Hollywood Conservative Group Calls it Quits
Friends of Abe dissolves
The long-running underground Hollywood conservative group, Friends of Abe, is no more.
FOA announced yesterday that with the group’s growth came an unsustainable infrastructure; one too cumbersome to continue without a substantive overhaul.
The Guardian reported:
But on Thursday the organisation – which counts Jon Voight, Jerry Bruckheimer and Kelsey Grammer among its 1,500 members – made an abrupt announcement: it was dissolving.
“Effective immediately, we are going to begin to wind down the 501 c3 organization, bring the Sustaining Membership dues to an end, and do away with the costly infrastructure and the abespal.com website,” the executive director, Jeremy Boreing, told members in an email, a copy of which the Guardian has seen.
“Today, because we have been successful in creating a community that extends far beyond our events, people just don’t feel as much of a need to show up for every speaker or bar night, and fewer people pay the dues that help us maintain that large infrastructure.”
Some speculate that the internal squabbling over Cruz v. Trump is the cause for the dissolution of the 501c(3). Though FOA may no longer exist in its current state, leaders have assured their members there will still be get-togethers and events, but those will happen with a less formal infrastructure.
Lionel Chetwynd, a producer and screenwriter and co-founder of the FOA, recently spoke of the primary campaign causing a “civil war in slow motion”, which fractured friendships and shredded solidarity.
Boreing, a director and producer, put a positive gloss on the announcement, saying the initial hunger for fellowship had prompted the group to build an expensive website, rent offices and hire staff, including lawyers and accountants.
“It’s time to change how we do it. As our group has grown in size and success, many of the structures that helped us grow have become less useful … It means an end to the standing organization, but not an end to the mission or the fellowship.”
Boreing vowed to maintain the mailing list and stage events, but without the infrastructure, staff or budget requirements.
“We will still get together for drinks and speakers, but we may reassess how we approach those events logistically. In short, FOA will return to its roots. It will be a passion project, like it was in the beginning … We’ll still be a private organization that protects the names of our members at all costs.”
Friends of Abe made national headlines in 2014 when a request for 501c(3) status lead to an intrusive IRS investigation. Non-profit status was eventually granted.
[Featured Image via Angela George [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]
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Comments
We’ll still be a private organization that protects the names of our members at all costs.
I wonder if there’s a Hollywood liberal ‘private organization’ that has to ‘protect the names of our members at all costs’?
I think it’s called the Communist Party U.S.A.
Though that’s headquartered in NY … the next best thing to being in Hollywood.
The split appears to have been over T-rump. “Uniting the party”, huh, Der Donald?
Obviously this group didn’t have a vital purpose. Maybe is was as much social. Hard to believe one candidate could blow it up. But it makes for nice fodder for those who can’t help but get emotional about Trump.
If it is a breakup over Trump-Cruz I can understand it. Look at the split on this forum and multiply that by about 30 million people. Unlike any campaign in my lifetime this one has gotten meaner and more divisive as time went by. I detest hillary and all she stands for but Trump’s supporter have been so nasty to Cruz’s supporters and have resorted to so many false stories about him and his wife that thinking of uniting with them is appalling! If you really want to see the depth of their anger and dishonesty go to Breitbart.com and ask a question of one of Trump’s non-policy positions! I cannot imagine an enemy being any more hateful and disagreeable than those people.
Great comment, Rudy. One thing that is definitely quite sad is the permanent damage done amongst the right. This is damage that won’t be undone, even when Trump and Cruz are inevitably hugging each other and laughing joyously as the one supports the other. Pols and businessmen love the game, but they don’t invest in it on a personal level. We voters tend to do so . . . probably because we are the ones most affected by new administrations, new laws, etc. Politicians and influence peddlers like Trump are never hurt by anything DC does, and they don’t ever intend to be (thus no support for holding Congress and the executive to the very laws they pass and thus all the loopholes for Trump-level elites).
The Friends of Abe group was probably torn apart, as you note, by the same things that have turned us on each other. My guess is that the real conservatives (those who didn’t buy into the Trump lunacy) will quickly form another group. After all, the Trump supporters were only nominally conservative anyway.
“This is damage that won’t be undone, even when Trump and Cruz are inevitably hugging each other and laughing joyously as the one supports the other.”
I don’t think that’s “inevitable”. I don’t even think it likely.
That’s what pols have always done. Trump is too big of a whiny baby to suck it up, and Cruz may be too principled to do so . . . you may be right. 😉
If it were any candidate but Cruz, I’d say the spit swapping would be inevitable. But the reason I like Cruz is that he has principles and isn’t afraid to stand up for them–just ask obongo’s b&^%h Mitch!
If anyone epitomizes the Crony Class, it’s The Donald®–and there are many here (myself included) who think it impossible to be happy about or vote for his candidacy if he gets the nomination.
To Trump® and his sTrumpets® there is only the art of the deal…but totally trashing those whose support you’ll need in November is short sighted and insane.
I guess he has millions of supporters who’ll fill the breech–because after all, he’s yuuuuuuuuuuge®. If that’s the case, then why are the sTrumpets® telling me that leaving the slot blank on my ballot in November is tantamount to voting for the pig in a pants suit?
Maybe his support is a mile long and a half an inch deep.
Be careful of the toes you step on, on the way up….they’re often attached to the body of the person whose ass you have to kiss on the way down.
“Politicians and influence peddlers like Trump are never hurt by anything DC does, and they don’t ever intend to be (thus no support for holding Congress and the executive to the very laws they pass and thus all the loopholes for Trump-level elites). ”
Dear Fuzzy,
Please consider that trump has passed no legislation. None.
Holding congress and the executive to the laws passed is the responsibility of congress.
Congress is currently controlled by the republican party.
LaLa land is the land of the left, try to stay away.
FIFY
If it is a breakup over Trump-Cruz I can understand it. Look at the split on this forum and multiply that by about 30 million people. Unlike any campaign in my lifetime this one has gotten meaner and more divisive as time went by. I detest hillary and all she stands for but Cruz’s supporter have been so nasty to Trump’s supporters and have resorted to so many false stories about him and his wife that thinking of uniting with them is appalling! If you really want to see the depth of their anger and dishonesty go to LI.com and ask a question of one of Cruz’s non-policy positions! I cannot imagine an enemy being any more hateful and disagreeable than those people.