The new face of the North Country’s tea party
Last year, Doug Hoffman was the undisputed champ of the North Country’s tea party movement.
He was a national icon, and the accountant from Lake Placid emerged from anonymity to come within a whisker of unseating Republican and Democratic candidates.
Hoffman is back, of course, hoping to win the GOP nomination in the 23rd congressional district race.
But there’s a fresh face attracting a lot of attention these days in Plattsburgh tea party organizer Mark Barie.
Full disclosure: Barie and I partnered on a Mountain Lake PBS TV show for a couple of years.
He was a regular; I was an occasional guest. I find him to be smart, rigorous, with serious views about the economy and the role of government in society
Barie has diligently avoided some of the queasy excesses of the tea party movement.
He’s not visibly aligned with nutty talk-show hosts like Glenn Beck. He avoids the race and militant language that distracts from the movement’s core message.
In an editorial on Wednesday, the Plattsburgh Press-Republican took note of Barie’s growing profile.
He’s almost certain to play a role in the upcoming congressional race, perhaps a more significant role than many of the local GOP county chairs in the 23rd district.
Will he support Doug Hoffman? Will he go with Republican Matt Doheny?
And how aggressive will he be toward Bill Owens, the Democratic incumbent, who is a long-time acquaintance of Barie’s and another Mountain Lake PBS alum?
Over the long term, it will also be interesting to see how activists like Barie translate their passion and their ideas.
Will their candidates win elections? Will they coalesce around policies that solve real problems? Will they govern well?
For now, Barie has made huge strides in raising his own profile and creating a new political center of gravity in the North Country.
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Brian, I truly don't mean to be a thorn in your side, but why exactly is Glenn Beck a "nutty talk show host"? I hear this constantly but other than some misrepresentations and pure hate of the right type talk, I've yet to hear anything that qualifies him as "nutty". I'm sure your friend is a fine person. But I'd like hear your views on this other area.
I actually think Beck goes well beyond nutty. Creepy, troubled, un-American, deceptive, dangerous — all those labels apply.Beck is a master of the ad hominem attack, of the big lie.He lobs the most incendiary attacks, and then ducks behind a facade of being "a clown" or "an entertainer."What makes this whole package troubling is that he's very, very good at what he does — a classic populist propagandist.People of his ilk — McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Louis Farrakhan — have done a lot of damage over the years.I found this quote, originally from Time magazine, on Wikipedia."The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called the paranoid style – the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country – is aflame again, fanned from both right and left. […] No one has a better feeling for this mood, and no one exploits it as well, as Beck. He is the hottest thing in the political-rant racket, left or right." David Von Drehle, Time Magazine –Brian, NCPR
Glen Beck describes himself as nutty and crazy.
Sorry Brian, I think you're dead wrong. I've never heard him lie, support anything "dangerous" or say anything remotely unAmerican. Have you actually listened to his radio shows or are you just going from sounds bites? I'd like to hear specifics. You've accused me of offering up strawmen before so it seems fair to me.
bret:typically, brian angles to the left consistently. beck cuts through the talking head clutter in a unique way. in brian's world, the millions of people who listen and watch beck daily are "nutty" and worse. i actually know a bunch of them and i don't feel threatened in their company.
Beck is an entertainer. I find much of his material entertaining and humorous. He is similar to other entertainers in that same venue whereby, I agree with him some of the time and disagree with him some of the time. What I find disturbing is when people take the word of these entertainers as "gospel" and run with it. I don't care if it's somebody like Beck or Stewart, you owe it to yourself to get your news from another source to get some balance.
Beck is a recovered alcoholic that has found a new addiction, the sound of his own voice.
Tea is un-American. It is very geeky and elitist.I prefer the coffee party.
Still no facts folks.
Bret,Can't comment on Beck.I don't watch/listen to him or any other talking heads.I try not to have any heroes or leaders.Everyone has an opinion about this, that and everything.You have yours. I have mine. Who cares?
Bret said: "Still no facts folks."Bret, you're better than this. There's this thing called Google. And this other thing called Yahoo. And one called metacrawler, and yet another called Bing, I think.Look it up yourself. The whole demand for "somebody show me the facts"–especially when there are lots of places to find such facts–is the last refuge of a lazy Internet troll.And though you've done this before, you're not that, Bret. Think of it this way: It's un-Randian to expect someone else to do your work for you.
I have no problem with any group expressing its view, but since when is it o.k. to claim the mantle of being a “true” American just because of political or religious beliefs.There are thousands of people who work hard, raise their children to be respectful citizens and support their communities. Does none of this count now because their views differ from their neighbors? Apparently the answer is yes from groups who seem to be policing who is and isn’t American. Also, the dependence on entertainers, who use emotion to promote themselves(from Oprah to Limbaugh,Dr. Phil to Glenn Beck)has been going on for years. There is alot of profit in discord whether political or family. Just think of all the job losses if Americans stopped paying attention to celebrities: right, left, or middle.