The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.
A little bit too Rousseauian? At the very least it endorses the nationalist conception of the United States. Bad. The CPM may be more activist and less partisan than the TPM, but is it really more anti-corporatist?
From Why I started Coffee Party USA By Annabel Park:
This is really at the root of our discontent: our government's relationship to corporate America and this special interest seems altogether unconstitutional.Conservatives tend to think that the Federal Government was made to be inefficient for good reason -- to prevent it from accumulating and exercising too much power.
As the Constitution dictates, we want a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Coffee Party USA is a democracy movement, and our goal is to have the government truly reflect the will of the people.
How do we restore the primacy of ordinary people in our government?
We can find immediate institutional solutions -- for example, changing Senate rules and procedures that impede government, countering misinformation and promoting campaign finance reform and term limits.
There is a profound relationship problem between the government and the people that it serves. Many Americans feel alienated from the corrupted political process, the dysfunction of the government and the seeming polarization of our society. The health care debate and the spectacle of the August town halls laid open all that alienation and despair.
Since August, many of us chose to cocoon in our homes, growing more frustrated and outraged over our diseased political system. This is a terrible state of affairs because the public's disengagement from politics is the greatest threat to a democracy.
We are proposing to address this threat, to practice democracy at the local level and create a home in the public sphere. What better place than a neighborhood coffee shop to create that home?
There are three steps to this model of participatory democracy.
The first step is creating a public space for open and civil dialogue. The second step is collective deliberation, considering facts and values to arrive at a decision. The third step is working toward implementing the decision.
We will practice all three steps as a community, pledging to be civil to each other.
I read this and I see a SWPL vehicle that can be used to serve the Democratic party, just as the Republicans would like to use the TPM.
FAQ: What is the Coffee Party's position on illegal immigration? What is Annabel's position given her work on 9500 Liberty?
From what I can seen of their rhetoric, those who are heading the movement seem very much to be supporters of multiculturalism. What do they do when they encounter those who do not agree with their values? Use liberalism to trump them? Or would they really submit in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the local community? Or, would they instead, appeal to their own "hidden majority" encompassing all of the United States which is supposedly tolerant, progressive, socialist, and so on?
