For a movement not officially affiliated with one of the major political parties, the Tea Party has been a significant name in politics in the last year.
As a counterpoint to the grassroots fiscal conservatism of the Tea Party, a new movement has formed under the cheeky name of Coffee Party.
Outlining the movement's mission, Coffee Party founder Annabel Park had this to say:
"We object to obstructionism and extreme political tactics that are, I think, are fear based, not reality based and in many ways just deliberate misinformation. So we're organizing.
"We want people to understand that we're voters ... We need everyone engaged in the political process. That is the only way our government can function, as an expression of our collective will."
Park said the idea for the movement was derived from a rant she posted on Facebook about the Tea Party.
The Coffee Party held its national kickoff event Saturday, with leaders organizing more than 350 meetings in nearly every state.
The meetings were planned to consist of small groups discussing issues in coffee shops.
Since the Coffee Party is new and still only loosely organized, it is hard to predict how much of an impact it will have.
The problems with these drink-themed movements and the nature of America's political system will likely prevent them from making big changes to the political issues they oppose.
Image counts for a great deal in politics, and the images of these groups will not work in their favor.
Fundamentally, the Tea Party is supposed to be based on fiscal conservatism and put social conservatism on the back burner.
While many Tea Party supports do follow this economically centered, somewhat libertarian view, the movement's most famous proponents are on the fringes of conservatism, both fiscal and social.
Having people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as strong supporters may bring the Tea Party a high level attention it may not otherwise receive, but the ultraconservative views of these pundits has negatively affected its image.
In a recent article on the Tea Party, the Christian Science Monitor reported that the movement may appeal to independents, democrats and "suburban conservatives" but push social conservatives away.
Famous social conservatives are those most often associated with the Tea Party, so it is viewed as a fringe movement and has frequently resembled one.
Comparing the president to Adolf Hitler, for example, tends to be considered extreme, even during protests.
The Coffee Party's premise of solving common problems in society through diversity makes the group less likely to be labeled a fringe group, but its image may end up less bipartisan than it aspires.
A note on the movement's Facebook page called "What We Want" says, among other things, "We want our government to cut wasteful spending and practice fiscal discipline.
We want regulation of Wall Street to protect consumers and promotion of financial literacy."
These are areas in which the coffee crowd shares the same view as those favoring tea.
The Coffee Party wants people to "discard the labels that obfuscate reality like Democrat, Republican, conservative and liberal," but I have some doubts that will happen.
The American system government (as well as many other countries' governments) has always operated on oppositions
People with opposing political ideas compete to better convince the government of how to make a decision.
This kind of system is designed to prevent dictatorship, which it does.
The downside of a highly competitive political culture is that it causes people to almost always have a mentality of their ideas versus opposing ideas.
Most often, this mentality takes the form of Democrats vs. Republicans, or liberal vs. conservative.
Since the Tea Party is a conservative movement, and the Coffee Party was conceived as an opposition to the Tea Party, it is likely that the Coffee Party will be seen as a liberal movement.
Even the name "Coffee Party" implies opposition, since both are named after hot beverages with historical connections (it is often said that the reasons Americans love coffee so much is that they refused to drink tea during the Revolution).
For all the times I've heard people say they were going to move to Canada because the candidate they supported lost an election, I don't often have much confidence that people are willing to cooperate on political matters.
The kind of common consensus that the Coffee Party wants is not impossible.
Already, though, the movement has made some missteps.
The presentation of the idea as an alternative gives the group a liberal image, which could alienate conservatives and libertarians.
It's too early to declare the curtain drawn on the Coffee Party, but the sight of a Coffee vs. Tea attitude is a realistic possibility.
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