DURHAM, N.H. – Twice a month, Evan Leake attends a symposium at the University of New Hampshire with about 200 other high school students from the Seacoast region of New Hampshire and Maine.

In September, they heard opposing views of same-sex marriage. Wednesday afternoon’s topic was the tea party movement.

“A lot of what you see on TV isn’t accurate about the tea party,” said Leake, a junior at Traip Academy in Kittery, after listening to an hour-long presentation by Andrew Ian Dodge, coordinator of the Maine Tea Party Patriots. “Mostly on the news, when you hear about the tea party movement, you see white males and bigotry instead of just fiscal issues.”

What Leake saw and heard Wednesday in a large lecture hall in the Memorial Union Building on the UNH campus were YouTube videos showing tea party gatherings in Maine, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, an interview with two gay conservatives, and a rallying speech by an African-American tea party supporter.

He also saw Dodge poke fun at national figures such as Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware.

“It seemed like he was definitely trying to target us as teenagers,” said Cassandra Kosek, a junior at Noble High School in Berwick. “He said that everyone is invited into the tea party movement, that it’s not just old, Christian, balding men.”

After each presentation, the teenagers break into discussion groups, intentionally sprinkled with students from each of the 10 participating schools to encourage dialogue among people who don’t know each other well.

Danielle Puopolo, a senior at Noble, is in her second year in Project SEARCH, as the 27-year-old college preparatory program is known. Noble sends 16 students. Traip sends eight.

“Any time somebody comes in and says, ‘Believe this, think the way I do, join my club,’ it’s not going to work,” Puopolo said. “Especially with a group of teenagers.”

That may be why Leake said he enjoyed hearing Dodge critique the tea party movement and some perceived tea party-favored candidates.

“You could tell he disagreed with some of the things the tea party members in other areas stand for,” Leake said.

Dodge told the students that the core values of the tea party are lower taxes, smaller government and free markets. He offered pamphlets of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He took issue with social conservatives who believe the tea party should take a stance on issues such as abortion.

“You can’t believe in limited government,” Dodge said, “and try to federalize a woman’s womb.”

He called the Tea Party Express — a California-based group that sent substantial financial backing to candidates such as O’Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, Mike Lee in Utah, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Scott Brown in Massachusetts — a Republican front. He mocked O’Donnell and Palin and even had some sharp words for Maine’s Republican gubernatorial candidate.

“Paul LePage in Maine, have you seen what he did?” Dodge said. “He got tea party support to (win) the primary, then he goes on television and says he had nothing to do with the tea party movement and doesn’t know who they are. That type of thing, we don’t want to see happen. If politicians do that when they get in, we’re going to hold their feet to the fire.”

Students questioned Dodge about tea party funding, government bailouts and the future of Social Security, among other topics. He spoke of educating and informing voters, and about misperceptions of tea party activists.

“We keep hearing that we’re racist, knuckle-dragging morons,” he said. “We’re supposed to be this one thing, but it’s not one party. There are vast differences. And because there’s no leader and because it’s detached, it’s hard to make any assumptions for the entire tea party movement.”

Next on the symposium schedule is a panel discussion on whether the United States should continue the war in Afghanistan, with people who have served in Afghanistan. Further down the line is a mime, a Druid, an economist and a scientist who will attempt to explain string theory.

Puopolo may not have agreed with Dodge, but she appreciated his visit.

“I didn’t get bored,” she said. “And I feel like I understand a lot more about the tea party movement.”

 

Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:

gjordan@pressherald.com

 

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