Scored nice used green house frame from defunct nursery. Plastic top is now on. Just in time for early planting!! Krist Novoselic’s column on music and politics runs every Tuesday on Reverb. Check back on Friday when he writes about what he’s been listening to.I had a conversation last Friday with some music historians about Nirvana’s role in the grunge revolution of the early 1990’s. Many good bands led the way, but we agreed about some kind of populist sentiment. People were coming on board the new-music scene to satisfy an urge. It was as though club shows were small conventions for people who needed to let off steam. It reminds me a lot of today’s political climate in the United States; there’s a passion for a different way.Grunge was a phenomenal cultural breakthrough, yet at the same time many things didn’t change at all. Grunge was the latest manifestation of anti-establishmentarianism within music. What started as a sound rooted in punk ideals ended up as another flavor of rock. And as far as the establishment goes, the music corporations of the time benefited enormously. “Alternative” music got folded into the mainstream.There is no real Rock Party, it’s only a template for organizing people, applicable to most any political belief or group need. The idea is to present a concept like political association in the context of popular music. People know me mostly as a musician–imagine that! And therefore Rock Party is a vehicle to express my political concepts. There could still be an actual party somehow, somewhere, and my vision for it is kind of like grunge itself–a mix of tradition with both feet planted in what’s happening now.There needs to be the right kind of conditions for something like an actual Rock or TEA Party to really happen. I don’t think that time is here yet. I say this because a party is about its members, and while popular sentiment is getting ripe for a new party that matters, individual citizens need to see the importance of association to get the kind of commitment needed to carry such an effort. My Grange Party stunt/message vehicle in early 2009–in which I briefly ran for a local office under a Grange Party banner–was an eye-opener for me. I discovered how many Americans really didn’t understand association and what a powerful political tool it is. I had to explain things to people on an individual basis. That’s a lot of talking, and considering the early spring in Deep River, I just don’t have the time.As an embryonic assemblage, the TEA Partiers have burned a lot of time finding their legs – and still no real third party. Look at the TEA convention in Nashville and the Conservative Political Action Conference gig just last week–these seemed more like commiseration sessions than any kind of real political convention. For example, instead of choosing party officers, candidates to run in public elections, or a cohesive platform to rally behind, these conventions were like a television program on sea life, the kind where they throw chum to sharks. But instead of stinky fish flesh, professional pundits/entertainers and career politicians tossed buckets of smelly rhetoric. It was anti-progressive, anti-Obama, anti-whatever the crowd could tear their teeth into.To be fair, I know these folks are still for something. Many call for a return to a constitutional government. That’s great, but when did our Constitution somehow leave? Let me remind my TEA Party friends of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, where association comes from. If you don’t like government, you have the right to come together with like-minded others to promote your grievances. It’s a basic tenet of democracy for citizens to come together in a convention to stand candidates for office. But this is the United States, and if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you vote in state-controlled nominations instead– the state funds and administers the process for these two private organizations to pick their candidates. I can’t miss the irony of TEA Partiers, a group that often rants against socialism, participating in these state programs.And participate in these governmental efforts they will, because third/minor party ballot access is difficult in most states. Check out my previous column on how it’s easier for a party to get on the ballot and in government in Russia than the United States! And if you do get on the ballot here, with plurality “the most votes win” elections, you could easily split any coalition and thus sink any chance at winning office.As far as this year’s election goes, the circle has closed. Just like alt-rock and the mainstream music scene, the TEA Partiers are being folded into the establishment system. That’s not saying they won’t have some impact–just don’t be surprised at more business-as-usual in the end. We Rock Party people see this, and that’s why we’re going our own way. And we will not be distracted by negative rhetoric. We’re going to build a nation and world on solid Rock!