Has the Tea Party jumped the shark?

[ichy]

So two of the most prominent Teahadist congressmen out there (Allen West and Joe Walsh) lost their seats last night, and extremist stupidity probably cost the GOP Senate seats in Indiana and Missouri. I wonder if this means the extreme right will take a hit, or if the Republicans will keep nominating crazy candidates who can't even win conservative states like IN or MO.

 

[Perknose]

So two of the most prominent Teahadist congressmen out there (Allen West and Joe Walsh) lost their seats last night, and extremist stupidity probably cost the GOP Senate seats in Indiana and Missouri. I wonder if this means the extreme right will take a hit, or if the Republicans will keep nominating crazy candidates who can't even win conservative states like IN or MO.

All true, but the Tea Party will continue to be with us in some form or another.

For one, these folks are committed and are not going anywhere.

And aside from the crazies, there needs to be a viable place for those many who are deeply disturbed by the failures of our political system and who do not feel that either political party hears or heeds their needs.

 

[quest55720]

It did the minutes it switched from a fiscal movement to a social conservative one. I supported the tea party at first when they were all about fiscal responsibility. No any more I can not support the extreme social conservatives.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

There is absolutely no doubt that without the tea party, the GOP would be in control of the senate.

But as Perk said, they aren't going anywhere. The GOP is like a drunk who is still blaming his problems on everything but the booze.

 

[her209]

What happened to Send Tea Bags to Congress on Tax Day? The budget deficit and national debt hasn't gone down.

 

[brainhulk]

imo they will disappear in 2015-2016 when Obama's term is near it's end.

If we find another likeable minority candidate like Obama though, they'll probably stay...lol

 

[nextJin]

I would think the more extreme nutjobs are done for, they simply can't win with those views. Mind you, the current tea party is fragmented because Rand Paul is electable where as many many other tea partiers are not. There are very few who should be winning esspecially those who want to legislate religion, sex, marriage and kill brownies.

I wish Paul would abandon the phrase Tea Party, he really does not have a hell of a lot in common with a lot of them. Just adopt the Liberty Agenda and be done with it, the term "tea party" is indeed toxic at this point.

 

[mizzou]

The tea party should have been a fiscal movement, and i think initially it was, but then it got popular and everyone started to "open gangnam style" it and then it became it's own monster.

If the republican party doesn't do a complete 180 in the next few years here, they are going to be in big big trouble.

Their current positions almost completely alienate minority votes, which pretty soon will be the majority. I will admit I was shocked how well Romney carried the female vote, but if you looked at the single female vote, he was destroyed.

 

[ichy]

It did the minutes it switched from a fiscal movement to a social conservative one. I supported the tea party at first when they were all about fiscal responsibility. No any more I can not support the extreme social conservatives.

As far as I could tell the Tea Party was dominated by hardline social conservatives from day one. When I first heard about them I was thinking "cool, a small government movement without the GOPs evangelical fringe" but that lasted all of about five minutes. Now it seems like the TP and the evangelical fringe are the same thing with the exception of a few big gov't social conservatives like Mike Huckabee and washed up failure Rick Santorum.

 

[ichy]

Indiana remains my ultimate ha-ha moment. The teahadists dumped a Senator who was behind the elimination of 7,500 former Soviet nuclear warheads and replaced as nominee with a crackpot whose biggest achievement was saying that god wants rape victims to get pregnant.

 

[sm625]

Tea Party stopped being a relevant term after the first 10 million dollars was spent trying to undermine it. You can only hold onto a movement by title for so long before the big money comes in and squashes it any number of ways. I'm still amazed so few are capable of understanding how this system works...

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Indiana remains my ultimate ha-ha moment. The teahadists dumped a Senator who was behind the elimination of 7,500 former Soviet nuclear warheads and replaced as nominee with a crackpot whose biggest achievement was saying that god wants rape victims to get pregnant.

Lugar should've tried running as an independent, because he would've won the seat. The problem is that he (Lugar) is old and probably decided that enough was enough. He was a good senator and the Tea Party and their idiotic followers screwed the citizens of Indiana with their antics.

 

[randomrogue]

Wikipedia has interesting stuff on the Tea Party. There's a whole section on their bigotry and why their public perception is so bad.

As a fiscal conservative they never appealed to me since by the time they were on my radar they were definitely full of crazy people.

 

[shadow9d9]

The tea morons were never about fiscal responsibility.. if they were, they would have shown up early in the 2000s. Instead they didn't materialize in any REAL form until right after Obama came into office.. not in September when Lehman was going under.

 

[Nintendesert]

They're going to merge with the Green party.

 

[sourceninja]

Lugar should've tried running as an independent, because he would've won the seat. The problem is that he (Lugar) is old and probably decided that enough was enough. He was a good senator and the Tea Party and their idiotic followers screwed the citizens of Indiana with their antics.

Honestly, I would have voted for Lugar if he ran as a independent. He's one of the few political figures who has personally responded to my concerns when I wrote him. Instead I was left with a catch 22. I didn't want either mainstream choice, so I voted 3rd party.

 

[HomerJS]

They're going to merge with the Green party.

Oh no the Green Tea Party??

 

[Nintendesert]

Oh no the Green Tea Party??

:sneaky:


They're good for your health!

 

[diesbudt]

They're going to merge with the Green party.

I see what you did there...

 

[Charles Kozierok]

The tea morons were never about fiscal responsibility.. if they were, they would have shown up early in the 2000s. Instead they didn't materialize in any REAL form until right after Obama came into office.. not in September when Lehman was going under.

This is not actually true. They started before Obama was sworn in. But that seemed to trigger them being taken over by the crazies.

They aren't going anywhere. The GOP hasn't hit bottom yet.

 

[nextJin]

The tea morons were never about fiscal responsibility.. if they were, they would have shown up early in the 2000s. Instead they didn't materialize in any REAL form until right after Obama came into office.. not in September when Lehman was going under.

They started in late 2007 as a grassroots Ron Paul movement and didn't gain national attention until after Obama won in late 2008. They basically got bought out by the Republicans and used it as a tool to hammer Obama, luckily they still got crushed.

Originally they were more sane and only really cared about our horrible foreign policy and fiscal policy. Now they are just batshit crazy.

 

[ichy]

As a fiscal conservative they never appealed to me since by the time they were on my radar they were definitely full of crazy people.

Plus as others have pointed out if they were real fiscal conservatives they would've started protesting when George Bush was in office.

 

[yllus]

Personally, I believe so. I think that establishment Republicans will see this as a reason to turn around and attempt to co-opt the middle ground to steal Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio back.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

Personally, I believe so. I think that establishment Republicans will see this as a reason to turn around and attempt to co-opt the middle ground to steal Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio back.

If they do that, they will force the crazies into making a third party.

The GOP is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It needs to be "fundamentally transformed".

 

[shadow9d9]

They started in late 2007 as a grassroots Ron Paul movement and didn't gain national attention until after Obama won in late 2008. They basically got bought out by the Republicans and used it as a tool to hammer Obama, luckily they still got crushed.

Originally they were more sane and only really cared about our horrible foreign policy and fiscal policy. Now they are just batshit crazy.

They technically existed, but the CURRENT form didn't occur until January of when Obama came into office and not a second before it. I am not talking technicalities. I am talking reality.