One thing I don't get is why there is still reference to a "Tea Party" when, as I understand it, it originally consisted of libertarian minded folks - that is, people who wanted fiscal and government restraint, while at the same time professed civil-liberties permissiveness.
That original movement was very early on hijacked by several GOP politicians in what was (to me at least) a transparent grab at the group's ground-swell of populist energy. That hijacking resulted in a "Tea Party movement" within the GOP that immediately dropped the civil-liberties element, and ran with the fiscal/government restraint component.
Now, again as I understand it, the GOP is self-proclaimed to be the party of small government and fiscal restraint while also being the party of conservative social values. So somebody please explain to me how that standard GOP body is any different than this current "Tea Party" group. By my view, there is currently no such thing as a "Tea Party". It's just GOP. Right-extremist or centrist, the difference is in degree, not content. The original Tea Party was an actual change in content - a change that does not now exist. Neither therefore does the Tea Party.
...Reply from The Political Omnivore. Interesting and valid point. Glad he agrees my reasoning is accurate, in spite of still needing a name for the "TheseGuysWhoReallyLikeTedCruz" group :)...
politicalomnivoreNovember 12, 2013 at 1:48 PM
My response to this is worth its own post (so it'll take a little while)--but immediately: Whatever you want to call it there is the very-conservative group (the 'Tea Party') and the 'establishment group' (the "GOPe") and they are "fighting it out."
This is a very bad description of what's really going on--but nontheless there is a tension in the party and using these words to describe it gets us *somewhere* ahead of "theseguyswhoreallylikeTedCruz" or whatever. But, yeah: there's some truth to the above too. Like I said: more than just a note here.
This is a very bad description of what's really going on--but nontheless there is a tension in the party and using these words to describe it gets us *somewhere* ahead of "theseguyswhoreallylikeTedCruz" or whatever. But, yeah: there's some truth to the above too. Like I said: more than just a note here.
