They're few and far between, but free-thinking Democrats are popping up at tea party rallies and finding common ground with Republicans and independents.
Disgusted by the hyperpartisan antics of President Barack Obama walking out on debt-reduction talks, and alienated by the tax-and-spend policies of fellow Democrats, a new breed of populist progressives is emerging to challenge party orthodoxy.
These aren't your grandpa's Dixiecrats, relegated to regional margins, but more like insurgent Reagan Democrats of the 1980s. As the economy slumps and Obama stimulus policies prove ineffective, or worse, more Democrats are buying into the tea message of smaller, more responsive government.
"The tea party wants people who believe in government versus others who are willfully ignorant and call us 'anti-government.' That's a blatant lie," says Tim Curtis, a Tampa area Democrat who identifies himself as a tea partier.
Unlike hard-core libertarianism, Curtis believes the core mission of the tea party movement is to improve government -- and that, he says, is something Democrats should support.
"We want effective, efficient government that's smaller," says Curtis, who challenged U.S. Rep. Cathy Castor in the 2010 Democratic primary.
Curtis, who came back to the Democratic Party after a brief and unfulfilling flirtation with the GOP, says he works with tea party and 9/12 groups to "organize and educate" Tampa area residents about the 10th Amendment and states' rights.
Citing one divisive issue, and bridging the left-right chasm, Curtis declares, "If a state wants to fund abortion, then that state has the right to do so."
The key to consensus, he says, is to focus on "principles and values" from a constitutional foundation.
Fred O'Neal took his Democratic Party membership and founded the nation's first official political tea party, the Florida TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party.
"I had re-registered Democrat from Republican in 2005, primarily because of how the Iraq War/occupation was going at the time.
"In 2008, Isupported Obama, or I should say, opposed John McCain because Obama said he'd get us out of Iraq andbecause I feared McCain wouldinvadeIran, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and probably another five countries a year until histerm as president was up," said O'Neal, an Orlando attorney.
"Personally, I thought the Republicans were just as much to blame for the national debt gettng out of hand as were the Democrats."
Ultimately, O'Neal found himself in no-man's land and launched his own tea party -- which is flavored by populist positions familiar to lifelong Democrats.
"In 2010, I got pilloried by the Republicans for havingbeen a registered Democrat. I didn't realize that people who had been registered Democrats at one point in their lives were persona non grata to many in the tea party movement.
"Nor did I realizethat the Good Bookstates somewhere that God said that the tea party had to be part of the Republican Party."
Ladling on more sarcasm, O'Neal says, "I still don't see why we should be protecting tax loopholes for such blue-blooded, all-American corporations as British Petroleum (sic), Royal Dutch Shell and Hugo Chavez's beloved Citgo at the expense of our grandkids.
"Then again, I never was smart enough to understand how trickle-down economicshelped the middle class -- the ones who always ended up getting trickled on."
Convergence of the "right" and "left" fuels the perennial presidential candidacy of tea party favorites like U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.
This month, the liberal Huffington Post carried an article titled: "Why Anti-War Democrats Should Vote Ron Paul."
Yet there are limits to such consensus. HuffPo also criticized another tea party maven, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, likening her pro-Zionist foreign policy to McCain's.
Linda Gangitano, of Melbourne, is a lifelong Democrat who attends tea party and 9/12 meetings with her husband, Roger, an independent.
Since 2008, Gangitano has found her views shifting, and her Democratic loyalty waning.
"The Republicans [at the meetings] haven't pressured me. But I see our government heading the wrong way," she says. As a result, Gangitano says she is changing her registration to GOP.
But from both a tea party and electoral perspective, Curtis sees no conflict in remaining a Democrat.
"Would I have done better as a GOP candidate? You'd think so, but I walked the neighborhoods and plenty of Democrats hold the same values and vision for America," he said.
"I'm quite at ease as a registered Democrat."
So is Leslie Eastman, a co-founder of the tea group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.
"A common misconception of mainstream medias political pundits is the claim that the tea party movement is merely a covert Republican operation. That is simply not true," Eastman blogged recently.
"I am not only a Democrat, but an environmental health and chemical safety professional, too."
Eastman said SoCal-TRC policies are "based on a sound understanding of basic economics derived from practical experience in the world of small business. This is because all of our founders run small businesses, and appreciate that liberty and personal freedoms are best served through the fair practice of free enterprise. Our group strives to maintain a message that is focused on sensible fiscal policy and limited government intervention."
But it's not all kumbaya. "We have had issues with the local Republican party operation attempting to take credit for the rallies our organization hosted," said the San Diego resident, who told Sunshine State News that 10 percent to 15 percent of her group's members are Democrats.
"We have managed to create an environment where Democrats such as myself can also share our concerns about overtaxation and how the local, state and the federal governments spend our tax dollars," she said.
"These basic concepts are understood by everyone who attends a tea party: Democrats, Libertarians, Constitution Party members, independents, Republicans and other newly minted tax revolt activists."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 559-4719.
