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tea party sits it out --- WHY??????[W: 181]

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haymarket

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The movement known as the tea party was riding very high after the 2010 elections. Many people thought they would either be a kingmaker within the GOP for 2012 or perhaps the start of a third party movement. Neither has happened. The GOP ends up with Romney - definitely NOT a tea party type of person.

I would like to hear the thoughts of the politically savvy here as to why the tea party was relatively inactive - especially as a national movement achieving a goal - so far this year.

Did they make some mistakes? If so what were they?

Or did they play thinngs just right?
 
The Tea Party, for all its good intentions really was an ineffective movement that ultimately did more harm than good. I suspect that they figured out that any Republican would give them more than the present admin. and their activism would only insure no hope of replacing Obusha. I doubt that will happen anyway but at least there is a small possibility that a Romney might win whereas a Santorum had absolutely no chance. Just an opinion of course.
 
haymarket said:
The movement known as the tea party was riding very high after the 2010 elections. Many people thought they would either be a kingmaker within the GOP for 2012 or perhaps the start of a third party movement. Neither has happened. The GOP ends up with Romney - definitely NOT a tea party type of person.

I would like to hear the thoughts of the politically savvy here as to why the tea party was relatively inactive - especially as a national movement achieving a goal - so far this year.

Did they make some mistakes? If so what were they?

Or did they play thinngs just right?
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You go ahead and ask Speaker Boenher how inactive the Tea Party Congressmen are in politics.

The President isn't the only political office worth following, you know.
 
samsmart said:
You go ahead and ask Speaker Boenher how inactive the Tea Party Congressmen are in politics.

The President isn't the only political office worth following, you know.
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I agree with that. But those are people elected in 2010 when the tea movement was at its zenith.

Why would they effectively sit out the Presidential race this year?
 
haymarket said:
I agree with that. But those are people elected in 2010 when the tea movement was at its zenith.

Why would they effectively sit out the Presidential race this year?
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Because they can exert more political force via Congress.

There can be only one President. And there can be only one candidate from a political party. And if you think every registered Democrat is happy with Obama, or happy that nobody else even challenged him to keep him honest, then you're fooling yourself.

Which is why all the various political factions in the U.S. focus on getting representation in Congress, not the President.
 
samsmart said:
Because they can exert more political force via Congress.

There can be only one President. And there can be only one candidate from a political party. And if you think every registered Democrat is happy with Obama, or happy that nobody else even challenged him to keep him honest, then you're fooling yourself.

Which is why all the various political factions in the U.S. focus on getting representation in Congress, not the President.
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Question - and a honest question - do you really truly honestly believe that is why the tea party effectively sat this out? Do you actually believe that the tea party all over America somehow came to that conclusion? What evidence can you show supporting that claim?
 
haymarket said:
The movement known as the tea party was riding very high after the 2010 elections. Many people thought they would either be a kingmaker within the GOP for 2012 or perhaps the start of a third party movement. Neither has happened. The GOP ends up with Romney - definitely NOT a tea party type of person.

I would like to hear the thoughts of the politically savvy here as to why the tea party was relatively inactive - especially as a national movement achieving a goal - so far this year.

Did they make some mistakes? If so what were they?

Or did they play thinngs just right?
Click to expand...

They were active, but the problem was that they never really got behind one person. The whole phenomenon of "Not Romney" being a different person every week for a while was because rather than get a candidate and "endorsing" him, they all backed whoever was trendy at the time. Mind-boggling, really. Makes you question their political savvy. Breaking up your support like that dilutes your power.

The Republican party will be back. In the next few years when all the TPers realize that they don't actually agree with the Republicans and defect to the Libertarians, the GOP will get back to what it was.
 
They don't have the numbers to deal with a vote that was split up between multiple candidates. The Tea Party itself is made up of a loose organization of predominately Republican individuals who have varying degrees of fiscal conservatism. Their best shot at this point is impacting domestic policy through the Congress, which to some extent they have.

The Republican party will be back. In the next few years when all the TPers realize that they don't actually agree with the Republicans and defect to the Libertarians, the GOP will get back to what it was.
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That was a smaller core of the Tea Party. They were the ones who were protesting the Bush bailouts at the tail-end of his administration. Afterward, they became successful in organizing with a group and then they became a victim of their own success. This led many of the original trend to complain about being co-opted by many other popular conservatives and their figures. Their message appealed to so many, but was not specific enough to become solidified in who they would specifically endorse as a candidate for President. Then in the end, you can still wonder had they done so, would it have been enough to push a candidate to the nomination?
 
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haymarket said:
Question - and a honest question - do you really truly honestly believe that is why the tea party effectively sat this out? Do you actually believe that the tea party all over America somehow came to that conclusion? What evidence can you show supporting that claim?
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Dude, the Tea Party did not sit out the GOP nomination. If anything the Tea Party was over-represented. Their vote got split between too many candidates - Bachman, Cain, Perry - and that helped Romney consolidate the other votes.

And, as I said in my post, the President isn't the only government office that matters. You can't say that the Tea Party no longer has any influence when they are quite influential in Congress.

The 2012 Congressional elections will be more indicative of the power of the Tea Party than the Presidential election will be.
 
samsmart said:
Dude, the Tea Party did not sit out the GOP nomination. If anything the Tea Party was over-represented. Their vote got split between too many candidates - Bachman, Cain, Perry - and that helped Romney consolidate the other votes.
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So if you are correct, they badly misplayed what power they did have.
 
haymarket said:
So if you are correct, they badly misplayed what power they did have.
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I don't know about that. In the candidacy, the majority of candidates were Tea Party nominees. And all of the GOP sought to cater to them in some way or another.

So just because there's no Tea Party candidate now doesn't mean there never will be.

As I said, the 2012 Congressional elections are a much better indicator than the 2012 Presidential elections.

If you want to honestly follow a measurement then you need to use the proper yardstick for it.
 
haymarket said:
So if you are correct, they badly misplayed what power they did have.
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To an extent, yes. Yet you have to remember that the Tea Party is like an interest group vote rather than a wide platform. A Tea Party conservative of varied fiscal conservative ideas is not precluded from also being influenced by other conservative branches be it in foreign affairs or social conservatism and religious conservatism. While it would be important to identify with fiscal conservatism for the Tea Party, what if they are turned off by a candidate that does not display the same ideas that the voter is predisposed to in other areas?
 
samsmart said:
I don't know about that. In the candidacy, the majority of candidates were Tea Party nominees. And all of the GOP sought to cater to them in some way or another.

So just because there's no Tea Party candidate now doesn't mean there never will be.

As I said, the 2012 Congressional elections are a much better indicator than the 2012 Presidential elections.

If you want to honestly follow a measurement then you need to use the proper yardstick for it.
Click to expand...

There is more than one yardstick.

I think it is obvious that the tea party badly misplayed what ever power they had in GOP circles. They ended up with Romney.
 
haymarket said:
There is more than one yardstick.
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Yes, but I said to use the proper yardstick.

And basing the Tea Party's influence on the fact that Mitt Romney got the GOP nomination is not one.
 
Samsmart is right to a degree...the teaparty in the house drove the leadership nuts for the first year...there has been a tug of war between traditional republicans and teaparty rights and its still raging with the traditionals starting to peak over the teaparty.
The teaparty is very active in attempting to get Traditional republicans out of the house by backing primary opponents to them...like against Dick Lugar in indiana...the teaparty wants the senate...they think they are fairly sure of keeping the house with a lesser margin...their focus is the senate...and if they take the senate every working american is in for it....
The teaparty has backed off of the presidential election because im sure someone told them to get lost the only thing you can do is assure we lose
 
samsmart said:
Yes, but I said to use the proper yardstick.

And basing the Tea Party's influence on the fact that Mitt Romney got the GOP nomination is not one.
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I agree. And using the two year old Congressional yardstick as a measurement of the success of the tea party in the current presidential race is definitely NOT the proper one.
 
haymarket said:
I agree. And using the two year old Congressional yardstick as a measurement of the success of the tea party in the current presidential race is definitely NOT the proper one.
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I wonder why you keep saying that a Romney nomination is contrary to what a lot of teaparty folks desire. It is my understanding that the central concern of the teaparty was the deficit. It would be hard to say that a person with Romney's background might be the would be the best to solve this issue.
 
washunut said:
I wonder why you keep saying that a Romney nomination is contrary to what a lot of teaparty folks desire. It is my understanding that the central concern of the teaparty was the deficit. It would be hard to say that a person with Romney's background might be the would be the best to solve this issue.
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Okay. What does the historical record say about his time as Governor of Massachusetts regarding the issue of spending and debt?

Did he make the Massachusetts government smaller - or did it grow under him?
 
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haymarket said:
Okay. What does the historical record say about his time as Governor of Massachusetts regarding the issue of spending and debt?

Did he make the Massachusetts government smaller - or did it grow under him?
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I am not an expert of Mass government spending. But I do understand that he balanced the budget. More important to me, is that as a Republican government is one of the bluest states, he was able to get things done, including health care for all.

I am not as partisan as perhaps you and many others on this site. My preference is to fix some structural problems we have so that my son's generation can be better than mine.
 
haymarket said:
The movement known as the tea party was riding very high after the 2010 elections. Many people thought they would either be a kingmaker within the GOP for 2012 or perhaps the start of a third party movement. Neither has happened. The GOP ends up with Romney - definitely NOT a tea party type of person.

I would like to hear the thoughts of the politically savvy here as to why the tea party was relatively inactive - especially as a national movement achieving a goal - so far this year.

Did they make some mistakes? If so what were they?

Or did they play thinngs just right?
Click to expand...


They woke up with a hangover from drinking the dark-red kool-aide tea, saw the economy was recovering, no one was coming after their guns, and Bin Laden was dead.

Also, they were sick of being ridiculed.
 
hazlnut said:
They woke up with a hangover from drinking the dark-red kool-aide tea, saw the economy was recovering, no one was coming after their guns, and Bin Laden was dead.

Also, they were sick of being ridiculed.
Click to expand...

Never seems to slow you down!
 
washunut said:
I wonder why you keep saying that a Romney nomination is contrary to what a lot of teaparty folks desire. It is my understanding that the central concern of the teaparty was the deficit. It would be hard to say that a person with Romney's background might be the would be the best to solve this issue.
Click to expand...

The teaparty railed endlessly against romney at the start of the primary...NO MORE RINOS...NO MORE MCsames...Romney is a rino...if romney is nominated I wont vote...then one by one the teaparty darlings got spanked by traditional gop voters and they said well we dont have a choice now...
 
haymarket said:
The movement known as the tea party was riding very high after the 2010 elections. Many people thought they would either be a kingmaker within the GOP for 2012 or perhaps the start of a third party movement. Neither has happened. The GOP ends up with Romney - definitely NOT a tea party type of person.

I would like to hear the thoughts of the politically savvy here as to why the tea party was relatively inactive - especially as a national movement achieving a goal - so far this year.

Did they make some mistakes? If so what were they?

Or did they play thinngs just right?
Click to expand...

Ron and Rand Paul held a joint "tea party" rally today. Perhaps there will be more activity now that a Republican nominee has been chosen. Where this grassroots movement may matter is at the GOP convention when planks are being decided upon.
 
The Tea Party performed an extremely valuable political service. They succeeded in driving the Republican Party as far to the right as possible and effectively ending forever the notion of moderate Republicans. I'm very greatful to them, because they've made the opposition much easier to classify and identify.
 
lpast said:
The teaparty railed endlessly against romney at the start of the primary...NO MORE RINOS...NO MORE MCsames...Romney is a rino...if romney is nominated I wont vote...then one by one the teaparty darlings got spanked by traditional gop voters and they said well we dont have a choice now...
Click to expand...

Except they forced Romney so far to the right in the primaries that now he's stuck with the positions they forced him to take.
 
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