This morning I find myself in an interesting situation. I’m constantly asked to take positions on internal “disagreements” within the Tea Party Movement, and I generally ignore them or refuse to comment.

In my experience, my comments only add fuel to the fire and I believe there are more fruitful ways to spend my time.

In the recent flap over Mark Williams and his stupid comments, however, I think the Tea Party Express is getting an unfair shake. And worse, it’s coming from a group who claims to desire unity within the movement, yet is feeding corporate media red meat over its “decision” to “expel” the Tea Party Express from its ranks.

First, and for the record, I personally reject the content of Mark Williams’ post.

That said, I would to like to toss in a couple of points I find interesting about this story.

1) Mark Williams is not the Tea Party Express.
Mark Williams is an individual who serves in the leadership of the Tea Party Express (or at least HAS served in this capacity in the past), but he did not write this post as the Tea Party Express.

2) People in the movement cannot “expel” others from the movement
This is absurd. There are people in any movement who do not represent the views of the movements in general, but who has the authority to “remove” them from the movement? Granted, this “federation” or group in no way holds the power to expel anyone from the movement. The problem, however, is this is how they’re spinning it to the media. As if they speak on behalf of EVERYONE in the movement.

3) People in the movement cannot “expel” organizations from the movement
Same as above. The Tea Party Movement is just that… a movement. Not an organization.

The unfair shake

I mentioned that I feel Tea Party Express has gotten an unfair shake. Let me expand on this, but first I’ll admit I’ve probably been too critical of their efforts as well. Most of my criticism, while small and insignificant compared to that of others, was based on inexperience and assumption.

My guess is this is the case for most others who have attacked Tea Party Express.

Let me explain.

Yes, it can be argued that Tea Party Express has some roots tied to the GOP. I no longer care about that, though. Nor should you and I’ll tell you why.

Liberal Democrats are now responsible for the biggest problems we face as a nation. I’m a libertarian minded activist, but I’ll ally myself with the Tea Party Express because like me, they intend to defeat those responsible for this mess.

The question we have to ask ourselves is simple… “who does it benefit in the end?”

If supporting the efforts of the Tea Party Express removes corrupt incumbents from Washington, count me in. If starting stupid turf wars within the tea party movement with the Tea Party Express makes it more difficult to defeat corrupt incumbents, count me out.

Furthermore, what other Tea Party organization raised and spend well into the six figures in support of conservative Sharron Angle in Nevada? Heck, the Tea Party Express deserves probably 90% of the credit for Angle’s win in that primary race.

I know some tea party organizers don’t like that so much money goes to “consulting firms,” and I used to share that sentiment. But now that I run a PAC I get it. You can’t get done what needs to be done without going through those channels.

Who does the media buys? Who creates the ads? Who crafts the message? Who works with the media?

People donate to PAC’s so that money can be spent to accomplish these things. Why are we pretending there is something wrong with this?

Why are we demonizing a PAC that got a true patriot into the general election against the Senate Majority leader Harry Reid?

Yes, Mark Williams made a ridiculous comment on his blog. But we as a movement need to stop feeding the media frenzy and worry about November 2nd.

No organization is perfect. Individuals within the Tea Party Express and I have not seen eye to eye on multiple occasions. But we’ve addressed those issues privately and moved on.

Tea Party Express, in my opinion, is a friend of the movement… not a foe. We’ll have disagreements from time to time, but we’re still all fighting the same fight.

Let’s remember the end goal and make that the top priority.

That’s my two… for what it’s worth.

-Eric Odom