The "Coffee Party" Has Had a Bit Too Much Caffeine

Gateway Pundit has an amusing story about the "Coffee Party" which fancies itself an intellectual alternative to the Tea Party movement:

When Annabel Park imagined what it would be like to head a new national political movement, here is what she had in mind: a coming together of engaged, intelligent citizens who had tired of the angry rhetoric and accusations of the Tea Partiers; Americans of all political persuasions joining in a spirit of equanimity to discuss the nation’s problems, and maybe even share a laugh. It was this beautiful vision that danced in Park’s head on a recent Saturday as she made her way to Busboys and Poets, a cafe in Washington, D.C., for one of nearly 500 Coffee Party meetings taking place nationwide that day. She knew the house would be full—word had spread quickly on the group’s swelling Facebook page. Park, a documentary filmmaker, was especially pleased that C-Span had arranged to broadcast the meeting.

But from the moment folks in the crowd stood up to speak their minds, Park knew these people had not come to sip cappuccinos and set an example of civility for an overheated nation. They were angry. They hated the Tea Party, and the Republican Party. They wanted to get even. One audience member said America was under the thumb of oligarchs and denounced “moneyed interests.” A few people hissed when Sarah Palin’s name was mentioned. Also on hand were the usual suspects drawn to the C-Span bat signal. A man representing Code Pink, the left-wing protest group, said that “racism was the basis for everything that’s going on right now.” He also seemed to have a real problem with “fear-based rhetoric” and Northrop Grumman.

Park, a 42-year-old Korean-American with a smile that can only be described as “kind,” regularly tried to steer the talk back to the group’s more centrist principles. But when someone asked how many people in the room were Republicans, all 80 hands remained down. “I like the civility idea, but I hate the Tea Party people,” said attendee Karen Anderson. By the end of the event, some in the crowd had decided the movement, barely two months old at the time, needed a new leader. China Dickerson, a 26-year-old community organizer, said the Coffee Party wouldn’t last “unless we get someone a little more powerful to head it.” She wanted a rabble-rouser, “not someone that says we can all work together.” Park seemed a little rattled after the meeting. “If they want to fire me, this may not be the group for them,” she said later. “We don’t want conflict and confrontation.”

The left is unable to have a reasonable dialogue. They're simply too emotionally immature to control their outbursts.  I could have predicted how this meeting would go without even knowing any of the participants.