Noted in advance; the left isn’t stupid. Keep that in mind as we go through this.
The Tea Parties are an odd phenomenon in American politics; they’re a mass movement that more or less defies conventional party labels.
When I spoke at the September 17 “Constitution Day” rally at the Minnesota State Capitol last fall, I asked people to raise their hands if the word I mentioned described them. I asked for Republicans to raise their hands (a little over half); Libertarians (10-ish percent); DFLers (a smattering, maybe 20 people, whom I urged to not feel bashful); Ron Paul supporters (a good 20%); people who’d rather pound a nail into their forehead than vote for Ron Paul (a giggly 20% or so); people who were sick of all the parties (maybe 30%).
The point – then, as now – was that the Tea Party movement, amorphous and leaderless as it was and remains, wasn’t a phenomenon tied to particular political party. It was more in line with the GOP’s traditional limited-government emphasis, but for many Tea Partiers the burden is on the GOP to prove that it’s repented of its free-spending ways from 2000 through 2008.
Long story short; the GOP has to earn the votes of an awful lot of Tea Partiers.
Kenneth Vogel in Politico notes the challenge Republicans face with tea partiers:
Across the country, conservative tea party activists — many new to politics and unaffiliated with, if not averse to, the Republican Party — are increasingly finding themselves the target of intense GOP courting headed into the critical 2010 midterm elections.
Republican National Committee Michael Steele’s plans on meeting Tuesday with about 50 tea party leaders. The California GOP chairman recently trained tea partiers on political organizing and is planning a party-sponsored rally. The South Carolina GOP has a resource-sharing agreement with tea party groups. The North Dakota party chairman hosted a tea party-GOP rally Friday and is urging fellow state chairs to do the same.
But for tea partiers, who from the early days of their movement wanted to be heard and taken seriously, it’s a little bit of careful what you wish for.
Some have welcomed the attention, forging tentative alliances or at least opening channels of communication, usually to intense criticism from fellow tea partiers. But most have either proudly spurned Republican advances or approached their suitors apprehensively, keenly aware that while Republican resources and infrastructure could both boost the tea party movement to a new level of effectiveness, the GOP’s tainted brand could also jeopardize the independence that is part of their populist appeal.
In a sense, the Tea Parties are exactly what the GOP has needed for most of the past decade; a return to solid fiscal conservatism as a means of turning the nation around, while leaving social issues as a big black box to be decided by the individual.
Of course, everyone knows social issues are the bedrock issue for another huge block of conservatives, the Evangelicans without whom, says conventional wisdom, the GOP faces a very uphill climb.
The ideal, for the GOP, is to follow the Reagan model; to make peace with those you agree with on the big issues – at this point, taxes and spending – and live and let live on the other issues. The GOP, at a high level, seems to be learning this.
And this terrifies the left; the only thing that is holding the right back is its predilection for shooting itself in the foot over the real-but-overblown divide between fiscal and social conservatives.
The left knows this. That’s why, in the immediate aftermath of the Massachusetts special election, you saw a wave of leftymedia/leftblog postings, starting with Media Matter and radiating out to their subjects, saying “ReThugLiCons just elected a pro-choicer! They are teh Heppocreet!”
They know that if the various factions on the right can agree, at worst, to disagree on social issues, that we will be well-nigh unstoppable in 2010 and, if Obama/Reid/Pelosi stay their current course, possible 2012 as well.
Which is why you can expect a constant drumbeat of media coverage of libertarian Tea Partiers who don’t care one iota, at least in terms of electoral politics, about abortion or gay marriage. It’s a considered effort to drive a wedge between evangelicals and Tea Partiers.
There are two approaches the GOP needs to take to this.
- The Tea Party is a sign that the conservative movement has grown up and agreed to disagree. The New Jersey Gubernatorial and Massachussets Senator elections showed that conservatism has learned how to prioritize, knowing that…
- …a fiscal conservative tax-and-spending hawk who has a “nuanced” position on abortion is going to be a friendly representative for single-issue pro-life evangelicals than a Democrat who is wrong on taxes and is in the bag for NOW and Planned Parenthood. Indeed, it just might be a sign of what is, for the left, the unthinkable; that Evangelicals are growing beyond single-issue voting. And that’d be very bad news for the Dems.
And so look for the Dems to beat on this supposed, potential wedge for all they’re worth in the next eight months. The best hope they have of turning back the Tea Party surge is by turning it against itself; by pitting fiscally-conservative Republicans against unaligned fiscal-conservatives over what is, for purposes of attacking the current orgy of spending, a side-issue.
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This is the ugliest smear I’ve read yet of tea partiers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/us/politics/16teaparty.html?hp
“In the inland Northwest, the Tea Party movement has been shaped by the growing popularity in eastern Washington of Ron Paul, the libertarian congressman from Texas, and by a legacy of anti-government activism in northern Idaho. Outside Sandpoint, federal agents laid siege to Randy Weaver’s compound on Ruby Ridge in 1992, resulting in the deaths of a marshal and Mr. Weaver’s wife and son. To the south, Richard Butler, leader of the Aryan Nations, preached white separatism from a compound near Coeur d’Alene until he was shut down.”
MoN,
Are you gonna write about this at MON? Let me know, I’ll link. And I’m going to cover this one myself, too.
Don’t have the time, but please cover this. That article is disgusting.
The Tea Partiers are a recurring phenomenon. A bunch of politically inactive morons, fired with righteous indignation over “them fancy guvmint bureaucrats in Washington” and how they’re destroying the “real Amurica” said morons recognize from “Andy Griffith Show” reruns, makes a lot of noise about “taking back” the country from whatever government a majority of U.S. citizens elected most recently. Because the morons are white and angry, the Republican Party naturally smells votes, pretends they’re a broad-based “movement” and tries to coopt them. The effort breaks up when all involved realize that the noisemakers share only a vague feeling that smarter people are making decisions that affect their lives, not any actual policy positions. The morons then go back to watching game shows and complaining about “them damn furriners.”
speaking of ugly and disgusting….
The morons then go back to watching game shows and complaining about “them damn furriners.”
No, see, Clown, since the morons are older than they were when the process you describe began, they are actually watching Matlock.
I’m a social conservative, fiscal conservative, Evangelical. The “religion” I want the federal government to embrace is fiscal conservatism. The rest we can handle individually or in the smaller governing bodies of the home, the church, the community and even the state. (Of course, I think it’s virtually impossible for a “social moderate” to be a fiscal conservative since those policies are what blow the budget). I’ve been a Republican apostate for two decades because there’s been nothing there to “believe” in (and “not as bad as the other guy” is very poor doctrine). I like Ron Paul’s platform, but he personally doesn’t do much for me.
I don’t care a fig what party endorsement hangs after a candidate’s name, but I will pay attention to what that candidate says he or she will do, and follow closely to see if they do it. I think that if the Left wants to blunt the Tea Party it should do everything in its power to see that it (the TP) is absorbed into the GOP.
…The Tea Partiers are a recurring phenomenon. A bunch of politically inactive morons, fired with righteous indignation over “them fancy guvmint bureaucrats…
…grab their muskets and meet the redcoats at Concord.
That’s a pretty good Keith Olbermann impression you’ve got going there AC.
Hey, if the Republicans can get even 110% of the voters that were at your rally, they’re in good shape. 😉
The conservatives I know who are “sick of both parties” are still going to vote for Republicans, so that doesn’t mean a whole lot. And you’ll get a lot of the Paulites. Put your effort into getting those 20 Democrats. It’ll pay off big.
Let me fix that…:
“The Obama Revolution is a recurring phenomenon. A bunch of politically inactive morons, fired with righteous indignation over “them fancy bankers on Wall Street” and how they’re destroying the “real Amurica” said morons recognize from “The Daily Show” reruns, makes a lot of noise about “taking back” the country from whatever government a majority of U.S. citizens elected most recently. Because the morons are white, listen to NPR and angry, the Democrat Party naturally smells votes, pretends they’re a broad-based “movement” and has George Soros buy them. The effort breaks up when all involved realize that the noisemakers share only a vague feeling that better people are making decisions that affect their lives, not any actual policy positions. The morons then go back to watching The Daily Show and complaining about “that crazy Michele Bachmann””
Put your effort into getting those 20 Democrats. It’ll pay off big.
Ding ding ding.
He gets the cigar.
A libertarian leaning tea-party Republican….if he/she does not embrace social conservatism, social conservatism still wins.
Assumption is that most social conservatives don’t promote legislation. They just don’t want the leftist agenda to get their legislation passed.
Example: Planned Parenthood wrote a law that was passed recently in Wisconsin. It mandates that all students in Wisconsin public schools be taught how to use various kinds of birth control. The libertarian would say that he doesn’t care if schools teach this or not, but it is not up to politicians in Madison to mandate this on the local schools.
Basically what I am saying is that the Republican party can win with limited gov’t platform (fiscal conservative), but keep the social conservative message to a lower level. Social conservatives still win.
bunch of politically inactive morons, fired with righteous indignation over “them fancy guvmint bureaucrats in Washington” and how they’re destroying the “real Amurica” said morons recognize from “Andy Griffith Show” reruns, makes a lot of noise about “taking back” the country from whatever government a majority of U.S. citizens elected most recently.
calling them morons is a great tactic to get them to vote for you AC. What next your going to quote The One on how they cling to their guns and religions because theys scarded of peoples not like them?
calling them morons is a great tactic to get them to vote for you AC.
AC isn’t actually running for office.
But I am tempted to call the RNC and see if they can pay AC to write for the Dems.
calling them morons is a great tactic to get them to vote for you AC.
Clownie doesn’t care about that, Ben. He just wants them to keep it down so he can go back to watching his favorite show, “The Real Housewives of Perth Amboy.”
“…all students in Wisconsin public schools be taught how to…”
*Cue Monty Python*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTMlZSKEu-Y
And seriously, how can Extra Chromosome Boy call them “politically inactive” when they are engaged in a very political movement?
Write for the Dems? I think they should run him for office. I hear Indiana has an open Senate seat…
Milling about the public green with misspelled protest signs Kerm? Angryclown senses that lacks staying power as much as it lacks good sense and clear thinking.
To the extent that the Teapartiers are representative of the Jacksonian strain in American politics, they will never win a decisive victory, but they will never go away, either.
Also they will be betrayed by their leaders.
Milling about the public green with misspelled protest signs Kerm?
That’s why SEIU and ACORN pre-print theirs.
So in order to be “politically active” you have to have proper spelling. Check. I wonder how many good natured lefties were “milling about” Seattle during the WTO meeting a few years back. I seem to recall a bunch of well meaning lefties “milling about” Vancouver the other day. Breaking windows. Then there were the well meaning lefties “milling about” St. Paul during the RNC, breaking windows, setting fires, throwing things off freeway overpasses.
Yeah, those crazy teabaggers…
Clown doesn’t think folks with different political viewpoints should participate in voting, running for office or exhibiting said viewpoints. It screws up his version of democracy.
Dangit, AC, that’s bourbon, not mouthwash, and you’re generally not supposed to swallow the mouthwash anyways. Cripes. What do they teach you guys in New Yawk schools?
Never mind the hilarity of the guy who loves Mr. “Corpse-man” Obama lecturing anyone about spelling and such…..
And for reference, it was a majority of voters, not a majority of citizens, who elected Dear Leader and his minions. Thankfully, many of the ones who did the damage are waking up and realizing what a massive hangover Dear Leader is.
By the way, I love the double-standard.
ACORN buses a “bunch of politically inactive morons” to the polls after rounding them up and plying them with cigarettes: Big gold star for representative democracy!
A “bunch of politically inactive morons” millions strong, on their own time and according to their own motivations, go to rallies and town hall meetings and educate themselves about democracy: the Republican is falling apart!
Oy. So much work to do.
But Mitch, they mispeled some wurds. They am irelevant.
Mitch Berg Says: “By the way, I love the double-standard. ACORN buses a “bunch of politically inactive morons” to the polls after rounding them up and plying them with cigarettes”……….
Mitch, You forgot to mention the plying with Mad Dog 20/20 and Wild Irish Rose. The Libs can really smell out those votes!
C’mon, Scott — you know that ACORN produces the best political activism that your money can buy.
and underage brothels, don’t forget the brothels Terry
Mmm mmm mmm, Barack ACORN Obama!
ACORN buses a “bunch of politically inactive morons” to the polls after rounding them up and plying them with cigarettes: Big gold star for representative democracy!
They bribed people to vote and drove them to the polls and they voted illegally? How many of them are in jail for voter fraud, where they should be if that actually happened?
Stooj – “cigarettes for votes” is one of those stories of voter-registration excess. Apocryphal? Certainly no moreso than “Tea Partiers are a bunch of single-issue morons”.
“cigarettes for votes” is one of those stories
One is an anecdote, dozens indicate a trend.
ACORN and/or its employees/volunteers have been involved in dozens of lawsuits and criminal trials over the last decade.
How many of them are in jail for
voter fraudassault and battery, where they should be if that actually happened?Pfft……nice one, stool.
That line has been working miracles for thugs in blue for years…..why not leftist thugs…..right?
Mitch, there’s a difference between registering people and “busing them to the polls.” ACORN’s registering tactics need to be changed.
ACORN and/or its employees/volunteers have been involved in dozens of lawsuits and criminal trials over the last decade.
For registering problems, not for election-day shenanigans.
Bill, that sounds like a trend.
You kooks are so terrified of poor little Acorn. Funny or sad? You make the call!