Monday, February 11, 2013

Brendan DeMille — Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires

A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.

Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.
The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.
Published in the peer-reviewed academic journal, Tobacco Control, the study titled, 'To quarterback behind the scenes, third party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party, is not just an historical account of activities in a bygone era. As senior author, Stanton Glantz, a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) professor of medicine, writes:
"Nonprofit organizations associated with the Tea Party have longstanding ties to tobacco companies, and continue to advocate on behalf of the tobacco industry's anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda."
Who knew?

DESMOGBLOG
Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires
Brendan DeMill
(h/t Climate Progress)

5 comments:

Matt Franko said...

I thought it was Santelli? rsp,

Tom Hickey said...

Right, Matt. I did too. Very interesting revelation. I wonder whether Santelli was involved, or if his rant was just a coincidence.

The Rombach Report said...

Matt, Tom - The Santelli rant on Feb 19, 2009 may gotten most of the spot light but that media event was preceded by the the real Godfather of the Tea Party, Ron Paul on Dec 16, 2007 when his supporters raised over $6 million for his presidential campaign to mark the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Anonymous said...

My impression is that the Tea Party got co-opted. Dick Armey's Tea Party Manifesto?! Give me a break! Early stats indicated about a 60-40 Republican-Democrat mix. That being the case, how did the Tea Party end up as the right wing-nuts of the Republican Party?

Carlos said...

How did the Tea Party end up as the right wing-nuts of the Republican Party?

40% realized they were duped?