Just as I was sitting down to write this post a friend of mine in Colorado Twittered, "Tea Anyone?" Instantly, I got it but realized few would; which is why I wanted to write this quick post.
Today, all around the country, there are small to significant rallies and protests against the bureaucracy and out of control spending our government is enjoying while the American people are enjoying little. In the past these types of gatherings would require organized leadership and methods of announcement dependent upon established authority and civic duty... but not anymore. Why? Social Networking! Look at what Glenn Harlan Reynolds wrote today in the op-ed section of the Wall Street Journal.
In the old days, organizing large groups of people required, well, an organization: a political party, a labor union, a church or some other sort of structure. Now people can coordinate themselves.
We saw a bit of this in the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, with things like Howard Dean's use of Meetup, and Barack Obama's use of Facebook. But this was still social-networking in support of an existing organization or campaign. The tea-party protest movement is organizing itself, on its own behalf. Some existing organizations, like Newt Gingrich's American Solutions and FreedomWorks, have gotten involved. But they're involved as followers and facilitators, not leaders. The leaders are appearing on their own, and reaching out to others through blogs, Facebook, chat boards and alternative media.
It'll be interesting to see how this will matter or whether anything will come of it. But then again, while the Boston Harbor, in the still of an evening became the largest, albeit salty, pot of tea the world has known, didn't just flush out to sea... No, without a sip, it became the elixir of a revolution.
