Across the nation today people are gathering in over 350 events for the national kickoff of the Coffee Party movement, which started on Facebook. The Coffee Party movement aims to reform government through civility, accountability by lawmakers and an end to obstructionism. The Coffee Party movement rejects the idea that the Tea Party represents “Real America.” There are now 60 groups nationwide, and at last count, 123,000 members.

CNN dropped by on one Coffee Party gathering this morning at Washington DC’s Busboys and Poets and interviewed its owner, Andy Shallal, an Iraqi-American artist, activist and restaurateur. Asked about the Coffee Party as a political party, he called it a “people’s version. It’s something that I think has been missing in the dialogue, which is the voice of the people. Oftentimes the media takes a certain sound bite and they explode it and it makes it sound as though the whole world is thinking this way. I think most people in the United States want to see a more progressive agenda.”

Rachel Maddow interviewed Annabelle Park, originator of the idea of the Coffee Party. She described the movement as being about three things: for civility, for cooperation in government, and for affirming the American community - "that we don’t have to be so divided over our differences of opinion."

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One of the DC participants agreed: “This isn’t an alternative to anything. This is sort of a nascent place for people like me who believe that things need to get done without labels. I’m just so upset by how nothing is moving in Congress.“ (Rachel Maddow pointed out recently that the House has passed 290 pieces of legislation, but that the Senate doesn’t act.)

The Atlanta Coffee Party organizer, Stacey Hopkins, denied that the movement is “left leaning,” acknowledging that “Some people may want to portray it that way because we do seem to attract Democratic and progressive minds. But we are open to everyone, and we want to hear those conservative and Republican voices because we do share a lot of commonality. We do not like big government. We want to see the taxes reduced and spent more frugally, so we do have some areas where we have a general consensus, and we can build on that because there is strength in numbers.”

Paul Steinhauser, CNN’s Deputy Political Director, wrapped up the segment with this observation: “It’s interesting. Some of the grievances are the same among the Tea Party movement and this brand new Coffee Party movement. They are upset with Washington that isn’t working for the average American citizens, but unlike the Tea Party - which is a conservative movement that calls for smaller big government - Coffee Party members, it seems, want to work with government to reform it and improve it.”