Further proof that coffee is the bringer of all good things is the Coffee Party, a new alternative to the Tea Party.  And without all the hilarious yet juvenile "tea bagging" jokes!

The Coffee Party "advocates cooperation among elected representatives and promotes civil public discourse."  As opposed to the Tea Party, which advocates drawing a Hitler mustache on pictures of Obama, and shouting a lot.  I can dig it!

Coffee is superior to tea in many ways, and so it is with the Coffee  Party.  The Coffee Party is creating and organizing local chapters, which will organize public gatherings at local coffee houses.  In fact, the first national Coffee Party event is scheduled to be held on March 13th, with the specific local coffee house locations to be determined by local Coffee Party organizers.

The Coffee Party is focused on communication and civil discourse, rather than on specific policy actions like the Tea Party.  No specific dogma or political position is espoused by the Coffee Party.  Instead, it is designed to help us learn, as individuals and as a society, how to talk about important issues without resorting to the troll and flame-war tactics of the Tea Party.  The Coffee Party holds that it isn't "us versus the government," but "us versus the corporatocracy," and that the government should exemplify the will of the people.

(And of course, the biggest difference between the Tea Party and the Coffee Party is that the Coffee Party is an independent grass-roots movement, while the Tea Party is sponsored, underwritten, and directed by the Fox News Network.)

You can find a local branch of the Coffee Party by visiting their website and clicking the Engage tab.  

The Coffee Party movement, and its method of gathering in coffee houses, also mirrors the history of coffee itself.  When coffee houses began cropping up in Mecca, Cairo, and Damascus in the early 1500s, they became a major concern because of the political discourse and revolution they bred.  Many imams (religious leaders) sought to close and ban coffee houses for this very reason.

In the 1600s coffee began creeping into Europe, and coffee houses were soon to follow.  Coffee houses in France were key in the development of the French Enlightenment.  Noted artists and scientists including Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot all frequented coffee houses and did some of their best work under the influence of caffeine.

Coffee houses went over well in England too, where the cool climate no doubt helped spur the spread of warm taverns where you could go to get a hot cup of coffee.  Revolutionaries and artists schemed and collaborated at coffee houses throughout England, and in the United States as well, where John Adams and Paul Revere both planned their rebellion at the Green Dragon coffee house in Boston.

Coffee even insinuated itself into the most recent American election, when the manufacturers of the K-Cup created two blends: the McCain blend and the Obama blend.  Barack Obama won the K-Cup vote, but not by much!