Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beyond Fear And Loathing: Tea Party Organizers' Continuum Of Knowledge In A Racialized Social System, Meghan Burke

Scholarship

Making use of fieldwork and 25 open-ended interviews with Tea Party organizers in the state of Illinois, I argue that Tea Party organizers draw from a continuum of knowledge, combining personal knowledge and experience with a conservative corporate media and Tea Party network frame. I draw upon the work of Weber to show how this continuum connects to various types of rational social action. Widening this scope of analysis allows not only for a more complex analysis of how corporate interests are connected to the grass roots movement, but also how the core frames of the movement are located throughout …