Fein: From Alaskan princess to Astroturf queen

Look out world, Sarah Palin is back.

Bored of hunting wolves from helicopters, making sure Russia isn't up to anything from her perch in Wasilla and hanging out with "first dude" Todd Palin, the pitbull in lipstick has returned. 

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday" this week, Palin said she would run for president "if I believed that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family."

As the keynote speaker at the National Tea Party Convention on Feb. 6, Palin sounded all the right notes (even if she read them off her hand), lecturing President Barack Obama to "stop lecturing and start listening." 

If Palin were to run for president, she would undoubtedly receive significant support from the Tea Party movement, which gave her $100,000 to address the convention. The Tea Party Patriots are dedicated to "grassroots organization powered by activism and civic responsibility at a local level," according to their Web site.

That's all well and good. Grassroots movements are an important part of our democracy, no matter which side they are on. However, to understand the Tea Party movement, we must identify the "real people" organizing at the grassroots to promote their conservative philosophy.

The Tea Party movement seemed to be a genuinely populist uprising against Obama and Democrats, but it was in fact the brainchild of two Washington-based conservative think tanks, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

These organizations developed strategies to "make the demonstrations look homegrown," according to Newsweek. This method of orchestrating public outcry was deemed "Astroturf" activism by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen in 1985.

In a leaked memo titled "Rocking the Town Halls—Best Practices," FreedomWorks detailed its strategy of intimidating members of Congress. The memo directs "Patriots" to "artificially inflate your numbers," "be disruptive early and often" and "try to rattle (the Congressman), not have an intelligent debate."

Conservatives cry hypocrisy at allegations the Tea Party movement represents Astroturf activism, stating Organizing for America, the successor to the Obama campaign, is manufacturing public sentiment in favor of health care reform.

The key difference, however, is the Obama campaign was built on the backs of small donors: In January of 2008, 90 percent of Obama's supporters gave $100 or less, and about 40 percent gave $25 or less, according to Politico.com. The Tea Party movement, which collects its cash from conservative foundations, can make no such claim.

If Sarah Palin is a favorite of the Tea Party movement, and the Tea Party movement isn't really run by "real Americans," as its leaders would have us believe, then Palin in fact primarily represents conservative foundations funded by wealthy families and their corporate interests.

All hail the Queen of Astroturf activism.

Weinberg junior Jordan Fein can be reached at jordanfein2007@u.northwestern.edu.