Coffee Party 2011

This article is a comprehensive description of the Coffee Party and its goals and ideals, including interesting history regarding Coffee House politics in American history.

What is the Coffee Party?

The Coffee Party USA was founded in January of 2010 to serve as an alternative to the Tea Party movement. As a grassroots political initiative, the Coffee Party has grown quickly attracting a diverse group of people from around the country.

The Coffee Party now has more than 120 local chapters and more than 1,500 events have been organized overall. Online more than 400,000 people have become engaged.

Coffee Party Holds National Convention

The first national convention was organized in Louisville, Kentucky and the Coffee Party also partnered with other like-minded groups to plan a strategy summit in Washington DC focusing on the issue of corporatism and money in politics.

The Coffee Party does not have any paid staffers and makes available all of their networking and communication methods on the internet. The goal is to facilitate an energetic non-partisan (trans-partisan), solution-oriented approach to civic participation and political discourse.

Coffee Party on Facebook and YouTube

The Coffee Party movement has attracted 335,000 participants on Facebook with a virtual town hall that receives up to four million post views per day and an email list of more than 65,000.

The Coffee Party’s YouTube channel has garnered 325,000 viewers while the LiveStream channel registered 100,000 viewer minutes. The Coffee Party also created 2 Ustream channels in order to archive the first Coffee Party Convention.

What does the Coffee Party movement stand for?

The Coffee Party believes that the government isn’t the peoples’ enemy but instead is an expression of the collective will. The Coffee Party believes that citizens need to participate in the democratic process to that America’s challenges can be addressed.

The Coffee Party’s goal is to develop and replicate a very effective method of engagement and then to sustain this engagement.

By creating models of participation that are founded on the ideal of responsible citizenship they hope to energize America’s sense of patriotism and civic duty as well as a healthy respect for the democratic system of government in America.

The Coffee Party wishes to create an involved and well-informed electorate that helps to effectively govern on behalf of The People and not any special interests or lobbyists.

The Coffee Party hopes to continue using emerging social media technology to rein in corporate influence on elected representatives while also ushering in a new era of a self-governance that is responsible, effective and informed.

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What does the Coffee Party have to do with coffee?

Nothing really, except that it should be noted that coffee is considered the patriotic beverage to drink, not tea!

Coffee houses are long-known as centers of political discourse and creative, inspired thought. Caffe Greco in Rome opened in 1750 close to the Spanish steps. Goethe partook in his coffee here in 1786 when he was traveling through Italy. Others who came to this famous cafe include the creative minds of Wagner, Mendelssohn, Casanova, Stendhal and Liszt.

When the Boston Tea Party leads to a revolt against tea in 1773, coffee became the patriotic beverage in America. The revolt was started as a reaction to King George of England placing what the colonists considered to be a very burdensome tax on tea. The Boston populace was not pleased, and they were still angry about the earlier 1763 Stamp Act crisis.

At a Boston coffee house known as the Green Dragon the Boston Tea Party was planned. The citizens put on Native American costumes and journeyed to Boston Harbor. There they went on board England’s ships and tossed the tea on the ships right into the ocean.

After the Boston Tea Party coffee was considered to be the patriotic beverage and a statement of freedom from England’s oppression, and also a statement of loyalty to the ideals of the Americans. Before this time in America it was mainly the upper class citizens who enjoyed the coffee beverage.

The Coffee Party Movement and Coffee Party USA continued:

People of lesser means commonly consumed tea. However things changed after the Boston Tea Party and the commoners began to consume coffee as well as the elite.

In the Merchants Coffee House in New York City in 1774, the Committee of Correspondence sent a letter to Boston with the proposition of an American Union. (See the end of this article for more interesting early Coffee House activities.)

Also see the World’s Best History of Coffee for even earlier coffee house politics that caused ruler’s to rue the establishments due to all the talking that went on there.

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Coffee Party 2011 continued:

How is the Coffee Party USA classified?

The Coffee Party USA is a 501(c)(4) social benefit organization.

What is the slogan of the Coffee Party?

The Coffee Party’s slogan is “Wake Up and Stand Up.”

What is the goal of the Coffee Party?

The goal of the Coffee Party is to instill more cooperation in the government and also to remove undue corporate influence from American politics.

While the Coffee Party aims to be inclusive and non-partisan it does have the goal of taking positions on particular issues based on facts and principles and not on any particular ideology or political party affiliation.

Hard Work and Discipline Required for Effective Solutions

The Coffee Party has noted that this often does take longer and takes more hard work than traditional pundit politics, and requires decidedly more discipline, yet they also claims that is exactly what America needs at this time of divisiveness in political discourse.

The Republic can be saved by responsible citizenship, believes the Coffee Party faithful, and this is in contrast to citizens of the United States who too quickly adopt the rhetoric and agenda of those institutions (e.g., corporations) who have the money to use tools of mass communication.

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Coffee Party Advocates Citizen Engagement in Self-Governing Nation

It is the belief of the coffee party that self-governing nations need its citizens to think about issues and decide for themselves based upon reasonable deliberation and communicate this to elected representatives to create solutions.

The Coffee Party also believes that Internet technology allows 21st century Americans to become active participants in the political process and not merely consumers of periodic partisan politics that serves more as entertainment than engagement.

What events have been held by the Coffee Party?

The Coffee Party sponsored the first National Coffee Party Day on March 13, 2010.

How was the Coffee Party founded?

The Coffee Party was founded on January 26, 2010 by two political activists and documentary filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park who used Facebook, a social networking site, to get out their message.

Why was the Coffee Party USA founded?

The founders of the Coffee Party believed that there was too much obstructionism and incivility in America’s political discourse. They were also frustrated with the media narrative about the Tea Party movement. When Park wrote about this on her Facebook page she got many positive responses which led her to open the fan page called “Join the Coffee Party Movement.”

How fast did the Coffee Party USA grow?

In the first month the Coffee Party’s ranks swelled to more than 155,000 Facebook fans and by April the membership was said to top 200,000 with status updates receiving about one million views.

How does the Coffee Party differ from the Tea Party?

The Coffee Party places an emphasis on civil engagement with elected officials and others, believing that the democratic process works best with respectful discourse rather than trying to dominate the discourse with extreme opinions and tactics.

The Coffee Party Movement and Coffee Party USA continued:

The Coffee Party holds that America’s current political climate causes people not to participate because they are afraid and the process is generally alienating. The Coffee Party admits that they want some of the same things the Tea Party wants buy proposes a different way to get there (e.g., cooperating and civil discourse). [Also see Tea Party Platform 2011.]

After national gatherings of the Coffee Party were held three initial steps were outlined with the goal of promoting participatory democracy.

One step was to create a public space for civil and open dialogue. Next is a collective deliberation during which values and facts are considered in order to come to a decision. Third comes the implementation of the decision.

How is the Coffee Party viewed by the media?

It has been said that the Coffee Party today turned out to be more centrist and academic than was the intention of the movement’s original founders.

The media in general has noted that the Coffee Party is a breath of fresh air in the world of political activism being that it is more intellectual. The Coffee Party is considered somewhat liberal compared to the more conservative Tea Party movement.

The Coffee Party has a reputation for embracing ethnic diversity as well as political and geographic diversity. The members are generally considered to be pro-Obama.

The Coffee Party has stated that it is neither liberal, conservative, centrist or progressive.

Coffee Party 2011 continued:

Is the Coffee Party a Grassroots Movement?

The Coffee Party is considered a grassroots movement with the goal of getting Americans to become active U.S. citizens. It is part of the group’s credo that no single person’s expression reflects the entirety of the organization which is comprised of both members as well as leaders who have diverse political backgrounds, orientations and affiliations.

What happened at the Coffee Party’s National Coffee Summit?

Internet technologies were used to take several polls and votes at the National Coffee Summit and the group determined that most people were concerned about money in politics.

Ninety-five percent of the members voted for a certain course of action that supported the Fair Elections Now Act as well as the Shareholder Protection Act and the Disclose Act.

Also advocated was a constitutional amendment to reverse corporate personhood. Other prominent concerns of Coffee Party members were environmental concerns as well as immigration reform and clean energy initiatives.

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What is National Coffee House Day?

On March 13, 2010 the Coffee Party held its initial National Coffee House day event. Across the country and worldwide there were an estimated three hundred and seventy separate events including a Coffee House Day in Jakarta as well as in Tokyo.

The goal of the National Coffee House Day was to encourage people to facilitate civil and informative dialogue. In this manner the many Coffee House party chapters could discuss what affects them most collectively.

Coffee Party USA and the Coffee Party Movement continued:

The Coffee Party encouraged participants in the National Coffee House Day to report back to the main Coffee House leaders and let them know about what consensus what reached at these meetings so they could proceed in trying to help develop solutions and facilitate effective change in the political arena.

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What is the National Coffee Summit?

The National Coffee Summit took place on March 27, 2010 and involved about five hundred meetings of Coffee House members across the country. C-SPAN covered some of these meetings.

What was the Coffee Party Convention?

From September 24 to September 26 in 2010 the First Annual Coffee Party Convention was held in Louisville, Kentucky at the Galt House Hotel.

About three hundred and fifty Coffee Party chapters were represented by organizers and leaders from across the country. The goal was to further develop the Coffee Party message while planning to get more people in the U.S. involved in the Coffee Party movement.

Coffee Party Convention Features Mock Constitutional Convention

A Mock Constitutional Convention was one of the events at the Coffee Party Convention which was co-chaired by Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School Professor, and Mark McKinnon who was formerly a Republican communication strategist for John McCain as well as George Bush. There were panel discussions and workshops, and also a “Transpartisan” dialogue called

Across the Political Divide and a roundtable discussion of the question “What can we do for our country?” featuring Linda Killian, a journalist with U.S. News & World Report. Also included at the event was the Tea Party Express chairwoman Amy Kremer and Coffee Party co-founder Annabel Park.

Coffee Party Rises Up Due to Tempest Over Tea Party

The Tea Party movement’s fight against big government and excess spending was so vocal and to some intimidating that the Coffee Party rose up to give a voice to people who felt their voice had been drowned out amidst the Tea Party noise.

The founder first even suggested starting a “cappuccino party” because “that would really piss ‘em of because it sounds elitist.” She went on to say, “let’s get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion.”

Coffee Party Advocates Civility and Inclusiveness in Political Discourse

The response was overwhelming and the Coffee Party movement grew quickly. The goal became to promote inclusiveness and civility in political discourse.

The theory is to engage the government as the collective will of the people and not as the enemy. This is the way, believes the Coffee Party, to make the leaders enact progressive change as was voted on by 52.9 percent of voters in 2008.

Coffee Party 2011 – The Coffee Party Movement

Coffee Party Sees Surge in Participation of Citizens

While it still hasn’t reached the prominence of the Tea Party movement which had a national conference, a march on Washington and formed 1,200 chapters, the Coffee Party quickly gained a national audience and participation.

The tone is for a sensible progress and the Coffee Party is particularly opposed to obstructionist truth-twisting. The Coffee Party says “Wake Up. Espresso Yourself!”

Coffee Party Encourages Thoughtful Deliberation to Find Solutions

Generally speaking the Coffee Party has the view that the Tea Party uses tactics that discourage thoughtful deliberation about issues and obstruct reform. Others say the Tea Party is only pushing for fiscal responsibility and limited government as well as lower taxes and the promotion of free markets.

Coffee Party USA and the Coffee Party Movement continued:

While the Tea Party goal is considered more to monitor the government and reduce its size than to work with it in cooperation, the Coffee Party advocates thoughtful conversation and eschews closed-mindedness and believes also that technology is a way to enable better citizen participation.

It’s about re-learning the skills of talking to each other and our elected officials in order to deliberate on important issues in a thoughtful manner. Coffee Party leader Annabel Park once stated that it was “about regaining confidence that we can come together, that we can come to the middle and agree on things.”

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The Goal of the Coffee Party

The goal of the Coffee Party is to gain a stronger voice by organizing local chapters with the ideal that volunteers will work to respectfully and effectively communicate with each other and with their elected representatives.

The Coffee Party believes that every vote counts and that we indeed are a democracy so everyone needs to be engaged in the political process. By doing that then the government will truly represent the will of the people.

The Evolution of the Coffee Party

The Coffee Party has evolved since its beginnings and according to the consensus of its members, with a particular focus on ending the undue influence wielded by special interests including what they believe are deliberate tactics employed to distract and divide the American people and thus make them more vulnerable to accepting proposals that are not well-considered.

In short there is a great deal of misinformation that is disseminated loudly in policy discussions undermining sound policy decisions while the substance of the debate is overlooked.

Coffee Party Favors Consensus Over Cacophony

The Coffee Party believes that the American public becomes alienated for political participation when pundits on talk radio, television and blogs as well as in conspiracy emails display a lack of cooperation and civil discussion in favor of truth-twisting and a cacophony of rancorous voices.

Furthermore, it is a general tenet of the Coffee Party that this type of political climate decreases overall political participation with the result of weakening the democracy because a democracy depends upon its people to engage in civil discussion and give thoughtful deliberation to seek solutions by consensus. When this is not occurring then special interests are able to manipulate political decision making.

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Coffee Party 2011 – The Coffee Party Movement

Coffee Party and the Internet as an Organizing Tool

The Coffee Party sees the internet as a tool for organizing their grassroots movement which focuses on building communities where the citizens feel safe in the process of engaging in civil discourse.

With this in mind the Coffee Party organizes public gatherings including a National Coffee House Day (March 13) to encourage the exchange of information and civil dialogue about important issues that affect everyone collectively.

These groups then report back to the central coordinators so that views can be considered further and actions can be considered on what was the consensus.

Together We Stand, Divided We Fall says the Coffee Party

The Coffee Part also believes that the American people shouldn’t divide themselves over differences of opinion. Instead it is more important to build community and the way to protect that community is to engage in the American political process with a respect for the fact that the United States is a very diverse nation with many different points of view.

The overriding theme of the Coffee Party is an emphasis on the democratic process including civil engagement in a respectful manner, with elected officials as well as with each other.

Coffee Party as a Grassroots Independent Movement

As a grassroots movement the Coffee Party exists independent of any lobbying organization, corporation or political party. The goal is to facilitate collaboration that encourages citizens to come together as one community irregardless of political affiliation.

By creating a collaborative environment the Coffee Party works to foster a sense of responsible citizenship and grow a sense of community. Creative solutions come from civic pride and community pride as well as the pride in the shared ideals that generate of love of country.

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Coffee Party Reveres the Nation’s Founding Documents

The Coffee Party also likes to quote the founding documents including the Declaration of Independence and even held a Mock Constitutional Convention. It is a general tenet that members of the Coffee Party should work to gain an understanding of American history and the U.S. Constitution and guard against radical agendas that violate the Constitution.

Coffee Party USA and the Coffee Party Movement continued:

Coffee Party members come from a diverse cross-section of society and the group prides itself on being inclusive and fair. The goal is to find a common ground and seek collective action that has a strengthening effect on American democracy.

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Coffee Party is Independent of All Political Parties

The Coffee Party states directly that it is independent of all labels and political parties, and firmly a non-partisan group though a non-partisan group that comes to consensus after thoughtful deliberation and then takes stands on particular issues.

Coffee Party chapters across the country are encouraged to pursue local and regional projects of their members’ choosing and talk and learn together so they can take actions to solve local as well as national problems.

Coffee Party 2011 – The Coffee Party Movement

United States Government is Not Viewed as Enemy by Coffee Party

The Coffee Party does not view the government as an enemy and instead holds the view that the government is an expression of the peoples’ collective will. A goal of the Coffee Party is to hold accountable those leaders that obstruct positive solutions while supporting leaders who strive toward positive solutions.

A fundamental tenet of the Coffee Party is that it should be the voices of the people and not the power of the dollar that decide the direction and policies of the United States. The Coffee Party considers the shared beliefs of citizens in equality, liberty, justice and democracy is the most valuable heritage we pass on to future generations.

What was the Founding Goal of the Coffee Party?

The founding of Coffee Party USA was based on the goal of changing the political culture and wasn’t based on any policy, candidate or cause. The Coffee Party hopes to protect the democratic process and would like to set an example for all fellow Americans as well as for government representatives in the true spirit of participatory democracy. Coffee Party members are democracy activists.

Coffee Party Concerned with Corporations and Wall Street

The Coffee would like to make some fundamental changes in the way the government associates with corporations and with Wall Street. The fact that corporations can pay thousands of lobbyists to influence government representatives has the effect of a fundamental undemocratic outcome which is unfair, while the voices of ordinary citizens are not heard.

The solution to this, according to the Coffee Party, is to have citizens rise up in their civic duty. In other words, the votes are more important and more influential than the money because nobody can get elected without votes.

Coffee Party Shifting the Paradigm of Politics

The Coffee Party has also started chapters on the campuses of colleges and universities so that students can come together as a community and practice democracy. The Coffee Party has the goal of shifting the paradigm of politics so that rather than thinking of it as a zero-sum game with two opposing sides and a winner and a loser,

The Coffee Party believes that this is a misunderstanding of the basic tenets of democracy which should instead be based on the common good, and people coming together to deliberate and come to a collective decision for the benefit of the common good.

Coffee Party Advocates A Stronger Sense of Community

By creating a stronger sense of community and common good among the people of the United States, this will lead to progressive change. The Coffee Party has also stated their beliefs that the rhetorical frameworks that tend to dominate the American political process aren’t good for America.

The Coffee Party believes that it’s popularity comes from tapping into an already existing very strong desire for community among citizens, and for a constructive and productive civic participation rather than anger, extreme views, and obstructionist truth-twisting that often tends to dominate the political arena. The focus is on solution-oriented discourse.

Solution-Oriented Discourse Allows Coffee Party to Inform Elected Officials

A benefit of the Coffee Party approach is that government representatives will have a better process for knowing what their constituents want.

The Coffee Party has the underlying view that special interests are able to dominate and corrupt the political process only because there is a general vacuum of political knowledge due to a vast silent majority, many of whom have been reluctant to get involved a hostile and intimidating political environment.

Coffee Party 2011 – The Coffee Party Movement

The Coffee Party provides a much more friendly atmosphere and would prefer to lower the volume of cable news and tune out the pundits while instead meeting with each other and with elected representatives face to face and talk in a constructive manner with one another.

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Coffee Party Loves Coffee Houses

The Coffee Party, which has been accused of being “latte sippers,” things that the Coffee House is a great environment for dialogue with one another.

The Coffee Party also see the internet as sort of an on-line coffee house that utilizes technology for people to share meaningful discussions and participate in what they feel is a more accurate dialogue of real America than other forums currently available in the political process.

The Coffee Party encourages its members and the general public to add their voices to the dialogue and participate in on-line forums to talk about those issues they are most concerned about.

The Coffee Party is opposed to the loudest voice getting all the play time, or the voice with the most money behind it, and that policy positions should be evaluated on their merits and the focus should be on truthful representations and not over-exaggerations and divisive bashing of opponents’ views.

Combatting Noise with Civility is Coffee Party Motto

The goal is to combat noise with civility as a way to end misinformation and bring about meaningful discussions and education that lead to consensus and effective solutions. The Coffee Party sees this as a way to find a receptive audience where people listen to each other as well as share their own stories and ideas.

The Coffee Party sees the “emergence of the pundit class” as having a negative effect on the process of participatory democracy in which people share information, instead leading ordinary U.S. citizens to shy away from getting involved because they feel that these other people are somehow much smarter than they are and are nevertheless dominating the dialogue which is squelching discussion.

Coffee Party Encourages Citizens to be Confident in the Understanding of Issues

A fundamental belief of the Coffee Party is that Americans should be encouraged to have a great confidence in their own abilities to understand the country’s numerous challenges and the difficulties they themselves face as Americans.

This confidence leads to a healthy participation in the political process and simultaneously keeps the special interests and lobbyists from “gaming” the process in a way that exploits the loopholes in a free and democratic environment to achieve their motives at the expense of a government that listens to the people they represent rather than special interests.

Coffee Party 2011 – The Coffee Party Movement

More Interesting Early Coffee House Activities

In 1792 on the 2nd floor of the Tontine Coffee House in New York City (corner of Water Street and Wall Street), the New York Stock Exchange had its beginnings.

Trading commenced with the Buttonwood Agreement on May 17th of that year among 24 businessmen who previously had met beneath a large sycamore tree just outside the building. They had referred to this tree as Buttonwood.

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During the meeting at the Tontine Coffee House the men agreed upon trading rules and this historic location would later be used by traders, brokers, underwriters, politicians and merchants. In fact it was this coffee house where sympathizers of the French and British came to fisticuffs after the French Revolution.

Trading continued at the Tontine Coffee House until 1817 and led directly to the creation of the New York Stock and Exchange Board, the institution that was the precursor of the New York Stock Exchange.