As it continues to ramp up its efforts for the 2012 election cycle, a national umbrella organization for the tea party movement readily admits its grassroots organizing strategy is borrowed from the left's political playbook. "Whether they win or lose a campaign, an election, a fight of some kind -- did they come out stronger than they went in?" is how Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks' director of state and federal campaigns, described the grassroots approach utilized by liberals. Matt Kibbe, FreedomWorks president and CEO, pointed to a strategy that was "very consistent with all of the left's literature on community organizing." He attributed a specific phrase that the tea party group has adopted -- "winning by building and building by winning" -- to the Sierra Club in the 1990s. "I stole it from them," he said.
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FreedomWorks pursuing grassroots strategy that aims to build long-term organization
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Author: Tea party movement becoming a permanent special interest group within the GOP
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FreedomWorks CEO: Once activists become connected, you just have to "feed the machine"
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Indiana tea party activist: "You unite, you'll change the world"
@placeholder explained how a connected community of activists can get established and then engage in get-out-the-vote efforts.