Coffee Party Movement Gains Steam

We've all heard about the Tea Party movement — gatherings across the country organized by conservative Americans to protest government spending, particularly in light of President Obama's stimulus package.

Well, now a new group has emerged up in reaction and you'll never guess what it's called: the Coffee Party. OK, so it wasn't that hard to guess.

Coffee Party leaders say they plan to hold between 350 and 400 coffeehouse events across the country in the near future. It's already a hit online and this weekend, the movement is hosting it's first coordinated coast-to-coast gatherings.

The Coffee movement was founded by Annabel Park, a 41-year-old Washington-based documentary filmmaker, who tells CNN she was angry at the media attention focused on the Tea Party movement. Park kicked off her own movement using her Facebook profile, and then set up a Facebook fan page for members to join called "Join the Coffee Party Movement." As of this writing, the page already has over 153,00 fans.

"It's a response to how [Tea Party members] are trying to change our government," Park told CNN. "It's their methodology that we are against. We may want some of the same things, but their journey is so alienating to us."

Contrary to what you might expect, the Coffee Party movement does not cater to Democrats. In fact, Park (who has worked on Democratic campaigns) says the whole bi-partisan system is out of date. Park says the real tipping point for her was the health care debate, which she feels has been seriously hampered by bi-partisan politics.

"It encourages people to think of politics as a kind of game, like a football game, in which there are two sides, and it's a zero sum situation. If one person wins, the other person loses," she tells CNN. "That's really not a healthy way to conduct collective decision-making. That's not a democracy."

Park said the Coffee Party's first real national action will be on March 27, when members will get together to discuss ways to engage members of Congress during the Easter recess.

Is it just us, or has the question "coffee or tea?" never felt so loaded?

Photo courtesy of Facebook.