Lakhota
Diamond Member
Northern California Grantmakers
Sounds provocative, doesnt it? But Van took the packed room at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation through a mental exercise:
There is no Tea Party. You cant get in a cab and say, Take me to Tea Party headquarters because there is no headquarters The Tea Party is an open-sourced brand that affiliates use but dont own.
Who are those affiliates?
Theyre small organizations that have been around for a long time, but they were able to all come under the umbrella of the Tea Party brand.
Theyre open-sourced, which means they work collaboratively. The Tea Partys Contract From America was written by approximately 50,000 people working online through a wiki. Interestingly, Van pointed out, even though the Tea Partys rhetoric is entrenched in the idea of Rugged Individualism, they act collectively to exert their political will and power.
However, while the Tea Party talks individualism and acts collectively, Progressive movements have long talked solidarity yet enacted individualist approaches. If Progressives can learn to act collectively, Van explained, the ideas can scale more rapidly and have a much bigger impact.
A Conversation With Van Jones: Understanding Movement BuildingThe Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street and Philanthropy