, organizers say, crowds will mobilize in small towns, but not on Capitol Hill.

Instead, the tea party and its corporate backers say they want to leverage their base to identify voters and activate a get-out-the-vote army in the fall. The Supreme Court’s decision made that process much easier, tea partiers say.

“My email and phone has been flooded with calls since the ruling,” said Everett Wilkinnson, president of the South Florida Tea Party. Wilkinnson vowed to defy the health care law after the Supreme Court ruling was announced, and he said people are ready to take to the streets again.

“I see people very energized,” he said. “I haven’t seen this since they passed [the health care law] or the stimulus bill.”

Wilkinnson said the people beating down his door want to get to work right away. “They’re saying, ‘What can we do? We want to get involved right now,’” he said. “The focus is really to get Obama out. We’re getting a fair amount of calls like that.”

The South Florida Tea Party, the self-described largest tea party group in that key battleground state, is deploying its own computerized voter ID and GOTV operation. Wilkinnson said bolstering that infrastructure is his short-term focus. ...continues...