The Coffee Party, Ready to "Take Up Democracy" This Weekend

As the Tea Party saga continues another political movement, one covered much less by the media and with zero corporate sponsorship, is holding its first national convention this upcoming weekend.

The Coffee Party, named after another hot beverage important to the American Revolution, is the outgrowth of a self-described “rant” posted on Facebook by founder Annabel Park in January of this year. The rant was a reaction to both the Tea Party's claim to represent "real America" and the media's increasing acceptance of that claim. Soon after, the Coffee Party went viral, eventually growing to nearly 300,000 fans on Facebook where some of Park's posts have tallied 4 million views per day while also amassing an email list 65,000 strong and 275,000 views on their YouTube channel. Now, for the first time, the largely digital-only movement will have a chance to meet face-to-face in Louisville, Kentucky starting tomorrow September 24.

One purpose of the convention, Coffee Party co-founder Eric Byler said, is a chance for them to catch up for the fact that there was never any planning -- the movement simply took off .

"The initial thing was unplanned and unfunded -- it just happened all over the country because there was that much impetus for ordinary people to organize in the way that hyper-partisan leaders were organizing highly agitated people," he said.  "It was alarming to look in the mirror and see a different face, seeing all this media coverage of the Tea Party presented to us as if it was the face of America."

For many he said, this reflection resulted in "tissue rejection."

Another goal for the convention is to establish trust among Coffee Party rank and file.

"We want to create a culture of trust," Park said. "And this reinforces the other issues we care about: if we want good things to happen in the country, we need to work on our values of trust and understanding and make a choice to do it in a democratic and peaceful manner."

According to the Coffee Party website, the movement's ultimate goal is to establish an "informed and involved electorate that takes seriously the responsibilities of citizenship, not only for the purpose of winning elections, but to effectively govern our nation on behalf of The People, and no other interest." They believe that patriotism is not derived from "shared resentment, anger or fear" but on defining "shared values and ideals." Finally, while officially non-partisan, The Coffee Party will not shy from taking political positions but will do so based on "principles and facts" not on "party affiliation or ideology."

Before the Coffee Party, Park and Byler worked together on 9500 Liberty, a documentary about the struggle over immigration policy that bitterly divided the community in Prince William County, Virginia back in 2007. Many of the story's elements presaged what has since taken place across the country. There, the loudest anti-immigrant fringe took command of the issue, scared away moderates and pushed through the controversial Probable Cause Mandate that required police to stop and question anyone they suspected was undocumented -- a mandate very similar to Arizona's S.B. 1070. Not until the anti-immigrant activists personally went after the local chief of police who dissented from enforicing the mandate did the tide begin to turn, and as Byler said: "Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, grocery store owners and soccer moms all stood up against extremism, and repealed the law."

In Prince William County Park and Byler had set up a YouTube channel for its residents to see what their fellow citizens were saying and doing about the controversy. "We used the internet to supply information in a climate dominated by rhetoric and misinformation,” Byler said. Doing this gave people who were previously uninterested or scared the confidence to speak up, and in the end, mobilized the silent majority.