Today’s tale is a classic Frankensteinian story of a mad scientist creating a monster, and in a moment of “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal”, that monster bagged, tagged and teabagged its creator. That’s right; this is the story of The Tea Party.
This monster was born on February 19, 2009 (making it an Aquarius, in case you were wondering), when CNBC news editor Rick Santelli ranted that a tea party should be held in protest of the government’s plan to refinance mortgages. Like most babies, this creation made itself known right away with screaming and malodorous content - The folks at Fox News started using the term Tea Party the next day, and took it in as their baby from then on.
Every child needs a Godparent, and this Satan-spawn won the lottery and got two: David H. and Charles G. Koch; billionaires extraordinaire. They looked upon this creation and saw power in its tiny, angry fists and created “Americans for Prosperity”, an organization designed to promote their vision of what America should be (in general terms: a Plutocracy run by the rich), but they had a problem with that message directly, so they shrouded it in a call for lowering taxes and regulations for the “Job Creators” so the wealth would somehow trickle down to improve the lives of the working poor (who’s options were too limited by having a minimum wage, healthcare, safe working conditions, etc). They tied this creation to the newborn babe, and promoted its quick growth as a grassroots movement that the people really, really wanted. “Grass roots” funded by billionaires and promoted by Fox News.
Now the poor villagers in this little hamlet weren’t particularly burdened with an overabundance of education, so they heard the message of “smaller government” and less restrictions and embraced it, even though it was really the worst thing for them. Throw in one part racism, two parts fear mongering (is he secretly a Muslim?), add just a dash of “he’s a comin’ to get yer’ guns!” and the villagers fell in love with the Tea Party. The real problem, they decided was that America was just too liberal, and the Tea Party’s message of “Don’t Tread on Me” was perfect for them.
The GOP, still reeling from getting its ass handed to it in the presidential election, saw the Tea Party as a ticket to the White House again. These villagers were loud and proud of their conservatism, and were the darling of Fox News, who fueled the fire by giving them ever expanding coverage. It was a perfect marriage – the conservative party was energized by an extremist group of ultra-conservatives (Ultra-Cons). People started to get excited about conservatism, and the more radically right wing a candidate was, the more the Tea Party was behind them. Suddenly, if you weren’t a bat-shit crazy conservative, you were a RINO – Republican In Name Only. Things were good in Tea Party-land and they saw a lot of their far-right candidates move on to election day, replacing the middle of the road RINOs.
Remember the Koch Brothers? Well, they just happened to be funding the Ultra-Cons through Citizens United (possibly a subject for a future blog), but for now, suffice it to say they were paying for a large portion of the campaign ads being run, and if you, as a Republican went against their will, they’d throw their money behind the Ultra-Con that was running against you. The message was “Do as we order, or get Primaried” – as in you won’t get any of our advertising funds and your opponent will get a lot.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the White House. These Ultra-Cons who had done so well when they were fighting other Republicans had to face Democrats who had moved more toward the middle over the years. In several cases, known solid RINOs who would have beaten a Democrat opponent lost in the primary, only for the Ultra-Con to then lose to the Democrat. Their Ultra-Con mission worked to get nominated, but not elected.
So of course, once this all blew up in their faces they learned their lesson, dumped the Tea Party and decided that a more middle of the road approach would be better, right? Of course not! They have allowed a civil war to brew in their own party, with the Tea Party “Patriots” demanding to shut down the government if the ACA isn’t repealed, while the RINOs know that this is killing them, but are afraid to say “Wait a minute, guys, this is really a bad idea.” This has gone so far as some Tea Partiers are calling to split from the GOP and start their own party. The monster has come back home and is splitting the party that created it.
Romney had to go so far right to get the nomination that the things he had to say to get past the first hurdle haunted him in the general election. He had gone on record as being too radical, and when he backtracked he was called out for being two-faced and saying just what his audience wanted to hear.
Now the GOP controlled Congress has a single digit approval rating. Half of the GOP thinks that the answer is to go more radically conservative, half think otherwise and are afraid to say it, and in all likelihood, George W. Bush – The Last Republican President, will keep that title for a very long time.
- Jim Peters
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