The Revolution Kicks Off—In Style

The first-ever National Tea Party Convention is getting underway here in Nashville, where delegates plan to discuss and plan the future of the burgeoning movement. But the first item of import isn’t what’s being discussed but where the event is being held.

For a movement that bills itself as grassroots and ultra-inclusive, the choice of the Gaylord Opryland Resort has struck many more than just yours truly as odd. The complex is without dispute the swankiest hotel in Nashville. The most basic room regularly starts at $199, but only the more expensive ones have indoor balconies looking over landscaped gardens and cascading waterfalls. Outside, there’s a full-service outlet mall, a 20-screen movie theater (with an Imax) and an auditorium that hosts Nashville’s famous Grand Ole Opry. It’s so big, in fact, that the complex is on the outskirts of Nashville, far from the older and quainter downtown row of honky tonks.

Then you step inside. It’s not often I write while sitting on a leather chair at the foot of a massive Southern-style white staircase, and beside a fireplace powered by real wood. Above is a chandelier that’s at least seven feet long. And to round out the senses, the most mellow smooth- jazzified version you could ever imagine of Paul Young’s “Everytime You Go Away” is filling the lobby. It really is quite smooth.

Not to say that folks arriving at the place aren’t impressed; most of them have been blown away, gawking upward in that typical tourist way to check out the vaulted ceilings. Rather, it’s the folks that aren’t coming, and precisely because of the venue and the steep $549 convention admission fee, that has opened organizers up to criticism.

"Isn’t this supposed to be a gathering for the everyman?" a gaggle of reporters asked conference spokesman Mark Skoda. Yes and no, he says. The venue may have dissuaded some people, but he says that he didn’t tell anyone they couldn’t come. In fact, he says, he and other organizers received requests to attend from twice as many people as there were spots available. “There’s nothing wrong with having people come to a nice place to enjoy good entertainment and good food.”

It's also the financial structure of the event that has ruffled feathers. Reps. Michelle Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn withdrew from planned speaking slots over concern about the convention's for-profit status. Skoda says he understands, but won't change course. “Look, I won’t make any apologies for being a capitalist," he says, careful to specify that the leftover money will likely be used to start a political action committee and not to line his pockets. "Obama has pushed such a socialist agenda that people are actually starting to think that capitalism is bad.”