Watching and reading the morning after the election, it appears that many Republicans are blaming the Tea Party for the loss of several Congressional races. I've actually seen that some Democratic correspondents have called the movement dead. Is it dead or with this reelection do we see them come back even stronger than before?
They aren't dead - I think their members will be angrier than ever. But I think the leadership in the GOP is less likely to pay attention to them - they've now cost the GOP the Senate, and some of their most vocal members in the House were either kicked out or lost a lot of influence. The GOP is going to recognize they have a demographics problem and are going to have to jettison the tea party crazies if they want to survive as a party. But they'll have to balance that with some ugly primary challenges that are going to come as a result.
This is the Tea Party right now, to me... They are damaged beyond any hope of repair...yet they won't go away.
No. Polls show that 30% or so of the electorate still have a favorable opinion of them. They have significant power to manipulate mid term elections and primaries. The Republican party has to find a way to break them.
The Tea Party isn't the problem. Wall Street setting the GOP agenda is the problem. Republicans won't touch the sacred cow, Wall Street, while kicking everything else to the curb, so they'll cave on every issue except the one that keeps them out of the WH, economics. Abortion, amnesty, gay marriage, immigration are not the issues that decided this election. Economics decided this election and voters don't trust the GOP on economic issues.
The tea party single-handledly cost the GOP 5 near-certain Senate seats (NV, CO, MO, IN, DE) over the last 2 elections and cost them control of the Senate. Tea partiers have no willingness to compromise and they dominate primaries. But their candidates cannot win statewide elections outside of extremely conservative places.
I do agree with this part - the GOP's economic message has to return to compassionate conservatism. It can't be "taxes = bad, job creators having money = good" and nothing else.
Grover Norquist has driven the GOP into the ditch. Don't these people remember that their hero, Ronald Reagan, raised taxes three times to reduce the deficit he ran up? Pair that with Dubya paying for two wars with a credit card, and this is what you get. I wouldn't trust the current GOP with a roll of pennies.
Raven- I'm glad you're so ignorant to believe that. Of course, ignorance and the Tea Party go hand in hand.
The Tea Party movement won't die off because it is populated with true zealots. But they they don't have the numbers to get widely elected. In the bell curve of elections they are way over on the right and most of the population, given adequate information and viable options are in the center with the moderates. There is just too much diversity of opinion in religion, women's rights, reproductive rights and social responsibility for them to coalesce as a coherent bloc. For instance: What logical thought process claims the sanctity of life and the promotes the death sentence? Promotes the philosophy of Jesus Christ and the elimination of welfare? Reverence for God's creation but Ok with it's defiling with pollution in pursuit of jobs? To get elected you need to stay with vague generalizations so you avoid dissonance.
I don't know about that. I'm a fiscal conservative but the Tea Party views on religion in politics is what powered me up to vote. When you say that it's "God's will" in rape you just scared the **** out of me and it seemed to scare Single women too.
When has reality or facts ever stopped the tea party? As long as Hussein is president, there will be a Know Nothing Party
False. Romney lost big with women, latinos, blacks, gays, asians, etc. The only area where Romney (or McCain) wins is with white men. Is it because only white men trust Republicans with the economy or is it because the other groups are totally turned off to the Republican party? Cutting into the number of young voters, gays, latinos and women who vote Democrat is the only way forward for the party. Those are the demographics that are growing. When those groups see you as the extreme opposite of what they want in the numbers that they currently do, you are an enormous uphill battle.
They still have the cranky billionaire Kochs and others who find them useful, so no. Fox will still be organizing for them. I think a lot of the actual real participants will start wising up and some of the elected officials will pay them less concern. If the actual mad as hell participants wise up they will realize who is really screwing them, the corporate elite, and will support populist Dems if they come forward.
Agreed. We need to get these idiots out...I have my own thoughts on what should be the strategy for the new Republican Party and it needs to cater better to lost voters/votes
To prove my point. The GOP can put a Latina on the ticket (Governor of NM, appealing to both Hispanics and women), but if her economic policies are the same as Romney, she won't be able to win.
