05-13-2013, 10:56 AM
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in a van by the river
Industry Role:
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 76,806
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Quote:
Originally Posted by _Richard_
yea, but did it start like that? or was it an honest creation by republican voters to 'fix the party'
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This is the too long didn't read version.. This was a study on the Tea Party by the American Cancer Inatute that linked the founding groups of the Tea Party, (Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks) to big Tobacco.
It was never grass roots .. It wasn't hijacked it was straight up founded by the Koch Bros for Big Tobacco as a anti corporate tax movement..
Quote:
Abstract
Background The Tea Party, which gained prominence in the USA in 2009, advocates limited government and low taxes. Tea Party organisations, particularly Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, oppose smoke-free laws and tobacco taxes.
Methods We used the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, the Wayback Machine, Google, LexisNexis, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) to examine the tobacco companies’ connections to the Tea Party.
Results Starting in the 1980s, tobacco companies worked to create the appearance of broad opposition to tobacco control policies by attempting to create a grassroots smokers’ rights movement. Simultaneously, they funded and worked through third-party groups, such as Citizens for a Sound Economy, the predecessor of AFP and FreedomWorks, to accomplish their economic and political agenda. There has been continuity of some key players, strategies and messages from these groups to Tea Party organisations. As of 2012, the Tea Party was beginning to spread internationally.
Conclusions Rather than being a purely grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party has developed over time, in part through decades of work by the tobacco industry and other corporate interests. It is important for tobacco control advocates in the USA and internationally, to anticipate and counter Tea Party opposition to tobacco control policies and ensure that policymakers, the media and the public understand the longstanding connection between the tobacco industry, the Tea Party and its associated organisations.
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